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Showing posts from November 20, 2016

Candied Pecans

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After I finished with food prep for the day, Sheila took over the kitchen and started working on making some candied pecans.   She spread the bag of pecan halves on a cookie sheet, then coated them all with some olive oil by tossing them around the cookie sheet and then slow roasted them in the oven...  On the stovetop, she brought some water, sugar, salt, and cinnamon to 'soft ball stage'... added some vanilla extract... then dumped the roasted pecans into the pot... mixed them until they were all coated with the candy mixture... dumped them onto some waxed paper... and then used a fork to separate the candied-together pecans. These are delicious! Now it is about time to start on tonight's dinner... grilled steak!

Today's Food Prep

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Thankfully, I think I am done with another day of Thanksgiving food prep! Sweet Italian sausage for my Country Harvest Turkey Dressing. Earlier this afternoon, I cooked up some sweet Italian sausage for my Country Harvest Turkey Dressing. This sausage will get chopped up with some onions, sage, corn bread, seasoned bread, garlic, thyme, and dried cranberries... then add some chicken stock... into the oven for a bit... this should be some pretty tasty dressing! So, the sausage is now cooked, moved to the fridge and ready to be chopped tomorrow.  While the sausage was cooking, I had four sweet potatoes in the oven. These sweet potatoes will be for my Bourbon Glazed Yams. After cutting the sweet potatoes, I'll add some butter, maple syrup, molasses, brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and some bourbon. Throw this concoction in the oven and then finish the last few minutes with some mini marshmallows on top until they are browned.  So, the sweet potatoes are ready to go

Some German Flavor for Thanksgiving

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Since Adam can't be with us this Thanksgiving, I thought it would be appropriate to bring some local flavor from his new home to our own Thanksgiving Day. We've done this with every holiday since Adam left... we've brought food to our table from the area of the world in which he is currently living.  On this Thanksgiving Day, I will be drinking a tasty Pilsner which was brewed in the Munich style! Although this particular Pilsner beer, Idletyme, was brewed right here in Stowe, Vermont, it is a golden Pilsner beer in the Munich style so it is quite different than all the overly hoppy beer found here in the northeastern US. I prefer lighter, golden beers to darker, foamy, hoppy beer. That being said, I also love smooth dark porters as well. I've never tasted this local brew but I'm looking forward to having a bit tomorrow as I finish preparing our Thanksgiving meal and socialize with some close friends. Adam will be enjoying a Thanksgiving meal with co-wor

Christmas Lights in Snow!

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After I wrote and posted my previous blog entry, I headed outside to help Sheila shovel. Fortunately for my spinal injuries, this snow is light, fluffy stuff so it was a quick and easy job.  Then I went in to retrieve my camera to see if I could get some decent shots outside without a tripod. They came out okay for shooting in complete darkness, handheld with driving snow covering me and my camera... I should have dug out my tripod though.  Hopefully, they'll be more chances to get some nice shots of the house decorated for the holidays...

Some Snow!

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We had just finished the Christmas lights outside the house... sunny weather nearing 70 degrees... then we had heavy rain through the night... which quickly turned to big snow flakes falling out of the sky.  Now... Sheila is outside shoveling all the snow so we can get out of the driveway.   I guess this means I'll be raking the roof tomorrow...

Thanksgiving Day Prep

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It is only Monday but I started my Thanksgiving Day meal prep this morning.  I made some southern sweet tea infused with mint. I put a fresh sprig of mint into each jar of tea then placed them in the fridge. They'll continue to build flavor over the next few days until Thanksgiving.  Then I made some fresh blackberry syrup... poured it into ice cube trays... and now we'll have blackberry ice cubes to add to the sweet tea! Of course, we'll also have some lemon slices ready to go too...