Thanksgiving Menu.....

OK, this year we are not, going to do the traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  Maybe I'm getting lazy in my old age, but I just didn't want to work so hard this year, just want to send more time in the living room with the family and less time in the kitchen.  So here's the menu....keeping my fingers crossed for good weather, so we don't have to grill in the garage....LOL.

Cranberry Salsa with Tostada Chips

(recipe below)

Tossed Green Salad

Choice of dressings: Ranch, Thousand Island, Blue Cheese

Steak 

horseradish sauce/sauteed portabela mushrooms and onions

Baked Potato

(and I do mean baked not microwaved)

Butter, Sour Cream, Cheese, Chives, Bacon

Green Bean Casserole Au Gratin 

(recipe below)

Legendary Lion House Rolls

(Recipe)

For Dessert choice of:

My Apple Pie, Key Lime Pie, and French Silk Chocolate Pie

French Silk Chocolate Pie, My Apple Pie and Key Lime Pie

Recipes: Chocolate, Apple, Lime below

(I may make some chocolate cupcakes for the grandgirls they're not much on pie)

Cranberry Salsa

 1 bag Cranberries chopped

1/2 small onion chopped

1 jalapeno chopped

1/3-1/2 Serrano pepper optional

1/2 bunch cilantro chopped

1 C sugar          1/2 C Splenda works well too

Dash of salt

Juice of 1 lime

Process first 5 ingredients, stir in remaining ingredients.  Chill several hour or over night.  Serve with chips

Would taste great thinly spread on a turkey Panini .

I rediscovered how good a real baked potato tasted maybe a year ago.  I was trying to duplicate the baked potatoes at OutBack Steak House and came up with this, technique:

Wash/scrub your potatoes well

dry them off

Stab each in several places 

Drizzle with olive oil, and rub each to coat

sprinkle with sea salt or kosher salt

Bake at 400 deg for about a hour (depending on their size) or until fork tender

And of course serve piping hot, and top with you favorite toppings.

And I'll just bet you won't believe where I found this recipe...Tasty Kitchen, of course.   It really sounds good.

Green Bean Casserole Au Gratin

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 2 Tablespoons Flour
• ⅛ teaspoons Dry Mustard
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• ¼ teaspoons Black Pepper
• ¾ cups Milk
• ⅓ cups Shredded Colby Or Jack Cheese
• 2 cups Frozen Or Fresh Green Beans, Cooked And Drained
• ¼ cups Butter Flavored Croutons, Crushed
• 2 slices Bacon, Cooked Crisp, Crumbled
• ½ teaspoons Paprika

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Melt butter in pan; add flour, mustard, salt and pepper, stirring constantly until it has a creamy bubbly consistency. Pour in milk and cook, stirring constantly until you have a nice thick white sauce. Add cheese, blend well and remove from heat.

Put green beans in a casserole dish sprayed with cooking spray. Pour the cheese mixture over the green beans and stir to coat the green beans well. Sprinkle the crushed croutons over the green beans. Spread the crumbled bacon over the top and sprinkle the paprika evenly over the top.

Bake for 30 minutes uncovered.

Now for the Key Lime Pie recipe, I found (don't remember where, but I'm pretty sure it was on the internet somewhere) and made recipe #1 for the first time a few weeks ago and it was so good, but I have another recipe I want to try, so I'm not sure right now which I am going to do.  I let you know...

Key Lime Pie  (2)

#1.   Ingredients  (5 stars, yes it was that good)

          For the crust:

• 1-¼ cup Graham Cracker Crumbs
• 3 Tablespoons Sugar
• ⅓ cups Butter

  For the filling: 

• 1 Tablespoon To 2 Tablespoons Of Grated Lime Zest (optional)
• 2 cans Sweetened, Condensed Milk, 14 Ounce Cans

• ½ cups Sour Cream

• ¾ cups Key Lime Juice

• Optional Garnishes: Whipped Cream And Lime Rounds

Preparation Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Make the crust by combining the graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Then melt the butter in the microwave and mix it together with the crumbs.

3. Press the grainy crust mixture against the bottom and up the sides of a pie dish.

4. Grate the skin of a lime until you have 1 – 2 tablespoons of zest (depending on how “limey” you like it!). I didn't use any and didn't miss it at all.

5. In a medium bowl, combine condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice, and lime zest.

6. Mix well and pour into the graham cracker crust.

7. Bake in preheated oven for about 8 minutes, until tiny pinhole bubbles burst on the surface of pie. Do not overcook or get even close to brown! If you don’t get these pinhole bubbles, that’s OK just make sure to still pull out the pie in under 10 minutes or it will burn!

8. Chill pie thoroughly before serving.

9. Garnish with whipped cream and lime rounds, or however desired!

#2.  Ingredients

     For the Crust:

• 1-¼ cup Graham Cracker Crumbs

• ⅓ cups Sweetened Coconut

• 2-½ Tablespoons Sugar

• 6 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, melted

      For the filling:

• 1 can (14 Oz) Sweetened Condensed Milk

• 4 whole Large Egg Yolks, At Room Temperature
• ½ cups Fresh Key Lime Juice (or Bottled, If You Prefer)

             For the topping:

• 1 cup Heavy Cream

• 1 teaspoon Plain Gelatin

• 1 Tablespoon Cold Water

• 2 Tablespoons Confectioner's Sugar

• ½ teaspoons Vanilla

Preparation Instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together graham cracker crumbs, coconut, sugar and butter with a fork in a medium sized bowl. Press mixture evenly into a 9-inch glass pie pan (not deep dish). Make sure the mixture covers the bottom and sides of the pan. Bake on a rack in the middle of the oven for 8-10 minutes (mine took 8 minutes). Remove to a wire rack and cool.

Mix together sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks with a whisk until combined. Add in lime juice and whisk again until thoroughly combined. Pour filling mixture into cooled crust. Bake on a rack in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes. Cool pie on a wire rack and then chill for at least 6-8 hours or overnight.

About an hour before serving the pie, put heavy cream in a large bowl. Place gelatin and water in a small dish in the microwave. Heat 5-10 seconds or just until gelatin is melted. Add this mixture to the heavy cream and whip just until combined. Refrigerate this mixture for about an hour.

When ready to serve, whip the heavy cream mixture with confectioner’s sugar and vanilla until stiff. Place into a pastry bag and pipe onto pie as desired.

Pictures and reviews to follow on Black Friday...Mari Ann and Shawn have to work Thanksgiving....

Wishing all of you

 a wonderful and prayerful 

Thanksgiving!

How long has it been???

I can't even remember the last time I made a Chocolate Meringue Pie...When the kids where little, maybe.  Mari Ann said she thought she remember eating them as a child.  I know my mother made them for all the special occasions and holidays.  I do remember how my meringues always shrank around the edges.  It never effected the taste, but it was always so frustrating, the pie would look picture perfect then, the next time you saw it, it looked like the meringue was two sizes to small.  And the little Gold beads would just seem to come out of nowhere sometimes, never did figure that out either.  But anyway I found this recipe from Tasty Kitchen that reminded me of that awesome pie and I just had to try it.
Chocolate Meringue Pie
Ingredients

• FOR THE PIE:
• 1 whole 9" Pie Crust
• 1-½ cup Sugar
• 3-½ Tablespoons All-purpose Flour
• 4-½ Tablespoons Cocoa Powder
• 1 pinch Salt
• 5  Eggs, Separated
• 1-½ cup Whole Milk
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• FOR THE MERINGUE:
• 1 pinch Cream Of Tartar
• 3 Tablespoons Marshmallow Creme

Preparation Instructions

For the pie:

Bake the pie shell according to the package instructions or make your own crust and bake according to the recipe. When done, set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, combine sugar, flour, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl or in the top half of a double boiler.

Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. Set egg whites aside in a bowl for the meringue. Combine half of the milk and the egg yolks in a bowl and whisk until completely incorporated. Pour egg and milk mixture through a strainer into the dry mixture. Then pour the other half of the milk through the strainer into the mixture and stir the wet and dry ingredients together until combined.

Cook the mixture in a double boiler over medium-low heat. Start out stirring with a whisk to make sure all of the ingredients incorporate, but then switch to a spoon and stir the mixture constantly until the mixture begins to thicken. Add butter and vanilla. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pot gently so thickened parts don’t stick to the bottom of the pot and burn. The mixture is adequately thickened when you can see the bottom of the pot for a few seconds in the wake of your spoon when you scrape it against the pot. Then remove it from heat and let mixture cool slightly. Then pour it into the baked pie shell. Let pie cool completely before preparing meringue.

Help me, I'm shrinking, I'm shrinking...

For the meringue:
Preheat oven to 400 F. Beat the reserved egg whites with a pinch of cream of tartar, using a mixer on high until they form peaks. Then, add marshmallow cream 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing after each addition.

Spoon meringue onto the pie and smooth it with a spatula. Bake pie in a 400 F oven, just for a few minutes until the meringue peaks start to brown.

Sunday Cookin'

Good Sunday morning everyone! On the menu for today is a Crock Pot Stroganoff, (a combination of several recipes), noodles or mashed potatoes (I'm leaning toward the potatoes) some kind of veggie, not sure what yet and Black and White Cupcakes.

Pat's Crock Pot Stroganoff

1 lb Stew meat cubed/bite size pieces

2  t  ketchup or tomato paste
1 t  mustard -- dry or wet
1/2 C  beef broth (actually a 1/2 c total of broth/wine/water is probably plenty)
1/2  C  red wine or water or more broth
1 T cornstarch
1 cube beef bouillon
salt and Pepper
1  lb  mushrooms sliced

2  medium  onion -- sliced
1  C  sour cream

• Set crock pot on high, add meat, catsup, mustard and beef bouillon cube.  mix broth, wine/water and cornstarch together stir together and add to crock pot, mix well.  Cook on high about 2 hours. 
• Turn crackpot down to low, add sliced onions, cook for another hour,  Add sliced mushrooms Cook low, till time to eat.
• Turn off heat stir in sour cream serve immediately over noodles, mashed potatoes or rice.

I made the cupcakes cause I had 2 half boxes of cake mix, one white and one
chocolate. I used the Cream Cheese Frosting below that I got from the Tasty Kitchen web site. I did make a couple of small changes though, I added a dash of salt, creamed the cheese and the butter well added the vanilla whipped it a little more, then I added the powdered sugar a little at a time, first on low speed, then gradually increasing the speed as the sugar became blended. When it reach my desired consistency I removed about 1/2 (perhaps a little less than half cause my family is really into chocolate), set it aside. Then I added 3 heaping tablespoons of cocoa powder mixed it into the remaining frosting. Then I frosted the cooled cupcakes. 

Sara likes my cupcakes....

Sara told me that she sits at a table in the cafeteria with 3 little boys. She said they get so jealous when she opens her lunch kit and it has one of my cupcakes in it. She said they "just drool with jealousy they want a bite so bad", but in the second grade they don't allow them to share or trade their lunches. I don't think Sara wants to share anyway and I love helping her torment the little boys....

Allison and the long arm of the law...aka Daddy

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

• 8 ounces, weight Cream Cheese, softened
• ½ cups Butter, Softened
• dash Salt
• 1-½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 3-½ cups Sifted Powdered Sugar (or More Depending On Desired Consistency)

• See Variations Below For Chocolate OR Flavored Cream Cheese Frosting

Preparation Instructions

1. Cream together cream cheese, vanilla and butter until fluffy.
2. Sift or whisk powdered sugar to aerate it.
3. Stir powdered sugar into cream cheese mixture, 1 cup at a time, until well blended.
4. Makes enough to generously frost a 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan, 24 cupcakes, or an 8-inch layer cake.

Notes:
- This makes a medium consistency frosting.
- For a stiff decorator frosting: add more powdered sugar, ½ cup at a time, until desired consistency.
- For a thinner consistency to fill cupcakes or sandwich cookies, add about ½ cup less powdered sugar.
- For chocolate cream cheese frosting: sift ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder to the powdered sugar before adding it to the cream cheese mixture.
- For flavored cream cheese frosting: Substitute the flavored extract of your choice. Maple, lemon, or orange are wonderful.

Another now they tell me...

Chocolate: eat it to be thinner?

Posted: Mar 27, 2012 5:10 PM CDT

Updated: Mar 27, 2012 5:10 PM CDT

Posted by Stephanie Frazier - email

Chocoholics rejoice: a new study says you can have your chocolate and be thin, too.

Researchers at the University of California in San Diego found those who ate chocolate on a regular basis had a lower body mass index.

The lower BMI group did not eat fewer calories or exercise more than their heavier counterparts.

It seems chocolate's properties to increase your metabolism may offset the calories consumed.

Despite the sweet news, the head researcher warns that that does not mean you can eat unbounded amounts of chocolate.

OK so where's the rest of the story, how much do you eat to obtain a "lower BMI".  This is just plain mean to publish this and not give the details!!!