Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Turkey Day!  Nothing says Thanksgiving like turkey cookies, right?  (As I had to explain to my classmates:  they're turkey-shaped, not turkey-flavored!) 

We had an afternoon full of family and food.  I was responsible for cranberry sauce and green bean casserole (with the cookies thrown in).  I used the cranberry sauce recipe Granny Rae gave me last year and took the green bean casserole recipe from a magazine. 

I'd definitely add twice as many green beans next time.  The recipe called for "8 cups."  I guess I was supposed to mash them down and pack in as many green beans as I could into those 8 cups?  Eh, at least they tasted good.

My mouth is watering looking back at these pictures, and I didn't even bring the pies!

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving with family and friends.  I'm thankful for all of mine, that's for sure!

Pho real

Jazzed by the thought of the upcoming weekend and coming off a relatively quiet week I made this a "make a mess in the kitchen" kind of night.  There's a pie contest at work tomorrow so I had to make a pie for that.  Don't get your hopes up, I'm not a pie person so I'm not counting on placing.  In fact, I scrapped the first pie because my crust was so hideously misshaped.  I don't like regular crust anyway.  I cheated and used a store-bought graham cracker crust and switched from a chocolate chip pie (which would require baking at the same time as the shell, and as I mentioned that wasn't gonna happen tonight) to a banana cream pie.  I'd show a pic but it's not finished yet--whipped cream happens tomorrow morning.  I will point out that it's the first time I've made a cream pie without scrambling the eggs!  See, I'm making pie progress.

The real star of the show tonight was pho.  The HC is the pho capital of the area and my work buddies have introduced me to a few places, which we like to call "dirty pho" and "clean pho," mostly because one is nasty and made me feel sick afterward and scared me off of pho for a while since it was my first pho experience and the other is bright and clean and delicious.  Don't let the first pho place I mentioned scare you--it was all about the location and no fault of the dish itself.  Pho is a Vietnamese soup that usually features beef, kinda like sliced brisket.  There's also chicken pho, the star of today's post.  I had the bright idea to make it at home since it's getting cooler and I had a half of a rotisserie chicken left in the fridge.  By Googling "rotisserie chicken pho" I found this recipe.  I altered it a little, particularly when it came to the five-spice powder.  I was being cheap because I'd already bought a bunch of strange new sauces like "fish sauce" and "hoisin sauce" that I wasn't sure I'd ever use again, and after reading the ingredient label on the powder I figured I could make my own.  That kinda worked, and by kinda I mean I had three of the five ingredients (star anise, cinnamon, cloves, fennel, and a funky pepper I can't pronounce).  Well, I had two, plus I added ground ginger, partially because I read it's sometimes used in five spice powder and partially because I feel guilty about buying spices and only using them once or twice (cardamom, I'm looking at you). 

Enough with the talking--let's make some pho!

Soak 4 ounces of rice sticks in water for 15 minutes and then rinse and drain.

In your big pot (or Dutch oven from your obscure Christmas gift list) heat 32 ounces of chicken broth, a bay leaf, a pinch of five spice powder (ahem!), and one tablespoon of fish sauce over medium heat.  Simmer for about five minutes.  Add shredded chicken (rotiserrie, leftover grilled, whatever form of chicken you have that already been cooked) until heated through, about five to ten more minutes.  I'm reading now that you're then supposed to add the drained rice sticks/noodles and simmer for 30 seconds until hot, but I think I missed this part.  I guess instead you could be like me and put your noodles in a bowl, then spoon the pho over the noodles.  Looks a little something like this:

Look at that cute little spoon that probably has a proper name!  I look like a fool eating noodles with it, but it's fun for the first few bites until I give up and get a fork to twirl the noodles and spear the chicken.  Reminds me of every single time I've attempted chopsticks.

You don't want naked pho, unless you're Adam, so here's my take on the traditional plate of toppings: cilantro, lime, and bean sprouts.  Don't forget the bottle of sriracha for some heat!

There you have it:  a hot bowl of pho that only takes about 20 minutes.  Pho sho!

Autumn Trifle

I baked A LOT this weekend.  We were working a fall carnival at an elementary school and I needed some baked goods for that.  My pal Amy wanted to make a cake for her man Jay's birthday and I baked it ahead of time so we could decorate it Saturday afternoon.  I also needed something to take to a work Halloween party Saturday night.  On Friday I was sitting near a lady talking about her own school's carnival that is coming up and we swapped ideas.  She said that kids always choose the treat that has gummy worms on it.  I took her advice and made some worms in dirt cookies:

So appetizing!

As for Amy's cake...that's how I came up with the Autumn Trifle.  See, I tried to make the cake while cooking dinner on Friday night.  I may have misread the directions and I may have poured in a little too much water.  The cake may have fallen apart.  Nope, the cake definitely DID fall apart.  Since it's a shame to waste perfectly delicious marble cake I repurposed it for a trifle for Saturday night.  Into the container it went in crumbly little bits.

I ran to the store after all of my cookies were done (all 8 dozen or so!) to get another mix and baked another one before I went to bed.  This one was really attached to the pan and came out in sections.  I forced it all out of the pan by beating on it and then left it to cool on the counter and hopefully stick back together!

Amy wanted to make a pirate-themed cake and had picked up a bunch of fun decorations for it.  We had a good time putting it together and it turned out pretty cute.  We did the piping gel water trick from Heather and Bear's wedding cake and used brown sugar for the sand.  Arrrrrgh!

I like the "gold" around the treasure chest!  That was such a creative idea, Amy!

After the carnival was over and the castle cake off to its party, I put together the trifle.  Since I figured this is the one you might actually try to make, I took step-by-step pictures of the process so you'd know how to put together a trifle. 

****Funny trifle story tangent:  One Christmas my sister-in-law, my grandmother, and I all read about and made the same trifle.  Ha!****

Okay, back to the autumn trifle.  Here's the cast of characters:

First, bake a cake that falls apart.  If you're too good to mess up a cake, bake a good one and then break it off into 1 inch cubes.  Layer these in a trifle bowl (or a clear bowl will do).

Next, make some pudding.  I went with butterscotch (sugar-free...shhhh!).

Then, once it's set, you scoop half of it on top of the cake in the trifle bowl and spread it around to make your second layer.

Do the same thing with half of your Cool Whip (lite Cool Whip...shhhh!).

Then you do it all over again!  If you're making a different version with fewer of each ingredient and can squeeze in three whole sets of layers, go for it.

For the fininshing touch:  a sprinkling of candy corn!

There you have it:  a delicious autumn trifle.  Happy fall, y'all!

Pumpkin Pie Muffins

We're definitely on a healthy eating kick here at the Walker house.  Combine that with the record-setting summer of hundred degree-plus days and you'll get an Adi who hasn't been turning on the oven...until now!  Yesterday the heat finally gave way to cool breezes and highs in the 80s (and rain!).  I really missed getting creative in the kitchen with all of this non-baking and beginning of school craziness so tonight was the night to try out my newest cookbook, The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger of Food Network fame.  In all honesty I never paid attention to her because she couldn't really hold a candle to Paula Deen and all of those glorious butter-filled recipes.  Sauteed vegetables or gooey butter cake?  Yeah, exactly.

I've marked a few recipes to try in this book that satisfied my old eating standards and my newer, healthier, less-processed ideas.  The first one I've tried is called "Pumpkin Pie Muffin."  Sounds like a good compromise to me!

If you'd like to try it for yourself, you can find the recipe here:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/pumpkin-muffins-recipe/index.html

It'll come out looking like these:

I did make a few changes (some on purpose and some, well, not so much!).  The accidental change was a whole 15oz can of pumpkin puree instead of just a cup. I also took this opportunity to use up some of the Babe's sorghum that Adam once brought me because he thought he remembered me eating it once and liking it (he was half right, but it was a sweet gesture).  I think these were changes for the better because I couldn't have imagined a better, moister muffin.  See for yourself:

Do you see how it retained its shape so well?  20 minutes was just right and none of them stuck to the muffin tin (except the one in the overflow tin that I forgot to spray...oops).  The recipe said it yields 12 muffins but she must be using a monster pan because my attempt made 18 generous muffins.  Delicious, healthy, moist, and pumpkiny...the perfect way to usher in Fall.

Bye Bye Baby Sis

The long summer has come to an end, and Miss Emily has gone to a college far, far away.  I've been working on her going-away gifts for the last two months (the real reason I haven't posted in a very long time!). 

Miss Em is going to a purple and gold school (not LSU, thank goodness...don't think we could handle that).  I'm soooo excited that she's going to a purple school, which means it now has to become her favorite color.  I made sure she had plenty of purple to start off her school year! 

First up:  a Vera Bradley ID holder

Next up:  a little bit of art

After a couple of other items, here's the big one:

No, it's not Ann Taylor...

She'll stay warm AND have school spirit.  Here are some close-ups:

Good luck, Emaloo!  I'll miss you!

Experimental Pasta

I'm new to balsamic vinegar.  I mean, I've enjoyed it in restaurants, but I've never bought a bottle or cooked with it...until tonight!  I'd just seen a cooking show featuring pasta cabonara but wanted to mix in the sweetness from the balsamic, so I gathered up a few ingredients that seemed compatible and began to play with my food.

-4 strips of leftover turkey bacon
-1 serving of whole-wheat thin spaghetti
-2 quick splashes of balsamic
-1/4 cup of diced tomato
-1 minced garlic clove
-a few spoonfuls of crumbled feta cheese

I boiled the pasta while I chopped and warmed the bacon, as well as diced the tomato and minced the garlic.  When the pasta was cooked and drained I threw it in a bowl and added all of my prepped ingredients, plus a few drizzles of balsamic and some spoonfuls of feta.  The taste came out pretty well, but I was surprised at how quickly the balsamic was absorbed into the pasta.  I was afraid it would be in a puddle in the bottom of my bowl!  I added maybe a teaspoon and a half of olive oil and stirred it in with some cracked black pepper and a quick crack of sea salt.  Pretty nice pasta!

(Yes, that's edamame in the background.  Just call it an international dinner. :)

It's finished!

It's finally finished!  I've been working on this cami for over a year (off and on, of course) and it's finally done! 

It all started when I saw this pattern:

in this book:

The original pattern called for the same front and back pieces attached at the sides and straps.  I didn't like that, so I made the back straight across (like this):

I also changed the flowers that were scattered over the front of the cami in the pattern.  I wanted to learn to do a shell border, so thanks to an informative YouTube video by a very pleasant, patient-sounding woman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glY3IRbk9Xw) I was able to add a scalloped edge.

I've worked on this thing for so long that I'm not sure which direction to go next.  Sweater?  Casserole carrier?  Blankets?  Hat?  Hmmmm....