It's Not About the Food!

I have news for you about Thanksgiving that you might find shocking.

It's not all about the food.

Trust me, I wouldn't lie to you! On one level, it is, of course, all about the food. But really, it's about giving thanks and being grateful for all that we have. Bringing our family and friends together to remind us to be thankful for them, also.

I tell you this because things are bound to go wrong. Sometimes horribly wrong. Irreparably wrong. Please, don't let it ruin your holiday! For example, no matter how many times you have successfully roasted a turkey, there will be that one time that the bugger just won't cook, and you end up carving the meat 3 hours later than planned. Or your potatoes scorch and you've got to throw out the whole pot. Rolls hard as rocks, lumpy gravy, broken dishes, the list goes on and on. You've gotta laugh it off and make the best of it. It will make a great family story down the line. (Wait til you hear about the exploding cupboard!)

When I was a teenager, I used to watch a soap opera where every Thanksgiving (or was it Christmas?) the rich family's meal would be completely ruined and they'd have to order a stack of pizzas. What else are you going to do? Mope and throw a tantrum? Psh. Move on.

So here's hoping that you don't have the Davis curse, and there are no catastrophes on your big day. But if there are, take another page from the Davis play book and laugh it off. And then tell me about it. I'd hate to think I'm all alone out here in my disaster land!

The Great Thanksgiving Catastrophe of '07

As promised, here is one of my Thanksgiving Catastrophe stories. I offer this to you as something to reflect on during the holiday. Should things start to go wrong, you can comfort yourself that at least you're not in my house! Also, it can be a point of reference. How bad was your holiday? "About two step above Leni '07." ;o)

I do hope that your holiday planning is going well, and that you will all have a catastrophe free Thanksgiving!

Here's how a holiday goes in Leni Land. To give yourself the proper setting, pretend you're reading a new edition of the "If You Give a Moose a Muffin" series."

Thanksgiving Day (which also happens to be my husband's birthday, just so you have proper sympathy for him.)

Despite the fact that I am not a morning person, I am up at 6:30 to have turkey in roaster at 7am. *Yawn*
I ask Steve later in the morning if he will hang up my shadow box. We've been waiting for a free moment to do so, and our holiday planning is going so well, we actually have leisure time before dinner!

Wanting to do the job right, Steve gathers the children around and explains that he will need certain tools. Not only is he going to do the job, but we're going to get a homeschool lesson out of it!

So, he goes out to the shed to get the level. Of course, the key is nowhere to be found, so he goes to buy a new lock at the pharmacy, intending to break the old one off.  He comes out of the store, van won't start. Extra amusing, as we have not yet made the first payment on said van. Awesome. So, he walks home in very cold rain. I see him coming, and I can tell by the stomping through puddles that he is not a happy camper. He takes his frustration out on the lock since it was going to come off anyways. Ironically will not come off. It's a very sturdy lock! So sturdy that instead of the lock giving way, the hasp starts to break.

He gives up and comes in, calls the dealer, who of course will only honor the warranty if HE does the work. That means towing it 85 miles. Thank God for AAA, because the dealer was not going to pay for the towing...grrr... Steve makes the arrangements, and decides to still try to make something of the day. He'll  figure out why the vacuum is so loud. Takes the whole thing apart, can find nothing wrong with it! But while it's still spread all over the livning room, my mom arrives an hour early which we expected. No big deal that she's here, but the dogs get all excited because there's company, and they start prancing all over the place while Steve is trying to put the cleaner back together.

At this point, my oldest daughter reluctantly tells us that she just found water dripping into the laundry room from the bathroom that is right above it. Seriously?! Hubby quickly figures out that it is coming from the tub, so he goes to investigate. Upon pulling up the tiles by the corner of the tub, we find that the sub-flooring is totally rotted away, and there is apparently a leak inside the wall! Why not? Steve says (are you ready for this?) "I'm surprised the wall isn't rotting also." With that he gently pushes on the wall above the area, which totally gives under the pressure. ARGH! At that point I decided that we should just go back to bed and forget this day completely.

All this by noon, folks! We did, however, go on to have a lovely day. The birthday girls arrived (both grandmas) and the rest of our company. Dinner went off without a hitch, and then we played board games and watched movies til bed time. All in all, a nice day. That weekend we dealt with all the problems, and my kids got a lesson in patching drywall!

This is just so typical for us, it's almost laughable!

Blessings from my kitchen to yours,
Leni

Pumpkin Chocolate Trifle

This is a recipe that does not fit into my plan of quick and easy, but it was worth the extra effort.

Seth turned 18 this past week. He wanted something pumpkiny, creamy and chocolately. Noelle piped up and said, "You should make a trifle!" So trifle it was. We are big trifle fans around here. It started years ago when friends from Ireland taught us how to make it. In those days, we were using cake and jello and fruit. Since then, we've expanded into many different flavors.

My favorite was the one  I made for my father-in-law many years ago. He loves lime, so I decided to make him a lime bundt cake for his birthday. I don't make those often, and soon remembered why. I can never get the things to come out of the pan without breaking! Sure enough, it broke, and I was left with lime bundt chunks. Appetizing.

So I did the only reasonable thing, and decided to turn it into a trifle! (I'm sure this is how trifle was born. Fixing cooking screw-ups.) I whipped up some vanilla pudding and whipped cream, and made a big bowl of trifle, with about an hour to spare before everyone arrived for the birthday dinner. As I was placing it in the fridge, breathing a sigh of relief, I knocked a can of biscuits into the top of it! Grrr! Took it out, patched it up again, and told my kids, "If anyone asks, this was the plan all along! And nothing fell into it!"

For today's recipe, I didn't have quite so many adventures, but it was a two-day process. I was creating this one from scratch, and getting all of the elements the way I wanted took a while. The results were just what I had hoped for, and everyone gave it a thumbs up. If I make it again, I would try it with a milk chocolate ganache, just to see if we like that flavor better.

The birthday boy was pleased with it, so I'm happy! (Said birthday boy just walked in and asked me if I'd make it again for Christmas. ;o)

Leni's Notes:

~If you don't have a trifle bowl, any clear dish will do. I've even used a large punch bowl when I was making trifle for a crowd. Part of the fun is seeing the layers.

~Most of my trifles are not so elaborate, and really do lend themselves to a quick throw-together. 

~Really is best to make this a two day process so you can let your cake cubes dry out a bit. Then they absorb the flavors better.

~I made the whole thing from scratch. You can shorten up the process a LOT with pudding mix, cake mix and jarred syrup. I don't guarantee it will be as good, but you can do it. ;o)

Simple Ingredient List:

Pumpkin Cake

Vanilla Pudding

Chocolate Ganache

Detailed Ingredient and Instruction List:

Cake

3 C flour

1 C whole wheat flour

2 C raw sugar

2 Tablespoons baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp each of salt, baking soda and fresh ground nutmeg

2 C pumpkin puree

1 C milk

4 eggs

2/3 C coconut or vegetable oil

Sift dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Add wet ingredients, combine, then mix on high for a couple of minutes. 

Pour batter into a greased 13 x 9 pan. (or larger, but cook for less time if it's a larger pan.)

Bake for 1 hour at 350, test to be sure it's baked through. 

Set aside to cool.

When cool, cut into squares and spread out on a cookie sheet to dry out a bit. 

(You'll have extras, so feel free to let the kids snack a bit!)

While cake is baking, you can get started on the pudding.

Pudding

1 C raw sugar

2/3 C flour

6 C whole milk

4 beaten eggs

2 Tablespoons butter

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Whisk together sugar and flour in a large pan.

Slowly whisk in milk until well combined, no lumps of flour left.

Turn pan on to medium, and stir until mixture begins to bubble and thicken.

I must admit, I am ridiculously impatient at this point, and always end up bumping up the heat to move things along. Unless you are right there watching every minute, DON'T DO IT! You will scorch your pudding and have a mess to clean up.

Remove the pudding from the heat, and ladle a cup or so into the beaten eggs, mixing continuously to temper the eggs. 

If you add the eggs directly to the mixture, you'll be sifting scrambled eggs out of your runny pudding. DON'T DO IT!

Take the egg/pudding mixture, and incorporate back into the pudding pan.

Place back on medium heat, and stir constantly just until it begins to bubble.

Turn the heat down a bit and cook for a couple minutes more, but do not let it boil. 

What happens if I let it boil? See note above about scrambled eggs.

Remove from heat, add butter and extract. 

When everything is melted in and stirred together, place saran wrap directly on the surface of the hot pudding and let cool without stirring. 

Refrigerate until ready to use.

Ganache (Make when you are ready to assemble the trifle)

13 oz. Semi-sweet chocolate (Spring for baker's chocolate and resist the urge to buy chocolate chips)

1 1/2 C heavy whipping cream (again, no substitutes)

Place the cream in a pan with a good heavy bottom. 

Turn burner on to low, stir occasionally. 

Chop up the chocolate and place in a glass bowl. (I feel that glass holds the heat better. Use what you have, but if you have glass, that's what I prefer.)

When cream is hot, pour over the chocolate and stir until everything is melted and evenly mixed. 

Trifle Assembly

This is where you can get artsy, or you can just throw the whole thing together and not worry about being fancy. Once it's on the plate, it's not too pretty anyways! ;o) I like to layer the sides so that you see all the ingredients in a beautiful pattern.

I did three layers, each starting with cake, then pudding, then ganache. You will end with ganache, and you can spread it right up to the rim of the dish, which seals it and eliminates the need for saran wrap, unless you're traveling with it. 

If you want to decorate the top for an occasion, it's best to wait until you get where you're going so it doesn't get smooshed. 

Blessings from my kitchen to yours,
Leni

Not Your Momma's Stew

This stew has morphed so many times over the years! This is the version we made last week, and it got a big thumbs-up and "I need another bowl of stew" reactions. Sometimes the best indicator of success is how much is leftover! 

This is a hearty, spicy meal, and sometimes more spicy than you intended. The recipe calls for Chili Powder. Well, my sweet husband, always on the lookout for interesting new ingredients to have me play with, brought me chili powder from an Indian market. Let me tell you, it was NOT the same thing! It was pure ground chili peppers, and I didn't notice til later that they were marked "extra hot." Of course, I would use this powder when we were having guests. Thankfully, Uncle Dave loves a good spicy dish. But his poor daughter in law was nursing a baby, and I could not feed her that! And this is why we keep chicken strips in the freezer... Good thing hospitality is not all about food, huh? 

Leni's Tips: 

~If you use plain old store-bought chili powder, this will have a mild warmth to it. If you use extra hot Indian chili powder, use about 1/4 teaspoon! 

~If you don't like chunks of meat, cook this without the veggies, then put your blender right in the soup, and the meat will shred. Then add your veggies and let those cook.

~This is wonderful with a nice crusty bread or over rice.

~Also great with some beans thrown in. Great Northerns or Garbanzos would be my choice.

~This recipe filled an 8 Quart crock.

Ingredients:
4 1/2 pounds stew beef
6 large potatoes, washed and cubed
3 large carrots, coined
2 large stalks celery, chopped
1/4 C dry onion
48 ounces beef broth (I prefer Rachael Ray Beef Stock) 
5 cloves garlic, minced
5 Tablespoons chili powder
3 teaspoons ground cumin
5 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 Tablespoons dried oregano
1 Tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Garnish:
Sour Cream
Lime wedges or lime juice

Dump everything but the garnish into the crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.

Serve with a squeeze of lime and a dollop of sour cream.

Accidental Chicken Soup

Some of the best recipes are a product of total accidents. This recipe is one of those. I started out the day throwing a bunch of ingredients in the crock pot so we'd have something to eat for dinner. That evening when I got home from work, I was trying to decide if I should make chicken soup or chicken pot pie. I decided on soup, and added the noodles, and then without thinking about it, went right over to the stove and started making the roux for pot pie!

When my brain caught up and I realized what I had done, I decided to throw it all together and make a creamy chicken noodle soup. I hate wasted effort almost as much as I hate wasted ingredients. The results were wonderful, and per my future son-in-law's request, I wrote everything down so I could make it exactly the same way the next time. ;o)

Leni's Notes:

~I like to use real ingredients that are as unprocessed as possible. That said, I don't like to reinvent the wheel, so wherever I can take short cuts without sacrificing quality, I do. These might be dried veggies or herbs, frozen chopped produce or pre-made (without nasties added) base ingredients. Wherever I use a specific brand, it's noted.

~If you leave the noodles out and lessen the broth, this would make wonderful pot pie filling.

~To make ahead for the freezer, I recommend leaving the potato out and adding it when you are warming it to serve. Potatoes tend to get mushy and grainy when frozen if they don't have special preparation.

Accidental Chicken Soup

3 chicken breasts, can be added still frozen (I prefer brining mine first)
1 lb frozen peas
2 cups sliced carrots
1 large potato, diced into small cubes
1/4 C dry onions
1 clove minced garlic (from a jar)
salt and pepper to taste (if you brine your chicken, reduce salt)
2 quarts chicken broth (Better than Bouillon or Rachael Ray stock)
1 package of whole wheat egg noodles
Roux (recipe below)

Place everything but egg noodles and roux into crock.

Cook on low for 6 hours, high for 3-4 hours.

Remove chicken, set aside. Chop when cool enough to handle.
Remove 2 cups of the broth and set aside for roux.
Add 1 package of whole wheat egg noodles to the crock, stir to cover with broth and replace cover.

Roux
1/2 C Butter
1/2 C Flour
1/4 - 1/2 C half and half
1 Tbsp bouillon concentrate (Better than Bouillon is my favorite)
2 C reserved broth from crock

Melt butter and bouillon, slowly incorporate flour until smooth. Cook, stirring constantly for about one minute.
While whisking, drizzle in half and half. Continue whisking while slowly adding broth. Continue to whisk til smooth, then remove from heat.
Add roux and chopped chicken back into the crock. Noodles should be tender by this point. Mix thoroughly.

Serve with biscuits.