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.

Pumpkin cookies and then pancakes too!

 My god, how much puree is IN one of those big cans of pumpkin puree????

After the 2 types of muffins, I still had some puree left, so I made these 

Healthy Pumpkin Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies.  I had to leave out the dried 

cranberries so The Mister would eat them.  Guess how many he's eaten?????  

ONE.  I should have just left them in.

I STILL had some damn puree left over.  WTF.  It was truly like a never-ending can of the stuff.

I was going to throw it in a smoothie, which really did not sound appealing, so instead I made a 

batch of pancakes for Sunday breakfast.  We use pancake mix sometimes; the kind that you just 

add water to.  I added the puree and some vanilla, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.  

They were really really good.

And thank god, the can was finally empty.

Squash Cheat Sheet

This is a super cool page out of the October Rachael Ray Magazine, all about gourds and how to cook them.  Perfect for me, as the only ones I can ever remember are the spaghetti and acorn.

Bacon and Egg Bread Cups

The spooky skull may give you a hint as to when this photo was taken - it was not yet 

Halloween, and the Farmers Market was still running.  We treated ourselves to some 

bacon and egg buns from the Erwin's Bakery stand.  Delicious!

We made a similar dish a few years ago, but their buns were wayyyyyy better 

than squished sandwich bread.

Instagram Follow Friday Week 4

Yoga Inspiration Yoga. Inspiration.

Mindy Kaling I admire her so much. Funny and truthful and smart.

Yoga Journal I really love yoga, you guys.

Gift Guide - Books

Need to buy a gift? How about a book?

Meditation Coloring Book I have this book and I love it.  It is truly very soothing and calming.  Last week I alternated coloring with trying to figure out what was wrong with my computer.  I stayed shockingly calm.
There are a literal ton of adult coloring books now.  Check em out.

Brave Enough I have not yet read this book, but Wild is one of my favorite books, so I want to read this one.

2,100 Asanas: The Complete Yoga Poses Another one on my to read list, it looks amazing.  Detailed and easy to follow.

Furiously Happy I read"Let's Pretend This Never Happened" by Jenny Lawson earlier this year, and I woke the baby up from her nap because I was laughing so loud.  I can't wait to read this one.

Good Morning: 365 Positive Ways to Start Your Day I've owned this book for years, and use it yearly.  Gratitude and positivity.  It's where it's at.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins

Check out these muffins.  Got to use up more of my pumpkin puree and ended up with some crazy good pumpkin chocolate treats.  

These possibly briefly make me feel a little bit ok with Fall.  A little bit. 

Recipe: pumpkin oatmeal muffins

Do not become small

When I saw this on Instagram my breath caught in my throat.  

This quote really feels true to my life right now.

The fact is, we are always changing and growing.  All of us. 

I - and my little family - have undergone some enormous changes in the past 18 months.  

Some were amazing, some were devastating.

I am not the same person I used to be.  

But I'm feeling more like me - the real me - than I have in years.  

I'm excited about where I am in life right now and where I am headed.

Some in my life are having difficulty understanding that, and it's been very hard for me to deal with.

It's hard to understand why people would not want to be happy for you, when you are happy.

Do people not deserve happiness unless they fit into your mold of who they should be?

This quote helps me to remember.  

My journey is my journey.  You do not have to like it, or understand it.

  

It is for me. 

Instagram - 50 books reviewed

I've done mini reviews of 50 cookbooks from my collection, and 36 are staying on the shelf.

4 additional books left the house without being tested - a book on savory baking that I'd bought from a charity book sale.  It was super cool, but I just know I'll never cook from it.

Another Gordon Ramsay bargain bin book.  Sorry Gordon.

Also gone  - a Mexican cookbook that was full of long complicated recipes full of ingredients

 that I would never be able to find here.

A book by Paul Prudhomme is also out the door - just not our kind of cooking.

Coming up - Cookin' With Coolio, Will It Waffle?, and Make The Bread, Buy The Butter.

Grocery Shop November 21

coffee, cake mix (shhh), frosting (SHHHH), butter, cheese, cottage cheese, 

cauliflower, avocados, bell peppers, pineapples, pears, ground pork, 

italian sausage, hot dogs, buns, ham, salami, baby crunchies.

$94

How to : roast and freeze garlic

I remember the first time I tried roasted garlic. 

 I'd read about it in a magazine and for some reason I already owned a little terra cotta garlic roaster, so I picked up a head of garlic and a baguette and tried it out. 

 My boyfriend at the time was a basic meat and potatos guy,and declared many many times he was not interested in trying it. 

No sir, not the kind of thing he would eat! 

Well, once the garlic came out of the oven and was plated with the sliced bread, he materialized over my shoulder and announced that fine! He'd try it! Get off his back! 

 And proceeded to eat the entire thing. 

 Men. 

 Roasted garlic is amazing - on bread, in pasta or sauces - but it takes time to make, so I always have some frozen in my freezer.

 First, roast the garlic. 

 Heat your oven to 400'. Cut just the bare top off the whole heads of garlic to expose the tops of the cloves. 

Place in a baking dish and drizzle well with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper 

and cover the top of the dish with foil.

Roast in the oven for an hour, until tender and golden.

They are ready to use as you like, or cool them completely, and wrap them individually in plastic wrap and then in a freezer bag, and store in the freezer until you need them.

They thaw in the microwave in a matter of seconds, or leave them in the fridge overnight.

So good.