Easter 2012

Baked Brie

Oreo Cheesecake Bites

Oreo Cheesecake

Happy Birthday Scott

Scott's Birthday Cake

 

 Stuffed Shells

christmas dinner 2011

Christmas Dinner 2011

 

Prime Rib

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Scalloped Potatoes

Brussel Sprouts with Bacon

Ba-nilla Pie!

Thanksgiving Feast

I know Thanksgiving was a few weeks ago, but I haven't had a chance to update until now. My mom gave me the honor of planning and cooking our family's Thanksgiving dinner. I used Food Network's magazine for inspiration.

I started by brining the turkey a day before I planned to roast it. I started by boiling two cups of kosher salt and a cup of sugar in water. Then, I made added lemon peel, garlic powder, thyme, oregano,  lemon pepper, peppercorns, and rosemary into the boiling water. I let it boil for 10 minutes, let it cool, and then added it to the ice water bath. Then, I put the turkey into the cooler to soak up all the wonderful flavors.

The next day, I started by making the stuffing. The day before, I bought a french loaf from Fresh and Easy, cut it into cubes, and spread them on a tray to dry out. They still were not as crusty as I wanted the next morning, so I popped the tray into the oven for about 15 minutes. Then, I sauteed onions, celery, mushrooms. Once cooked, I added chicken broth. I added this mixture to the dried bread, and put in salami and wild rice. I mixed it all together, and I put half in the turkey and half in a casserole dish. This was not a traditional stuffing, but it was delicious!

I rubbed the turkey with garlic powder, oregano,  and lemon juice. Then, I put the stuffed turkey into the oven and let it bake! YUM!

Next, I started on the side dishes. I always have trouble making mashed potatoes (which is bizzare because they are my favorite food). For some reason, they always turn out super watery and runny whenever I boil the potatoes. So, this year, I decided to bake the potatoes, then mash them. This way, there was no chance of them turning out runny.  I hallowed out the taters, then added butter and cream. They were a wonderful success!

Next, I worked on the stuffed mushrooms. I sauteed onions, garlic, prosciutto, and the stems from the mushrooms together.  I stuffed this mixture into the mushrooms, topped them with cheddar cheese, and baked them in the oven.

The last two side dishes included creamed corn, and my mom's Taiwanese yams. She baked these yams in honey, and topped them with orange zest. These are my favorite Thanksgiving side dish!


Writing this post makes me want to make a second Thanksgiving dinner! YUM!

Flavored Pumpkin Seeds

Last year, Dan, Mark, and Adrienne decided to carve pumpkins at our house in San Diego. Since they had TONS of seeds leftover, I decided to make seeds. This year, I wanted to recreate the seeds I made from last year, and make new ones!

My friend Lindsay and I decided to go to the pumpkin patch and buy HUGE pumpkins. Then, we de-seeded them. After cleaning the pumpkin, we washed the seeds to rid them of any goop.

Then, the real fun began. We raided her spice cabinet to come up with flavor profiles. We decided to do some sweet, some spicy, and some savory. We seperated all our seeds into four bowls, and flavored them from there.

I wanted to re-create my seeds from last year, so I added garlic powder, onion powder, olive oil, and salt and pepper. I made sure that they stayed in the oven long enough so they were extra crunchy.

Then, we started on the other flavors. For the next batch, we added cinnamon, sugar, and apple pie spice to the bowl. We baked these until the sugar caramelized on the seeds.

After, we decided to go spicy! We added cayenne pepper and salt to the next batch and baked them. These were super spicy!

Lindsay and I weren't sure of what to do with the last bowl. Then, she had the genius idea of adding Parmesan cheese to the seeds! The salty-ness and cheesy-ness of the parmesan was the perfect compliment to the savory flavor of the seeds!



All of these seeds were SO ADDICTING! I couldn't stop eating them! YUM!!!