Thanksgiving in DC

Thanksgiving is usually not my thing. I don't really like turkey, green bean casserole should be banned, and cranberries rate pretty low on my fruits I like list. In fact they're not even on the list. The only part of Thanksgiving I've ever really liked is Lauren's sweet potato souffle. In fact, that was my plan for today. Make sweet potato souffle and eat it while watching whatever was on TV. The arrival of my friend Eva, who needed a place to stay until the Spanish Government gets around to giving her a student visa, meant that it wasn't just me anymore. I've never been happier to have my plans change.

The beginnings of herb butter

Since it was just the two of us (and neither of us like turkey all that much) we decided to make Cornish game hens instead. And while that solved one problem it also brought up another-who was going to touch the hens. We're both ok handling raw meat but the minute you throw in skin...ew. It's just gross.

Um, ew.

I was so happy to discover that the inside bits had been put in a bag. We were really worried that we'd have to fish them out ourselves. To be fair we decided each one of us would do our own hen so we could spread around the fun of touching the ickiness.

Trying to loosen the skin

Several hours before starting we mixed the herb butter to let the flavors meld together. We chopped fresh sage, rosemary, thyme, and garlic and mixed them together with butter. That was the easy part. Then we had to rinse and dry off the hens to flavor them. We both managed to loosen the skin over the breasts enough to slip some butter between skin and meat and then we massaged the hens, completely covering them with herb butter, inside and out, before sprinkling them with salt and pepper.

Eva shoving butter under the skins

It took us forever to figure out if we were supposed to cook them breast up or down. The packing on the hens just said cook for an hour and I almost resorted to calling my mom before Eva's Googling suggested we cook them breast down but turn them occasionally.

It was gross but we managed

After those went into the oven Eva began putting together her chestnut stuffing. We both did some prep work yesterday which for Eva included covering most of the flat surfaces in my kitchen with cubed bread pieces.

Drying out bread 

I also helped her shell chestnuts. I have never before shelled chestnuts and can pretty confidently say that I'm not ever doing that again. There's a blister on my left thumb from doing it! Eva also did all the necessary chopping and sauteing yesterday so today all she had to do was combine everything.

The stock pot was the only pot big enough

The stuffing went in the oven in two batches because her crazy recipe was enough to feed a good two dozen people. While the stuffing was in I started Lauren's sweet potato souffle.

Once again using ingredients off the list

It's amazing that a recipe this simple is so darn good. The original recipe (below) makes a 9x13 pan full but with just two of us, and me leaving tomorrow for a week, it didn't make sense to make so much. I did make a full recipe of the topping though!

I love having a camera person!

We did really pretty well on timing and getting everything into the oven in the correct order. Even after 12 or so years away from my parents I'm still a little flabbergasted as to how people cook with just one oven. Growing up we always had two. And two refrigerators and two deep freezers. One of the deep freezers is dedicated to meat. It's a beautiful thing even if most of the meat is venison.

There was a lot of chopping

In lieu of pumpkin pie I made ice cream for dessert. It was supposed to be a sweet potato ice cream, but I underestimated how many cups of pureed sweet potatoes I needed and didn't quite have enough. So I ended up with a sweet potato/pumpkin ice cream. Which turned out to be a pretty decent idea.

Want to taste?

Like Eva, I did my own prep yesterday for the ice cream. Making ice cream is always at least a two day process for me as I find that the colder the custard is before putting it in the ice cream maker, the better it freezes.

I've never had that happen before

The custard was already really thick when it went into the machine so I let it run extra long, basically until the ice cream maker refused to rotate anymore. I scooped everything into a tupperware and put it all in the freezer until we were ready for dessert.

Digging out the rest of the ice cream

I also pan dry roasted some asparagus, adding a little rough sea salt and black truffle oil at the end. But that only takes about 12 minutes so I did it as we pulled things out of the oven. Until it was time eat we took a nice break to watch TNT's Castle marathon. It doesn't matter that I own all the seasons and have seen every episode multiple times. I love you, Nathan Fillion. We'd be perfect for each other...you're Canadian, I'm...from a state near Canada. Sigh.

Yes I've already decorated. Wanna make something of it?

And because I love the opportunity to use all the crazy stuff I have, I set the table with chargers and cloth napkins and napkin rings.

My table looked pretty

Since we eschewed the traditional turkey we also felt no need to buy a beaujolais regardless of how traditional it may be. Instead we drank one of our favorites, a Ravenswood Old Vine Zinfandel (available at Trader Joes for $8.99!).

Mmmmm

And then we proceeded to do ourselves proud. We both decimated our hens and put a respectable dent in both the stuffing and the sweet potatoes. The asparagus, in addition to being scrummy, also let us pretend that we were being mildly healthy. Never mind that every other dish is full of butter.

It was such a nice, low-key dinner. Thanksgiving usually seems fraught with pressure to make a huge dinner, or impress your family/friends. Eva and I certainly got ahead of the game by prepping so much the day before and she's a good laid back foil to my hyper tendency to panic.

Sweet potato/pumpkin ice cream

After our stomachs returned to a normal size it was time for dessert! I have to say, the flavor for the ice cream was really nice. I was worried that the pumpkin would over power the sweet potato, but not so. The only thing I didn't like...texture. I may have to make this again and see if I can get it smoother. Eva likened it to the texture of a frozen pumpkin pie.

Also to accompany dessert, wine. But not just any wine. Pumpkin wine. That's right!

Clay Ave Cellars pumpkin wine

I found this wine with my mom on a trip to Muskegon, Michigan. Clay Avenue Cellars winery specializes in fruit wines and all the fruit is sourced from local farmers in a 30 mile radius of the winery. We did a tasting at their shop (and I bought a bunch of wines) and they told us they had a heck of a battle with the FDA over the label. Apparently the US Government isn't willing to recognize that pumpkin (like tomatoes and avacados) are a fruit.

The wine didn't go over so well. I think I recall buying less because of any awesomeness and more because I was amused by it. But everything else went well so this one little miss wasn't too upsetting.

Recipes

Eva's Chestnut Stuffing:
(I havlved her recipe here so you should end up with a normal amount)

• 2 onions
• 3-4 stalks celery
• sage
• thyme
• rosemary
• parsley
• 1 loaf thick cut bread (like a country white)
• 2 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 3/4 pound chestnuts
• salt and pepper

Ahead of time, cut bread into cubes and leave out to dry. Eva did hers nearly a full 24 hours in advance. alternatively you could put them in an oven that's on the lowest setting possible to help them dry out. Also ahead of time, carefully cut an X into each chestnut and boil for 20-ish minutes. After draining them let them cool until you can handle them, but not too much because they're far easier to peel when hot. Good luck here.

Finely chop onion and celery and saute until soft. Then finely chop all the herbs and combine the vegetables, herbs, dried bread cubes, and chopped chestnuts. Combine well then  add chicken stock salt and pepper.

Pour into greased pan, at least a 9X13, and cover with tinfoil. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, remove the tinfoil and bake another 20 minutes uncovered.

Lauren's Sweet Potato Souffle:

• 4 cups cubed sweet potatoes
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 t salt
• 4 T softened butter
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 t vanilla

It's up to you if you want to go through peeling and cubing and roasting the sweet potatoes. More power to you if you go that route. I totally cheated and used canned potatoes. So basically, just mix all that together until it's smooth. I used a little less than twice the amount of vanilla and also added 1/4 t ground vanilla bean.

Pour into a greased 9x13 pan.

For the topping:

(I've already doubled this for you. You're welcome)

• 2/3 cup flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1-1 1/3 cup chopped pecans
• 6 T softened butter

Mix well until everything is a little squishy and crumble over the top of the sweet potatoes and bake at 350 for roughly 35-40 minutes.

Sweet Potato Ice Cream:

• 1 cup pureed sweet potato (or 1/2 cup potato and 1/2 cup pumpkin...or all pumpkin I suppose)
• 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1 T vanilla
• 5 egg yolks
• 3/4 brown sugar
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• clove

Heat cream, milk, and sugar until hot. In a separate bowel, whisk the eggs yolks. Once the milk is hot, add about a cup to the eggs and whisk well then return everything to the pan. Heat over medium-low heat, stirring or whisking constantly, until it thickens. This is the part I hate because I'm mad impatient, but it really is important otherwise you run the risk of having the eggs curdle and that's gross.

Once it's thick, or you're fed up with the stirring (Eva and I took turns and I still didn't make it too long), add the puree and spices. Let cool in fridge a few hours to overnight then freeze in ice cream maker.

And so the post ends on an up note...I remembered that the wine makers at Clay Ave Cellars said that if you microwave the pumpkin wine for 30 seconds it tastes like pumpkin pie. So I tried it, why not, right? No. That didn't help. Clay Ave Cellars has a lot of very very good wines though so if you ever find yourself in western Michigan, check them out!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Fall Baking

Fall is that time of year when I both really want to diet so whatever hibernation weight I put on won't be as noticeable, and when I really want to bake. There are just so many great fall dessert possibilities! I meant to blog about one such recipe last fall and then forgot to take pictures and figured there was little point. But I made it again a few weeks ago and remembered the pictures this time!

I love all fruit but there's nothing better than apples in the fall

One of my many uncles owns a working apple, pear, and peach orchard so we always had free fruit when I was growing up. When I moved I was horrified to discover how much produce costs! It was the bushel fulls of both apples and pears one of my cousins brought to my parents' that inspired my recipe from last year. I've always loved crumble recipes. When I was a kid my mom always made more of the crumble than necessary because I'd eat it out of the bowel. While I was visiting Michigan last winter I wanted to make an apple crumble but when I saw the Bosc pears my cousins brought over I thought, hey why not apple pear?

Jazzed up crumble mixture

Apples, pears, pecans, oh my!

It was a good idea. Apple pear pecan crumble was what I ate for breakfast just about the entire week I was there.And not so bad for breakfast either. I mean, there's fruit and oatmeal so it practically is a breakfast food.

Ready to bake!

With fresh whipped cream, mmmm...

Of course you cannot have fall without pumpkin! Not just for Thanksgiving! In fact I'm not doing much of anything with pumpkin for Thanksgiving so I decided to make some pumpkin cookies. And since I'm far, far too lazy to actually bake a pumpkin, scrape it out, and puree it, I used canned pumpkin; Libby brand.

Libby, the only name in canned pumpkin

More jazzed up spices!

Every time I make these I have to call my mom for the recipe. I'm glad she at least wrote it down when she did. It's actually a recipe from Libby, but good luck finding it on the label now! Now it's all pumpkin pie, pie crust, and pumpkin cream cheese logs.

Alternate the dry and wet ingredients

Mmm, nummy

These are very cake-like cookies so when making the batter you have to alternate mixing the dry and wet ingredients like you would a cake. They also take a little longer to bake than your standard cookie. And don't try stacking them on top of each other unless you like multiple layered cookies!

Ready for the oven!

There's just something about fall baking that's so much homier than summer baking. I guess it's the way my apartment gets extra warm, especially if I forget to turn off the oven for seven hours like I did a few weeks ago...and of course fall ingredients and spices like cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg just smell so inviting and warm.

Mmmm cookies!

Even more cookies!

Eating warm baked goods doesn't hurt either!

Recipes

Apple Pear Crumble

• 2 tart-ish apples
• 3 pears (I like Bosc) 
• pecans
• 1 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1 C flour
• 1 C oatmeal
• 2/3 C melted butter
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• clove

Peel and chop the apples and pears then mix them with the pecans and set aside.

In a separate bowel, mix the dry ingredients then pour the melted butter over everything and mix until the entire mixture is wet. Press roughly 2/3 of the mixture into a greased 9x13 pan, add the fruit mix, and top with remaining crumble.

Bake at 350 for 30-ish minutes and/or until the crumbly bits on top turn a nice golden brown. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream. Cinnamon ice cream makes a nice addition!

Pumpkin Cookies

• 2 C flour
• 1 C oatmeal
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 C butter, room temp
• 1 C brown sugar
• 1 C sugar
• 1 egg slightly beaten
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 C pureed pumpkin

First mix the five dry ingredients in a bowel. The recipe, as you see, only calls for cinnamon but I think that's kind of bogus. I added not only nutmeg and clove but also ground vanilla bean. It's up to you what you want to do here. You could even use pumpkin pie spice if you've mind to.

Cream together the butter and sugars, then add the egg and vanilla. Then, alternating the dry ingredients with the pumpkin (beginning and ending with the dry).

Bake at 350 for, my mom said 20-25 minutes but in my gas oven they really only needed 18. 

And enjoy!

Circus, Circus!: A co-authored post

Andrea's not the biggest fan of circuses...she dislikes the treatment of the animals and clowns are just freaking scary. And you know what? I totally agree. But when I said that I was coming back to DC in July for some RnR and LivingSocial had a Circus Adventure at the DC-based Trapeze School New York, well we jumped on the chance to spend a day dreaming of becoming a couple of First o'Mays (that's circus talk for non-circus folk who try to run away with the circus) and joining the circus! This LivingSocial adventure was just perfect because we got to try a little of everything that the school offers, including: flying trapeze, silks, (partner) acrobatics, juggling, and making balloon animals!

Oh the innocence-this is the 'before'

Lauren: I was pretty excited that our group was selected to take on the (indoor) trapeze first.

As you can see, I was stoked.

Lauren: After they strapped those awful safety belts on us, we got a lesson on how to stand on the platform, how to reach for the bar, and most importantly, how to follow the commands both from the awesome guy on the platform, and from the coach on the ground. Basically, there are two commands: "ready," which means, well, ready. At that point, you should steady yourself, and bend at the knees. When the coach sees that you're ready, he'll say, "hep!" When you hear that, jump! But first, you have to get to the platform.

Andrea: For me, the scariest darn part of the entire thing was climbing the ladder. I've never been a fan of ladders but this one, 23 feet high, flimsy aluminium, and secured only at the bottom and top...it shivered and shook and bucked the entire climb. I sweat through the chalk I'd put on my hands by the time I got up there!

Taking a relieved breath after the climb!

Lauren: I won't lie, that ladder climb really was scary. Even though you're strapped to a rope with an auto-catch in case you fall, it's really best if you don't fall. Once you get to the top, I felt keenly aware that we were literally suspended in mid-air. I was hell bent on following instructions. to. the. letter. I'm sure this was out of absolute terror, and I didn't move a muscle without the mohawk guy telling me so. He grabbed the bar, and I took it in one hand, and then two. After that, things moved VERY quickly. I heard the ready signal, and bent my knees, and then hep! and I jumped! 

Holy crap I jumped!

Lauren: Now, you want to be able to get gravity to work in your favor so that your legs don't become dead weights. I figured because, I engage in fairly intense exercise on a regular basis that I would be decent at this, but this is MUCH harder than it looks. Apparently, having left gymnastics behind 20 years ago, means that I will never be a very good trapeze artist.

Lauren: After a couple of unsuccessful attempts at trying to swing my legs up and hook my feet, I got the command to let go. Again, ready, and hep! For me, this was another really scary part!

You know...maybe not so much.

Andrea: The platform is only 23 feet up which seems like a lot, but after plunging off a 25 foot waterfall into water of questionable depth, 23 feet didn't seem so bad. Especially since there was a net about 5.5 feet off the ground.

Hmm...fly, or climb back down? Rock meet hard place.

Andrea: Grabbing that bar was a surprise. It's really heavy and I was neither expecting nor prepared for that. Although frankly I cannot say I was prepared for anything this day.

Still not sure but let's go.

Andrea: I do have to admit though that it took me a couple more minutes to finally get off the platform. I really was trying to jump but my feet were glued to the platform. I got off eventually and one of the other adventurers that day took this super cool composite picture of me.

Success!!!

Lauren: Next, we moved on to silks. I thought that this was going to be pretty easy, and fun. This was neither easy, nor very much fun for me. I could barely get my foot onto the knot to pull myself up!

Yeah...I'm still not sure this is going to work.

A little help...still didn't help.

Look at meeee! I'm 3 inches off the ground!

Andrea: This was actually what I was most excited to learn-I've loved the silks since I first saw a Cirque du Soliel performance and have always wanted to learn. It is so much harder than it looks! And it doesn't look easy!

I started out so excited

Love this...almost makes it look like I climbed higher than I did

Woot! Success!

Andrea: I couldn't believe how painful it was to stand on that knot of fabric!
Lauren: Seriously, right?!

See that face? That's the 'no I don't like this' face

Lauren: Andrea was much better at this than I was, though I'm pretty sure that neither of us have a Cirque debut in our future.

Weee!

Andrea: Next up...partner balancing. I think Lauren and I both went into this a little trepedaciously but then she volunteered us to go first!

Lauren: I was nervous about this, but still kind of excited. The instructors made everything look so easy!

Lauren before she really knew what was coming

And prep...

Lauren: This is where Andrea death-gripped my ribs, and I could neither move nor breathe. Who really needs to breathe, anyway when you're in the circus!

Ta Da!

Andrea: It was actually easier than it looked.
Lauren: but yay! We did it!

Don't worry Andrea, we can do this!

See?!

Ta Da!

Lauren: next up was the juggling. I've never juggled before, other than tossing balls up and not usually catching them. I managed to catch on to this pretty quickly, and found myself juggling three balls at once!

Lauren: The weather turned bad, so we partially missed our second opportunity to trapeze outside, and also rock climb, because there was a lot of lightning. So, they brought us in for indoor recess, and that meant balloon animal making! For whatever reason, I was not that into this, mostly because I think I'm afraid that the balloon is going to pop in my face and blind me.

see? still not convinced.

Turning is...trepidatiously.

Ta Da!