Thanksgiving Tables

Before I get into the holiday review, I wanted to let you know that there is a sale over at Susie's Homemade Chocolate Shop !!!!!

Today through Monday, all items are a dollar off!! And, if you let me know that you are a faithful reader of my blog, I will take an extra $1 off the shipping costs too!! That's right!! 6 delicious Cookie Dough Balls nestled in a beautiful package for $13 (that includes shipping)!! So, stock up for those gifts for hostesses, teachers, mail carriers, hair stylists and anyone else on your shopping list:-)

Now that that's out of the way....it's time for Carrie's Friday Foto Fun:-) I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving! We sure had a great holiday and here is a picture of our table. Doesn't that look inviting?

If you look really closely, you will see that I included some of my youngest's artwork from preschool on the table:-)

What Are You Thankful For?

I am thankful that my Flowering Kale lasted as long as they did:-)

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody:-)

Thanksgiving Centerpiece

It's time for another Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom !!

My Thanksgiving Centerpiece:-)

If I wrote more, would I qualify for Wordful Wednesday on SevEn cLoWn CirCus? Let's see if they kick me out or not:-)

Cleaning the Frig and Freezer

This week, I cleaned out the frig and freezer to make room for all that food for my Thanksgiving menu . Here is the before:

And here it is after:

Now, I am all ready for the holiday:-)

Herb Roasted Turkey

Thanksgiving is on Thursday and I saved the best for last from my Thanksgiving Menu :

Herb Roasted Turkey
Ingredients:
1 Reynolds Oven Bag
1 tbls flour
1 stick butter
6 fresh bay leaves
4 stalks celery, sliced
2 medium onions, sliced
2 lemons, zested
12 fresh sage leaves
salt and pepper
12 lb turkey, thawed

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. In a small sauce pan, melt butter and bay leaves. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Freeze for about 15 minutes so it returns to solid form.

3. Shake flour in the bag and put it in your roasting pan. Add half of your celery and onions to the bag.

4. In a large bowl, mix the remaining celery and onion with the lemon zest, sage leaves and salt and pepper. Remove neck and giblets from the turkey. Stuff the turkey under the breast and the neck the with the veggie mixture. This will add aromatics to the turkey and round the shape of the turkey out for uniform browning.

5. Rub turkey with the solid sage butter. Close the bag with the nylon tie provided. Cut six half-inch slits in the top and tuck the ends of the bag in the pan. Bake for 3 hours.

6. Cut the bag open and bake for another half hour to brown the turkey fully. Allow the turkey to rest for 20 minutes before carving to let the juices soak back in.

Enjoy:-)

Friday's Foto Fun with Mittens

It's time for Carrie's Friday Foto Fun:-)

I swear we don't keep the house that cold!

She just really loves her mittens:-)

A Moment for a Fallen Comrade

I don't know what it is about holiday plants but, I can't even get my Amaryllis to come back!

Pecan Pie

I am nothing if I am not accommodating. Many of you asked for my Pecan Pie recipe and I am happy to oblige. Here you go:

Susie's Homemade Pecan Pie
Ingredients:
1/2 Fail-Proof Pie Crust Recipe
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup pecan, chopped plus enough pecan halves to top the pie

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Prepare pie crust.
3. In a medium bowl, beat sugar, butter, corn syrups, salt and eggs with a hand mixer. Stir in pecans and pour into the prepared crust. Top with pecan halves in concentric circles.
4. Bake 40 to 50 minutes until set. For easy service, cool at least 20 minutes before serving.

Serves 8

Pumpkin Gingerbread Cupcakes

...You got it:-) I got a bunch of requests for the recipe for my Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee Thanksgiving entry . And I am obliging if nothing else so here it is:

Pumpkin Gingerbread Cupcakes

Ingredients:

3 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable

4 eggs

2/3 cups water

1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin puree

2 tsp ground ginger or 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

1 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

Orange-colored sugar glaze (see recipe below)

18 cinnamon sticks

mint vines for garnish, if desired

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 12 bundt-style cupcake pan.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar, oil and eggs. Beat until smooth. Add water and beat until well blended. Stir in pumpkin, ginger, allspice and cinnamon.

3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and blend just until they are incorporated.

4. Fill each cup 2/3 fill. Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.

5. Dip each cupcake in prepared sugar glaze (see recipe below). Cut each cinnamon stick in half and place in the center of each "pumpkin". Garnish with mint vines, if desired.

Makes 36 cupcakes

Sugar Glaze:

Ingredients:

5 lb powdered sugar

1 tbl milk

Orange food color

Directions:

Mix all ingredients until combined.

Here it is...

My TV appearance:

Money for Mommies

You have to get through the commercial and then I am the second story in their "Special Assignment".

Let me know what you think:-)

Friday's Foto Fun with Press

It's time for Carrie's Friday Foto Fun:-)



I am posting a picture of my chocolate shop because, today is the day!! My little corner of the universe is being featured on our local NBC affiliate: TMJ4! If you are local, watch it at 10:00 p.m! If not, I will post the video tomorrow.

And, if that weren't enough, I am also being featured here today:

I don't know what I did to deserve all the attention but I am having a ball:-)

Plant Update

Here are my seedlings:

Pretty soon, it will be time to separate them into their own pots. They may be ready as early as next week.

I also wanted to show you my holiday plants. I started forcing my amaryllis a couple weeks ago and here is what it looks like now:

Although now, it is starting to slump. I fear that I might lose her so, I put her under the big light downstairs.

And, here is my Christmas cactus (sorry about the quality of the picture...my camera is really going):

Last year it didn't bloom so hopefully it will this year since I pruned it.

As a final note, I am going to buy poinsettias again this year. I tried to keep them 2 years in a row and I just end up killing them every time:-( It is my biggest nemesis but I will figure it out!!

Pumpkin Cupcakes and a TV Appearance

This is a really exciting week for me and I have so much to share. So, I am going to do another Wordful Wednesday with SevEn cLoWn CirCus.

We had another Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee competition Monday. This time, the theme was Thanksgiving. This was my entry:

This is a Pumpkin Gingerbread Cupake with an orange-colored sugar glaze and a cinnamon stick for the stem. I set it atop a bed of spun sugar to look like straw in the garden and garnished it with mint for the vines. I made these last year for our Thanksgiving table so, I thought that it worked with the theme very well. What do you think?

In addition to the competition on Monday, I am going to be on TV Friday!! Our local NBC affliliate, TMJ4 is airing a story about people making money from home. My chocolate shop on Etsy is being featured!! How cool is that?? So, if you are in the Milwaukee area, tune in Friday at 10:00 p.m! Otherwise, I will post it on Saturday:-)

Organizing the Pantry

With the holiday baking season upon us, I tackled the pantry this week. Here is the before:

And here is the after:



I know it doesn't look like much but, now everything is full and ready for me to bake to my heart's content:-) I also cleaned the shelves and updated the expiration dates on everything.

Pumpkin Pie Cocktails

The best way to start a Thanksgiving celebration is with a great cocktail. Mine tastes just like pumpkin pie, so it's like starting with dessert!

It is made with a pumpkin-infused vodka. There are many different flavored vodkas out there and if you can find a pumpkin one, that is the easiest. If not, you can infuse your own! It takes a little bit of preparation beforehand but it is soooooo worth it:-)

Pumpkin Pie Cocktail
Ingredients:
1 part Pumpkin Infused Vodka (see recipe below)
1 splash of Cointreau
Ice
Pumpkin pie spice, for garnish
1 dallop of whipped cream, for garnish
1 cinnamon stick, for garnish

Directions:
1. Swirl Cointreau in a martini glass and then dump out.

2. If desired, rim glass with pumpkin pie spice for garnish.

3. Shake Pumpkin Infused Vodka and ice and strain into the glass.

4. If desired, garnish with a dallop of whipped cream and a cinnamon stick.

Serves: 1

Pumpkin Infused Vodka
Ingredients:
1 can (10 oz) pumpkin puree
1 quart vodka
1 tbls vanilla
1 tbls nutmeg

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a 1 1/2 quart mason jar. Seal the jar and let stand 4 days or up to 3 months. Shake the jar every couple of days for even infusion.

2. When the infusion period is over, strain the vodka through cheesecloth into a 1 quart jar. Your infusion is now ready to serve.

Accolades

This is going to be an extremely exciting week for me. I have two very special events coming up so stay tuned all week for the details.

In the meantime, I am going to do some homework by returning some awards I have received over the last couple weeks.

The first one is about friendship and it came from a new bloggy friend at Poetry and Other Ramblings :


The second one came from The Hostess with the Mostess who thinks I am creative:

HDMac's Crafty Blog and More gave me this award that acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day:

And finally, a fellow Etsy seller, Oh2122 thinks I am Uber Amazing:

Now it is customary that I pass these awards along. So, I hereby award the following blogs with any and all of the awards in this post:

1. SevEn cLoWn CirCuS

2. Minnesota vs. Texas

3. My Southern, Hippie, Married, Mom Of Four Life

4. Lamp Unto My Feet and Light Unto My Path

Friday's Foto Fun with Sprouts

It's time for Carrie's Friday Foto Fun:-)

Yesterday, I posted about my Indoor Garden but I actually started the garden on Sunday. And today, I have my first sprouts:-)

I told you that the lettuce sprouts quickly:-)

Indoor Gardening

I am ready to get my indoor garden going:-) I am so excited to start!! Let me show you what I did:-)

I keep my seeds in my grandma's old recipe box. I staple each seed packet to an index card and file them alphabetically. That way, they are easier to find.



The index card includes information that I would like to track. Obviously, the name of the seed goes on top. Next, I record the date that I started the seeds or the "Sown" date. Then, I write down when they "Sprouted". Once they are big enough, I notate when they are trans- "Planted" into a bigger container. And finally, I celebrate the "Harvest" date.

I start the seeds using:

I put the mix inside small plastic pots that I have santized (1 part bleach to 9 parts water). Then, I label each pot with a popicle stick so, I can remember what is what. The pots go inside a tray and then I water them. That way, any drainage, goes right into the tray.

Next, I place the tray under my grow light. This is a two-shelf unit that my husband built for me in our basement a couple years ago. The pots go on the bottom shelf and the light hangs from chains on the top shelf. The chains are adjustable so when your plants grow, you can raise the light. Lastly, the "walls" of the shelving unit is curtained in relective paper to keep the light and the heat in.

This is what it look like when the curtains are closed:

So, there you have it. By next week, I should have some pictures of sprouting plants! Wish me luck:-)

Tree Trimming

This week, we tackled tree trimming. Although the apple tree produced apples this year, they were really small. The tree itself hadn't been tamed in years so, we decided to lob the top off and hope for bigger apples next year.

I don't have before pictures (our server has my older pictures held captive:-) but, here is what we cut off:



And here is what is left of the tree:



It's kind of hard to tell from these pictures but the goal is to make it short and fat. We have achieved short and in spring, hopefully, it will fill out to fat:-)

Sweet 100

Today is start of a new month but it is also my 100th post!!! In honor of this occassion, I am doing a Sweet 100!!

I got this idea from Cakespy . They found a website called Very Good Taste who started a list called "The Omnivore's Hundred", which listed 100 foods which "every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life."

Cakespy liked the idea and thought--why not make a Sweet 100!? Like the original, the list includes "fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food" but it's all sweet!

So the question that they ask is how many have you tried? If you'd like, feel free to follow the same guidelines:

1) Copy this list into your site, including the instructions.

2) Change color of all of the sweets you've eaten!


3) Cross out any of them that you'd never ever eat.


4) Consider anything that is black or crossed out your "To Do" List.


5) Optional: Post a comment here linking to your results--or just post a comment letting us know how many you've tried, or what you're going to try next!

Red Velvet Cake
Princess Torte
Whoopie Pie
Apple Pie either topped or baked with sharp cheddar
Beignet
Baklava
Black and white cookie
Seven Layer Bar (also known as the Magic Bar or Hello Dolly bars)
Fried Fruit pie (sometimes called hand pies)
Kringle
Just-fried (still hot) doughnut
Scone with clotted cream
Betty, Grunt, Slump, Buckle or Pandowdy
Halvah
Macarons
Banana pudding with nilla wafers
Bubble tea (with tapioca "pearls")
Dixie Cup
Rice Krispie treats
Alfajores
Blondies
Croquembouche
Girl Scout cookies
Moon cake
Candy Apple
Baked Alaska
Brooklyn Egg Cream
Nanaimo bar
Baba au rhum
King Cake
Sachertorte
Pavlova
Tres Leches Cake
Trifle
Shoofly Pie
Key Lime Pie (made with real key lime)
Panna Cotta
New York Cheesecake
Napoleon / mille-fueille
Russian Tea Cake / Mexican Wedding Cake
Anzac biscuits
Pizzelle
Kolache
Buckeyes
Malasadas
Moon Pie
Dutch baby
Boston Cream Pie
Homemade chocolate chip cookies
Pralines
Gooey butter cake
Rusks
Daifuku
Green tea cake or cookies
Cupcakes from a cupcake shop
Crème brûlée
Some sort of deep fried fair food (twinkie, candy bar, cupcake)
Yellow cake with chocolate frosting
Jelly Roll
Pop Tarts
Charlotte Russe
An "upside down" dessert (Pineapple upside down cake or Tarte Tatin)
Hummingbird Cake
Jell-O from a mold
Black forest cake
Mock Apple Pie (Ritz Cracker Pie)
Kulfi
Linzer torte
Churro
Stollen
Angel Food Cake
Mincemeat pie
Concha
Opera Cake
Sfogliatelle / Lobster tail
Pain au chocolat
A piece of Gingerbread House
Cassata
Cannoli
Rainbow cookies
Religieuse
Petits fours
Chocolate Souffle
Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake)
Rugelach
Hamenstashen
Homemade marshmallows
Rigo Janci
Pie or cake made with candy bar flavors (Snickers pie, Reeses pie, etc)
Divinity
Coke or Cola cake
Gateau Basque
S'mores
Figgy Pudding
Bananas foster or other flaming dessert
Joe Froggers
Sables
Millionaire's Shortbread
Animal crackers
Basbousa