Saturday, December 06, 2008

Recipe Round up : Thanksgiving

Some recipes I tried over our weekend away, thought I would share.
sweet potoato with garlic and cinnamon
Sweet Potato oven fries with garlic and cinnamon : Super easy, heat oven to 425, just cut peeled sweet potatoes into fry size bits., toss with a light oil (I used grape seed) and mix a teaspoon or two of garlic salt with cinnamon in your palm. Sprinkle the mix over the fries and toss to coat. Spread fries on a sheet and bake in oven for 25-3o minutes until tender. Mine did not get crisp, but were delicious nonetheless. The cinnamon is seasonal and delicious, make sure you use garlic salt/powder as fresh garlic would burn in the high temperature of the oven and taste bitter.

Cranberry salad dressing
: I took the leftover fresh cranberry sauce and heated it gently in the microwave, once warmed I stirred in a tablespoon or two of balsamic vinegar and some grape seed oil and sprinkled in a little pumpkin pie spice. We used it to dress our lamb but it also tasted great on the salad. Good way to use up that ran sauce. And speaking of cran sauce…here is a doozy I have made for years..found it a long time ago and people seem to really enjoy it when I bring it around

Cranberry special sauce
e : Peel and dice fresh ginger (about the size of your thumb), finely dice one clove garlic, finely dice one jalapeno,. Zest one large lemon, then peel and chop the fruit. Add all ingredients to a saucepan and gently heat until all items are warm, lemon has macerated and it looks a little mushy. Add one bag fresh cranberries and 1 ½ cup sugar. Let sugar let down and cook until berries pop. Let cool and serve with your turkey . Or can it and give to your friends that love spicy sweetness.

Pumpkin bread
Easy pumpkin muffins/bread : This requires the Trader Joe’s baking mix and a can of pumpkin puree. First I blended 1 cup pumpkin, ½ c sugar, ¼ cup oil, 2 eggs, pumpkin pie spice (notice a trend here with the holiday spice use) and 2 shredded carrots. I sifted two cups of the mix into the wet ingredients (but I am sure flour with a tsp of baking soda and powder would work) and stirred batter until moist. No muffin pans but I had a cake round. I do think these would be great as mini muffins. I baked it for 25 minutes at 350 degrees (until the stick came out clean) and let cool. You can add some cranberries to the batter but I won’t do that again due to the faces the boys made when they encountered the bittersweet taste.

And that finished my week of recap Cabin related posts. It was a great getaway with some quality family time. This week I have been busily finishing gifts, starting things I should really leave until post-holiday, trying to finish holiday decorating (I keep getting distracted by the insane toddlers running around the place) and anticipating a wonderful December that feels like it is half over already.

On that note, signing off to knit (and sew) (and clean) (and, and, and...it really is holiday season, huh?)

Oh, here is the set of photos of the Thanksgiving trip, taken with the 24mm. I felt so sad bringing it back. Hoping Santa (well, likely Uncle Sam) is kind this year and that we find a way to finagle it...I really fell in love with that lens.

3 comments:

Maggie May said...

oh those 'fries' look delish!

your kiddos are so sweet faced :)

cinnamongirl said...

yumm...I made that cran sauce this year for the Turkey. I didn't do the Jalepeno, but I will try that next year. You are so great with these left-over creations!!

Anonymous said...

Yum- you're making me hungry! Well, *more* hungry. ;)