Thanksgiving = Food Glorious Food!

It's weekends like this that I am so glad that I am not Oliver Twist with the limited food supply of gruel!  Like many of you I spent the weekend feasting in so many glorious ways!  I am thankful to be able to enjoy such decadent and wonderful food and in the words of Grade 7 outdoor school "be a Big Munchie" without wasting any of the food of course!


Friday - Payday and a Gastronomic Adventure
As part of my celebration of surviving my first wee back to work Kristina and I decided to venture to Meat and Bread.  This wonderful restaurant, which I visited for the first time while on holidays, did not disappoint!


Kristina and I both enjoyed the turkey dinner sandwiches which included turkey of course, cabbage, and a bunch of other fixings. Absolutely delicious!

Saturday Morning - Breakfast for Mel

It was my brother's girlfriend's birthday on Saturday and since she has been enjoying my baking lately I made her muffins.  This Saturday's muffin recipe was inspired by a recipe from "Honest Cooking" an online food magazine posted by Natalie McLaury.  She modified a recipe from Cooking Light with great muffins for under 200 calories each!

Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins

Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins

adapted from Cooking Light August 2010

Ingredients:

• 1 2/3 (150 g) cups old-fashioned oats
• 2/3 cup (3 oz) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (2.33 oz) whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup(135 g) brown sugar
• 2 tsp (10 ml) ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp (5 ml) baking powder
• 1 tsp (5 ml) baking soda
• 3/4 (3.75 ml) tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups (350 ml) low-fat buttermilk
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) canola oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 cup fresh cranberries (the original recipe called for frozen cranberries chopped)
• 1 cup apples, chopped (this was not included in Natalie's original recipe)
• oil or cooking spray to grease muffin pan

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Coat 16 muffin cups (or 12 regular sized and 12 mini sized) with oil or cooking spray.

2. Stir oats, flours, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk with oil, lemon rind, and eggs. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

4. Gently fold cranberries, apples, and lemon juice into the batter and spoon evenly into prepared muffin cups.  Bake for 20 minutes (large muffins) and 12-15 minutes (mini muffins) until muffins spring back when touched lightly in the center. Remove from muffin cups immediately and place on a wire rack to cool.

Sunday - The First Feast

I am very lucky to have more than one family and on Sunday I joined the Calder/Thomson clan to enjoy a delicious Sunday night Thanksgiving feast!  My contribution to the meal was my mom's Chinese Rice Stuffing.

Mom's Chinese Rice Stuffing

2 cups long grain rice

3 cups brown rice

approximately 5 cups water

1/4 cup chicken broth

5 large dried shitake mushrooms, re-hydrated in warm water, chopped

4 links lop cheung (Chinese Sausage), steamed and then chopped

1/4 cup white onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

1) Wash and cook the rice in a rice cooker.

2) Saute the shitake mushrooms, onion and garlic until tender.  Add chicken broth and turn off the heat.

3) Steam the Chinese sausage and then chop into small pieces

4) Spoon rice into a large bowl.  Add the mushroom, onion mixture and stir until chicken broth is evenly distributed.  Add Chinese sausage.

The Second Feast - The Williams Family

Our Thanksgiving Table

Today we had our Thanksgiving feast!  It was delicious! We even ate early - at around 5:00!  I know it's shocking!  Here is a sampling of what we served

Honey and Rosemary Brined Turkey -
the black sections were actually golden  it just didn't come out in the picture

Honey and Rosemary Brined Turkey

courtesy of Whole Foods Recipes

Ingredients

For the Brine 
4 cups water 
3/4 cup kosher salt 
1/2 cup honey 
32 ounces low-sodium chicken broth 
1 tablespoon black peppercorns 
6 to 8 sprigs fresh rosemary 
1 (12- to 14-pound) fresh turkey, neck and giblets removed and reserved (discard liver) 

Method

For the brine, bring water to a boil in a saucepan. Add salt, honey, broth, peppercorns and rosemary in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve salt. Cool at room temperature, then refrigerate until needed. 


About 6 to 8 hours before you plan to roast your turkey, place brine mixture in a large clean bucket, stock pot or cooler and stir in 1 gallon of ice water. Place turkey in the bucket, breast side down, cover and refrigerate 6 to 8 hours or overnight. Make sure the turkey is fully submerged, adding more ice water if necessary. 


To roast the turkey, preheat oven to 450°F. Remove turkey from brine and rinse thoroughly, inside and out, with cool water; pat dry. Discard brine solution. Add stuffing (we stuffed the turkey with Mom's Chinese Rice Stuffing - recipe above). Place on a roasting rack set inside a large roasting pan and tuck the wings back.  


Cover breast portion with foil and place turkey on lowest rack in oven and roast 30 minutes, then turn heat down to 350°F and roast 2 to 2 1/2 hours longer, until a thermometer reads 165°F when inserted between the breast and thigh without touching the bone. Remove foil from breast about 45 minutes before the turkey is done. Remove turkey from pan, place on a platter and tent with foil. Let the turkey rest 20 minutes before carving. 

Pumpkin Cheesecake and Ginger Pecan Crust with Maple Caramel Sauce

Courtesy of "Let them Eat Cake" Blog

Ingredients

Crust
1 cup crushed gingersnap cookies
1/2 cup pecans, ground fine in a food processor or coffee grinder
5 tbsp butter, very soft or melted.

Cheesecake
2 - 250 g (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Sauce 
1/2 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter the bottom of a 9" springform pan, then wrap the pan with a double layer of aluminum foil. 
2. Mix crust ingredients in a bowl, and press into the bottom of the springform pan. Use a spatula to make it nice and flat and neaten the edges. Bake crust in the oven for 8-10 minutes, then remove from oven and set aside to cool. Turn the oven temperature down to 275°F. 
3. For the filling, beat the cream cheese and brown sugar together until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition; then beat for 2 minutes (use a timer). 
4. Add pumpkin, spices and vanilla and beat for another 2 minutes. 
5. Pour filling into cooled crust. Place foil-wrapped pan on a baking sheet and fill with 1/2 inch of water. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes. Sides of filling should look puffy and centre should still jiggle and look slightly wet. Leave the cheesecake to cool for an hour. (The recipe calls for leaving it in the oven however we couldn't because we had to put the turkey in.) 
6. Remove cheesecake from oven, lift out of water bath and chill cheesecake in the fridge. (The recipe calls for chilling overnight, however we didn't have time and chilled for approximately 6 hours)

To prepare sauce 

1. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, melt butter and sugar, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat to medium and keep stirring for another 2 minutes. 
2. Add maple syrup & salt and stir for another 2 minutes or until sauce is thickened. 
3. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Mixture will bubble up a bit so keep stirring! 
4. Drizzle a little slightly cooled sauce over cheesecake. Sprinkle with chopped pecans, and drizzle more sauce over the top, saving some sauce to serve with the cheesecake. The sauce can be made ahead of time; simply re-heat over low heat or in the microwave and stir until smooth.

E.D.SMITH®’s Traditional Pumpkin Pie

INGREDIENTS:
2 eggs
1/2 can (28 oz/796 mL) E.D.SMITH® PURE PUMPKIN
1 cup (250 mL) packed brown sugar
1 tsp (5 mL) ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp (2 mL) ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp (1 mL) ground ginger
1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
3/4 cup (175 mL) evaporated milk
1 (9-inch/23 cm) unbaked home-made or frozen deep dish pie shell

PREPARATION:
1. Beat eggs lightly in medium bowl. Add E.D.SMITH® PURE PUMPKIN, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt - stir until well combined. Blend in milk. Pour filling in pie shell. Bake at 425ºF (220ºC) 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350ºF (180ºC) and continue baking 30-35 minutes longer or until knife inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool.
2. Prep Time: 35 minutes, Cooking Time: 45 to 50 minutes, Yield: 1 pie