Thanksgiving Fun!!!

I had so much fun being with my family this thanksgiving. By Friday I was literally tired of eating!

The meal was delicious! Yummy turkey, and my dad did a southern cornbread stuffing but he sauteed the onions and celery and a new ingredient, butternut squash. It had great flavor! Then he added craisins to the mix, and all the flavors together were delicious!

My favorite part of the cooking was learning my step great grandmothers recipe on yummy freezer rolls. The title of the rolls should be amazing delicious dinner rolls, and I believe the recipe came all the way from Denmark...but don't quote me on that. It was wonderful to be with my stepmom Trudie (which I call mom Blondie) and learn this part of her heritage.

We also had delicious garlic herb mashed potatoes, which had a little bit of feta cheese melted into it. Made it creamy and had a little bite to it. I really usually don't like mashed potatoes, but I ate a whole serving of these on my own.

Now the pies were over the top.
Pumpkin, sweet potato, apple, blackberry, mango key lime, coconut cream, and chocolate cream.

I made these two pies, blackberry, and coconut cream. Quite the success but I could hardly enjoy them because I was so full!

                           (this pie had been pre cut)

I love thanksgiving and all of my family that I was able to spend thanksgiving with (and of course the ones on the other side of the country that I wasn't able to spend with)

- D

Pot Roast Dinner and My First Cooking Blog Post

     I am so excited to start documenting my cooking endeavors! I will warn everyone that I don't consider myself a very good writer, so I'm hoping that the pictures of the food will make up for it. 

     One of my friends at church, Meredith Cook, which by the way I am so excited to get to know even better, mentioned that she had a cooking blog. The idea stuck with me the whole week and I was determined to be a big copy cat because I LOVE to cook.  

    So here I am the week of Thanksgiving, and I decided to be crazy and prepared a huge meal. I generally do this on a weekly basis on Sunday, since Sunday dinners are a wonderful excuse to make huge portions of delicious food, for only Jed and I. I think I can accurately say that Jed is my Number 1 fan, and he never complains about my cooking obsession :-).

     The meal this Sunday was pot roast, with onions, mashed potatoes, corn, lion house pantry rolls, cinnamon honey butter for the rolls, and a french silk pie (completely homemade). I, earlier this week, became the proud owner of a fancy schmancy kitchen aid mixer, thanks to my Mom, Sarah, and Roger! I was so excited the night I got it that I stayed up until 11pm just to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. It makes baking SOOOO much easier, and has given me more excuses to bake. 

     On Tuesday we had an enrichment night with the Bishop of our ward and he taught all us women how to make the Lion House Pantry Rolls, that sell for almost $6 a dozen in Utah. I was so excited about the recipe that I wanted to try it from start to finish on my own, and the kitchen aid mixer made me want to try it out even more. The rolls are delicious and fluffy. Perfect for any comfort food dinner.

     I started today at 2:30pm and didn't sit down more than a few minutes until 7:00!! In the midst of it all I was able to splash some of the boiling hot beef broth that the roast was cooking in all down my front...Jed ran to my rescue to sop up the burning liquid on my front side. (He's had some practice with my clumsiness and cooking so I think he was prepared). I now have a patch of fiery red skin on my stomach as part of the meal. 

     I think the greatest accomplishment though was the french silk pie. I have made pumpkin pie, and I attempted a blackberry pie last Thanksgiving, but I'm more of a cake maker than a pie maker. The pie crust was made completely from scratch, and the chocolate was boiled, frozen, whipped, refrigerated, and decorated. It is SUPER rich, and both Jed and I prefer milk chocolate flavors over semi-sweet or dark chocolate, but it makes me proud either way. 

     I'm excited for Thanksgiving, which truly is my favorite holiday. I hope I get to exhaust myself in cooking and have more to share soon!