Cooking Up a Storm

So Charlene and I have decided if we are going to be doing this vineyard - winery thing over the next year why not at food to the mix too. C and I are developing a passion for food and cooking - but what better way to enjoy food than to take someones recipes and put them to the test. So, we are going to pick a recipe book - hopefully one - and put it to the test a la Julie and Julia. Though we actually have pretty busy lives - so we'll probably pick 50 recipes and we'll see how it goes. Maybe we'll just pick 50 must make recipes - who knows - but I think we can better 50...

Right now we are prepping for a late Thanksgiving dinner - this time at our place with C's mum and dad and our 3 boys. We're taking some of the things we love most about Thanksgiving dinner and adding our own little touches. The things we like most - we'll of course share it - along with the bad - let's be honest it's not all going to be perfect!

So what's on the menu - Turkey, gravy, broccoli, cauliflower, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie.

The turkey we did not stuff. I like my stuffing baked so we opted for a parsley stuffing - very easy to make and absolutely delicious. This stuffing has made stuffing lovers out of my kids and myself. The mash potatoes here`s our little trick - heat up some butter or margarine in a sauce pan along with some cream - bring just to a boil - use this mixture to mash your potatoes with. By all means add garlic or anything else you like in your mash too. The veggies we steamed and the pumpkin pie - almost from scratch. We did use the raw pumpkin from the can but we added eggs, brown sugar, Cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin spice, ginger, salt and evaporated milk to make our filling. The pasty we did ourselves - used the recipe on the Tenderflake box, I have heard the one on the side of the Crisco box is pretty good too. Here`s a tip from Chef John - add a little vinegar to your pastry mix - you decide!

Ok so with the meal prepped and pies made the family arrived. The turkey took about 45 minutes longer to cook than anticipated - but was worth the wait. Charlenes dad - not a gravy fan humoured me and tried mine - he didn`t complain so it can`t have been that bad. Like all meals we are our worst critics. But each time we take away some lesson to make the next time even better. Overall, the meal was super - though, the pastry was a bit of a failure in my mind - that being said I did goof on the measurements - it happens even to the best of us!