Can you taste the succulent turkey coming your way? How about the tang of the cranberry sauce or the savory flavors of the stuffing? Then, and this is my favorite part, are your eyes growing wider with anticipation with the thought of pumpkin pie being served with a dollop of whipped cream? I’m so ready for Thanksgiving Thursday.
Sure, our second wedding anniversary falls on Wednesday and is important too but there isn’t a treasured meal associated with this occasion. Well, mine doesn’t have one. I don’t even know what we’re doing besides prepping for the arrival of my family from Indiana to our cold, blustery Minnesota town. They are taking us out for our anniversary Friday and I’m still not really sure where to go because I’m that focused on the delicious Thanksgiving dinner.
Before that day, I wanted to share a twist on the classic pumpkin pie with this recipe for a very tasty and easy apple butter pumpkin pie. Last year’s pumpkin pie contained a streusel topping and was the best I’d had in memory. I’m doing that one again this year. But this one almost changed my mind.
I made my own apple butter in my slow cooker days before without any intention to make this pie. Purely kismet. The apple butter recipe is below but you don’t have to make your own or make it in a slow cooker. Here’s an apple butter recipe for the stovetop from Carolina B. through Heidi at 101 Cookbooks. Use your trusted pie crust recipe (which could be store-bought).
Just to let you know, I will not be posting for about a week and things are not working on my website as they should (you can probably see some of those things) since updating…all issues to work on over a break. Greg and I wish you a happy Thanksgiving and restful time off! To anyone shopping on Black Friday, be careful and do tell me about your finds. I love a good deal.
Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie
Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie from Paula Deen
Serves 8
Print Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup apple butter (slow cooker recipe below)
1 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin puree
1/2cup brown sugar
½ tsp salt
¾ tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground ginger
3 eggs, slightly beaten
¾ cup evaporated milk
9-inch unbaked pie crust
whipped cream to top
Preheat the oven to 425F.
Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well and pour into the unbaked pie crust. Bake about 40 minutes or until the center still jiggles a bit. The pie will continue to cook outside of the oven. Allow to cool and set for about an hour. Check the oven a few times to make sure the crust isn’t burning during baking. If it is, top the crust with aluminum foil. Serve with whipped cream.
Slow Cooker Apple Butter
Makes about 4 cups
Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup honey
¼ cup apple cider
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground ginger
10 medium apples of your choice, peeled, cored and cut into chunks (about 2 ½ lbs.)-a variety of apples makes a more complex flavor
Combine all of the ingredients in your slow cooker and cover on low. Cook for 4 to 6 hours or until apples are very tender. Pulse with a food processor, hand blender or mash by hand. I skipped placing it through a fine mesh sieve because I think it’s a waste of apple. Add the mixture back to the slow cooker for another hour on low so that it thickens and melds into a beautiful, thick sauce. Place in jars and refrigerate for up to a week. Serve with toast, pork chops, over ice cream, spread on muffins and…you get the idea. This makes a lovely gift.
I think I have this Thanksgiving thing down. One week, people. One. Commence screaming and fighting over ingredients at the grocery store while the store plays Christmas songs (it’s the most wonderful time of the year…sing it, Andy Williams).
Greg’s company gave us the turkey again this year. I’ve made final calls on sides and desserts, finalized the schedule for cooking and my family will be on their way in less than a week (!) with plans to stay at the historic Archer House down the street.
This holiday will be easygoing. I’m going the classic route. Homemade and most of the dishes were tested ahead of time- hopefully helping the easygoing factor. Nothing diet-friendly or low calorie. I’ve been working out and eating low calorie, nutritious dishes like a mad woman recently to get a jump on the smorgasbord season. Anyway, like I said in a previous post, if we end up having pizza, I’ll still have a good time.
Hasselback Potatoes
The meal consists of brined turkey with a mix of herbs, Hasselback potatoes, dinner rolls, green bean casserole, gravy, cranberry sauce, classic stuffing with sage and two versions of pumpkin pie for the five of us. (We really like pumpkin pie.) If you know me, you know that I have wine sitting around in boxes because we don’t have room for a chiller or cellar. A few were held back for the holiday season. A fragrant, somewhat sweet blackberry from Oliver Winery being one of the saved drinks from our Indiana trip for Thanksgiving Day sipping. Delicious.
The day before (also our 2nd wedding anniversary), I will be prepping almost half of these dishes and Greg is taking over the turkey responsibilities. He took the day off to simultaneously help me, celebrate our anniversary and welcome the family.
My alarm clock will be going off rather early Thursday so we end up eating sooner than last year…our ungrateful guest pestered me about when we’ll “finally get to eat” while he plopped his bottom on the couch and played video games most of the day. I, in between managing all of the dishes, handed him a bag of chips. Believe me, I fought my instinct to hand him his luggage and a plane ticket. It was 4PM last year when I single-handedly set the table, took some photos and served the three of us.
I bought new white dishes from Ikea and made my own simple centerpiece, a wreath that will encircle a candle. Wait a second, I MADE MY OWN WREATH…I don’t do that. I’m not crafty. Oh, but I did with gingko leaves which I began to trample all over while on a walk on the arboretum trails before birthing this craft idea. The Martha Stewart in me stopped, smiled and a mind wreath was born. No, the Martha in me didn’t begin to yell at Greg or belittle his ideas. (You do that sometimes, Martha.)
My wreath on the part of my dark table not ruined
I love the look of the gingko leaf so I stuffed handfuls in my pockets and asked Greg to do the same. He barely put up a fight because he knows I’m weird like that. He likes it.
The only issue I have is with my table. It has a dark espresso finish that I managed to ruin (again) a few weeks ago by ironing a shirt on top of a towel. My table now has a cloudy finish from the steam. I’ve done this before and put a coating of some kind of wax that rid of the cloudiness but I can’t find it and all the other tactics to remove the marks haven’t worked. I’ve stared at the scars, crinkling my nose with aggravation. C’est la vie.
I can’t get enough pumpkin right now, specifically pumpkin desserts. Mentioned above is the fact that I’ve been watching my calories so to appease my sweet tooth I made this pudding from Cooking Light. It’s basically the flavor of pie without the crust and if you omit the whipped cream, it’s less than 200 calories a serving. Even with the whipped topping, it’s less than 300 calories. My suggestion, if you aren’t watching your diet, is to make bourbon whipped cream. Leave it to me to booze it up. I’ll give you that recipe too.
Pumpkin Pie Pudding with Bourbon Whipped Cream
Pumpkin Pie Pudding with Bourbon Whipped Cream
Serves 4
Print Recipe
Ingredients:
6 tbsp sugar, divided
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 ¾ cup 1% milk
1 egg
½ cup unsweetened pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
Place the sugar and cornstarch in a large saucepan over medium heat. Combine the milk and egg in a bowl, whisking well. Add the milk mixture slowly to the sugar mixture, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil. Cook, stirring constantly, for a minute and then remove from the heat.
In another bowl, combine the pumpkin, vanilla extract, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. Stir well. Slowly add the pumpkin mixture to the milk mixture, whisking nonstop. Place the saucepan over low heat and cook for 3 minutes or until thickened to pudding consistency, again stirring constantly. Do not boil. Make sure the pudding doesn’t burn on the bottom at this point. Remove from the heat and place in 4 serving dishes. Cover the surface with plastic wrap and chill. When chilled and ready to serve, top with the bourbon whipped cream (recipe below) or plain whipped cream, perhaps some toasted walnuts or pecans too.
Bourbon Whipped Cream adapted from Food & Wine
Makes 1 cups
Ingredients:
1/2 cup heavy cream, chilled
1/2 tbsp bourbon
1/4 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
In an electric mixer, beat all of the ingredients until softly whipped into peaks.
And now we’re back to that time of year. Snow time. It caught me off guard this weekend. I’m completely unprepared for snow and cold. Sure there were meteorologists calling for the 4-letter “s” word in their forecast but I ignored it. Instead, I woke up from my slumber Saturday morning to inches of the stuff, snowplows beeping, shovels and scrapers making their all too familiar sound on windshields and sidewalks. My reaction was first shock-no words but mouth wide open followed by painful screams while my husband, who apparently woke up earlier for some water and saw the awaiting surprise below, was laughing. He lives for moments like that.
If you give me a chance to see the snow gently falling (or not so gently), I have that moment where it’s beautiful and I can settle into the idea that it’s time for snow in Minnesota. I won’t be pleased but definitely better able to cope.
One of my favorite bites...
That missed me this year and I find myself frustrated. Our plans to travel miles and miles for fun errands over the weekend were nearly foiled but we waited and the warm ground and rising temps made the roads just dandy to drive. However the situation became worse in the afternoon. While in Trader Joes, we stood gaping in horror after turning the aisle, facing the large front window, to see heavy, wet flakes falling at a worrisome level. Being an hour away (in decent weather) from our apartment, we skipped the remaining plans and tried to get home. Not a problem for us but others were in ditches and medians on the main roads.
Quick question: is it the norm for mailboxes to be plowed over in Minnesota? I noticed that at least 6 were hit on the back roads. That would add insult to injury for me.
Once home, we made the Indian dishes purchased at Trader Joes and sat in for a nice night in front of the TV with our Netflix lineup. The next morning, we found out that 12 inches of snow wreaked havoc north of our town and caused a blackout in some neighborhoods in Minneapolis and the metro area. A significant amount of accidents were reported and it was declared that that amount of snow was the most had on the first day of accumulation in quite some time.
I felt grateful for having made it to a few places with my husband and arriving home safely….but now I’m forced to make peace with the fact that 6 more months of this is bound for this state. Hibernation mode is upon me.
...another of my favorite bites
Being officially pre-approved for a mortgage and ready to house hunt, my skeptical self can’t help but make my inner dialogue louder. It continues to spout off about this seeming a cruel trick of fate that I, snow/ice-hating-take-me-to-a-place-where-snow-is-rare me, end up in Minnesota. Before moving I was fully aware of winter and winter-like weather; Indiana (my home state) is not empty of bad winters but has less wind and warmer temps during the cold season than Minnesota. Negative 20 to 30, anyone?
But yes, I despise the frigid cold, walking like a penguin on the ice, restraining apparel and limited travel that come with the winter Minnesota territory. I raise my arms in defeat to think that I am house hunting in this weather in a state sure to show me worse conditions very soon. Doh. What was I thinking when I agreed to stay here another 4 or so years?
I need to make this side dish as my lunch again. Now that was a good day and a recipe capable of postponing my beginning stages of seasonal affective disorder.
When the blues hit, I turn to fennel. Odd statement? Absolutely. When roasted, normally ignored fennel turns into a sweet, caramelized veg. Mixed with a handful of other vegetables and once again, they catch your attention because they too have caramelized into an amalgamation of grand fragrance and delectable taste. (A touch of grated cheese helps too.)
Roasted Fennel and Vegetable Medley with Herbs, Garlic and Pecorino Cheese
Serves 4 to 6 as a side
Print Recipe
Ingredients:
3 tbsp olive oil
3 fennel bulbs, cored and thinly sliced (reserve a few fronds)
3 large carrots, peeled and cut diagonally or coarsely chopped into thick slices
½ head of cauliflower, cut into small florets
5 cloves of garlic, left in the skin for roasting
2 to 3 sprigs fresh thyme or rosemary or 2 tsp dried rosemary, thyme or herbes de Provence
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup grated Pecorino cheese
*Feel free to add more vegetables like broccoli, onion, peppers, squash and celery, just increase the amount of herbs and olive oil accordingly.
Preheat the oven to 375F. Pour the oil in a large baking dish and add the vegetables, garlic, herbs, salt and pepper. Toss well to coat and spread, as best you can, in a single layer in the baking dish. Top with the grated cheese and reserved fronds. Roast for about an hour or until tender and the top is golden brown. Serve immediately.
For this ‘fond of” Friday, I would like to point out a newer website, Tasteologie, posting inspirational food and food related content (similar to Tastespotting and Foodgawker but with its own spin). It’s my current obsession and I thank them wholeheartedly for being so kind and supportive of some of my submissions. Love this site (and their connected NOTCOT design sites)! Please check them out.
My nephew Nolan is 3 months old today. Whoa, slow down, Papa Time. He’s all smiles, a little charmer and has extremely long lashes like his parents. I miss him (and the fam), think about them every day. I’d do anything for a smile from that little guy. My stalker tendencies have come out and I gaze at Nolan’s pictures throughout the day. Can you blame me?
Nolan pictures courtesy of my sister and family
Happy weekend! By the way, we found a house that could possibly fit the bill (needs a ton of work but minor things) that I spoke about last week. Our weekend is focused on house hunting, comparing banks and a little trip to Red Wing (Minnesota) for some shopping and dining along the Mississippi River. Cheers!
*Update: That house is cash only and has no plumbing or electrical….which would’ve been nice to know in the beginning. Another house fail. Bummer.
