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Winter is coming - and so are a bunch of holidays. Some, like Halloween, are secular (or anti-religious, depending on who you ask) Others, like Christmas, have religious origins (Pagan or Christian, depending on who you ask) but have become secularized for many. What holidays do you celebrate? How do you do it? Or if not, why, and do you do anything else instead?

My favorite holiday, like Christmas without the commercialism (although it does lose several points for not being a penguin themed holiday.) I don't get creative with Thanksgiving - I make what my family has always made as they made it, although I will add to the menu for guests. My menu: Appetizers: spinach dip cheese/sausage/cracker tray brauschweiger on cocktail rye crab puffs crudite Chicken in a Biscuit crackers (which I open as I start to cook...I know, terrible deliciousness) Main Course: turkey spiral ham (if having people outside of immediate family - homemade honey glaze) yams (brown sugar and butter) mashed potatoes gravy 2 kinds of stuffing (American and German) 2 kinds of pierogi (mushroom/sauerkraut and cheese) crescent rolls Irish butter 2 kinds cranberry sauce (homemade and the good kind with the ridges from the can) canned asparagus (I know, I know...but it's tradition and my daughter loves it so much I have to hide the cans from her before the day.) *new* green bean casserole (tradition for my daughter's bf's family who will be coming.) Dessert: (this is where I break from tradition. As a kid my dad would make sure everyone had their own pie from Baker's Square. I don't have that kind of money so I make my family share pies, like the Cratchits) pumpkin pie (homemade) blueberry or cherry pie (storebought) cool whip (we don't like whipped cream) kolachkis (homemade for the non-pie eaters) cranberry-orange loaves for people to take home Beverages: regular and flavored water iced tea beer wine vodka and mixers egg nog coffee So, what's everyone else serving?

Hey everyone! In advance of Thanksgiving, I thought I'd share a family turkey recipe! Fair warning, this takes FOREVER to cook. I do it in advance of the big day. Enjoy. Sauce: Enough for or a 15 pound turkey or smaller Ingredients: Relajo (spice mix).. you can find this at some Mexican grocery stores in a little baggie or make your own ---chile ciruela ---chile wake ---ajonjoli ---pepitoria ---laurel ---ajo 3 chopped onions 2 Red bell peppers chopped 1/2 small can tomato paste 12 peeled tomatoes (from a can, buy two large cans and use 12, plus juice) 2 cartons Chicken stock Directions: Toast the relajo on a frying pan until its fragrant Cook the onions until transluesent, add bell peppers and relajo Add tomatoes and tomato juice Cook low and bubbly for 30 min Blend the sauce as fine as possible (you can use regular blender, but let it cool before blending, or immersion blender) Add half carton of chicken stock and cook for 20 min Get another pot. Place a fine strainer over the empty pot, and slowly strain the sauce into the pot using a spoon to push the sauce against the strainer and squeeze as much juice out as possible. This juice should be thin and red. Place the pulp into a bowl and repeat until all the thick blended sauce is strained. Now take the pulp and put it back in the original pot, adding another half carton of stock. Cook for 20 min. Repeat the straining. Cook one more time with more broth. Strain again. (so three rounds of cooking and straining) You can throw away the pulp, and what you have left in the pot is your sauce! Season to taste. If its too sour, mix in some brown sugar For the turkey: Ingredients: · Butter · Mustard · Worcestershire sauce · 1/2 cup white wine · Stuffed spanish olives · Capers · Salt · Pepper · Paprika Directions: The night before, poke the turkey with a fork. Rub the butter, mustard, and worcestershire sauce all over the turkey and get inside the skin Put the turkey in a pan with the sauce, olives and capers drained, white wine, paprika and cook in oven. Make sure you baste often it while its cooking The sauce gets its final flavor from the turkey. After cooking with the turkey, it can be frozen used as sauce on other things. Also, a good Salvadoran post-thanksgiving meal is pan con pavo/ pan con chumpe, which is a turkey sandwich with the sauce, radishes, and cucumbers. Use a crusty bread. Sauce can be made a week in advance, and keep in Tupperware in the fridge. Or freeze if holding for longer. Throwback to last year's stuffing recipe:

All right guy s, I'm quite proud of the apple-cranberry sauce I whipped up this year. Just toss a bag of dried cranberries, a half cup of cranberry juice, a half cup of apple cider, and a cup of sugar, and a cinnamon stick into a pot. Cook five minutes. Add two chopped apples (I used honeycrisp). Cook another five minutes. Make a slurry with two teaspoons of cornstarch and some of the juice from the pot. Add that, and cook another five minutes. Chill until jiggly. I want to try it with fresh, I think I'd need to up the sugar content for that. It might not look like much, but it's autumnal and festive and delicious. Also: one part spiced rum, two parts cranberry juice, two parts apple cider. I like the combination of cranberries and apples, can you tell?

I read an article today that the average cost of Thanksgiving to feed 10 people is just over $50. In what universe? Here's my list of non-negotiable stuff or there is no holiday. Granted some stuff I already have but in my quest to have one freaking holiday where I don't need to send someone to the store I make the entire list and go from there. Notice no beverages except milk that's a different list. And not doing crab puffs this time because man-child the younger went vegetarian and he loved them so because I'm a decent person I killed it from the menu. This is pretty basic. Two kinds of stuffing, cranberries, potatoes...nothing fancy. If others can do similar for $50 then please post and show me your ways. Otherwise I'm just going to do what I do every year and throw away the receipts. Turkey Ham Brown Sugar Honey Cloves Poultry seasoning Ginger Nutmeg Oranges – seedless Bread for stuffing Salt Pepper Celery Mild breakfast sausage Onions Breadcrumbs – plain (2) Lots of eggs Chicken broth Chicken livers Periogi Crescent rolls Yams Potatoes Gravy Cranberry jelly cans – not whole Fresh cranberries Orange juice Flour Butter Butter shaped like a cow Imperial Cream cheese Vegetable oil Half and half Asparagus – canned Cauliflour whole/fresh Cocktail rye Liverwurst Chicken in a biscuit crackers Other crackers Cheese if you want it Spinach (2 frozen boxes) Sour cream Greek yogurt plain Mayo Parm cheese Shallots Garlic Canned pumpkin – or just get a pumkin pie Pie crusts – Pillsbury refrig section if you ger the ones in tins precooked I’m going on strike Other pie – cherry, dutch apple, or blueberry – nothing creative Cocoa powder Coconut Sugar Milk

Ok, so I made stuffing, too. Browned Jimmy Dean sage sausage, remove, add in a stick of butter (yes, a whole stick!) to sautee the onions and celery, moxed in two packages of Pepperidge Farms seasoned bread cubes and broth. Baked at 350 for about 45 mins. It smelled amazing while cooking and it was delicious! I didn't do any measuring. Clearly, I am never going to be a professional food blogger. But you are welcome to come eat here anytime.

Hey Everyone! I wanted to share this delicious stuffing recipe that I found online a few years back, and have been making ever since! This is not my own recipe, I just wanted to make that clear. I am not that creative or good in the kitchen lol but I just wanted to share the love of this recipe. If I can make it, anyone can do it! This year, I am going to make it again, but gluten-free, so we'll see how that works out. I have some of my own pictures from making it last year in my tiny apartment kitchen, and down below are the links to the original creator's blog. The pumpkin cornbread, which is delicious by itself! I cut into cubes for drying. Sauteeing the onions and celery and cooking up the hot Italian sausage! Sage, the ultimate Thanksgiving herb! Here it is all mixed up before going in the oven, and then after once taking it out. Stuffing isn't much to look at, but it is absolutely my favorite Thanksgiving dish! The link to the blog is here: http://theviewfromgreatisland.com/pumpkin-cornbread-stuffing-with-country-sausage-and-sage/ and the cornbread recipe: http://theviewfromgreatisland.com/pumpkin-cornbread/ What is your can't-live-without Thanksgiving recipe?

I suck. I've got containers of homemade brock in my freezer, and I'm just now finishing this series on Thanksgiving. For those wondering what in the world is brock, it's kind of a cross between broth and stock that I make from the turkey carcass. In other words, it's a dessert topping and a floor wax! I can't get the video to embed right now, so we'll have to do it the old school way. Here's the transcript for my readers who are unable to watch the video or are hearing impaired. Okay, first up I require entertainment while cooking holiday meals. I don't have to have jugglers or magicians performing in my kitchen, but a holiday themed video or music makes the work go faster. I decided that Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Reginald Gardiner, and Sydney Greenstreet would be good company, so I fired up Christmas in Connecticut on my Kindle. I gave the turkey breast a bath, a TSA exam, inserted the temperature probe and stuck him in the oven. It's just the two of us this year, so I picked out a turkey breast that was a little less than nine pounds. That's plenty for us to have for dinner and a couple of days of leftovers. I used the convection setting on my oven to try and speed things up, so It took less than two hours for him to hit temperature. I pulled him out and let him have a nice half-hour rest on the counter while I finished up the rest. Letting your turkey rest for 30 minutes or so after roasting makes for a juicier turkey, and is very helpful if you only have one oven and have sides that need to go in the oven for 30 minutes or so. I crumbled up the cornbread I made and let it sit out to stale overnight. I chopped up celery, onion, sage, and parsley, and measured out the pecans. We had our first freeze the weekend before Thanksgiving, but luckily the sage and parsley plants survived the freeze. The basil and tomato plants were not as lucky. Now it's time for bacon!!!!1111!!! After the bacon is all crispy, toss it in the bowl with the crumbled up cornbread. Leave the bacon grease in the pan and add the celery and onions and cook until the onion turns translucent. Remove the veggies, and throw them in the bowl with the cornbread. Add the pecan halves to the pan and cook those until the pecans start to smell a little nutty but not burnt. Throw in the fresh herbs and cook those for about 60 seconds, and then pour the pecans and herbs into the bowl with all of the other stuff. Stir it up well to break up the bacon, add enough chicken broth or stock to moisten it enough to hold together, and put the mixture back in the cast iron skillet. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until nicely browned on top. Go through your potatoes and pick out enough to fill up your pot. I usually use a two quart saucepan for mine. Scrub potatoes well and cut into quarters or eighths or whatever depending on how big they are. Peel one head, yes one entire head of garlic, and put the potatoes and garlic in your pot, add some salt, and enough water to fill the pan. Boil the potatoes until fork tender. Drain off most but not all of the cooking water. (I recommended putting your colander over another pot and draining the potatoes into that until you get a feel for how much water you prefer to leave in the bottom of the pan.) Add your desired seasonings, and mash with a potato masher. Yup, a whole stick of butter and a splash of heavy cream is how I like my "holiday" mashed potatoes. I forgot to get pictures of me making gravy, sorry. After the cornbread dressing came out of the oven, I put some of the rolls I made yesterday on a baking sheet and heated them in the oven until they were nice and warm. I pulled the cranberry-orange sauce out of the fridge, hacked off some turkey and yelled for Mr Cartmann99 to sequester the kitties so we could eat. As I explained earlier, when we don't have guests I pare down the menu as we run out of refrigerator space without hungry relatives helping us eat everything. I wasn't totally satisfied with the rolls, so I did some tweaking the following week and they turned out much better. I'm fussy that way. Anyway, a very, very belated Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Okay, we're up to day three of Thanksgiving prep. Let's make some cornbread for the dressing. I was losing the light and couldn't get a good shot of the batter, so here it is in the oven: You'll have to wait till the next post to see it transformed into cornbread dressing. Okay, next up is some French bread rolls: Please note that my container for wheat gluten is an old yogurt container. Fancy! Since we are working with wheat, here's a shot of the wheatberries before they took a spin in my grain mill: That's hard red wheatberries on the left and soft white wheatberries on the right. After a few minutes in the grain mill ( please wear ear protection!), You get this: Hard red flour is again on the left and soft white flour Is on the right. Because these flours are whole grain, it's best to only grind what you need for a recipe, or store the flour in the freezer. My shoulders balk at too much kneading, so I'm going to use the dough cycle on my bread machine to make the dough and do the first rise and punch down. Ugly dough, huh? After shaping, rising, and baking, you get this: True confession time: I forgot to grease or line the baking sheet with parchment , so these stuck to the pan. I carefully arranged them so you couldn't see the raggedy bottoms. Day three is over, what will tomorrow bring?

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans.... Here it is a week after Thanksgiving and I still haven't finished blogging about it. While doing my preps for Thanksgiving, I heard a story on the radio about Kim Kardashian wanting Kanye West to buy her a very expensive diamond choker as a push present. I chuckled to myself and found myself feeling extremely grateful that I was not born into her family. I would either be the black sheep that no one talks about, or they'd hold numerous interventions trying to show me the error of my ways. I have no desire to spend my time worrying over clothes that cost more than my car, finding a plastic surgeon to "fix" my face, or fighting the paparazzi wherever I go. Back to food... My favorite potato for mashing, baking, and roasting is Klondike Rose. Recently, we have been having trouble finding any at the stores we usually shop at, so Mr. Cartmann99 selected another potato with yellow flesh that advertised itself as having a buttery taste. He asked that I do a taste test and if I wasn't happy with it, to let him know and he would pop by another grocery store chain to see if they had some. The potatoes he selected were fine, but they were not as good as the Klondike Rose potatoes. After discussing it, we decided that we should grow some potatoes in our garden. After some furious Googling, I located a gentleman in Washington state who grows some red skinned yellow fleshed potatoes with a taste profile similar to the Klondike Rose. Once his online seed store opens back up, we intend to place an order so that we can try to grow our own. Along with the pies from the previous day, Mr Cartmann99 asked for something a little lighter to have with his tea. He is an avid hot tea drinker. He starts his day with English Breakfast, has Earl Grey in the early afternoon, and finishes out his day with an assortment of herb teas. His favorite shortbread cookie is a coffee flavored shortbread cookie. I also make a vanilla-orange and a chocolate-peppermint version of these. Technically, this batch is mocha because I used the food processor to make some hot cocoa mix and didn't wash the work bowl in between. Scandalous! I also made some cranberry-orange sauce. I love cranberry sauce. I sometimes put whipped cream on top and eat it for dessert. The cranberries had a nice bath. This isn't the best picture. I've got a better shot I'll put up later of the cranberry sauce on Mr Cartmann99's plate. Speaking of whipped cream... Day two is over and we have cookies, cranberry-orange sauce, and whipped cream!

One of the things I've learned, is the importance of starting my Thanksgiving preparations early. My preparation actually begins on the Sunday night before Thanksgiving when I pull the turkey and any other needed items out of the freezer, but the real work starts on the following Monday. We are not having guests this year, so I will be making the scaled down version of my Thanksgiving dinner. That means that some dishes will be absent as we only have so much room in the refrigerator to work with. Because the weather has turned colder, I'm starting with pies. I usually make those on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, but it's cool enough that I think they will keep okay covered up on the washing machine. We'll start with apple. I don't always make an apple pie, but my husband asked for apple pie instead of the Maple-Pecan Chiffon cake we had last year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Here we go: The small container to the left of the apples contains a pie crust I had in the freezer. I ended up using five apples, but I think four would have been better. I forgot to replace the pie plate I got rid of last year, so this one is going in a 9x9 baking dish. Gotta roll with the punches around here. Since this recipe calls for fresh lemon juice, I decided to go ahead and zest the lemon too. You'll notice I didn't peel the apples before cutting and coring them. I rarely peel fruits and vegetables if the peel is edible. The peel is a source of fiber, and you lose some of the nutrients if you choose to peel them. I told you I cut up too many apples for this dish. I still have to add the crumb topping, so I'm going to have to be careful not to spill it. I'll have a picture of the baked apple pie further down. I was starting to lose my natural light. Okay, next up is pumpkin: The powdered milk is there because the recipe calls for sweetened condensed milk. I make a homemade version of sweetened condensed milk with dry milk powder, water, sugar, and butter. The small container in front of the powdered milk is another pie crust I had in the freezer. I'm not posting a shot of the batter in the bowl because the lighting is so poor. Here's a shot of the pie in the oven: Making pretty pies is not my strong suit. I promise they taste better than they look. I had to go referee a kitty dispute while the apple one was baking, so the top got more brown than I intended. My official taste tester said the apple one was good, and I had some of the pumpkin and it had a good flavor. Especially when you add a tiny dollop of whipped cream. Day one is over, and we have pie. Life is good.