Thanksgiving in Phoenix Again 2015!

Wesley's favorite, Potato Rolls, he could eat all of them he said!-

Made again from Food Network Kitchen Recipe

Pecan Pie-

Recipe from Food Network by Aaron Sanchez

I used honey and maple syrup in place of agave nectar, delicious!

 Apple Walnut Tart-

From Delicious Living November 2015 Magazine

Southwestern Turkey-

Recipe from November 2015 Food Network Magazine

Grapefruit Salad with Peppercorn Dressing-

Recipe from November 2015 Food Network Magazine

Mashed Potatoes with Shallots-

Recipe from November 2015 Food Network Magazine

Tex-Mex Green Bean Casserole-

Recipe from November 2015 Food Network Magazine

Butternut Squash-Mushroom Stuffing-

Recipe from November 2015 Food Network Magazine

Cranberry-Orange Chutney-

Recipe from Taste for Life November 2015 Magazine

Classic Gravy-

Recipe from November 2015 Food Network Magazine

Honey-Maple Pumpkin Ice Cream-

Recipe from Delicious Living October 2015

 Wesley really loved it!

Vashon Thanksgiving 2014

This year I spent the day at Brandon and Lauren's house with their 3 boys and new baby girl, our friends Andrew and Rita, and Lauren's sister Kate.  We had a late breakfast of oven pancakes before getting started on cooking for the big meal.  No pictures again, but here is a list of what was on our menu:

Dinner

-Barbecued Turkey that Brandon got from a slaughter job, stuffed with Rita and Andrew's kimchi and a pomegranate

-Gravy that Brandon made by reducing turkey stock, with a little Cornerstone buttermilk added

-Lauren's Stuffing, which had beef bacon in it this year, and more mashed potatoes than in past years

-Brussels Sprouts grown and cooked by Rita, sauteed with beef bacon

-Green Bean Mushroom Casserole from the November 2014 Food Network Magazine, with Rita's onions fried in beef tallow

-Cabbage Gratin with Rita's cabbage, using a recipe from the November 2013 Bon Appetit magazine as a guide, featuring Cornerstone's cheese, Lauren's bread used for the bread crumbs, and Farmstead Meatsmith prosciutto

-Roasted Squash with Lemon-Tahini Sauce from the December 2012 Bon Appetit and made with Rita's winter squash

-Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes with Rita's potatoes and Cornerstone buttermilk

Dessert

-Buttermilk Pumpkin Pie from the November 2014 Food Network Magazine, with Cornerstone's pumpkin and buttermilk

-Maple Pecan Pie from Jeanette's maple cookbook

-Cranberry Cake that Rita made using her mom's recipe

-Apple Crisp that was dropped off by Brandon and Lauren's friends the Dalys

-Maple Whipped Cream - sadly, not from Cornerstone since we didn't have extra milk, but made with the help of Wallace

2014 Thanksgiving In Phoenix with "Pop"

This year we did Thanksgiving on the day before since Ian had to work on Thanksgiving and we got to enjoy it with Harry this year here in sunny Phoenix!

Here is what I made for the big meal, which I started preparing for a few days before.
For the Turkey I made a whole roasted turkey using Ina's Roast Turkey and Turkey Gravy with Onions and Sage from November 2014 Food Network Magazine.

Classic Cranberry Sauce from the November 2014 Food Network Magazine booklet insert.

Easy Duchess Potatoes from Whole Foods Market recipe card.

Cornbread-Bacon Stuffing from November 2014 Food Network Magazine made with Jalapeno-Bacon Skillet Cornbread and Potato Rolls that are Food Network Recipes as well, which I made the day before.

The Potato Rolls were Wesley's favorite, that is all he wanted to eat and could probably have eaten most of them if I let him!

Ranch Salad with Pecans from Food Network November 2014 Magazine again. Sorry for the blurry picture, I was in a rush to eat it :-)  Wesley dives in and helps himself after waiting all day watching me cook...... finally can eat Thanksgiving now!

Green Bean Mushroom Casserole and Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic Honey from Food Network Magazine November 2014.

Now for Dessert!  Apple Brown-Butter Tart and Upside-Down Pear Cranberry Tart both recipes from Food Network's website.  Both Delicious and served with homemade ice cream that I put the extra Brown-Butter filling in, from the Apple Tart, to sweeten and flavor along with maple syrup and vanilla, so good! Yes there is also store bought vanilla ice cream too in the picture, that was before I bought my $6 Cuisinart Ice Cream maker from Goodwill:-)  "Pop" liked my ice cream better.

Cornerstone Thanksgiving 2013

My partner in crime was in Arizona this Thanksgiving, so we kept our meal somewhat simple, and all of the cooking was done by myself, Lauren, and Brandon.  I didn't take any pictures, but here's what we made:

Brunch

-Pumpkin New-York Style Crumb Cake from An Edible Mosaic that I made using pumpkin puree from Cornerstone's garden and Cornerstone's raw butter.  The crumb topping was so good, and there was as much of it as there was the pumpkin cake underneath!  It would have been good with more cake, but it was delicious the way it was as well.

-Baked Bacon from Farmstead Meatsmith

-Fried Eggs

Dinner

-Barbecued Turkey made (and slaughtered/butchered) by Brandon

-Lacto-Fermented Cranberry Chutney that I made using a recipe from Real Food In Little Rock.  I wasn't too impressed, but maybe I was expecting something different than what you get when you lacto-ferment raw fruit.

-Mashed Purple Potatoes made by me from Cornerstone's garden with our own cultured raw butter, fromage blanc, and buttermilk

-Gravy made by Brandon with the turkey giblets and cranberry wine

-Lauren's Famous Stuffing, this time made with Cornerstone's grass-fed ground beef

-Brussels Sprouts that Brandon sauteed with bacon, onions, and garlic

-Winter Squash Gratin that I made with Cornerstone delicata squash and another type of squash that Lauren brought, as well as Cornerstone's cheese and cream.  I used the recipe from the October 2013 Food Network Magazine as a guide.

-Pumpkin Spoon Bread from Bon Appetit, which I made with Cornerstone's pumpkin, milk, butter, and thyme

Dessert

-Caramel Pear Pie with Oat Crumble made by Lauren with a recipe from A Cozy Kitchen

-Pumpkin Pie that I made with a recipe from PCC

-Raw Whipped Cream

Sunny Thanksgiving In Phoenix

For the Turkey, I did a Dry Brine overnight from the Bon Appetit November 2013 Magazine that had black, pink, and white peppercorns, coriander seeds, bay leaves, salt, sugar, lemon and orange zest.

 For the turkey legs and thigh I used the Braised Turkey Legs recipe from the November 2013 Bon Appetit Magazine as well.  I used a turkey stock, that I had previously made, to braise the turkey in.

With the homemade turkey stock and braising juices, I made the Hard-Cider Gravy taken from November 2013 Bon Appetit Magazine.  It was delicious!

I used Bobby Flay's Wild Mushroom-Bacon Sourdough Dressing from November 2013 Food Magazine.  I had made my sourdough bread to use in this dish.

From the same Food Network Magazine, I made the Cranberry-Orange Sauce.

Here are some more side dishes-
Brussels Sprout Gratin and Braised Collards From Food Network Magazine Nov. 2013 Booklet "50 Vegetable Sides"

I roasted Sweet Potatoes with some olive oil and butter and tossed it with Pomegranate Seeds and Honey.

Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes from November 2013 Bon Appetit Magazine

Gratefruit-Poppy Seed Salad from November 2013 Food Network Magazine

Pumpkin Cheddar Muffins from http://katieatthekitchendoor.com/2012/09/20/pumpkin-cheddar-muffins/

Now for Dessert-
Both of these recipes are from the Cooking Light November 2012 Magazine,
Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream and Honey-Pecan Tart With Bittersweet Chocolate.
I made the tart with a graham cracker crust instead of the traditional crust and used a pie not tart pan.

And I believe that was it, it was delicious!

Dinner in Seattle

We all met up in Seattle this summer at the Wilson's Phinney Ridge house for another dinner adventure.  The theme?  Grilling!  Our high hopes for grill marks, however, were unfortunately not fulfilled. A mere few minutes into getting things on the grill we realized we had run out of propane, and quickly changed gears and finished everything inside.  The meal still turned out great, just not quite what we had intended.

We made BLT Bread Salad from the July/August Food Network Magazine, and replaced the ricotta salata with queso blanco from Cornerstone Dairy.

For the bread we used Essential Baking Company's Rosemary Diamante

For another non-green salad we made Bobby Flay's Grilled Sweet Potato and Scallion Salad, which recipe was also from the July/August issue of FN Magazine.

Since we were supposed to be grilling, we figured why not make two kinds of meat?  First, grass-fed beef steaks from Cornerstone using the recipe from the July/August FN Magazine for Simple Sirloin Steak with Chimichurri.

The second meat dish was Herbed Grilled Chicken Wings from the July Bon Appetit.

All components of the dinner tasted great, despite the glitch in the plans!  After the stress of the grill not working, Wesley decided to relax in the hot tub for a while...

For dessert we made Miette's Miniature Cheesecake from Hummingbird High.  We encountered a couple set-backs with this as well.  We made it with homemade cream cheese and creme fraiche (for the topping) from Cornerstone, and the batter for the filling kept separating while mixing it.  It also came out much flatter than the photos from the recipe.  Our makeshift hot water bath (since we didn't have a large enough pan to put the springform pan in) didn't work out very well either, and some water got in and made the crust kind of soggy.  The cheesecake still had a nice flavor, it was just less than ideal in texture all around.