Egg Rolls (vietnamese style)

I love egg rolls, especially Vietnamese ones, so when I make my own, I always go for that style.

I've blogged about these before, but last time I baked them. Since fried ones are so much better and you're allowed to indulge during the holidays, I fried them this time. Everything else was pretty much the same.

I made these weeks ahead of time and froze them individually and fried them up the day of and served them with chili sauce. A tasty and easy appetizer for any time of the year!

Ingredients:
- ground pork
- carrots
- onions
- glass noodles (mung bean noodles)
- garlic
- wood ear mushrooms
- fish sauce
- soy sauce
- egg rolls wrappers
- oil (for frying)

Directions:
- Shred the carrots and set aside.
- Finely dice the onions and set aside.
- Mince the garlic and set aside.
- Soak the glass noodles in water until they're pliable (about 15-30 minutes), then cut them into shorter more manageable pieces.
- Soak the wood ear mushrooms until they're soft (hot water will speed this up), then cut it into thin strips.
- Mix everything together, seasoning to taste with soy and fish sauce. You can always fry up a small portion of the filling before wrapping the egg rolls to make sure it tastes good.
- Take a sheet of egg roll wrapper and fill it with a diagonal line of filling and wrap it up.
- You can either fry them immediately or put them in the freezer at this point to fry up at a later date.

Artichoke Dip

Here's another appetizer that I put out on our buffet table for Thanksgiving. I put the artichoke dip in a mini crock pot to keep it warm.

The crackers are rosemary crackers, also homemade. But since my husband made them (and refuses to share the recipe) I can't tell you how he made them. I'll keep bugging him about it, but in the meantime, here's the artichoke dip recipe.

Ingredients:
- Marinated artichokes
- Mayo
- Cream cheese
- Salt
- Pepper

Directions:
- Drain and chop the artichokes.
- Mix the artichokes, cream cheese and mayo together, microwaving it periodically, until it reaches the consistency you desire.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve with crackers, pita chips, or veggies.
-

Cranberry Sauce (revisited)

This is another one that can be made ahead of time to reduce stress on Thanksgiving day. An even better way to reduce stress is to ask your husband to do it! Thanks babe! :)

We used the same recipe as we did last year, except we made a bigger batch. Too big in fact (we bought the Costco size bag of cranberries). Anyone want some frozen cranberry sauce or have any ideas of what we should do with all the leftovers? If you do, PLEASE let us know!

Ingredients:
- Cranberries
- Orange juice
- Sugar
- Lemon zest
- Ginger

Directions:
- Rinse the cranberries and then pour them into a large pot.
- Add enough orange juice to cover barely cover the cranberries (they won't look covered because cranberries float)
- Bring the mixture to a boil and then lower the heat to maintain a simmer.
- Add LOTS of sugar to taste.
- Add some lemon zest and grated ginger to taste.
- Simmer until all the cranberries of popped and the sauce has thickened.
- Let the sauce cool and then place it in the fridge to set.

Clam Chowder

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!!

While I didn't do any cooking for the holidays, I still haven't finished my Thanksgiving posts, so here's one more.

I was a bit worried that the soup wouldn't get eaten and that I'd have a ton of leftovers, but apparently, it wasn't something that I needed to worry about. I made the clam chowder the day before and then popped in the crock pot in the morning to heat it up and left it there during dinner to keep it warm. Anyone who wanted it, had to get up off their butts, walk over, pour themselves a bowl, and bring it back to their seats.

The crock pot happened to be near my father-in-law who took it upon himself to tattle on people who went for seconds. I told him it was fine and that we had plenty - people could go for seconds and thirds as much as they wanted. Apparently that wasn't the reaction he was looking for out of me, so he decided to report to everyone, how many bowls each person had helped themselves to. Luckily, that didn't deter anyone from going back for more and we had less than one bowl's worth left at the end of the night. I'd call that a success :)

Happy New Year!!!


Ingredients:
- Clams and clam juice (I used canned clams that were packed in its own juices)
- Stock (clam stock would be best, then fish, then veggie or chicken. I used chicken because that's all that I had on hand. Water will do too if you don't have any stock at all)
- Milk (I used soy milk)
- Cream (I used half & half though I'm sure heavy cream would have been wonderful)
- Potatoes
- Onions
- Celery (optional)
- Parsley
- Salt
- Pepper
- Flour
- Butter

Directions:
- Peel and dice the potatoes.
- Finely dice the onions.
- Finely slice the celery.
- In a heavy bottomed pot, add a bit of butter or oil and the onions and sweat them until softened.
- Add the potatoes and celery.
- Saute everything until the potatoes and celery have softened a bit. They don't need to be totally cooked through yet at this point.
- Remove everything.
- Make a rue by mixing equal parts of melted butter and flour and cooking it until it is just starting to turn a bit golden in color.
- Add any of the liquids (milk, cream, stock) and whisk the mixture until the rue has been fully incorporated into the liquid and it has thickened nicely.
- Add the rest of the liquids, the clams, clam juice, onions, celery, potatoes, etc and bring everything to a simmer.
- If the soup is not thick enough, either add more cream or make more rue in a separate pot, add a bit of the liquid from the soup to the rue and add the entire mixture back to the soup once it's been fully incorporated.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Add the parsley at the last minute.

Baked Brie

I've been wanting to try this forever! I keep hearing how fabulous baked brie is and how it's always such a hit at parties, but I never got a chance to try it. Well, I still didn't get to try it this year since brie is on the "do not eat" list for pregnant ladies, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it!

Next I had to decide on what kind of baked brie I wanted to make. Wrapped in puff pastry? Topped with a fruit compote? What kind of fruit compote?

In the end, I decided to save myself a bit of trouble and just go with the easiest version out there...topped with honey and nuts.

I can't give a personal report on whether it was good or not, but it seemed to go over well with the guests. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try it myself one of these days...

Ingredients:
- Brie
- Honey
- Nuts (I used sliced almonds)
- Crackers

Directions:
- Place the brie on a piece of foil and pop it in the oven at 350 until the middle is soft and gooey. It shouldn't take very long at all.
- Transfer the brie onto the serving plate and drizzle honey on top.
- Garnish with nuts.
- Serve with crackers. (I also placed a few apple slices around for a bit more color)

Sweet Potatoes

Normally, I'm a bit of a control freak. I like to do everything myself, but seeing as how we had 20 people coming and I was low on energy because of the pregnancy, I was forced to concede and let my mom help me out. But even then, I couldn't quite bear to give up control on anything too big like the turkey, so I let her be in charge of the sweet potatoes.

I had all sorts of ideas for the sweet potatoes, but my mom claimed she had a fabulous way of preparing them and I was too tired and short on time to fight her, so I bit my tongue and let her do them her way. And lemme tell ya, they were really good! I might even steal her recipe in the future and pass it off as my own :)

And next time, I'll remember to get a picture of the completed dish instead of it just simmering in the pot.

Ingredients:
- Sweet potatoes
- Orange Juice
- Brown Sugar
- Butter

Directions:
- Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into bite size pieces.
- Place the sweet potatoes in a large pot with orange juice, brown sugar, and LOTS of butter.
- Simmer the sweet potatoes, gently stirring them ocassionally until they're mostly cooked through. (You can skip this part if you want and put them directly into the oven, but since oven space is scarce on Thanksgiving day, we did most of the cooking on the stovetop and just finished them in the oven).
- Transfer everything to a baking dish and bake them at 375 until they finish cooking and have a bit of crisp and color to them.

Pork Roulade

Since we had 20 people coming over for thanksgiving dinner and the turkey was only 20 pounds, we decided to do a second meat dish, just to be on the safe side. We decided on trying something new and made a pork roulade.

My husband went out and bought a big old pork tenderloin while I decided on a pear butter, bacon and mushroom filling. I've never tried it, but it sounded like a tasty combo.

The day of, my husband cut the pork loin in half to make it easier to work with. He then butterflied, but in 3 sections, is that still called butterflying? Anyway, he made 3 long cuts length-wise in each half of the pork loin to open and flatten them out. I diced and sauteed the mushrooms, my mom crisped and crumbled the bacon, and then I mixed the filling together and slathered it on the pork. My husband then rolled up the roulades, tied them up to keep them from unrolling and oil, salt and peppered them generously. We then browned them on our griddle and popped it in the oven at 350 for a little less than an hour and then took them out to let them rest.

Unfortunately, it turned out a little overcooked and dry because the turkey had hogged both of our probe thermometers (the turkey is more important after all) and we guess-timated how long it would take. Plus, this was our first time making something like this, so it really wasn't our fault. Especially for a first attempt and with all the other craziness going on in the kitchen, I think my husband did a fabulous job. With a little more practice and access to a probe thermometer, I think this could be a lot juicier and prettier in the future. It's definitely a keeper.

What do you think?


Ingredients:
- Pork tenderloin
- Pear butter
- Mushrooms
- Bacon
- Oil
- Salt
- Pepper

Directions:
- Dice the mushrooms and saute them to release most of the liquid. Set aside
- Crisp up the bacon and crumble it. Set aside.
- If your pork loin is really long, consider cutting it in half to make it easier to work with.
- Make 3 cuts into the pork loin (length-wise), so that it can be "unrolled" into one large piece of pork that is evenly thick the whole way through. (This is much easier said than done and may take some practice).
- Mix the pear butter, mushrooms and bacon together.
- Slather the mixture on the "cut" side of the pork loin, leaving about half an inch to an inch of empty space along the border.
- Roll the pork and filling up and tie it every few inches with kitchen twine to keep it from unrolling.
- Generously coat the outside with oil, salt and pepper.
- In a large pan (we used our griddle), brown each side of the pork roulade.
- Put it on a baking sheet and place it into a 350 degree oven.
- Cook until it reaches an internal temperature of 160.
- Take the pork out and let it rest for at least 20 minutes (you can tent it with foil to keep it warm).
- Cut off the strings, slice the pork and serve. If there are any juices, pour those on top. Cranberry sauce and gravy go well with it too.

Thanksgiving Turkey

This year, we had a 20 pounder and I decided to do my own brining. I definitely think it was worth the extra hassle. The meat was juicy and flavorful and I believe that it definitely made a significant difference.

Last year, I bought a pre-brined turkey from Trader Joe's and I think this year was better, though it is difficult to remember and compare against something I had a year ago. Even if it wasn't, brining is not difficult, so I'd rather not pay more for the pre-brined and do it myself.

I used Alton Brown's brine recipe and used the same tips and tricks I used last year to get a nice juicy bird with perfectly browned crispy skin.

Here's a recap. The night before, brine the turkey. I put the turkey and brine in a gigantic brining bag and stuck the whole thing in the fridge overnight.

Brine Ingredients:
(adapted from Good Eats)
- 1 cup of kosher salt
- 1/2 cup of light brown sugar
- 1 tbs of black peppercorns
- 1 1/2 tsp of allspice berries
- 1 1/2 tsp of chopped candied ginger
- 2 gallons of water

Brining Directions:
- Heat 1 gallon of water and mix the rest of the ingredients in until the salt and sugar are dissolved.
- Let the mixture cool. I made mine 2 nights before and chilled it in the fridge overnight. If you don't have time to chill the mixture, add lots of ice to bring the temperature down (take that amount of liquid out of the 2nd gallon of water if you do).
- The night before, put the turkey in a large brining bag and pour in the mixture along with another gallon of water.
- Make sure the turkey is fully submerged and that the cavity is filled with the brining liquid instead of a big air bubble.
- Place the brining bag in a large pan (I used the roasting pan) to catch leaks and refrigerate it overnight.

Turkey Ingredients:
- Vegetable oil
- Rosemary
- Garlic
- Lemon zest
- Salt
- Pepper
- Aromatics (such as onions, apples, lemons, oranges, etc)

Turkey Directions:
- Take your brined turkey out of the fridge.
- Dump all the brine down the sink and rinse the turkey well (be sure to get both the inside and the outside)
- Carefully use your fingers to separate the skin from the meat whereever you can reach (mostly the breast).
- Either pat the turkey dry, or put it on the baking rack in the roasting pan and place it in the fridge for a while to dry out the skin.
- Flip the turkey so that it's on the baking rack, breast side down.
- Place a bag of ice inside the cavity, resting against the breast and another bag of ice underneath the turkey breast.
- Let the rest of the bird come up closer to room temperature while icing the breast. Since the breast tends to cook faster than the dark meat, this will help the two reach the perfect temperature at the same time, resulting in perfectly cooked and juicy light and dark meat.
- Mix the oil, finely chopped rosemary, minced garlic and lemon zest together in a bowl.
- Remove the ice bags from the turkey.
- Slather the mixture all over the outside of the turkey and underneath the skin in the areas that you were able to separate it from the meat.


- Generously salt and pepper both the inside and outside of the turkey.
- Stuff the turkey with the aromatics.
- Place one probe thermometer in the deepest part of the breast without hitting the bone and another in the deepest part the leg and the body, without hitting the bone.
- Put the turkey into a 500 degree oven for 30 minutes until the skin is crispy and browned.
- Cover the breast with foil and turn the oven down to 350 degrees and cook until both thermometers reach 161 degrees.
- Take the turkey out and tent it while letting the turkey rest for at least 15 minutes.
- Carve the turkey and serve it to your hungry guests!

Thanksgiving Roundup

Phew! I'm finally done with all the Thanksgiving posts! Sorry, it took me so long...

So here's a little review -

We set up our buffet as the appetizer station (sorry for the fuzzy picture)


with all sorts of goodies including:

hummus made with chicken stock instead of olive oil and served with carrot sticks and celery sticks as a healthy alternative for those who wanted it

bacon wrapped dates

ham and cheese stuffed baguettes

brie filled phyllo cups

peanut butter and banana cookies

and a cheese plate.

As you can see, I decorated the buffet table with a few colorful fall leaves. I did something similar with our fireplace mantle by just cutting some nice foliage from the yard including festive red berries and fragrant rosemary.

I even filled a vase with rosemary to add a bit of color to some other areas of the house.

In addition to the typical water, soda, juice, wine, etc, we also made some sangria.


For dinner, we had the turkey of course

mashed potatoes, gravy, sticky rice (aka chinese stuffing) that my mother-in-law made

simply roasted sweet potatoes

roasted butternut squash soup

cheesy biscuits

sauteed green beans

a spinach salad

and cranberry sauce.

And here it is all together


I hope you and yours had a great holiday season and have a very happy and healthy new year!

Peanut Butter Banana Cookies

Warning, this recipe makes a TON of cookies. But the good news is that they're yummy, so it probably won't be a problem.

I don't bake often because I'm not very good at it, especially when it comes to cookies, plus we don't really eat sweets in this house anyway. So what inspired the making of these cookies? Well, I had been craving peanut butter cookies for a while and I had 3 bananas that were going to go bad soon. Peanut butter and banana is always a great combo, so I googled away and found this! And because I really only wanted one or two cookies, not an entire batch, I decided to serve them at Thanksgiving!

I baked them a few days ahead of time with the help of my husband and brother-in-law, and I have them to thank for them turning out so well. The first batch that I did on my own were not so wonderful (I told you I can't bake). Even though the recipe says to bake them for 13-16 minutes and that they should not be brown on the edges and will set up as they cool, they never set up and were quite mushy. With the help of the hubz and his brother, we found that they had to be baked for ~20 minutes and have slightly browned edges for best results.

And look, I put them on a nice serving tray decorated with fall leaves and some fragrant rosemary for a pretty presentation =)

Adapted from Foodgeeks

• 3/4 cup margarine, softened
• 1-1/4 cups peanut butter
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 md. overripe bananas
  
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  
• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/8 tsp. baking powder

Directions:

• Preheat Oven to 325°F.
  
• In a large mixing bowl, cream together the margarine, peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar until smooth.
  
• Peal the bananas and drop into the mixture; mix well (some small banana chunks are okay).
  
• Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each.
  
• Combine the flour, baking soda, and baking powder; stir into the peanut butter mixture.
  
• Use a cookie scoop or drop by the spoonful onto ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake for 13 to 16 minutes - they will not be golden brown when removed from oven. As they set they will turn slightly firm.
  
• Allow to cool on cookie sheet for two to three minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.*

*Gaga's note: Like I mentioned above, I found that they actually needed closer to 20 minutes in the oven and needed to have slightly browned edges before being removed from the oven in order to set up properly. You may have to experiment a bit to see how your oven behaves.

Sauteed Green Beans

I'm not a big fan of the traditional green bean casserole. I am however, a big fan of bacon :)

Here is my preference for Thanksgiving green beans, sauteed in bacon fat, with some red bell pepper for added color and sliced almonds as a garnish.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of green beans
• 1 onion sliced thinly
  
• 1 red bell pepper sliced thinly
  
• 2 (or more) slices of bacon
• salt to taste
• almond slices

Method:

• Clean and trim the green beans. Blanche them in boiling water or steam them until tender and put them in an ice bath to stop the cooking process and to keep their bright green color.
• Cut up the bacon into tiny pieces and cook until crispy.
• Add the onion and saute until soft and carmelized.
• Add the red bell pepper and saute until heated through. I like to keep it a bit crispy.
• Add the green beans to heat through.
• Add salt to taste (this may not be necessary since the bacon is already pretty salty).
• Sprinkle some almond slices on top and serve.
  

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

I tend to try new recipes for the first time when having guests over. Maybe it's not the best idea, but it has yet to go horribly wrong. On occasion it doesn't go quite as planned, but my hubby has a great palate and creative solutions to help save the day. In fact, sometimes, his ideas end up being even better than the original! Luckily, this time, all I needed was his taste buds to help me out.

So, silly me didn't know that the hollow section of a butternut squash was so small. I thought it was hollow all the through the skinny part too and bought way too many for the soup. Do you have any great ideas for my extra squash?

Silly me also didn't know how difficult they were to peel and chop, but I got through it with some help from my brother-in-law, thanks Alvin! I have since done it on my own with the extra squash I bought. They're tough little guys!

Ingredients:

• Butternut squash
• Chicken stock
• Cream
• Salt
• Pepper
• Cinnamon
  
• Nutmeg

Method:

• Peel, seed, and cut the squash into bite-size cubes. Toss it in some olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put it in a roasting pan and roast at 350 degrees until the squash is tender (about 30-45 minutes).

• Put the squash in a large pot and pour in the chicken stock until the squash is barely covered. Bring it to a simmer.
• Blend the soup until smooth and creamy. Be careful, it is very hot and can splatter easily.
• Add cream to the soup and stir until it has reached the desired consistency.
  
• Add cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.
• Serve with croutons, bacon bits, a few sprigs of fresh herbs or just enjoy it on it's own!
  

Pressure Cooker Chicken Stock

Homemade chicken stock is so much better than store bought. I save all of my chicken bones in a bag in the freezer and then pull them out when I've collected enough to make chicken stock, which I then freeze and stick back in the freezer in smaller batches so that I can take a bit out whenever I need. I've also started freezing the tops and leaves of celery that I cut off when making celery sticks, etc to use in the stock.

The problem with making stock is that you have to let it simmer for hours and I'm just not that patient. Plus, when you only notice that you're out of frozen chicken stock the morning of Thanksgiving and already have a million other things to do, you don't have time to wait hours for the chicken bones to release their goodness into the stock. That's when I'm especially glad that I have a pressure cooker.

This is my entry for Joelen's Tasty Tools event which features stock/soup pots. I love soups, so check out her blog to see what other tasty dishes others have made!

Ingredients:

• Chicken bones
• Water
• Carrots
• Celery
• Onion
• Salt (optional)
• other herbs (optional)

Method:

• Put the chicken bones in your pressure cooker and cover it with cold water until the bones are just covered. Be sure not to fill it over the recommended limit for your pressure cooker (pressure cookers should NOT ever be filled to the brim).
• Rough chop some carrots, celery and onions and dump them in. There's no need to peel the carrots or chop them finely, etc since it's only there for the flavor, not to be eaten. Just be sure to wash them.
• Add salt, herbs, or other flavorings that you might want. I tend not to add any of things since I don't always know what I'm going to be using the stock for in the future and can add those things later.
• Close the pressure cooker according to the manufacturers instructions and put it over high heat until the maximum pressure is reached. Then turn down the heat just enough to maintain the pressure for about half an hour.
• Turn off the heat and let the pressure dissipate naturally.
• Carefully open the pressure cooker. Make sure you've gotten all the goodness out of the bones by breaking them. They should be so weak that they just fall apart with minimal effort. If they haven't reached this stage yet, go ahead and put the lid back on and turn up the heat again for another 10 minutes and let the pressure come down on its own again.
• Strain out all the bones and veggies.
• Now, you can either use a fat separator to get rid of the excess fat or chill in the fridge and remove the fat that solidifies on top.
• You can use the stock immediately or store it in the fridge for about a week, or freeze it practically for ever. Use it in your favorite soups, sauces, etc.

Healthier Hummus

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season! We were out of town for a bit, but am back now and I'm determined to finish all the Thanksgiving posts. There are about 3 more or so after this.

Another appetizer that we made for Thanksgiving was hummus. I love hummus and its great for entertaining as well as just keeping around the house as a healthy snack. Especially if its served with carrot and celery sticks instead of pita bread or chips.

A trick that I learned a long time ago from Martha Stewart is to replace the olive oil with chicken stock. That makes it even more healthy!

Ingredients:

• 1 can of garbanzo beans
  
• 1 tablespoon of tahini (to taste)
  
• 1-2 cloves of garlic (to taste)
  
• juice from 1/2 of a lemon (to taste)
  
• 1/4 cup of chicken stock, olive oil, the liquid from the garbanzo beans, or a combo of all.
• salt to taste
  

Method:

• Drain the garbanzo beans and reserve the liquid if desired.
• Pour the beans into a food processor.
  
• If desired, add a clove or two of garlic.
  
• If desired, add some lemon juice, to taste. I used about about half a lemon.
  
• If desired, add some tahini, I used about a tablespoon.
• Turn on the food processor while slowly drizzling in the chicken stock, olive oil or liquid from the beans or a combo of any of the three until the desired consistency is reached. You may have to stop the processor and scrape down the sides during this process.
• Add salt to taste.
• Serve with anything from pita bread, to chips, to carrot and celery sticks.

You can sprinkle a bit of paprika or herbs on top for color and flavor too.

Award Winning Bacon Wrapped Dates

Can you believe these little guys have won an award?

Well, not these exact guys, but a variation of them that I made last year. We have some friends who have an annual Iron Chef potluck where you are told a secret ingredient about a week ahead of time and then everyone brings potluck dishes to share and vote on by secret ballot. We got to participate in this fun event last year and the secret ingredient was liqueur.

Normally, I either stuff my bacon wrapped dates with goat cheese or with an almond. Since the secret ingredient was liqueur, I decided to infuse the goat cheese with amaretto! Great idea, right? It tasted great and we won the prize for most creative dish and was up there in the running for best appetizer too!

But since Thanksgiving didn't require me to use liqueur and I was being lazy, I didn't stuff the dates at all. The hubby said that without the cheese, the dates were too overpowering, so next time I won't leave out the cheese.

Ingredients:
- Pitted dates
- Bacon
- Goat cheese

Method:
- Split the dates and stuff them with goat cheese.
- Microwave the bacon for about a minute to render out some of the excess fat.
- Cut the bacon pieces in half (unless you have huge dates) and wrap each of the dates in the bacon.
- Place the bacon wrapped dates seam side down on a baking sheet (I used a silpat to make clean up a bit easier). If you have trouble keeping the bacon from unraveling, stick a toothpick through them.
- Put them into a 350 degree and cook until the bacon is nice and crispy. I think it took about 30 minutes though I wasn't really paying attention =P

Cheesy Biscuits

We love Red Lobster's cheddar bay biscuits. You just can't beat the buttery goodness of those biscuits, but it didn't stop me from trying!

Most Red Lobster cheddar bay biscuit knockoff recipes I found called for Bisquick. I didn't have Bisquick and didn't feel like buying it just for this recipe, so I used Paula Deen's biscuit recipe and added the cheese, etc, because I figured, if anyone knew how to make a buttery biscuit, it'd be her. Surprisingly, I still feel that Red Lobster's are even more buttery! Man, I don't even want to know how bad for me they are!

Inspired by Paula Deen and Red Lobster
Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons butter, cubed
• 3/4 cup milk (I used soy milk)
• 1 cup of cheddar cheese shredded plus more for topping biscuits if desired.
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp parsley flakes
  

Method:

In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together. Cut butter into mixture until it begins to look like cornmeal.

Mix in the cheese, garlic powder and parsley flakes.

Make a well with flour mixture and slowly add milk into the middle. Knead dough with your fingers and add milk when necessary.

Because I wanted them to look like cheddar bay biscuits, I spooned out messy balls on a baking sheet instead of rolling them out and cutting out circle. I then topped them with a bit more cheese.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown in a 350 degree oven.

I'm also submitting this recipe to Joelen's Tasty Tools Event that is highlighting baking sheets this month. Check out her blog in the new year to see what other goodies people made with baking sheets or submit your own!

Sangria

Nope, I'm not done with Thanksgiving posts yet. We had a LOT of food and there are many more posts to come =)

I always associate sangria with happy and fun times, so it makes sense to serve it during Thanksgiving (or any other party and even just for a quiet evening at home!).

My version is probably not too authentic, but it tastes yummy!

And I'm submitting this to Joelen's Floribbean Adventure since it has rum in it. Thanks Joelen for hosting yet another great event.

Ingredients:

• 1 bottle of red wine
• sugar to taste
• 2 cups of orange juice
• rum (optional)
• splash of soda water or 7up/Sprite
• fruit - I used lemon slices, apples chunks & grapes halved, but whatever you have on hand should be fine.
  

Method:

• Pour the wine, and orange juice into a jug.
  
• Add a bit of rum or grand marnier for a little extra alcohol content since we're "watering down" the wine. You can skip this step too.
• Add a splash of soda water or 7up/Sprite for some fizz. This step is also optional.
• Then microwave some sugar with a bit of water. Let it cool down and then pour that into the jug too. I like to do it this way because whenever I pour the sugar straight in, it never melts. Making a simple syrup to pour in is much easier. Do a little at a time until the sangria has reached your desired level of sweetness.
• Toss in the fruit.
• Cover the jug and put it in the refrigerator for at least a few hours.
• Serve it to your happy guests and have a great time!
  

Phyllo Brie Cups

First off, lemme just say, this appetizer totally wasn't worth the effort and didn't come out exactly as I had hoped, but I'll share it with you anyway.

I've since seen some recipes that put a slice of brie on a cracker with some sugar or fruit compote and nuts. Why didn't I run across those or think of it myself before I went to all this trouble? Sheesh! Next time, I'm going with that method instead for sure!

Anyway, this was inspired by baked brie wrapped in puff pastry. For that appetizer, however, you need the whole wheel of brie, but I wanted to use some of it for our cheese plate as well, so I thought I'd try making individually-sized baked brie. It didn't quite turn out the way I had hoped, but at least the cheese plate looked nice =)

My version wasn't quite as melty and the phyllo cups were too delicate to make them a good finger food, plus making the cups was pretty time-consuming. The flavor was good though, so I definitely think I'll be trying the puff pastry or cracker versions in the future.

Ingredients:

• phyllo dough
• brie
• melted butter or oil
• brown sugar or fruit compote of some sort
• nuts (I used walnuts)

Method:

• Cut the phyllo dough into 2x2 inch squares. Layer them on top of each other in a spiral shape in a cupcake mold, brushing each layer with the butter/oil to create a cup. Put them into a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes until slightly crispy and browned.
  
• Take the phyllo cups out and add some brie to the bottom, sprinkle with brown sugar or fruit compote and top with a few nuts. Put them back into the oven until the cheese is melted and declicious.
  

A Simple Spinach Salad

I've got another quick recipe from our Thanksgiving feast. Spinach salad!

Thanksgiving is filled with so many heavy dishes that I thought I'd offer something on the lighter side in case anyone was interested.

Just wash and spin-dry some spinach and sprinkle it with dried cranberries, walnuts, crumbled bacon, and if you'd like cheese. I totally forgot to put the cheese in (oops!) but normally I like blue cheese though goat or feta would probably be great too.

I made a simple balsamic vinaigrette that I put on the side so that the salad wouldn't get soggy.

So easy and you can make it way ahead of time too!

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are already so sweet and delicious on their own that I really don't think they need all the gunk like marshmallows that are typical of a Thanksgiving dinner. Just peel, cube and toss in some oil or melted butter and toss them in a 350 degree oven to roast until soft. A light sprinkling of brown sugar on top for extra carmelization is a nice touch, but not necessary at all.

I accidentally picked up a white-fleshed yam and actually think it makes for better presentation and will do it on purpose next time! Mixing the white in breaks up the sea of orange and tastes great too. A little greenery such as a sprig of mint completes this simple yet tasty dish.