Sunday, 1/2/2011

Jennifer sent us home with left overs from our Christmas dinner.  Thanks Jennifer!  We reheated turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes and added sugar snap peas.  I boiled the peas for three minutes and then put them into a cold water and ice bath to stop the cooking.  All three of us enjoyed the peas.  Katie and Ben dipped their pea pods in ranch dressing.  I dipped mine in roasted red pepper hummus.  I really hoped it would be a good way to consume hummus without bread or chips.  But, I didn't like how the flavor of the peas and hummus went together. 

Ben and I spent yesterday and today cleaning and re-arranging our bedroom to make room for a treadmill.  I've been wanting one for at least a year and can't wait to get it!  I hope my excitement to get it transfers into an excitement to use it:)

Monday, 12/27/2010

Ben's Grandma Ackers spent the afternoon and evening with us today.  For dinner, Jennifer made a casserole of sorts out of the Christmas left overs.  She lined the bottom of a 9x13 pan with mashed potatoes, added a layer of stuffing, and then placed sliced turkey over the top.  I think the left over gravy was added too, but I'm not sure where in the process.  She baked it in the oven, and we had a tasty meal.  

After dinner, the traditional Christmas poker game began.  In Grandma Ackers' Christmas card she wrote, "bring lots of money."  I attempted to play the first couple of years I was part of the family.  But, I just don't care for the game.  Last year I sat at the table and watched everyone else play.  This year, I sat at the table and read a book on my new Kindle:)  I enjoyed listening to the banter without the pressure of trying to remember what to do with each hand.

Saturday, 12/25/2010

Merry Christmas

We began this day with my parents in Spokane.  We opened presents with Katie.  When her presents were opened, she began to help us with ours too. She is a very lucky girl.  Santa brought her a baby doll, and her grandparents got her a Tickle Me Elmo and a tent with connecting tunnel.  She was in 7th heaven with all of the new things and paper to play with.  At 10am, my brother Matt, his wife Jenna, their daughter Braelyn, and my grandparents Norm and Kate joined us for brunch.  My parents made a delicious baked apple french toast casserole and paired it with breakfast sausage.  We are blessed to have Jenna with us for this holiday.  She is in the Air Force and was sent to New Jersey at the beginning of December for training before her deployment to Afghanistan next year.  Thankfully, she was given leave for a week and her grandfather gave her a plane ticket to come home.  We pray for her safe travels and return in August.  

At 1pm, we loaded into the car with my parents and went to the airport, heading to Portland.  Again, no full-body scans at the airport:)  By the time we got to the airport, got our luggage checked, and went through security, it was time to board the plane.  How's that for great timing?!  Spencer, Ben's brother, was waiting for us in the Portland airport.  Their mom, Jennifer, was home working on dinner.  She made a delicious Christmas meal for us.  She made a sausage stuffing and stuffed it into a turkey breast, which cooked in her crock pot.  She had delicious sage dinner rolls, a fruit salad, a green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes to go with the turkey and stuffing.  It took longer for the turkey to get to the right temperature than she expected, but it was quite tasty and moist when we finally got to eat. 

While we waited, we opened more presents.  Katie continued to be in awe and excitement with each present that was opened.  That is, until she opened new crayons and a Disney princess coloring book.  After that, it was hard to encourage her to move onto her other presents.  She received a camera from her Uncle Spencer and a shopping cart from Grandma Jennifer.  With no nap and irregular schedules for the past several days, she was exhausted by the end of the day.  

Sunday, 11/28/2010

My cold has been lingering on with a good cough.  Knowing that people at church would worry that I would get them sick, we decided to stay home today.  We spent the morning getting the house decorated for Christmas.  We managed to get the tree up and in place while Katie was "helping", but I waited until she was napping to add the ornaments.  Ben worked on adding new LED lights to the front room windows.  They look great:)  

For dinner, we had our first of many left over Thanksgiving meals.  The turkey, dressing, and gravy were still delicious!

Thursday, 11/25/2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

For about a month, we have been tossing around the idea of using the Mexican-inspired, Thanksgiving menu from the November 2010 issue of Sunset Magazine.  Ben checked with his mom and brother to see if there were any traditional dishes that they needed to have included in the meal.  Spencer said he needed stuffing with sausage in it.  Since the Sunset menu included Chorizo Apple stuffing, we decided to go for it.  Although we didn't make the pumpkin tacos or the suggested desserts, we did not deviate from the printed menu for the main meal.  You will find each menu item below, including links to the Sunset recipes and my notes.

For the table setting, I started with a simple off-white table cloth and our regular plates.  I put a large clear glass vase filled with mandarin oranges in the middle of the table and flanked it with orange taper candles in cut glass holders.  For the place cards, I traced Katie's hand on paper eight times and then begged her to color on that paper with turkey colors.  She was never enthusiastic about coloring with orange and brown, but she did enough to help me out.  I cut out the hands, glued them to paper tents, and then added eyes, a beak, and a gobbler.  Okay, I am sure it is not called a gobbler, but it's the part that hangs down below the beak:)  They turned out really cute!

Chile and Spice Grilled Turkey: We brined our turkey in a boiling-water canner.  The recipe called for the turkey to be placed in the brine, breast down.  Ours went into the pot breast side up, oops.  Ben realized it with about two hours of brining to go and flipped it.  But, that may have been too late to do much good.  Thankfully, the turkey was moist, but it's hard to know if the flavor of the turkey would have been stronger if the breast had been down.  The turkey we grilled was just over 16 pounds, and it took 3 hours for it to reach 160 degrees.  Ben had a hard time regulating the cooking temperature for the first hour, particularly out in freezing, windy conditions.  But, after an hour of adjusting the gas over 10-15 minutes, it finally stabilized.  It was great to use the grill and leave the over free to cook the side dishes.  We would definitely grill again.

Mole Gravy: I am normally not a fan of gravy.  But, this gravy was a delicious sauce!  I think it was my favorite part of the meal.  Maybe it tied with the stuffing;)  The only thing that caught me by surprise with the gravy was how long it took to make.  I didn't read the recipe all the way through and missed that it would take 12 minutes after the turkey juices were added.

Chorizo Apple Stuffing: Laura and David pre-made the stuffing, and then baked it at our house.  It made our house smell fantastic!  The Chorizo and apples gave the stuffing the perfect balance of spice and sweet.  It was amazing with some of the gravy on top. 

Grilled Rosemary Sweet Potatoes: We decided to bake the sweet potatoes in a 325 degree oven last night, rather than grilling them.  I think they baked a little too long.  They were a bit close to becoming mashed potatoes.  Thankfully, they did set up a bit over night, and we were able to warm them up on the grill today.  The flavor was delicious, but I bet they would have been better if we had grilled them. 

Roasted Chile-Lime Brocollini: Nancy fixed this dish at our house this afternoon.  The ancho chile and lime flavors worked very well with the brocollini.   We all thought it was done enough and moved it into the warming drawer.  Unfortunately, we pulled it out of the oven too early.  And then, the other dishes weren't as close to being ready as I thought they were.  It would have been better to leave them in the oven to crisp up a bit more.  Katie enjoyed chewing on one of the stalks.

Roasted Chile Cornbread:  Spencer made the cornbread at our house last night.  The roasted chile's made the house smell good:)  The cornbread was wonderful.  It wasn't too sweet and was enjoyed by all. This is definitely a recipe that would work well with other Tex-Mex meals. 

Cranberry, Apple, Orange Relish:  Jennifer made the relish at home earlier this week.  The recipe said it could be made up to a week prior to the meal.  Well, I don't think any of us truly loved the relish.  It was pretty sour, and the recipe made way more than needed for each person.  The magazine did say that it would be good on a left-over turkey sandwich.  I'll have to try that. 

Fall Salad with Nuts and Pomegranates:  Nancy made this lovely salad for our meal.  Wow, what great flavors!  I really enjoyed the crunch of the walnuts and pomegranate seeds.  And, the fresh thyme was a delightful surprise each time I got a bite of it.

Orange Chocolate Cheesecake:  This recipe came from the Kraft Foods quarter magazine: Food & Family. I've had the recipe in my recipe box for several years now.  When it came time to decide on a dessert for this meal, I thought the citrus and chocolate would go nicely with the Tex-Mex theme.  I was right!  Everyone loved it!  Spencer made a delicious cordial to go with the dessert.  It was called a "Betsy Ross".  There may be more, but here's the list of ingredients I know the drink included:  tawny port, Grand Marnier, Fundador Brandy, and a special bitters, not sold in the state of Washington.  It was sweet and warming:)

All in all, it was a delicious meal that I am so thankful to have shared with my family and friends.