Tag Archives: recipe

Thanksgiving week – Part 1

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I know I’m late posting about our American Thanksgiving week. What’s new?

First up: I finally finished a puppy sized quilt for our Mini-schnauzer Pepper. I used leftover scraps of fabric in reds, blacks, and whites. I tried to go with an animal theme so I had some paw-prints, cows, and one flamingo fabrics along with flowers, some kites, polka dots, and miscellaneous red, black, and white prints.

I framed it with solid white and charcoal. The back consists of two different pieces of grey flannel that I had to piece together to get the right size. Boring so no picture.

I didn’t bind the edges but simply sewed the front and back together leaving a 4-5 inch open section to turn it right-side out. Then I machine quilted about a 1/4-inch inside each block.

I keep it on the ottoman that Pepper likes to sit/lay/jump on to try to keep it cleaner.

I spent the night with a friend (who lives an hour and a half away) so we could get a jump start on a craft show in her city on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. She used to always bring a plate of homemade cookies or her delicious buckeyes to me whenever she was in the area, so I thought I’d make something edible as a hostess gift for the weekend.

With one decorated sugar cookie success under my belt, I made and decorated some autumn inspired leaf cookies.

I forgot I had these leaf shaped cookie cutters that must have been a gift with purchase or something similar from Nutella some years ago. (Confession: I am not a huge fan of Nutella, so that means more for you!) Perfect for the season.

I think these turned out pretty nice. I’m still learning how to use Royal Icing and practice makes perfect. I plan on making more cookies this week for our church Christmas Party next Sunday.

Stay tuned for a sock update!

Mrs. Gildersleeve’s Buns

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Mr. Aitch and I like love bread but we don’t like the typical store bought variety, you know the prepackaged sliced stuff. It’s almost like eating paste.

I’ve baked bread many, many, many times and sometimes it’s really good and other times, well, it’s dense and heavy. So I did some research and found lots of “light and airy” bread recipes that call for scalded milk and/or eggs.

Kitchn.com answers the scalded milk question: The whey protein in milk can weaken gluten and prevent the dough from rising properly. Scalding the milk deactivates the protein so this doesn’t happen.

This from LEAF explains the addition of eggs: The fat in egg yolks helps shorten the gluten strands in bread dough, increasing the gluten’s elasticity. This results in a more tender crumb and softer crust in the finished bread. Additionally, the coagulating property of eggs, due to their protein, helps create a more tender and even texture. As a leavening agent, the eggs contribute to the bread dough rising higher than a non-egg yeast bread.

Maybe you bakers already know those things and I might have learned them in junior high home ec. classes but that was a very, very long time ago.

I looked through several cookbooks I have and found a recipe named “Mrs. Gildersleeve’s Buns” in a fund-raiser cookbook from my hometown. The recipes in this collection were tried and true. Plus I liked the name.

I whipped up a batch of this bread Wednesday afternoon and Mr. Aitch “baked” it on the grill over indirect heat. It is light and fluffy and tastes so good that we had to sample some as soon as it was cool enough to cut.

I will be making this recipe again. And again. And again…

Click here for Mrs. Gildersleeve’s Buns recipe.

Patti

The BEST soup ever

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Hambones…love ’em or hate ’em.  What do you do with your leftover hambone?  I used to toss it but after tasting this soup recipe, I’ll be using it.

A few years ago I tried (successfully in that I liked it) to make bean soup from a leftover hambone.  It was good enough until my daughter texted me a recipe called Leftover Hambone Soup from Damn Delicious.  This recipe was first published in 2013 but it’s a keeper.hambone soup

Other than the thyme, I didn’t measure anything.  I substituted red kidney beans for white ones, added a few stalks of celery, diced, and omitted the bay leaves and salt.  Many commenters on the recipe on the blog also changed up the amounts to suit the items in their pantries but the hambone broth is essential for that delicious flavor.  It took longer for me to prep than suggested so from start to seems to take me longer to do the prep for most recipes so allow two hours from the get-go to serving it up with some crusty bread.

This soup will be my go-to hambone soup from now on. And looking forward to our next ham!  Click here for the recipe.

What do you do with your leftover hambone?

Another make-it-up-as-I-go dinner

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Mr. Aitch and I had shrimp on the grill Saturday night and had some leftover.  Not enough for another meal but enough for something.

So I put on my thinking cap and came up with a version of Shrimp Alfredo using ingredients that I had on hand: low-fat cream cheese, Romano cheese, milk, garlic powder, red peppers, and egg noodles.  And of course, the shrimp seasoned with Old Bay.  We also had a fresh garden salad.

And wine.  Always wine.

I decided to write down the recipe after we tasted it.  Yummy!