Tag Archives: Dessert

A turkey trot down memory lane

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I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving – I know we’re almost a week out now…

… but Thanksgiving is easily my favorite holiday…and no, as much as I love food – it’s not about the food. I know I’ve talked about it before – Thanksgiving is pretty much the only holiday that isn’t about the “gimmes” (aside from – hey, gimme some cheese, please) – it’s just about hanging out with your family and eating a killer meal.  

 The fact that Thanksgiving gets trampled by Christmas commercials (I think I said “NO!” out loud at the first Christmas-themed ad I saw in November) or Black Friday madness is just kinda sad to me.

 Okay, off my soap box.

 This year, everyone in my family seemed extra pumped for the time off and for our time together – it’s way too rare. Plans were being tossed around weeks in advance…

  • Charcoal Weber roasted turkey! – yes!
  • Copious amounts of beer? – yes!
  • Hanging out at the local bar (in addition to the beer in the fridge, of course)? – yes!
  • Our first annual croquet tourney? – yes… I’ll probably suck…but yes!
  • Bond…James Bond…marathons on SyFy? – yes!
  • Football game after football game? – yes!
  • Getting the entire family together to see Skyfall? – yes!

 I knew I wanted to make something…but it had to be able to survive a 6-8 hour car ride. So I searched and searched…and finally settled on Jenna’s Walnut Potato Rolls with Honey Butter.

 Had I ever made bread from scratch before? No. Did working with yeast scare the crap out of me? Yes. But what’s the worst that could happen…they’re awful? I’m in.

I started the process on Tuesday night (I’m glad I did…our house gets cold so it took extra time for the dough to rise)…and finished it on Wednesday morning. Was it worth it? Yep.

Our apartment smelled soo, soo good Wednesday morning as I worked from home.

 Eventually, my mom, brother and I piled in the car, and headed to upstate NY… the car ride, which normally takes 6 hours, took 8…but it was so worth it.

For Turkey Day, my cousin roasted the turkey – with this awesome rub he brought from North Carolina – on the Weber…and it was amazing. We spend the day outside – it was sixty degrees! – enjoying the sunshine.

On top of the turkey, we had just about every side dish under the sun. No shame.

Over the course of just couple days, we ticked off everything on our “to-do” list…including some random adventures…like a round of golf and some wine and vodka tasting.

Oh, the trip also included some quality bonding time…

Did I overindulge on Thanksgiving? Definitely. Do I regret it? Not one bit.

What’d you do for Thanksgiving? Do you run a race? Travel? Stay put? Any special dishes that you bring?

Fake ‘n Bake

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Aaaand, I’m back [again].

Bring on the pumpkin.

I know, I know.

The blog world has been inundated with pumpkin recipes as of late.

…but I’m still adding one more to it. :)

Tis the season, right?

This past weekend was probably the perfect example of New England in the fall.

It was cool – but not cold. Most of the leaves had turned their autumn shades of gold, red and yellow – and there was a persistant breeze that swirled the fallen leaves all over the yard.

Oh, and it brought down a tree at 11:45 at night…fun.

I digress…

Needless to say, I was inspired to break out the mix(er) and make something pumpkin-y.

In came a lovely little mix that has been residing in my pantry for far too long:

Now – I know I’ve discussed this in the past…I love from-scratch baking…but I have absolutely nothing against a good mix. People don’t necessarily enjoy something more just because you slaved over a million and one ingredients, and spent an entire day in the kitchen (no matter how much you enjoy it).

Plus, like I was saying to Meg from A Dash of Meg on Twitter…a mix just shortens the time between whipping it together and being able to shove it into my face. :)

Pumpkin puree and eggs were added to the mix – and I added walnuts and dark chocolate chips. Dark Chocolate & Pumpkin are inseparable in my kitchen.

While this mix is actually a cake mix – I baked it like I would a banana bread…and it came out deeelicious. The ends were chewy and the bread itself was really moist and studded with all of those walnuts and chocolate chips.

Dessert bread perfection.

  • What are some of your favorite fake-outs and mixes??

High Turnover

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Ahh – turnovers.

They are one dessert that really brings back memories of my grandmother and summers at the beach.

She would always show up to every family gathering with a huuge box, filled with delicious raspberry turnovers.

I remember peeking at them before dinner just to see how many she’d brought…to see how quickly I’d have to act to secure one for myself. …seriously, you had to have a gameplan..those things would be gone in seconds!

The other day I was suddenly hit with the desire to make some of those beauties…perhaps as a way to cling on to the last days of summer…or maybe to celebrate the fact that I can heat my oven to 400 degrees without fear of turning my house into a sauna.

Either way, I decided to make some apple-raspberry turnovers – a perfect combo of berries (in jam form) and tart apples. Mmm, mmm good.

All you need? A granny smith apple – diced, 2 Tbsp of raspberry jam, a little bit of lemon zest (my addition, optional)…and voila you have a pretty stellar turnover filling. I forgot to add the cornstarch…the filling was fine without it. Tuck the filling into 6 squares of rolled out puff pastry and you’ll be in heaven.

Seriously…so good.

400 degrees and twenty minutes later…

Perfection.

They’re light, fluffy, buttery, crispy, sweet and tart simultaneously.

Breakfast tomorrow?

Probably.

Bananas & Lady Bugs

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Today was all about the banana. I’ve had banana bread on my mind for a while now – so today, I set out to make banana bread muffins. Jenna’s post early in the morning only inspired me further.

I broke out my mom’s recipe (I think from her grandmother)…

Can you tell this one has been around for a while? hah

And some perfectly freckled bananas:

And got to mixing! Seeecret family recipe  (it’s probably a fairly standard BB recipe) – This one is pretty similar…I feel lame for not posting the recipe, but mi madre is protective of ‘em and I respect that.

I decided to mix some chopped up Endangered Species Dark Hazelnut Toffee Chocolate into the second half of the mix.

After 20 minutes in the oven, they were puffed up and golden…and just asking to be eaten.

I ventured outside to try and get some great lighting…and a little friend found me.

Landed right on my shoulder/back...she was ready for her closeup.

Lady bugs love banana bread, too! 

Well, the muffins were great. Score one for the lucky lady bug.

Here’s to hoping some of that luck rubs off with other endeavors in my life. :)