10 December 2008

a belated thanksgiving post...

well, if you hadn't guessed, thanksgiving came and went. it all happened rather quickly. it was a pretty fun holiday, though.



i was responsible for apple pie (*insert music of doom here*), pumpkin spice cupcakes, sweet potatoes, and grandma's cinnamon applesauce jello salad. that last one sounds a little weird, but trust me, its fantastic.

where to start...the sweet potatoes. i was thumbing through my november copy of bon appetit magazine, and came across this recipe for sweet potato and apple puree. okay so maybe it sounds a bit like baby food. and it sure is a stretch from the traditional mashed baked sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, but i figured i'd give it a try anyway. i'm glad i did. the apples give it a bit of a tang, and the onions and cayenne pepper give it a nice bite. definitely recommend the recipe.

next, we'll go with the cinnamon applesauce jello thing. i've been eating this every holiday since i can remember, and have yet to grow tired of it. don't knock it til you try it, folks. seriously. look how pretty it is!

the recipe for this wonderful creation is as follows:

1 package lemon jell-o
2 oz. red cinnamon candies (read: red hots)
2 cups applesauce

bring 1 cup water to a boil. add cinnamon candies and stir over low heat until dissolved. remove from heat and add jell-o. once jell-o has dissolved, add 1/2 cup cold water and 2 cups applesauce. pour mixture into an 8x8x2 baking dish and refrigerate several hours.

and voila! there you have it.

alright next up we have the pumpkin spice cupcakes. (i think at this point you've realized i'm avoiding the apple pie explanation.) i've posted about these previously, so refer to that post for the recipe. however, i do have one edit. i replaced half the flour with wheat flour this time (actually because i ran out of white flour, but shhh.). surprisingly, it added a good deal to the taste of the cupcakes, almost making it a bit more muffin like. i enjoyed it. and here they are being all cute with my mom's adorable thanksgiving placemats:

notice i got all creative with the frosting this time. go me. (you'll have to excuse the slight sloppiness of the designs -- this was done with a ziploc bag, as i don't own any sort of appropriate frosting or decorating tools. and im not entirely sure i want to, as that obligates me to start making some really classy stuff :). of course it was a day later that i saw how you can make really cool designs with a ziploc if you reinforce it with tape and cut it a certain way...eh well.)

alright. now i owe you an apple pie. let me just say, i made a test pie earlier in the week. because well, i've never made my own pie entirely from scratch before. the test pie, while not the most beautiful thing i've ever seen, turned out pretty well.


see, not too shabby. i used a combination of granny smith and pink lady apples. good balance of tart and sweet. so on to the thanksgiving pie. well, remember how i ran out of white flour? yeah. i had to use wheat flour. i really do like wheat flour. its just not that great for baking, as i've just recently discovered. wonderful for pancakes, breads, muffins....pie crust? definitely not. the crust tasted very...wheaty. it wasn't terrible, but the first crust was MUCH better. initially, i was going to go with a lattice top. i got semi-lazy, and decided i wanted to use small cookie cutters on the top to make awesomely shaped holes in the crust. specifically, leaf-shaped holes. how fall-ish of me. it looked really cool pre baking, however i failed to consider that the less crust you have on top, the faster the pie bakes. so i left it in a little too long. and then you couldn't really tell that they were leaf-shaped holes. i wasn't going to show you a picture of my sort of embarrassing pie, but i guess i will. we all have cooking mishaps.


so there you have it. those were my thanksgiving dishes. i must share with you how wonderful my mom's dishes looked, though.





green beans, mashed potatoes, turkey, mommy, and rosemary sesame rolls, respectively.

the table settings were also adorable:



and there you have it. thanksgiving in a nutshell. i hope you all had a great one as well.

1 comment:

Momann said...

This is a terrific piece. I am proud to see that Thanksgiving was such a lovely day and we had a delicious meal. The pics are fantastic and the food was out of this world...especially those sweet potatoes!! And the cupcakes!! And the pie....(Ken would like a refill, please!)...