Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are a few funnies that a friend sent to me. Have a great Turkey Day and try not to 'stuff' yourself too much.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This recipe makes one turkey. Multiply the recipe to make more.

Ingredients:
2 Oreo Double Stuff cookies
1 malted milk balls (like a whopper)
4-6 candy corn
icing (optional)

Directions:
1. Take 1 oreo apart. This will be the base.
2. Place the whole oreo on its side on the base, so that it sticks to white of the oreo.
3. In front of the oreo on its side, place a malted-milk ball for the turkeys head.
4. Place candy corn, points down, in between the oreo cookie that is standing on it's side.
5. Use icing for eyes and waddle if you want.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you

I would like to send out some warm wishes to all of you today. I hope everyone is happy and healthy and eats a big turkey dinner. Take care and keep in touch.
** this is my version of a 'turkey' pie.

A great Thanksgiving dessert

Traditional Carrot Cake and Cream Cheese Frosting

SERVES 12
Ingredients

CAKE:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 3/4 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups shredded carrots
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained

FROSTING:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
3. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; make a well in the center and add sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla.
4. Mix with wooden spoon until smooth.
5. Stir in carrots, coconut, walnuts and pineapple.
6. Pour into 9x13 inch pan and bake for about 45 minutes.
7. Don't panic, the centre will sink a little.
8. Allow to cool; when cool, ice the cake.
9. You can certainly use your favourite cream cheese frosting to ice this cake, but the one I've included is highly recommended (I usually leave the cake in the 13x9 pan and just ice the top).
10. To make the frosting: Cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth; add the icing sugar and beat until creamy.

First Day of Puppy School

Walter and I decided (OK, I decided...) to go to Puppy School to get better acquainted with each other and to learn some new things. It's a 6 week course that trains on kennel etiquette, learning some simple tricks (sit, stay, come, lay down), socialization with other dogs and humans, and general dog care. Jeff and Logan are at basketball anyway on Mondays, so I decided that we should be doing something productive too. It's a 6 week course and is followed up with doggie middle school and then off to doggie high school. We went to our first class last night and it went pretty well. He was a little shy (as he was the smallest breed there and the other dogs were VERY CRAZY). We learned name recognition, "good boy", how to grab his collar without startling the dog, sit, and general crate training process. The instructor freaked out when she saw Walter and said that he did the best and was most focused during the class. Some of the other dogs were too busy tackling each other, jumping on everyone, and biting their owners to listen to instruction. It was rather interesting to see the different breeds and the energy levels. I would think that Walter would be more energetic than some of the larger breeds, but he was so calm. (Maybe scared to death of those hyper mammoths?)

Happy Monday!

Here's my new little buddy.

He is so cute/cuddly and thinks he is a cat sometimes.

And Charles got a new bone too. That way he wouldn't chew on the new puppy.

Perfect Pies

I went to another cooking class at my local William Sonoma store and they were featuring a class called "Perfect Pies" (in time for the Thanksgiving Holiday). The instructor of the course was a pastry chef at a local restaurant, Cafe Soleil. He was great and was very informative. A couple of things I learned were:
1. A pastry dough for a pie should be chilled when rolling it out. Chill it in the fridge for 15 minutes or so in a glass bowl (uncovered). It should go into the pan cool when adding your filling (or chilled alone with pie weights when blind cooking the crust).
2. You should prepare the dough with chilled (out of the freezer) butter slices. He pulled the butter out of the fridge, sliced it, and put it in the freezer until ready to blend with flour, etc. He said that a food processor works best when cutting the butter into the flour mixture.
3. You should blind cook your crust (double crust on the bottom) when making custard pies (or pies that you have pre-cooked the filling for). This would include any pie that you have a store bought filling for also.
4. Any decorative pieces looked best when brushed with a egg white prior to baking. We tested water, full egg brush, egg white with sugar, etc.
5. Any custard pie should have some 'wiggle' to it when fresh out of the oven. Don't forget that your pie will continue to cook in a pie tin/pie plate when it comes out of the oven. Sometimes the 'clean knife' trick isn't the best option when deciding to remove the pie from the oven.
6. Always make sure you turn your pie in the oven midway into the baking cycle. All ovens have a cool/warm spot and this helps even out the cooking of your pie.

I wasn't able to do the taste testing, but from the 15 or so there, both of these recipes are fabulous and really easy to make for the novice pie maker.

Classic Apple Pie
Follow these instructions to prepare the perfect crust for your apple pie. Decorative piecrust cutters are used to create the lattice top.

Ingredients:
For the dough:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. granulated sugar
16 Tbs. (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice
3 to 4 Tbs. ice water

For the filling:
2 lb. Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices 1/4 inch
thick
2 lb. Pink Lady apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices 1/4 inch thick
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
4 tsp. cornstarch
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbs. cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 egg white, beaten with 1 tsp. water
2 tsp. granulated sugar

Directions:
To make the dough, in a food processor, pulse the flour, salt, and granulated sugar together until combined, about 5 pulses. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 pulses. Add 3 Tbs. of the ice water and pulse 2 or 3 times. The dough should hold together when squeezed with your fingers but should not be sticky. If it is crumbly, add more water 1 tsp. at a time, pulsing twice after each addition. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, divide in half and shape each half into a disk. Wrap the disks separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.
On a lightly floured work surface, roll out half of the dough into a 12-inch round about 1/8 inch thick. Fold the dough in half and then into quarters and transfer it to a 9-inch deep-dish pie dish. Unfold and gently press the dough into the bottom and sides of the dish. Trim the edges flush with the rim of the dish. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
On a large sheet of lightly floured parchment paper, roll out the remaining dough disk into a 12-inch round about 1/8 inch thick. Using leaf pie cutters, make rows of cutouts in the dough, spacing them 1/2 inch apart and leaving a 1-inch border along the edges, to create a lattice appearance. Reserve the cutouts for decorating. Reroll the dough scraps to make more cutouts. Refrigerate the lattice top and cutouts for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the filling: In a large Dutch oven, stir together the apples, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and cornstarch. Set over medium heat, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples are just tender but not mushy, about 20 minutes. Uncover and cook until the liquid has thickened and become glossy, 5 to 7 minutes more. Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and let cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
Position a rack in the lower third of an oven, place a baking sheet on the rack and preheat the oven to 400°F.
Let the pie shell, lattice top and leaf cutouts stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Transfer the apple filling to the pie shell, scatter the butter pieces on top, and gently invert the lattice top over the pie. Trim the edges flush with the rim of the dish and press the top and bottom crusts together to seal. Brush the underside of the leaf cutouts with egg wash and gently press them onto the edges of the piecrust, overlapping the leaves slightly. Decorate as desired with the remaining leaves. Brush the entire top crust with egg wash and sprinkle with the granulated sugar.
Place the pie dish on the preheated baking sheet. Bake until the crust is crisp and golden brown, about 1 hour, covering the edges with aluminum foil if they become too dark. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 1 1/2 hours before serving. Serves 8.


Deep-Dish Muirhead Pecan Pumpkin Butter Pie
Be sure to use a deep-dish pie dish when preparing this recipe. The pie shell needs to be prebaked and cooled before you add the filling, so plan accordingly.

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. sugar
8 Tbs. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into
1/2-inch pieces
3 to 4 Tbs. ice water

For the filling:
4 eggs
2 cups (about 1 1/3 jars) Muirhead pecan
pumpkin butter
2 cups evaporated milk

Directions:
To make the pastry, in a food processor, combine the flour, salt and sugar and pulse to blend. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 3 Tbs. of the ice water and pulse twice. The dough should hold together when squeezed with your fingers but should not be sticky. If it is crumbly, add more water, 1 tsp. at a time, pulsing twice after each addition. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and shape into a disk. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to overnight.
Position a rack in the lower third of an oven. Place a cookie sheet on the rack. Preheat the oven to 400°F. (The pie dish will be placed on the cookie sheet, which will help the bottom of the crust to brown.)
Let the chilled dough stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Roll out the dough into a 12-inch round about 3/16 inch thick. Brush off the excess flour. Transfer to a 9-inch deep-dish pie dish and press the dough into the dish. Trim the edges, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Fold under the excess dough and, using your thumb, decoratively flute the edges. Using a fork, gently poke holes in several places on the bottom of the crust. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 15 minutes.
Line the piecrust with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Place the pie dish on the cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Carefully remove the parchment and weights and continue baking until the crust is light golden brown, 5 to 10 minutes more. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 15 minutes before filling the pie shell.
Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.
To make the filling, in a large bowl, gently whisk the eggs. Add the pecan pumpkin butter and evaporated milk and whisk until well combined. Pour the filling into the prebaked pie shell and bake until the center of the pie is set, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. If the edges of the crust begin to brown too quickly, cover them with aluminum foil.
Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 4 hours before serving. If making in advance, cover the cooled pie with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve. Serves 8 to 10.

Recipe for you to try

I got this one from the book "French Women Don't Get Fat" also.

Salmon à l’unilatéral (cooked on one-side only)
Serves 4
4 pieces of of wild salmon, about 4 ounces each
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
½ tsp coarse salt

1. Heat a nonstick frying pan. Place the salmon in the pan, skin-side down; pour the lemon juice over the salmon, add the salt, and cook for about 6 minutes over medium heat until the skin is crispy. (Cut a slice to determine the degree of cooking you desire, such as medium rare -- pink at the center -- which preserves most of the natural taste.)
2. Serve immediately. Season, if you like, with a dash of extra-virgin olive oil and a sprig of fresh thyme.

When there isn’t salmon, there is something else. Skate or tuna will work great too. Always remember one thing, fresh fish does not smell fishy. Its flesh does not look shellacked. If you can tell quality, it’s possible to find it at a good grocery store. It saves time: good fish is the simplest thing in the world to cook.

Recipe for the Week

Piononos de amarillo
(Fried filled ripe plantain rolls)
Piononos are a delicious addition to the variety of foods that may be prepared using plantains (ripe plantains, in this case). Piononos consist of a round outer shell made with ripe plantain slices, a filling which may be beef, chicken, lobster, shrimp or simply vegetables if yours is a no-meat diet.
Serves: six adults
Preparation time: Half an hour. Ingredients:
(A) The outer shell
3 plantains, ripe but not overripe
1 cup frying oil
Round toothpicks, as needed
(B)The filling
Ingredients:
1 garlic clove
1 tablespoonful diced pitted olives, pepper or onion-stuffed
1 small green bell peppers, chopped
1 tablespoonful chopped onion
1 tablespoonful olive oil
Salt, to taste
1 bay leaf
(C)
1 1/2 cups lean ground meat
1/2 cup string beans, diced
1 tablespoonful raisins
(D)
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups frying oil

Procedure:
1. Peel the plantains, discard the outer rind.
2. Slice the plantains lengthwise. You should get four slices out of an average ripe plantain.
3. Pour the frying oil in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat.
4. Fry the plantains, a few at a time, until they change color to a light golden tan.
5. Remove the plantains. Allow to cool enough to handle comfortably or wear cooking gloves.
6. Bend each plantain piece to form a round shape. Use one or two round toothpicks to hold the ends of the round, hollow plantains.
7. Add enough filling (see below for the recipe) to fill up the hollow inside each plantain.
8. Baste the ends of the filling with beaten eggs. Fry over medium heat, using just enough oil to cover the bottom of your frying pan. Fry for two to three minutes or until the egg basting at the bottom of the pan looks cooked (omelet-like).
9. Carefully lift each pionono, turn over, and fry on the other side.
Two piononos make a full meal for an average adult, Or serve as an entree with your favorite side dishes. (Warn your diners about the toothpicks!)

Procedure for the filling:
Saute the ingredients included in (B) for about five minutes over medium high heat
Stir the ground meat into the ingredients already in the saucepan. Cook for about ten minutes, covered, over medium heat. Add the string beans and the raisins. Continue to cook for another five minutes or until the meat is cooked but not dry. You may want to remove the bay leaf at this time. Use the filling as directed above.

**Other fillings may be used. Lobster, shrimp and chicken are among the most popular. Enjoy!

I'm a new MOM!

We welcomed to our home a new puppy that is cuter than ever. Not as cute as you, Chuey, but pretty close. Jeff and Logan rescued him from a puppy mill an hour out of Madison and brought the little guy home. Sleepless nights, here I come. He bonded with Logan straight away by vomiting on his lap in the car on the way home. Just like Jeff, he gets car sick in the passenger seat in our Silver Bullet. It took me a while to come up with the proper name for him, but finally decided on, "Sir Walter Buckingham".
**He's a pug-a-poo. His dad is a fawn colored pug named Jake and his mom's a black toy poodle.

Happy Monday to all

Sitting at the desk, I got to daydreaming and realized I was staring at this plant that sits on the desk. It has been on the desk forever and decides one day to bloom these incredible looking flowers. They seem to reach out to you somehow.

Cookie Fun

I call these two "Hiking in the Woods" and "Playing in the Snow". Logan thinks I'm crazy. I call it, 'playing with your food'.

Glazed Sugar Cookies

Can you say, "Delicious!"?

Here's some fun I decided to have yesterday while I was bored. I love to make and decorate cakes, so I figured I could take my fun to cookies too. The holidays are around the corner, so I figured I would make and decorate some sugar cookies. I tried a new glaze recipe to cover them. I mixed the colors on a few. I think they turned out cute. Thanks to Betty Crocker for the cookie recipe and the glaze off the internet. Frosting is a Wilton specialty.

Jeff likes them warm out of the oven, I guess... (notice him stealing them right off the cooling tray)

The Greeks and The Crest

Jeff and I went to a play last night. Actually, I drug him to the show with me. I don't mind going to shows alone even, but figured he would like this one. It was pretty good and very informational about what really happened between the Greeks and the City of Troy. It was called The Greeks and was an adaptation from Homer and Euripides.
After the show, we walked down to the student union on campus and found out that one of our favorite artists was playing. The Crest is a lot of fun and the brothers are great. I used to do real estate with one of the brothers (Jack Cracker) and AD (the other brother) works at a bank near to my office with his dad (who I know pretty well too).
For a fluke night out with my guy, we had pretty good luck with finding something fun to do. Madison seems to have something for everyone. This particular evening was an interesting blend of Greek play meets rap stars.

A cute story from yesterday

My boss has a 4 yr. old (Jake) and the little guy has a best friend named Anna. Here is an excerpt from a morning drive to daycare:

The J is Jake and A Anna....

J: a girl in my class said I have to marry her.
A: what did you say?
J: I told her no!
A: who are you going to marry?
J: you
A: heh-heh
J: who are you going to marry?
A: ummm, you!
J: yeah, then we can play together everyday
A: yeah, and be best friends
J: what about when we are in school?
A: then we will think about each other.

**Young love brings a smile to my face.

I'm not sure how to classify these

Here are a couple of baby shower cakes that I found online when I was doing some searching around (to get ideas for a cake I needed to do). "Would you like a breast or a piece of womb?", or how about the babies riding the carrots?, and what is the third one and how does it relate to a baby shower? Maybe I don't want to know.

Jeff wants a new dog...

And a new TV. I told him that they are 2 very distinctively different things. Anyone have any suggestions on a breed of dog for us? Not to mention a name for it? My top three choices (once Chuey has passed on) would be; a pug, a Boston terrier, or a bulldog. I like the name Arthur too and would work for any of them. Oh yeah, any suggestions about what kind of TV is the best? I'm not a tech nerd, so don't get too crazy on the lingo.

** this is a photo I received a couple of days ago from Jeff. No message attached, just the link to the photo. Do you think he is going to come home with this cute little Shar-pei/Weimaraner guy? I guess I'll have to wait and see...

Just saw this great ad...

Free Chair Massage
1:00-4:00 p.m. Free

Enjoy a free 10-minute chair massage in our Café from the students of Dr. Xipling Zhous's (Dr. Joe) East/West Healing Arts Institute Massage School.


** I wonder if I could go in at 1PM and ask them for the 3 hour chair massage option. Do you think I could hire this person to follow me around and have them do massages throughout my days? I wish I was Oprah sometimes. She has enough money for that kind of service.

It's a sad day...

I went out to the garage to do some recycling and noticed that the scooter has been retired for the season. It's been pretty cold/runny/did I say cold/runny lately so Jeff hasn't been able to spin around town on that bad boy. It's going to be a long winter without that blaze of yellowness in our lives. But, as they always say, 'absence makes the heart grow fonder'.

Does anyone know where the snow blower went?

Found some fun things on the internet

No, I'm not Suzy Homemaker... but I absolutely LOVE this apron. It has ginkgo leaves on it. (and would look great on me) OK, maybe I'm not Suzy, but I'm full of myself sometimes. It goes with feeling better, I'm feeling better about myself too. I can't help it!
Second, I'm feeling a little neglectful of my poor scrap table who hasn't seen me for weeks. With the vaca and all going on, I have been so busy. I just took a peek at my calendar for the next 2 weeks and there is something every day. I was feeling a little bad, so I found some creative ideas on the web to share with you.

The circle card is so cute.

And the bird one is a favorite for the day. I love the colors she used.

You can't go wrong with owls either. They are kind of scary in person, but on a stamp I feel like I would snuggle with one of them!

Finding past friends

Recently, I have caught up with a few friends that I haven't talked/wrote to in a while. It's amazing how caught up in real life you can get, and somehow all the other stuff seems to float away so easily. If you don't see someone on a daily basis, it's a little too easy to lose touch with them. Someone that you may have daily contact with at one point in your life, somehow slips through your fingers and then years pass before you know it. It's been really nice...

How depressing...

I feel like I'm on a blogging rampage today for some reason. I log on to the local website www.Madison.com and find these as our top stories:

Wisconsin budget shortfall to top $5 billion, Doyle says
Wisconsin Badgers football: Gophers' Decker won't play Saturday
Trial starts for man accused of shooting at Town of Madison police
Icy conditions developing west of here
Authorities seek information on Hatfield woman missing since Friday

Can you say 'depressing' or what? The shorter days and the crappy weather are bad enough, and then you get this on top of it. Weird.

Happy Veteran's Day

Let's bring the Troops home! Make love, not war...

An interesting vacation story

I was home last night when the call came in. The call was from a friend of ours Nate (some of you know him too). He and his girlfriend (yes, girlfriend) Dana are currently in Mexico on a romantic vacation for two. I would love one of those Jeff! Enough of that...

So, Nate tells me this unbelievable story about his day. He and Dana are staying in the Riviera Maya on the ocean at a resort. There is another resort just down the beach from them that has this great swimming place. They decided to head down the beach to swim for awhile. As they were walking back to their resort for dinner, they noticed something in the water near a few boats that had anchored by shore. They weren't sure at first what the item was and so Nate decided to swim out to it to see. It was a man face-down in the water with snorkel gear on. Nate flipped him over and saw that he was not breathing. Nate drug him onto shore and Dana started mouth to mouth with the guy (she's a nurse). There were a couple of other people who came over to help, but no luck. He had been dead for a while. Nate said that the guy was a tourist (60-70 years old) and he and Dana saw the guy earlier that day snorkeling around. They think that he may have had a heart attack or a stroke or something. (This is Nate's first big trip, by the way. I wonder if he'll be going anywhere in the near future.)

**This story takes the cake. It definitely beats any vaca story I have.

Recipe of the Week

These are two of Logan's favorites from our trip to Puerto Rico.

Alcapurrias

Ingredients:
35 green bananas, grated very fine
6 malanga, grated very fine
4 tablespoons oil, with achiote
4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
8 teaspoons salt

Directions:
1. mix all ingredients.
2. Spoon around 70 tablespons on wax paper individually and freeze. You will have them ready to fry.
3. Fry them in hot canola oil. Dry on paper towel.
4. Make sure you eat them hot.!

Empanadillas (I think Logan had 3 or 4 in one sitting alone)
This makes 24 of them

Ingredients:
2 puff pastry sheets, pre-rolled
2 egg whites
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 lb lean ground beef
1/4 lb ground lean pork
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/4 cup onion, minced
1 minced garlic clove
1 jalapeno, minced
1 tablespoon butter
2 eggs, hard cooked & finely chopped
3 tablespoons stuffed olives, chopped
3 tablespoons raisins, seedless
1/2 cup tomato sauce

Directions:
1. In a skillet heat the oils and brown the meats. Add the seasonings, onion, garlic and jalapeno. Saute until tender. Drain any excess fat. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer until very thick. Cool to room temperature.
2. Preheat oven to 425°F.
3. Roll the pastry dough out on a floured surface. Cut into 2" rounds. Place 1 tbsp of meat mixture on each round. Fold the round in half and crimp the edges with a fork to seal. Brush the pastery with egg whites.
4. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Update on Me (the new and improved Me)

I've had a few people ask "what is the secret" and "what kind of diet are you on"? That's a hard question for me to answer because it is not a diet I decided to go on to lose weight. The difference for me is that this is not a fad thing. I am not losing weight on purpose (a good side effect though). I was diagnosed with pre-Diabetes and this is a lifestyle (life long) change for me. I was told to change my eating habits and that certain foods were not working in my system. My dr. told me that I would realize how sick I was when I started to feel (normal) or better. Man, was he right on the money! I feel like I'm on top of the world and Boy, was I sick! I had no energy and I felt constantly like I was hungover and flu-like. My bones ached and I had headaches all the time. It's still hard to tell myself 'no' when I see a delicious treat, but the good feelings beat the cravings for me now. It has been a couple of months since my food intake change and I have lost about 40 pounds (from a size 12 to a size 2) and I feel about 15 years younger. I have had people close to me ask if I'm sick now (cancer, etc), and I laugh. Boy, I can't believe no one asked me before if I was sick. I must have had everyone fooled. Even myself. I have e-mailed my 'diet' to some people who have asked for it along the way. I'm kind of glad that I am open to questions, because there are a lot of people out there that may be in the same boat I was in and maybe don't know. I have heard a lot of people say that they have diabetes in their family and their dr. said that they could be a candidate for this and what should they do??? Well, be proactive for yourself. Stop doing for others for a moment and do something for yourself. It is OK to be selfish for once. If you are good to yourself, you will be good to others. If anyone out there thinks they may have this, consult your dr. ASAP. And do it today! I'm there for you if you need a moral buddy to help you make the change. It is hard and power from others is very helpful.

**Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm a huge skeptic about things. My dr. told me things from the start that made me almost fall out of my chair laughing with skepticism. Looking back on that conversation, he gets paid top dollar because he was dead on. I wouldn't believe me either, if I haven't gone through it myself. Don't believe me, just do it and see for yourself.

It is freezing today

Did I mention that it is FREEZING today. I'm such a baby when it comes to cold weather, but it is FREEZING today. It is technically freezing, so I can get away with the whining, right? I have had a hard time with the shorter days and now the cold is getting me down. Both guys in my house have been sicker than dogs (my dog has been fine though) and I'm glad I haven't been caught with it. I don't know if it's because I eat so darn healthy now and take my vitamins or what? Whatever it is, I'm gonna keep on doing it. I hate getting sick and I have been feeling so great now, I don't want a stupid cold to ruin it for me. Work has been pretty slow now and I'm getting some stuff done around the house and all. Jeff has been working his fingers to the bone on the downstairs bathroom remodel and it's looking GREAT! He tiled the walls this weekend and built this cool pantry in there and it's looking more like a bathroom now. We (yes, me too) will be doing the tile on the floor this weekend (as the weather now sucks outside). We have a new vanity and sink already to go. It's going to be nice to have that bathroom again. I think Jeff called Dibs on the first shower already. Next is the kitchen. I think we need to call the style professionals to give us some ideas on what our design options are. We want to maximize our space and it needs some creativity.

Great quote I heard on a movie the other night...

We were watching 'Kung Fu Panda" (a great family film), and the wise old master says, "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift - that’s why it is called the present!".

I love it!

Have a great day...

Went to a stuffing class today

I went to the local Williams Sonoma store and took a class on how to make 3 different stuffings. We got to taste test as well. Here are the stuffing recipes, if interested. Bacon-Biscuit was my favorite. And the other thing is... if you decide to do the bread pudding recipe- use 2 pans an only do single layers the bread pieces. If you do multiple layers, the bottom layers will get mushy and not too tasty. You want them to be kind of crispy (caramelized) around the edges of the pan, and soft in the inside.

The main 2 things that I learned in class are: make sure your dressing/stuffing has reached 165 degrees and make sure you stuff your turkey right before cooking it. Don't let the stuffing sit in your turkey for too long before cooking.

Smoky Bacon Buscuit Dressing (in the print baking dish)

In this savory dressing, homemade cream biscuits stand in for the traditional bread, while crispy bacon adds delicious smoky flavor. For the biscuit recipe, click on the link at left.

Ingredients:
Twelve 4-inch cream biscuits, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
1 lb. sliced smoky bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 yellow onions, diced
5 celery stalks, diced
8 oz. white button mushrooms, brushed clean and sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 Tbs. chopped fresh sage
2 Tbs. chopped fresh thyme
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
5 cups chicken stock

Directions:
Position a rack in the lower third of an oven and preheat to 350°F.

Spread the biscuits out on a baking sheet. Toast in the oven until lightly browned, 25 to 30 minutes. Set aside. Increase the oven temperature to 375°F.

In a deep sauté pan over medium-high heat, cook the bacon until crisp, 7 to 9 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Pour off all but 3 Tbs. of the fat from the pan. Set the pan over medium heat and add the onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Add the celery, mushrooms, parsley, sage and thyme and cook until the celery is soft, about 5 minutes. Transfer the onion mixture to a large bowl. Add the bacon to the bowl and season with salt and pepper. Add the biscuits and stock and stir to combine.

Transfer the dressing to a baking dish and cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake until the dressing is lightly browned, about 20 minutes more. Serves 10.

Cornbread Dressing with Chestnuts (in the red baking dish)

This recipe calls for baking the dressing separately from the turkey, which allows for faster roasting and more accurate timing of the bird. Be sure to toast the corn bread before combining it with the other ingredients. Fresh untoasted bread would absorb too much liquid, producing a soggy dressing.

Ingredients:
8 cups corn bread (see related recipe at left),
cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 cups turkey or chicken stock
1 cup dried cherries
1 Tbs. olive oil
8 bacon slices, finely chopped
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 jar (14.8 oz.) French chestnuts
3 Tbs. chopped fresh sage
3 Tbs. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 egg


Directions:
Preheat an oven to 350°F. Butter a 13-by-9-inch baking dish.

Spread the corn bread out on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 20 minutes. Set aside.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm the stock. Remove the pan from the heat and add the dried cherries. Let cool.

In a fry pan over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the bacon and fry, stirring occasionally, until golden and crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate. Set aside.

Add the onion, celery and carrot to the pan and sauté until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

In a large bowl, combine the corn bread, bacon, onion mixture, chestnuts, sage and parsley. Whisk the egg into the stock mixture and add to the corn bread mixture. Season with salt and pepper and stir gently to mix.

Transfer the dressing to the prepared baking dish and bake until browned and crispy, about 1 hour. Serves 10 to 12.

Note: If desired, you can pack the dressing loosely in the body and neck cavities of the turkey. Secure the neck flap with kitchen string or pin it to the back with toothpicks or trussing pins. Tying the legs together will help hold the stuffing in the body cavity. For turkeys weighing 16 lb. or less, add 30 minutes to the total roasting time. For turkeys weighing more than 16 lb., add 1 hour to the total roasting time.

Mushroom Bread Pudding (in the yellow baking dish)

For a boost in flavor, make this bread pudding with wild mushrooms. Some, such as shiitakes and oyster mushrooms, are no longer truly wild but are farm raised and now widely available. Cremini and portobellos, cousins of the common white button, are farmed for their slightly more robust flavor. Some wild mushrooms still grow only wild and must be hand harvested by trained foragers. Look for porcini (cèpes), morels, chicken-of-the-woods and lobster mushrooms.

The mushroom mixture can be sautéed the night before. Let cool, cover and refrigerate, returning it to room temperature before using. The pudding should be assembled just before baking. This is an exclusive online recipe from the Williams-Sonoma Collection series.

Ingredients:
3 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 cup thinly sliced green onions, white
and tender green portions
2 tsp. minced fresh marjoram or 1 1/2 tsp. dried
marjoram, crumbled
1 lb. white button or cremini mushrooms, thinly
sliced
2 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup medium-dry sherry
7 eggs
2 1/2 cups half-and-half
1 tsp. hot-pepper sauce, such as Tabasco
1 baguette, cut into 1-inch-thick diagonal slices
(about 16 slices)

Directions:
Preheat an oven to 325°F. Generously butter a baking dish.

In a large fry pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the green onions and marjoram and cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and salt and cook, stirring once or twice, until the mushrooms release their juices, about 5 minutes. Add the sherry and increase the heat to high. Cook, stirring occasionally, until all the liquid has evaporated and the mushrooms are lightly browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until blended. Whisk in the half-and-half and hot-pepper sauce. Add the bread slices and let stand, stirring gently once or twice, until the bread is moist and soft. Arrange half the bread slices in a single layer in the prepared dish. Spread half the mushrooms over the bread. Arrange the remaining bread slices over the mushroom layer, then top with the remaining mushrooms. Pour any egg mixture remaining in the bowl evenly over all.

Bake until the pudding is puffed and golden and the center is just set, about 45 minutes. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before serving. Serve hot or warm. Serves 8 to 10.

The making of cupcake pops

I made some of these pops to go with a baby shower cake. I saw these on Bakerella and fell in love. I hope you do too!

Here are some of the things you may need to do the cupcake pops:
1 13X9 baked cake (from a box cake mix or from scratch … any flavor)
1 can cream cheese frosting (or about 2 cups equivalent from scratch)
1 flower shaped cookie cutter (1.25" wide X .75" tall)
1 package chocolate bark
1 package white chocolate bark
food coloring for the white bark, if needed
bowls for dipping
wax paper
aluminum foil
lollipop sticks
sprinkles, m&ms or something similar for top of cupcake
small plastic treat bags and ribbon to package the Cupcake Pops
candy cups and truffle boxes to individually package the Cupcake Bites
Styrofoam block (to help stand the pops up)

Directions:
1. Bake cake in 13X9 pan as to directions. Cool completely.
2. Crumble cake into big bowl, making sure that the cake is very crumbly.
3. Mix the cream cheese frosting and the cake bits until smooth.
4. Form this mixture into 1 1/2 inch balls (on wax paper). This should make about 50 balls.
5. Cover with wrap or foil and freeze for 30-45 minutes until pretty firm.
6. Take the frozen balls out of freezer and work them into ovals and them into a rough cupcake (mushroom) shape with your hands. You can even use a flower shape or circle shape cookie cutter to help shape the balls faster. About half of the oval should form the bottom of the cupcake and the other half should form the top of the cupcake.
7. Put these back on the wax paper, cover them with foil and put back into the freezer for another 30-45 minutes.
8. Once they look firm again, warm up the chocolate bark in the micro according to package directions.
9. Dip the bottoms of the cupcakes into the chocolate bark (only cover the bottom of the cupcake - up to the rim).
10. Place a lollipop stick into the bottom of the cupcake (into the warm chocolate bark) and place onto the wax paper (cupcake top side up) to dry/cool. The sticks will be in the air. Let them cool completely on the wax paper, about 20-30 minutes.
11. When ready, warm up the white bark (or any color- just add a little color to warm white bark if you would like) for the tops in the micro.
12. Let this bark cool just a little so it's not too runny when you put it on the pop tops. You don't want this bark to run onto the brown bottoms.
13. Hold onto the sticks and dip the pop tops into the bark to cover the remaining pop tops. You can use a toothpick to help cover any bare area.
14. While the pop tops are warm still, sprinkle the tops. You can put M&Ms on the the middle of the tops too for decoration.
15. Let cool completely again- this time in the Styrofoam blocks. I needed three green blocks (founds at Joann Fabrics). I let them cool this time for an hour.
16. Put the wrappers and ties on when cooled and ready to eat.
17. You can cool in fridge if you like to eat them that way. Also good at room temperature.

These would be fun for any occasion and can be decorated however you would like. You can even make them without the sticks and package them in little decorative boxes for holiday gifts. These little pops/cupcakes are very cute and fun since they are bite sized.

**UPDATE ON THESE POPS: I can't eat them myself, but my taste testers all agree that these are the BOMB and my 2 guys have talked me into making them for the holidays. I guess these are pretty addictive.

Here's another cake for my portfolio

One of my co-workers is having a baby (due on Dec. 28th). I went with a pink/brown/white theme since Amanda is having a little girl (Sydney). I hope you love it too!

For the cake itself, you will need:
1 cake mix that makes 2 9-inch cakes to layer, and all the ingredients for the cakes
pudding to layer between the cakes, I went with vanilla this time
stiff Walton buttercream frosting to rim the layers together (white or whatever color your main frosting will be)
thin Walton buttercream frosting to frost the layered cakes (prior to, or in place of, fondant)
cookie cutters work well for cutting the fondant circles (I used a variety of sizes)Fondant, I used white fondant and colored some to make the brown parts
2 cake pans (9 inch)

**I went with buttercream pink frosting and white/brown fondant flowers. Not too many people from work like the fondant taste, so toning it down on this cake was essential. I made the flowers different thickness and shapes for contrast purposes. But, that's the great thing about decorating with buttercream and fondant, there's lots of options.

Directions:
1. Bake 2 9-inch cakes.
2. Cool completely.
3. Cut off the top of the rounded cakes to make them flat on top.
4. Rim the bottom cake with stiff frosting to make a dam for your filling. This will help your filling to stay inside and not run into your main frosting. Filling can run and ruin frosting.
4. Place filling inside the stiff rim.
5. Place top layer cake on top.
6. Frost with thin frosting (main frosting color).
7. Place outside fondant on cake or decoration fondant pieces.
8. Fondant will stick to frosting without help. Fondant will stick to other fondant when it has been lightly moistened with vanilla flavoring (I use a small brush and my vanilla flavoring- a very small amount is needed to do this). Too much moisture on your fondant can be dangerous.
9. Take lots of photos of your masterpiece and email them to me @ jess_n_1@hotmail.com. I would love to see all the artisan's work out there. And most important, have fun and be creative! Most 'mistakes' can be fixed and or covered up with frosting or fondant.