Filed under: Food I Make, Random Foodie Thoughts | Tags: food, ham, life, recipes, sweet potatoes, thanksgiving food, Trisha Yearwood
The dressing before the oven-an onion, two stalks of celery, salt, pepper, a pan of biscuits, and a can of chicken broth. Still striving for dressing that is crunchy and flavorful like my grandmother’s. Maybe someday I’ll get there.
Last year, I made my first Thanksgiving meal for our little family. Just the four of us did it again this year. We sat around our table and ate and ate. It was a good meal with a lot of improvement to go. I made a ham for the first time, and I made mediocre dressing for the second or third time. I tried to make a good Thanksgiving, and no one complained even though they probably could have.
Still, we had food, and a table, and all of us were back again to eat our second Thanksgiving meal in our home. Thursday we will eat again with our extended family, but that meal won’t come close to this one under our own roof with just us.
Luckily, it is not always about the food, but instead it is about the people who sit in front of it. For that, I am thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving to Foodies everywhere…
- Trisha Yearwood-esque ham glaze. I glazed a five-pound ham with one cup of packed brown sugar with around 1/4 cup of honey. I heated it until it was
runny and poured it over the ham with half the time left to bake.
- Sweet potatoes that had been boiled for twenty minutes and set out to cool.
The skins fell right off. Then, they were whipped with three tablespoons of butter, a dash of cinnamon, and 1/4 a cup of sugar.
- Pumpkin pie-made with the recipe on the pumpkin can
minus most of the spices and baked at 350 for 1 hour 15 minutes. Simple, simple, simple.
The pecan pie from our library’s bake sale.
Smart to have it right before Thanksgiving. I don’t know who made it, but it was divine.
My plate without the roll.
Filed under: Food I Make, Random Foodie Thoughts | Tags: blog, food, life, sandy the hurricane, sweet potatoes
So, I have been in a funk lately. And not the fun, “Brick House” kind of funk either.
If there is a prettier color than that of sweet potatoes, I do not know what it is.
I have been in a food funk. I have not wanted to cook or really eat either. Something that I love with all my heart has just not been important to me. A bowl of cold cereal has been supper more than once this week and has been about as adventurous in the kitchen as I have been. My kitchen has been calling my name, but I just walk out of the room quickly and avoid making eye contact with my stove.
My poor family has been surviving on popcorn, Halloween candy, and drive-thru food.
And then there is this sad food blog. Once upon a time, I would post twice a day. Now, I may get around to twice a month. So, so sad.
Woe is me.
I made myself make lunch today. I woke up, watched a little Sunny Anderson on Food Network, spent some time outside, and then schlepped to the kitchen. As I was struggling to put together a decent meal for my family for the first time in weeks, and as I enjoyed my pity party about having to cook, I gave myself a swift kick in the pants.
Because, as I was standing in my nice, cool kitchen cooking with my working stove while listening to my happy, safe family, there were plenty of people on the East Coast who don’t have what I have but did less than a week ago.
Sandy was devastating. People are hurting. Lives are changed forever. Those people to me may be out of sight, but they should never be out of mind.
Country fried steak with brown gravy, greens, and mashed sweet potatoes.
I am so embarrassed at my selfishness. I gathered myself up and put lunch on the table. My pity party (which no one else attended-hmmmm) was over.
Before I ate, I said a prayer for those who are hurting in our country, and I said thanks that I had to fix lunch.
Days like this put things in perspective, and now my family can stop eating candy corn all the time.
Filed under: Food I Make, Random Foodie Thoughts | Tags: food, food photography, life, oyster dressing, recipes, roasted turkey, sweet potatoes, Thanksgiving, thanksgiving food, turkey recipes
I am thankful for so much this Thanksgiving. Family. Friends. Our jobs. Our home. My foodie friends who check out my blog and make me feel loved.
And the fact that the people who live with me let me try weird foods on them all the time.
Today, it was my first attempt to make a Thanksgiving dinner for four people that had to be totally different from what we’ll be having on Thursday.
It was actually very fun for me.
I started by brining a three -pound turkey breast for an hour in salt, water, and sugar. When it was done, I dried off the turkey, salt and peppered it, and wrapped in prosciutto. I roasted it for an hour and a half.
My first turkey was tender and so juicy. The prosciutto was salty enough to add a great flavor.
I also made a sweet potato casserole with marshmallows and caramelized pecans. We had oyster dressing (which was really Stove Top) with a red wine turkey gravy.
Dessert was a pumpkin pie.
I didn’t have any cranberries or anything green, but it was still a delicious feast beyond anything we normally eat on Tuesdays. It was also very different from what we’ll eat for the actual Turkey Day.
I am thankful for that.
Happy Thanksgiving, Foodies!
The Opinionated Foodie: The Love (or Not) of Food and Everything That Goes with It 