Thanksgiving 2011

As I mentioned previously, I am doing my own Thanksgiving 'spread' this year ... all by my self.

This is kind of a big deal.

Every Thanksgiving (and Christmas) since we got married Kevin and I have spent with other people - either friends or his family - so I've just made sweet potatoes or apple pie or something. This year I have a turkey and a ham (Honey Baked of course) and I'm making several sides (I hesitate to call them "vegetables" since they are really so far departed from, for example, steamed broccoli).

Here is my menu:

- Roast Turkey (this makes me nervous)

- Pan Gravy (this also makes me nervous)

- Spiral Cut Ham

- Sweet Potato Casserole (tried and true recipe - delicious!)

- Mashed Potatoes

- Parker House Rolls (a first for me but the recipe looks easy)

- Green Bean Casserole (I have tried and loved more foodie variants but I'm going old-school this year)

- Cornbread Sage Dressing

- Lime Jello Salad (there is just something magical about having this on my plate during the holidays, no lie)

- Cranberry Sauce (yes, from the can; jellied and whole fruit)

So turkey and pan gravy officially make me nervous. I have never made them before. I'm kind of scared. But I'm staying positive!

*I will make a delicious turkey*

*my gravy will not be lumpy*

Part of me kind of wishes we had people coming over, but this year - another first - it's just going to be me and Kevin. I love sharing my cooking with people but sometimes I get so tired of sharing the holidays with family. Does that sound awful?? I know everyone says that is the point of the holidays but when family is nuts and it's just more of a stress and a duty to spend time with them, sometimes it's a nice, well-deserved break to just spend a holiday with your favorite person ever and some pretty awesome food (actually I'm not 100% assured of 'awesome').

Small sidenote: I love Thanksgiving and I appreciate this country but ... I kind of think about these people at Thanksgiving.

What's kind of silly (and always a disappointment for me) is that I have this image in my head of what holidays should be - always have since I was tiny - but they have yet to fully live up to those expectations. That's why expectations are generally to be avoided, I've learned.

Anyway, I have this rose-colored vision of Thanksgiving that entails me getting up early to put the bird in the oven, brew a pot of coffee and put the sausage balls in the oven, turning on the parade and hanging out in my living room with my husband and us laughing and sharing the morning and 'making memories'. I think though that 'making memories' is a little overrated because I'm always making experiences ... sometimes I just don't remember them. Which is why I try living *right now*, in the moment instead of looking back so much.

I love looking back and reminiscing but there is something kind of sad and almost desperate about that. It just makes me a little down. So I try hard to just stay right now instead ... so I can work on making the very most of right now instead of wasting it on being nostalgic. There is no rewind button.

So instead of making up images of what life should be and then being being disappointed, I'm going to appreciate life for what it is.

This year I'm so grateful for ...

- My Husband and Best Friend

- Our Home

- Our sweet cats who are crazy but we love them

- My stable job and the fact that I like all the people I work for (what?! is that even possible?)

- Learning a lot of new things

- Having an open mind

- Old Friends

What are you grateful for this Thanksgiving??

Pumpkin Bread: Take 2

A new day. A new recipe. And a delicious loaf of pumpkin bread, at last. Good ole Martha came through for me. The only changes I made were to replace the Ginger with Cinnamon and Allspice and to decrease the sugar.

Preheat oven to 375.

Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl ...

2-1/2 c all-purpose flour

2 t baking powder

1 t salt

2 T cinnamon

1 t allspice

Mix sugar and wet ingredients, then add the dry ingredients ...

1 c brown sugar, packed

1/2 c granulated sugar (recipe called for 1 c)

1 15 oz can pumpkin puree (plain pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling)

3 eggs

12 T butter, melted and slightly cooled

Once all the ingredients are combined, pour into a greased bread pan (I had enough batter leftover for 6 muffin tins) and bake for 55 minutes til toothpick comes out clean (muffins were done in about 25 minutes). Cool for a few minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a cooling rack.

A cute way to serve this is on a cake pedestal with a small pumpkin in the center and then surround it with halved slices of the bread. The cake stand I used is blue (you can see the base of it in the photo below) -- it contrasted nicely with the warm orange tones of the bread and the baby pumpkin.

Hmm. Well, this is embarrassing.

OK so ... Note To Self: try out your food every time before clicking 'Publish Post'. My pumpkin bread endeavor was a complete and epic failure! Not sure what went wrong, as I followed the measurements and instructions to a T (except of course for my spice and vanilla modifications which shouldn't affect the consistency of the recipe). I'm so upset!

I pulled the loaves from the oven and let them cool. I sliced into the regular loaf and found that it wasn't at all what bread should look like. It was almost like a pudding; very soft and tacky on the inside, though the outside was perfectly cooked and a little crispy. Kevin said it was like bread with a pumpkin pie filling. The flavor was great; but the texture was a total failure. What a let down. I let it bake for the recommended time at the recommended temperature, and the toothpick came out clean on both loaves. I even cut into the bundt and it was just the same (I thought maybe since it was smaller it might have been done, but ... nope).

Is it the recipe? Is it the weather? ... Is it me?

I suppose not every kitchen endeavor is a roaring success (at least not every one of MY kitchen endeavors). I will simply have another go at it and see how it turns out.

Pumpkin Bread Fail. =(

Time for the season's first batch of pumpkin bread!

The poll on my blog has officially closed. The tied-for-first winners as your 'favorite thing about Fall' is 'pulling out your cold-weather wardrobe' and 'the smells and flavors of the season'. Seeing that it's currently 70 degrees here in big D, my cold-weather wardrobe will have to hang out in storage a little longer. But the warmth won't stop me from baking some pumpkin spice bread to coax the cool weather into coming back - and sticking around this time!

I borrowed the recipe from my own personal foodie crush, Alton Brown. I cannot go wrong following his lead in the kitchen. I followed the recipe almost exactly, but I nearly doubled my Vanilla, bumped up the Cinnamon, and sprinkled in some Allspice. Also, the recipe calls for 3 cups of fresh pumpkin, but I used a can which is about 3-1/2 cups (not to mention easier and faster than carving and baking a fresh pumpkin). My last modification was to decrease the sugar from 1-1/2 to 1 cup.

NOTE: Allspice is native to Central America and southern Mexico and is NOT a combination of multiple other spices. It's a berry, harvested unripe, sun-dried and then ground into the powder form usually used in cooking and baking applications.

Pumpkin Spice Bread 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine the following dry ingredients:

2 c All-Purpose Flour

2 t Cinnamon (I think I used about 1 T)

1 t Baking Powder

1/4 t Baking Soda

1/2 t Salt

Mix the following ingredients in a separate bowl, then pour and mix into the above dry ingredients:

1 c Sugar (the called-for 1-1/2 cups sounded like a lot to me, so I used only 1 cup; I tasted the batter after everything was mixed together and it was sweet enough for my taste and didn't overwhelm the pumpkin and spice flavors)

3/4 c Vegetable Oil

3 Eggs, whisked

2 t Vanilla (again, I doubled this - Alton only called for 1 t)

Prepared batter, before adding the pumpkin.

 Once all the above ingredients are combined, fold in ...

3 c Pumpkin (You can get canned Pumpkin or canned Pumpkin Pie Mix; get the plain Pumpkin)

Love having this in my kitchen again. =)

Loaf and bundt pans ready for the oven.

Pour batter into prepared (read: sprayed with non-stick spray such as Pam or buttered and floured) loaf pan, muffin tin, bundt pan, etc. (The recipe made enough batter for me to fill a regular loaf and almost-fill a bundt pan - I think the bundt might make a nice snack for the co-workers tomorrow!) Bake for about 1 hour, 15 minutes or until (say it with me!) a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the bread cool in the pan for a few minutes then turn out to a cooling rack.

Bundt loaf ...

... and traditional loaf, cooling on the kitchen table.

I enjoy pumpkin bread shmeared with a little cream cheese, but it's also good toasted with a little butter, or a drizzle of honey, or plain or eaten with a cup of tea. However you like it, just enjoy lots of it and experiment with your recipe, too. I thought about trying my recipe out with some chopped pecans, dried cranberries or raisins.

Feel free to share your favorite recipe or ideas for yummy add-ins to a basic pumpkin bread recipe. Thanks for reading!

PS - Speaking of pumpkins, isn't this Pumpkin Dutch Oven fantastic? Too bad it's $150 and wouldn't be used for more than a few months a year (unless you are a die hard pumpkin fan).