Kitchen Experiments and Other Thanksgiving News

Here's my current shaggy hair disguise. :) The bangs are fun!

(This was taken at my chemo appointment this week. Mike started taking a picture of me at each treatment, and I try to remember when he doesn't come along.)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Wouldn't I be a negligent blogger if I didn't document my holiday efforts in the kitchen?! I wasn't planning to post any of my clumsy efforts, but then all these friends started posting pictures of well-crafted pies on Facebook. My approach to the kitchen is a lot more rustic, so I "threw down" and told my CookingCanBeBeautiful (bragging) friends that I'd be posting a picture of my messy-but-delicious green bean casserole.

Which turned out extra delicious this year, I must say.

You see, it's never the same twice. I am not a very good recipe follower. If I don't have an ingredient, I'll make a substitute - running 0.75 miles to the grocery store just takes WAY too long. And if I have an extra ingredient that sounds like it might help, I toss that in, too. 

This approach hasn't always been successful, but hours of FoodNetwork TV has helped my food strategy immensely, and now most of my alterations and experiments turn out alright.

So here's the infamous green bean casserole:

I also roasted some veg - my absolute favorite way to eat veggies! However, I was running a little short on time and didn't leave them in long enough. They were good, but could have been better.

Yes, those are grapes with the cauliflower. And capers. Weird, right?! But the magazine picture was pretty, so I tried it. The grapes caramelize into this crunchy, sweet mess and the whole thing tastes delicious.

(If you haven't roasted veg, try it - it's SO easy! Just toss your favorite with olive oil and sea salt, spread out on a cookie tray and bake at 450-ish. Cooking time varies by size and density of your veg - but start with 15 min and just watch them till the edges turn brown.)

I also made this savory monkey bread. Different pieces of dough were rolled in herbs, cheese, garlic, or nuts. Fun and easy, just like I like it.

My last kitchen brag: cranberry relish. This is probably my favorite - just cranberries, apples, oranges, and pineapple chopped to bits with a little sugar to combat the cranberries. It sits overnight so the flavors can marry. It's so fresh and lovely, and I can eat it like candy.

For breakfast, we blended some up with vanilla yogurt for a smoothie. Mike thought it was too sour, so he had me nervous about the relish, but I concluded, after some deliberation, that he was expecting a smoothie to be a lot sweeter. :)

Since creative activities are WAY more in my wheelhouse than cooking and baking, this is my favorite Thanksgiving project:

It's a thankfulness turkey! We all wrote things we are thankful for on the back of the feathers, and used a toothpick (and some tape) to stick the feather into a foam ball that stood for the turkey's body. Isn't it cute?! 

(The body was supposed to be brown, but I ran out of spray ink, so he ended up being Disco Turkey with a glittery silver body. Fancy pants!)

Later, we plucked the turkey, taking turns reading the feathers and guessing who wrote each one. It turned out to be a really fun activity.

From me and mine to you and yours, Happy Thanksgiving, and may you see all your blessings this holiday season.