Dave Cooks the Turkey

One of the best parts of the holidays for our family. Enjoy. 

Dave Cooks the Turkey

Merry Merry

(tree decorated by The Boy all by himself this year)  (More handmade ornaments added daily)

Have a wonderful holiday week, or wonderful regular week, whatever you do.

Peace and Love.

Instagram - 60 books reviewed

I've done 60 reviews of cookbooks from my shelf, and 45 are staying. 

5 additional books hit the highway without being tested:

A Martin Yan book that I deperately wanted to like, but between difficult to find ingredients and difficult to cook for family, it wasn't a keeper.

A Giada pasta book that wasn't inspiring to me.

An old Best of Bridge.

An old baking book.

An "inspiring women cook!" book from the dollar store.  I found the few recipes that interested me to be vague.  So, no.

Coming up - more Mark Bittman, Emeril Legasse, Ina Garten, and burgers. 

Arigato Sushi

We were back at Arigato Sushi last month for a birthday.  They very kindly sent over a platter of birthday sushi!  

(The Boy ate all the crab.)

Treats - Sweet and Salty Chex Mix

A special treat for the holidays.  Reminds me a bit of my Moms caramel corn.

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

1 395 gram box Honey Nut Chex
300 grams roasted cashew nuts
1/2 cup mini M&M's, or chocolate chips

In a medium pot, melt butter, sugar and syrup over medium high heat, whisking to combine.  Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.  Carefully add the baking soda, vanilla, and salt.  Whisk until smooth.

In a large (very large - you need room to pour in the sauce, then stir!) microwave safe bowl, mix the cereal and nuts.  Pour the caramel sauce over and mix carefully, and well.

Microwave the mixture for 2 minutes.  Stir, microwave for 2 more minutes.  Stir again.  Microwave for 1 minute.  Stir, and pour onto a large parchment lined baking sheet.  Spread out.

Let sit for 20 minutes, then sprinkle on the chocolate.

Let sit for another 20-30 minutes, then break up any very large clumps.

Let cool completely.

Enjoy!

How To: Break up ground meat

This is one of those tips that is so easy, so obvious, that when you see it you're 

like - why didn't I think of that???? 

Sometimes when you're cooking ground meat, it's a bit tough to get the meat 

broken into small uniform pieces while cooking. 

The solution? 

Your potato masher.

Use the masher to mash and break up the ground meat as it cooks.

It's easy to break up clumps.

Switch to a spoon or spatula once the meat is broken up as you like, to finish the cooking.

Easy!

Book Club - Unprocessed by Megan Kimble

This book took me a long time to read - nearly 3 months - but there is 

so much interesting and sometimes surprising information

it felt like a book to read slowly.

Some good bits - 
 
"According to a study by Local First, if 
you spend $100 at a local business, $73 of it will stay in your 
community.... spend that money at a national corporation and only $43 
sticks around."
 
"Only about 10% of the salt in the American diet 
comes from salt added at the table; the other 90% is already added to 
processed foods." 
 
"Salt is perfect for processed foods... It is 
cheap...Even better, it binds water and makes foods weigh more, so you 
pay more for heavier packages."
 
"Salt is one of the most common 
of the 10,000 chemicals added to our foods. Of these 10,000, 1,480 have 
been approved by the FDA; 3,600 more have been deemed GRAS, or generally
 recognized as safe. A thousand more have never been tested by the FDA 
and a further 3,800 are "indirect additives" and so are totally 
unregulated." 
 
"....on average, 91 cents of every dollar American 
consumers spend on food goes to middlemen- to suppliers, marketers, 
producers."
 
"Over the past 50 years sugar consumption has tripled worldwide..."

Cado English Muffin

The Boy charmingly called avocados "Cado" when he was younger, and it's stuck with The Mister and me.  I'm sure in a few more years The Boy will be irritated beyond belief by our usage of it.

(Another freaking adorable stage was when he called ALL food "Ham".  I loved it!)

We buy avocados almost every week; they are so good for you, and of course, guacamole.

For the kids we mostly cube it and serve it straight up, but I love it squished onto a toasted english muffin and sprinkled with a teensy bit of salt and lots of hot sauce. 

Intentions for December

This is what I'm hoping to work on this month:

Yoga every day - I've been practicing yoga in classes between 1 and 3 times a week for almost 3 months now, well, once a week for 2 months, then 2-3 times a week for the past month.  I've been trying to establish a home routine for the past few weeks, mostly unsuccessfully so far.  Between classes and home, I want to practice every day, even if it's only a handful of stolen moments when the children can't find me.

Drink more water - I used to be really good at this, but not so much the past few months.  Being hydrated.  So important. 

Drink smoothies a minimum of twice a week - another thing I used to be good at. 

Reading every day - and not blogs or facebook either.  Books.  Real live books.

Be grateful.

Be kind. 

Gift Guide: Skin Deep

Ahhhhh, the good stuff.

Relax-O-Ring from Saje This is so cool.  It's a massager for your fingers that is instantly both energizing and relaxing. Get one for you too.

Aromatherapy diffuser This is the one I have - also from Saje, but you can find lots of these out there. Use them with your favorite essential oils. Obvs.

Ocean Salt Scrub from Lush. Lovely and gentle.

EO body lotion and potions I am a huge fan of EO. I use their soap, body and face lotions, and the kids use the kids soaps.

Thieves Oil  You may or may not believe that Thieves Oil can help combat illness, but if you don't, it smells good too.

Vitamin C Energizing Face Spray Instant perk up.