Having a Happy Cooking Thanksgiving Day! :)

All is quite. The turkey is resting in a water bath in the sink to help remove some of the salt from it's overnight brine. The hubby's asleep. The kids are asleep (Thank God!) and I'm using this one half hour on Thanksgiving morning to just sit.

And write.

Because that's what I love to do when I have time to think ;)

And I realized something. Thanksgiving is my favorite time of the year. Why? It's all because of the cooking. I love to cook! I haven't been able to do much of it lately, but thankfully yesterday and today I've had the spoons to do it, so it's on!

And cooking up a storm, I am!

Which reminds me exactly why I want to open and run a B&B. I love keeping house and love cooking. Even in the morning. I'm a o'dark hundred girl from way back ;)

Thankfully I have great guest authors here on the blog for BB Writers Retreats and they leave me a special gift - the recipe for their favorite breakfast. I can't wait to offer up a menu full of author favorites. I think it'll be a nice touch to a writers' retreat, to eat what your favorite author likes for breakfast...

Well, my To-Do lists are calling my name. I've got to butter the turkey and pop it back in the fridge until it's time to start cooking it. In the meantime, I've got 4 pies to make, as I'm sure the pumpkin I cooked last night will yield 2 pies it self... And who doesn't like extra pumpkin pie laying around?!??! I know I do! :)

To that, I'm also making my classic apple pie with the thatched pie crust topping (my hubby's going to cry happy tears as he's gluten free too and never gets to have pie crust). And last but not least my favorite cook Amanda Green from A Whole Lot of Crock's Pecan pie.

Oooh. And maple corn bread.
And jalapeno tequila cranberry sauce (my own recipe ;)
And my hubby's favorite Giada recipe for parmesean mashed potatoes...

I better get cooking!

But not before I pop over to my good friend Dana Renee Style's blog for a unique Thanksgiving recipe card creation! I want to print these out for my own recipes so next year, I'll be organized. And I LOVE organizing ;)

Hope your Thanksgiving is wonderful. Thank you for stopping by!

:)

Food Snobbery on a Budget...

Hi, my name is Lia Mack, and I'm a food snob.

I blame my parents for having us live in Italy for three years while I was growing up. Every Friday morning, the town we lived in held an open air market - mercato - where you could purchase anything and everything fresh.

Fresh fish from the sea, fresh artichokes picked that morning, homemade pastas that took two seconds to cook...and eat ;) Oh, and let's not forget the cheese wagon. Every Wednesday at the same exact time, a man pulling a cart of cheese wheeled down our street singing, "formaggio... mozzarelli... provelone..."Now that's a real cheese wagon :)

So I got mega used to eating whole fresh foods...and fell in LOVE! There is no beating the taste of a ripe red tomato mixed with fresh basil, straight from the garden. I think that's why everything tastes so much better in Italy. Everything is fresh and local. So what if I couldn't drink the water or that the heat and electricity went off daily at 3pm because someone had to go home for siesta. I was in food heaven!!!

And then we moved back to the States - God love America - where there is a grocery store open daily on almost every corner. Only thing, most of the food available here comes in a box. Or a plastic bag. Or worse! And it's not fresh. It's not even local!

Oh, the horror!!!

Well, fast forward to today. I'm married to super conservation man and together we are raising two amazing little greenies. I've been a stay at home mom for six years and have not one thing in my life to complain about. Nothing, that is, except my food budget. It's tight. Living on one income in a very expensive part of the country and being able to buy good whole food that is fresh, organic, and local is difficult to say the least. But it's doable. And for a while there I was doing pretty good.

For the last two years, however, I've been feeling the pinch. Food prices continue to rise, utilities are still going up, and gas is expensive.

Yet, I still want to be able to feed my family well, but wanting to buy and eat only organic, local, fresh foods can be quite costly. I know of one local mom who spent over 17K last year in food alone because they ONLY eat local, organic, fresh meats, cheeses, fruit, vegs, ect.... That's a lot of money.

Of course I could easily manage to buy all sorts of shit food (pardon my language) with my food budget. I could feed my family from the box and dollar menu and have money left over! But I'm a food snob, remember? I cannot eat that stuff. Ingredients I can't pronounce? Food that doesn't even look or taste anything like food? Packaged, frozen, processed, freeze dried disgustingness???

Oh no. Not me, baby. Not after eating REAL food. It's just not possible.

Plus, I don't want my kids eating shit - crap - either. We are what we eat. When we eat crap, we feel like crap and therefore act like crap. And I'm not interested in taking care of kids who act up all the time and get sick all the time because they are being fed crappy food.

So, having very little wiggle room in the budget, but wanting only the best (what mom doesn't?), I've learned how to get most everything we need (aka: I want) on the budget we have. It's fun being a food snob. You just have to find a way to do it when you don't have endless amounts of the green stuff lying around. Below are some of the things I do to get what I want, thus enabling me to eat really yummy good for me food all the time

I don't do all my shopping in one place.
Some things at my main grocery store are too expensive, yet elsewhere they aren't. Took me a while to scout out all the good deals, but now I know that by going to three separate stores on a rotation, I can come home with a lot more of what I want for less $.

I garden.
I grow tomatoes and herbs and carrots and potatoes and all sorts of yumminess :) By doing so, I control what goes in and on my food. The kids have their own garden plots too, and we spend a good deal of time with our beloved Mother Earth to keep it going. After the cost of seeds, what we reap is free. FREE! Best price ever :)

I go to Farmer's Markets.
And stock up. What I find for good deals, I buy bunches of and freeze what we're not eating that week. Frozen blueberries, frozen green beans, frozen anything. Tastes great when picked and stored at peek season. Nothing better than pulling out veggies in the dead of winter that you bought fresh and know where they came from. Tastes great.

I buy in bulk.
When I can, I save up and buy staples in bulk. Flour, sugar, pasta, rice... This year I'm buying 1/4th of a bison and a neighbor of ours who likes to hunt is getting us a deer. Who knows how long this supply of meat will last, especially since we only eat meat two to three times a week. (Meat is pricey) This, of course, will happen after I find an inexpensive deep freezer on Craigslist (anyone have one they don't want?)

I do without.
Yes, you heard it. We don't buy pop (soda). The kids drink juice once a day and that's it, if that. Instead we drink water, H2O, aqua fresca...you get the picture. Same thing with junk food. Since we don't eat it, we don't buy it, thus we save big bucks. And if it's not on sale and it's not in the budget, oh well. Better luck next time, right?

I stretch it.
I can make five meals out of one chicken. And that doesn't include the amount of chicken stock I make and use from the bones. So I might spend a little more buying an organic chicken - or A LOT more buying an organic local chicken - but I'll make that dollar stretch as much as possible. With a little ingenuity, you can think of ways to make anything stretch more than one meal.

Of course, all of this takes time, energy, and knowledge, something that most of us are hard pressed to find. But it CAN be done if you put in the work. The biggest benefit from all of this? You won't have to compromise. I don't. Just know that there will be times when you can't get the big ticket items, but that's fine. You don't have to have exactly what you want ALL the time, do you? My goal is to have good for us food only, and don't concern myself with specifics.

Everyone can be a food snob on a budget. All you have to do is learn to go with the flow, enjoy what's in season, and make the most of what you've got.

:)

The Sausage and the Stool

One morning long ago, I came downstairs dressed in my uniform ready for school when I smelled something wonderful: sausage. My mother had cooked up a batch and was about to set a plate of them onto the table. Eager, I propped myself up at the table. Fork in hand, ready to pounce.

"Now, now. Only two per person so we have some left for tomorrow," my mother lightheartedly - however seriously - warned me. Doing the calculation in my head, I deemed there to be more than enough sausages on the plate for everyone to have at least three, if not more. Why on Earth was my mother saving sausages? What good could come from not eating them right away?

When it was my turn, I took the two biggest sausage links that I could find and scarfed them down. Of course we had had scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast that morning too. But it wasn't enough. Those sausages - so plump, so juicy - were the crowning jewel!

Eyes growling along with my stomach, I watched as my brothers carelessly toyed with their portions. One even let a whole sausage link fall to the floor! Unfortunately, my mother cleared away their plates before I could attempt a steal-n-save of the remaining treat.

"Time to clean up, gotta leave for school soon," she said as she picked up the dish of leftover sausages and set it high up on the kitchen counter.

"Mom, can I please have one more? Just one?"

"No, because one will turn into two and before you know it we won't have any left! Now get your book bag and meet me out in the garage."

Defeated, I did as I was told. Grabbing my book bag and coat, I pushed my arms through the sleeves just as another waft of sausage aroma swept over me. Just one more, I thought to myself. What harm could one little sausage do?

Knowing everyone was elsewhere in the house getting ready, I walked over to the kitchen counter and reached. And reached. On tippy toes I could see them. However the dish was way out of reach. Then, out of the corner of my eye I saw something: a stool.

A small yellow stool just left of the refrigerator. Quickly, I dropped my book bag and grabbed the stool. Second grade may have not gotten me much height, but in smarts it had! Plopping the stool down in front of my soon-to-be treasure, I paused only for a moment to ensure I was alone.

Licking my lips, I stepped up onto the stool. Boy, was I tall now! And, more importantly, I could really see them!

Leaning into the counter I was almost there.

On tip toes, my fingers glanced the side of the dish.

Just a bit more...

I leaned and tip toed until I could touch one...

...and...

BAM!

With a sudden slip of foot on stool, I came crashing down onto the floor and landed on my wrist. I screamed. I cried. My mother ran into the room, soothed me and set me in the dining room with my wrist on ice. I watched as my mother paced back and forth, calling the doctor to find out what to do, every-so-often checking on me to see if I was ok.

And as much as she was not ok, I was. Yes, yes, I was in pain. This was the second time I broke my wrist in two years' time. But the pain had greatly diminished with my smile.

Why?

Because my loving and all knowing mother knew exactly what would make me happy and keep me calm: a nice plate of sausages...all to myself.

:)

Maple Corn Bread

The best...BEST! corn bread you will EVER eat...and, it's easy too ;)


what you need

• 1 cup plus 2 TABLESPOONS cornmeal
• 1 cup plus 2 TABLESPOONS whole wheat flour
• 1 TABLESPOON baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 egg beaten
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 3/4 cup of milk
• 3 TABLESPOONS melted shortening (bacon grease, coconut oil, or butter)

what you do

1. In a large bowl, mix together the cornmeal, wheat flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. Add the egg, maple syrup, milk and shortening.
3. Stir until WELL blended; DO NOT BEAT
4. Pour into a well greased 9 inch square pan or 12 greased muffin cups.
5. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Serve with warm butter.

Whole Roasted Chicken

First of all, you need to find a cage-free, free-range, antibiotic-free, good wholesome chicken, preferably from a local farmer. Go to your local farmer's market and, if there isn't already a vendor there that sells whole chickens, ask around. Chances are most everyone there, vendors and shoppers alike, know of a good local source. If you're lucky, you'll find a local organic farmer who raises their own chickens!

Roasting a whole chicken is by far the simplest way to get a good - no, great - meal with very little effort. Plus, a whole chicken can be spread out to cover more than just one meal. I've made a whole chicken stretch to 5 meals, plus chicken stock! Now, that's using your food money wisely!

What You'll Need

• meat thermometer
• big bowl
• roasting pan

Ingredients

• whole chicken
• olive oil
• honey
• 1/2 onion
• 3-5 cloves garlic
• 3 carrots
• 3 stalks celery
• 3 potatoes
  
• Rosemary
• Thyme
  
• good salt
• pepper
• red pepper flakes (remember, heat = health!)

How To

1. Preheat oven to 375*F
   
2. In a big bowl, soak your chicken in a warm water bath with a good pinch of salt - let sit for 30 minutes
3. drain and place chicken in a roasting pan
4. chop onions, garlic, carrots, celery, potatoes and place around chicken in roasting pan
5. drizzle olive oil over chicken and veggies
6. sprinkle salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes over everything (toss the veggies to coat)
7. drizzle honey over chicken
8. sprinkle herbs over everything
9. add about a cup of water into the bottom of the pan
   
10. Pop into oven, bottom shelf, until Meat Thermometer reads 180*F. Usually about 1 - 1.5 hours.
    
11. Take out of oven and let stand for 10 minutes.

Serving & Saving
For dinner that night, serve the legs, wings, thighs. Save the breasts for two separate meals (1/2 for chicken pot pie, 1/2 for something else like chicken quesadillas or a topping to pizza). Or just dig in and then save what's leftover for chicken stock and chicken soup.

Bones
I save all the bones in a zip-lock bag in the freezer labeled "BONES". When I have a full bag, I will use those bones, along with some veggie scraps, to make chicken stock (aka: consomme). This is so much better tasting and better FOR you than what you get at the store. Plus, it's basically free since you have everything. Just boil for a couple hours in water, cool, strain, and store. Keeps in the freezer for months, in the fridge for a week.

Enjoy!

A Bowl of Popcorn, by Lia Mack

It was a Friday night. My dear husband was hard at work, the night shift, and I had the house to myself. Well, technically, I wasn't alone: I was seven months pregnant with my little boy wonder. And we were both in the mood for some crunchy popcorn and a good belly-laughing movie.

Up the stairs I huffed and into the kitchen I started to pull out the necessities: corn kernels, butter, salt, sugar (LOVE sugar on my popcorn), and a big bowl. Patiently I waited, listening to the pop-pop-pop of the hot kernels, imagining each and every bite, salted-sugary-buttered fingers digging in for more, and more.

The baby kicked, I drank down a glass of water, and the dog paced back and forth, knowing in her sweet mind that mommy wouldn't leave her out of the forthcoming delectables. I rushed to the bathroom for one last pit stop so that I could, hopefully, watch the movie in it's entirety without having to heave-ho off of the couch for another pit stop.

Finally, the kernels were all spent, warm and waiting their toppings. Butter, melted down over them, salt and sugar sprinkled in just the right amounts. It was a big turnout, needing a bigger bowl to contain all it's goodness. Pulling out the biggest glass bowl I had, it all fit just right, leaving enough room for one hand to plunge in and take away it's treasures.

Sidestepping the drooling dog, mommy and baby descended the stairs, huge bowl of the most perfect popcorn anyone had ever created lightly resting atop the baby belly, hands ever so carefully holding tight to it's rim lest it fall.

At last, the movie was set, the popcorn perfect, the dog ready to curl up with mommy and the big belly, ready to dash off to retrieve any fallen treats. I was tempted to taste the popcorn, knowing by the aroma that it was going to so good, however I needed one last trip to the bathroom.

"Don't touch that, Marley, ok?" I said to the dog as I rushed down the hallway, however penguin like.

When I came back into the living room everything was as I left it. Breathing out a sigh of relief, I sat on the couch only to realize that the TV tray that the bowl of popcorn was upon was far out of my reclined reach.

Hoisting myself up off the couch, I picked up the edges of the TV tray and slid it closer still to the couch, gauging the distance, hoping for the perfect placement lest I have to drag myself up off the couch again. It had been a long day, working since six in the morning. Mommy just wanted to put up her feet and eat her warm treat.

Assuming it couldn't get any better, the distance and the relaxing night to follow: a romantic comedy staring Meg Ryan, my favorite, and a big beautiful bowl of perfectly buttered popcorn all to myself, I released the TV tray in it's place.

Only, the stupid folding legs of said TV tray had, unknowingly to me since I couldn't see past my big belly, had collapsed, causing the table, popcorn bowl and all, tumbling down on to the ground, crashing with such a slam that the biggest glass bowl I owned turned into a million shards of glass, covering the entire span of the family room, perfectly coated with butter sugar goodness and the last of the popcorn that I had in the house.

The dog lepted off of the couch, ready to devour every last bit.

"NO! Stop! It's glass!" I cried, pushing the popcorn crazy dog out of the room.

Not wanting to face the mess, but knowing I was alone in the house, and would be for at least another three hours, I pulled out the vacuum.

And I cried. And cried. And cried.

My popcorn. My beautiful popcorn, so perfectly buttered and salty-sugary good. Not one piece was spared a shard of glass. Picking buttery glass-sharpened-popcorn out of the carpet I blubbered and cried, squinting hard against the tears to remove it all lest the dog find a piece, eat it, and then I spend the rest of my night in the doggy-emergency room.

Hunger and hormones combined, morning the loss of the best bowl of popcorn to ever be created, I cried three straight hours. Three gut wrenching blubbering hours, until there wasn't strength left in my mind to feel an ounce misery.

However, to this day, I have not made a more perfect bowl of popcorn. And I still need a mega-sized glass bowl...

THE END

Drink some Magic Tea!

Magic Tea - Slowly sip this Magic Tea and feel it's healing powers! :)

At the slightest provocation of a cold, sore throat, ear ache, or sinus problems of anyone that crosses my threshold, I jump to the kitchen and brew up some magic. It doesn't matter how young or old you are, Magic Tea will either cure what ails you or, at the very least, help sooth the symptoms. It's easy, cheap, and you can't have too much (won't turn on you like medications if you 'over dose').

Ingredients:

• Hot water
• tea bag - your favorite
• a tiny sliver of a smooshed clove garlic (the braver the patient, the bigger the clove!)
• honey (as much as you like)
• apple cider vinegar (1 teaspoon)
• 1-2 ice cubes
  
  

Directions:

• brew your favorite tea and add honey
  (however much honey you want, but you'll need some and it's great for sore throats)
• add apple cider vinegar
• before adding garlic, add ice cubes to bring down the temp.
  (If you cook the garlic, you'll loose all the magic!)
• once tea is cool enough BUT still warm, add the smashed garlic
• stir, and sip slowly

Drink this 1-3 times a day as soon as you feel the symptoms of a cold/flu/ear ache/sinus trouble. It's magic!

The magic is the combination of vinegar, garlic, honey, and warmth

• Apple Cider Vinegar: helps 'open' you up and is high in Vitamin C
  
  
• Garlic: when you smash it (to the point it's almost liquid) you release allicin, Garlic's antibiotic mother load! however, if you cook it, you kill all the power (aka, all the good guys that will destroy the bacteria)
  
  
• Honey: Nature's elixer, very good to sooth a sore throat, and is anti-bacterial
  
  
• Warmth: the hot water opens your sinuses and helps all the magic above seep into the right spots ;)
  

Tip: If you need more honey to 'mask' the garlic, go for it. You can't have too much (so long as your not allergic)

Hope everyone has good luck this upcoming cold season. Take it easy, take care of yourself, and DO NOT hang out with any sickos!!! It's just not worth it. You can always see them in the Spring ;)

What's for dinner?

Ever fill out one of those emails that your family and friends spam you with that asks you a million questions to 'learn a bit about each other'? Well, I know I have and I find them fun. However, year after year, always the same questions... I also find them boring!

While cooking everyday, chopping away, I think about all my cookin' family and friends and wonder what THEY are cooking and chopping away at. Add that curiosity with the experience of filling out questionnaire after questionnaire and... presto!
So now, without further ado, here's my "What's for dinner? Get to know your cookin' family and friends" questionnaire!

Feel free to copy, paste and spam! :)

.......................................................................
So...what's for dinner?!
Get to know your family and friends by finding out how they cook, what they like and all that jazz!
20 questions
Bon apitite! ;)


1. What's for dinner tonight?

2. Do you do all or most of the cooking?

3. What is your signature/favorite food to make? What are you known for?

4. Favorite food to chop?

5. Least favorite food to prepare that you have to cook?

6. What was the last thing you made/cooked?

7. What was the last thing someone made for you?

8. How often do you burn your food? What are you known to burn?

9. What's your signature/favorite breakfast?

10. What's your signature/favorite lunch?

11. Desert? What do you have to have that you make yourself?

12. Favorite veggie to prepare? How?

13. Most interesting item you've ever eaten and/or cooked?

14. Favorite kitchen gadget(s)?

15. Ever caught the kitchen on fire?

16. Are you the grill master? What are you best at grilling?

17. What would your dream kitchen include?

18. If asked, what do you make/cook to bring to a party to share?

19. What did you have for dinner last night?

20. And, most importantly...are you hungry now?!
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