Thanksgiving!

  I hope that you all had a happy Thanksgiving!  We had a blast.  Went to Memphis to visit some friends, eat turkey, and of course... cook!  I love cooking,  and there is nothing more fun than cooking with a friend.
  I made some homemade pecan pie using two local ingredients.  Local sugar cane syrup, and local pecans from my Best Friends backyard.  Super yummy!  I realized that I think the cane syrup may have been some form of molasses... I need to do some research on that.

This week I made three dishes from the "Vegetables Every Day" cookbook.  A sauteed beet recipe that was delicious!  A curried carrot soup that was horrible!  Seriously,  everytime this guy makes a blended veggie soup recipes,  it has leeks,  and I really do not like the taste of leeks.  
  Finally I made a brocolini and garlic recipe that I inhaled.  It was so good!







Linky Love!
1)   All about Brocolini.  I got mine at Target.  I so suggest that you run out right now, get some,  and cook it and eat it.  It is so worth it!
2)  The rolls I made.  They were so pretty,  but did not come out right.  So sad.  But now I feel inspired to make more things in those little jars...
3)  This one is for one of my dear friends of all ways comments on my blog posts!  My dear,  every time I see bacon... I think of you!

That's all for tonight folks! TTYL!

Slow Cooked Broccoli with Garlic and Anchovies pp.45

Broccoli
     I think I am going to cook this great vegetable once a week as long as I have recipes to do so.  I LOVE BROCCOLI.  Praise the Lord for giving man wisdom on how to breed this vegetable.  This kind of broccoli was not in the garden of Eden.  It's man made.   Here is a small bit from an article to prove my point:

Broccoli, botanically-known as Brassica oleracea italica, is native to the Mediterranean. It was engineered from a cabbage relative by the ancient Etruscans, who were considered to be horticultural geniuses. Its English name, broccoli, is derived from the Italian brocco and the Latin bracchium meaning arm, branch, or shoot. When first introduced in England, broccoli was referred to as "Italian asparagus." Although commercial cultivation of broccoli dates back to the 1500s, it did not become a popular foodstuff in the United States until the early 1920s.  (From here)

Two more links on Broccoli:
Wikipedia and some sort of vegetarian site

Anyways,  I still love it despite My Beloved's hatred for it,  but that is ok.

Anchovies
     Well, actually I used Kippered Herring.  It still worked, but I could not find any anchovies at Wal-Mart,  so I had to improvise,  and I am happy to improvise with Kippered Herring anytime... that stuff rocks!  It blended really well with my dish and the olive oil and garlic.






Result
     It was so good.  I think I will be making this again in the future.  My Beloved, of course,  could not handle it, but he said he liked the Herring and garlic mixture and it reminded him of how Russians prepare their fish sometimes.  The kids were so~so on the dish.  Squeaker inhaled all his broccoli and ate his brothers too.  I'm ok with that,  how ever they will get those veggies in them!

Other News
     I started a new group on Facebook called "Homemaker Geeks".  It's where us homemakers can get geeky!  Join the group!  I would love to see you there :D.
I made another loaf of bread and both of the boys helped me.  They really enjoy pouring the ingredients in the bread machine.  I also started my third bottle of coconut keifer.  Have a good night!

Sesame Stir-Fried Broccoli pp.45-46

Ok, time for some more broccoli again.   I just realized that I have not done a formal photoshoot of broccoli, and I will have to remedy that soon.  Next week... more broccoli!  I can never eat to much broccoli!

Preparation
     I started by looking up what it meant to "stir-fry".  To me (before research) to "stir-fry" meant to stick everything in a pan and cook it till done and serve over rice.  Plain and simple, eh?  But, I was wrong.
  Here are two sources here and here (< --I love Kathy Master's stuff!  It's fun to watch... I promise!).
     I also learned why woks are awesome (although I do not have one anymore), you move the cooked items to the side and then cook the next part while it all stays in the pot.  Fortunately, I happen to know that the edges of my iron cast skillet stay pretty cool (hence the reason why I can only cook a few pancakes at a time).   It worked pretty well,  but it makes me interested in getting a new wok...
    

Result
     I made sure that I followed every direction, except I failed to cover with a lid and let it steam the broccoli after I 'fried' it.  It was very good!  I loved the sesame seeds and all the flavors of the aromatics.   I wish however there were carrots.  I missed them.  

Other News
     Yesterday, one of the other things I did was I cut up a whole chicken, froze the pieces individually, and make my own homemade chicken broth.  Tomorrow I am going to cook down the broth and freeze it into ice cubes.  If I ever need chicken broth, I can pop one of those babies into a cup of water and have an instant cup of chicken broth!  The whole chicken only cost me $5.  But it was a regular WalMart Chicken.  

     I think I am going to invest in free range chickens from the farmers market from now on if I can keep doing this method.   I figured if I keep saving the thighs, legs, and wings, I could basically have a 'free chicken' and save money for a week or two on higher quality meat!  I learned about how to cut up a chicken from here.  He has one on making the chicken broth too.   (The image to the right is the chicken pieces already frozen,  I used the breasts for pulled BBQ sandwiches tonight)

     Well,  until Monday,  I hope you all have a great weekend.  I am going to take the next two days off and do yard work, shop at the local farmers market, hang out with my friend, and eat pizza!   Remember our freedom and who we need to thank! THANK YOU DEAR VETERANS! 

Steamed/Boiled Broccoli with Extra-Virgin Olive Oil and Garlic pp.43

 Broccoli
    I love broccoli (Squeaker calls it 'gwawkli').  Sometimes I crave broccoli.  So, making some tonight seemed like a great idea!   This particular recipe has more than just one recipe.  It's instructions with how to boil/steam and then many ways to prepare them after the instructions.

Result:
   I loved it (of course).  Sous Chef Squeaker loved it for a while, until he met a part of it with garlic.  He does not really like garlic- I think the flavor and the spiciness.  But other than that, he wolfed it down.  I think Chef Turbo got some garlic on the first bite.  He did not eat another bite.

Other Notes:
My grass I planted on my birthday is now growing. You will not believe how happy that makes me!!   I thought it would be painful and hard to grow grass.  But, other than watering it all the time,  it's pretty easy!

I found some Sorrel at a plant nursery today,  after it grows a bit I can make some of the recipes from the Sorrel chapter.  I also found some Lemon Verbena.  I do not know why I bought it,  but I think I remember a movie where someone was so happy to encounter some Lemon Verbena, and so I thought I had to have some too.   I cannot wait to try it with tea, rice, and fish!