Relaxing and now back to work

As I had menetioned earlier in the week, Thanksgiving vacation is usually one of my favorite vacations. It is not going anywhere or doing anything special; that is actually what makes it so nice. Summer vacations are wrapped around trips, guests, or housework (you know those projects you can't get to in a normal week - like painting or building).

Sure, there is shopping and cooking, but overall that is mostly it. So, this is what my week has looked like:
Monday - took my boys to a late lunch and went grocery shopping by myself
Tuesday - went to see my Dad and played dominos with him all afternoon (which I won BTW)
Wednesday - Ira and I made the cranberry sauce for Thursday, delivered a Thanksgiving dinner for a family that didn't have an oven, and stopped and had dinner on the way home.
Thursday - Cooked all day (with help from my sous chef), watched some football, ate dinner, and went to a friend's house for dessert.
Friday - never left the house. Did some housework in the morning. Put away the Halloween decorations and took down the Christmas boxes, which will stay in the garage for a couple more weeks. We played games all night - cribbage, trivial pursuit, and dominos. This lasted from after-dinner to 12:30 :-)
Saturday - Played games on the computer, took a nap, and Ira and I went to the outlet mall that night to catch the Nike basketball show sale (it was only 7 - 9), and stopped for dinner afterwards.
Sunday (today) - church, and football. For me football means watching it all day from the comfort of my recliner while monitoring my fantasy football games, for Ira it means a flag football tournament in the cold.

Tomorrow is back to work for a few more weeks until Christmas vacation. I am hoping that tomorrow my mind will be clear, rested, and ready to be productive - 4 more weeks to close out the year and exceed my number.

Thanksgiving recipes

Yesterday was nice, quiet, and delicious. It was nice to cook without the stress of pleasing anyone, but Ira and I. We were able to try completely new recipes that we never tried before, which I never would have done if I had to cook for a bunch of people. As promised, I am including some recipes for anyone who is interested.

Awesome Sausage, Apple, and Cranberry Stuffing
The recipe can be found here - http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Awesome-Sausage-Apple-and-Cranberry-Stuffing/Detail.aspx

A couple of notes:
I used fresh herbs instead of the dried ones that the recipe calls for. Remember to double or triple the amount when using fresh.
I did not bake the stuffing in the bird. I used a large lasagna pan and covered with aluminum foil. I baked it for 55 minutes at 400 degrees. I uncovered and stirred the stuffing in 20 minute intervals and took the aluminum foil completely off for the last 15 minutes that it baked. This helped it keep the moisture but still give it a little crispiness on the top. Because I cooked it this way, I also added a can of chicken broth instead of the cup it calls for.

Sweet Potato Casserole
This is probebly the best sweet potato casserole I have ever had:

3 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 TBSP frozen tangerine juice concentrate, thawed (I couldn't find tangerine juice, so I used orange tangerine juice)
1 TBSP Amaretto
1 TBSP Kahlua
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup toasted pecans (I forgot to toast these until it was too late - it still tasted great)
Miniature marshmallows

Cube sweet potatoes and combine with enough cold water to cover in saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Simmer for 30 minutes or until tender; drain. Mash with a potato masher. Spoon the mashed sweet potatoes into a mixing bowl. Beat until blended. Add brown sugar, butter, tangerine juice concentrate, Amaretto, Kahlua, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Add the eggs, beating until blended. Stir in the pecans. Spoon the sweet potato mixture into a buttered 2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle marshmallows on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Cranberry-Port Relish
3 cups fresh cranberries
1 1/2 cups tawny port
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup golden raisins
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 TBSP cider vinegar
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 - In large saucepan, combine cranberries, port, sugar, raisins, onion, vinegar, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg; mix well. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.

2 - Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer, uncovered, 30 minutes until cranberries have popped and liquid has slightly thickened. Cool to room temperature. Cover and store in refrigerator.

Notes - this is great as a topping or complement to chicken, pork, or turkey. If you want to eat as a cranberry sauce without the meat I would suggest leaving out the onion.

Apple Stuesel Pie
This has been my favorite apple pie recipe for years.

3 cups apples, sliced and peeled
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Place apples in 9 inch pie shell and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Cream Cheese filling:
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 TBSP soft margerine
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
Cream sugar, eggs, butter for 2 minutes. Add salt, vanilla, and cream cheese. Blend until smooth and pour over apples.

Struesel topping:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 TBSP soft margerine
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Mix together and spread on top of pie.

Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, then at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
Let cool and refrigerate.

Enjoy!!

Happy Thanksgiving 2007

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who graces my blog and reads what I have to say. I am thankful to have people that listen, even if it is just to read my rants.

As requested by one of my friends, I will post a couple of the receipes from my list of Thanksgiving dishes below (last post) in my next post. While I know the pie is good, I am not sure about the other ones since I have never tried them before. I will pick 2 or 3 that I thought were the best at our small and intimate Thanksgiving meal.

I hope everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving day and long weekend!!

Thanksgiving Vacation

Ahhh, my first day of vacation, although I still have a regional conference call at 1. Oh well, part of the job. Historically, my vacations are full of something - guests, errands, painting, something. But, my Thanksgiving vacation is generally pretty relaxing.

All of my Thanksgiving and Christmas donation shopping is done and most of it has been dropped off. However, I have not begun my Christmas shopping and probably won't for another week or two. My to do list is pretty small:

Buy groceries for Thanksgiving dinner
Set aside some time to go visit my Dad this week
Help deliver Thanksgiving dinner baskets to needing families
Take back a remote control to Best Buy and get another one - stupid thing won't even light up

Of course, there is cooking on Thursday (and part of Wednesday), but this year I am only cooking for two. Ira and I decided that since we did not have the kids that we would prefer a non-family dinner and just enjoy the day to ourselves. So, we (at least I hope we) are cooking a completely fresh from scratch, slighty different homemade dinner.

Lemon and Thyme Roasted Chicken (instead of turkey - there is only 2 of us after all)
Sweet potato casserole (instead of my regular yams, green bean casserole, and masked postatoes)
Awesome Sausage, Apple, and Cranberry Stuffing (instead of my normal stuffing)
Cranberry Port Relish (instead of the canned jellied cranberry sauce that I normally buy)
Butter Dipped Dinner Rolls (well, it's normally brown and serve)
Apple Struesel Pie (This is a staple to my regular Thanksgiving dinner, but I usually make a Pumpkin Pie too - again there is only two of us)

We have been invited to some friends house for dessert Thursday night, which we will probably just take our pie too.

All in all, I am looking forward to my week and am hoping that the few things that I do need to do go smoothly.