Juggling Competing Family Needs...

My mom has decided to do the full blown Thanksgiving meal with turkey and all the trimmings on Friday since we have so many travelers arriving late Thursday. That leaves me to do a meal for 13 on Thursday night.

I don't want to do anything too heavy. After all, we'll all be in a turkey coma the next day. It's important to pace ourselves.  To make things even more interesting, I have at least one vegan coming so I need to have a good option for them.

At first, I considered doing two kinds of soup: a thick beef stew and a 15-bean soup. Add a tossed salad, some Grands biscuits, and a dessert and I'd be done.

But that didn't seem very festive. So now, I'm planning to offer number of choices and let people put together their own meal: a spiral-cut ham, some buffalo Swedish meatballs, sour cream & chive mashed potatoes, a fresh veggie tray, and a couple different kinds of bread.

Then for the vegans and anyone else who wants something unique, I found this recipe on the Minimalist Baker's website. It sounds worth trying to me. What do you think?

VEGAN THANKSGIVING WRAPS

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

30 mins

Healthy, hearty, 30-minute Vegan Thanksgiving Wraps with roasted sweet potatoes, crispy chickpeas, and garlic-dill sauce, tucked inside homemade Garlic Herb Flatbreads!

Author: Minimalist Baker

Recipe type: Entree

Cuisine: Vegan, Thanksgiving

Serves: 4

Ingredients

SWEET POTATOES

·         2 large sweet potatoes (~300 g | organic when possible)

·         1 Tbsp (15 ml) grape seed oil

·         1 tsp fresh thyme

·         1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

·         1/2 tsp sea salt

·         optional: pinch cayenne pepper

CHICKPEAS

·         1 15-ounce (425 g) can chickpeas, rinsed, drained and thoroughly dried in a towel

·         1 Tbsp (15 ml) grape seed oil

·         1 tsp fresh or dried thyme

·         Pinch ground cinnamon

·         1 tsp ground cumin

·         1/2 tsp smoked paprika

·         scant 1/2 tsp sea salt

·         optional: Healthy pinch each ground coriander + cardamom

FOR SERVING optional

·         4 Garlic Herb Flatbreads* (or store-bought flatbreads or pita)

·         Garlic Dill Hummus Sauce

·         Toasted sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds

·         Dried cranberries, chopped

·         Fresh arugula or parsley

Instructions

1.       Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2.       Thoroughly wash and dry sweet potatoes, then slice (skin on) into bite-sized rounds/pieces.

3.       Add to a mixing bowl with grape seed oil, thyme, cinnamon, sea salt and cayenne (optional). Toss to coat, then arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet.

4.       To the same mixing bowl, add rinsed, dried chickpeas, and grape seed oil, thyme, cinnamon, cumin, paprika, sea salt, and coriander + cardamom (optional).

5.       Toss to coat, then arrange on baking sheet with sweet potatoes where space permits. (Depending on size of baking sheet, you may need to use a second to accommodate all potatoes and chickpeas).

6.       Bake for a total of 25 minutes, flipping/stirring once at the 15-minute mark to ensure even cooking. You'll know they're done when the potatoes are fork tender, and the chickpeas are golden brown, dehydrated, and slightly crispy. Remove from oven and set aside.

7.       In the meantime, prepare toppings and dressing (if using).

8.       Once potatoes and chickpeas are finished baking, wrap flatbreads in a damp towel and warm in the still warm oven for 1-2 minutes (or in the microwave for 30 seconds) to soften and make more pliable.

9.       To assemble, top each wrap with a portion of sweet potatoes and chickpeas. Add desired toppings, such as dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, arugula, and Garlic-Dill Hummus Sauce (recipe link above).

10.   Best when fresh, though leftovers keep separately in the refrigerator up to 3 days.

So anyway, I'd love to get your take on this. Which menu do you think I should do? The competing soups or the ham/buffalo/vegan buffet?

A Taste of Hawai'i

As you probably know, trying out new foods is a big part of the cruising experience. I always like to choose things I wouldn’t make at home. So far, I’ve had escargot, rack of lamb with mint jelly and calamari fritti.  And part of the fun is in the presentation of the food.

Here are the beef medallions my DH had for an appetizer one night. I swear the meat was sliced thin enough to read a newspaper through, but he says it was seasoned so well, he didn’t mind that there wasn’t much of it. After all, an appetizer isn’t supposed to fill you up.

According to Kainoa, our native island guide, food has always been important to the Hawaiian people. When the first immigrants from the Marchesas wandered north in their gigantic double hulled canoes, some of the most important things they brought with them was food—poi, yams, breadfruit, and their favorite meats, chickens, pigs and (I’m sorry to have to tell you) dogs.

I’m mildly adventurous in the dining room, but I won’t be trying anything remotely canine.

One of the activities aboard ship is cooking classes at the Culinary Arts Center. Today we watched one of the chefs prepare SWEET & SPICY SEARED PORK CHOPS WITH ISLAND SLAW.

Here’s the recipe. Brace your feet. There’s a ton of ingredients, but it’s so worth the effort. I plan to give it a whirl myself when I get home.

Ingredients for Island Slaw (serves 4)

½ cup cider vinegar

2 TBS honey

3 TBS soy sauce

½ cup vegetable oil

¼ cup sesame oil

1 TBS crushed red pepper

2 TBS ground cumin

¼ cup chopped cilantro leaves

¼ cup scallions, finely diced

1  jalapeno, seeded and finely diced

Salt & pepper to taste

1 cup julienne carrot (about one large carrot)

5 cups thinly sliced red & green cabbage

1 cup julienne red bell pepper (about one pepper)

2 cups diced pineapple

¾ cup toasted, chopped macadamian nuts

Whisk together the vinegar, honey, and soy sauce. Drizzle in the oils in a steady stream, whisking to emulsify. Whisk in the crushed red pepper, cumin, cilantro, scallion, and jalapeno. Season to taste with salt and pepper. In a large bowl, combine carrot, cabbage, red pepper, pineapple and nuts and mix well. Add the dressing to the vegetables and mix well again.

Place some slaw on a plate. Top with chops and drizzle with a bit of the reduced marinade.

For the chops marinade

½ cup hoisin sauce

¼ cup soy sauce

2 TBS sesame oil

2 TBS rice vinegar (can substitute cider vinegar)

1 TBS minced garlic

1 TBS minced ginger

½ Teaspoon red pepper flakes

2 (1/2 inch thick) pork chops

¼ cup honey

Vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

In a large bowl, combine the hoisin, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes. Add the pork chops and turn to coat. Remove the chops from the marinade.

Save the marinade and combine with honey in a medium sauce pan. Bring the honey marinade mixture to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Heat an oven-proof skillet over high heat, coat bottom of skillet with vegetable oil and sear the chops until golden brown on both sides, about 4 minutes per side. Pour the reduced marinade over the chops and bake for 10 minutes.

Remove the chops from the oven and set aside a few minutes to rest. After plating the chops, drizzle with a little of the marinade.

Sounds good, right?  

Yeah, but it also sounds like more time on the treadmill to me. Fortunately while we're on board, I get a mile on the machines in the gym. And another couple of miles just walking from our cabin to the dining room twice a day. That ought to count for something.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking with it!

Note: On Thursday, we make landfall in Honolulu. The DH and I will be at the Polynesian Cultural Center pretty much all day, so I probably won't post again till Friday. See you then!

Beans & Ham Hocks from the Green Apple Grill

The kids are back in school. The leaves are starting to turn and sooner or later, there'll be a nip in the air. Jake Tyler, the wounded warrior hero of The Coldwater Warm Hearts Club and owner of the Green Apple, is getting ready to add his infamous Beans & Ham Hocks to the menu.

("Why infamous?" I hear you asking. It's a recipe for beans. Think about it...)

But it's sure to please the hungry mouths around your table, especially if you pair it with fresh cornbread and cold apple cider. Here's what you do:

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups dried pinto or Great Northern beans (8 oz.)
6 cups water
2 small smoked ham hocks (about 8 oz. each)
1 onion, diced
2 teaspoons butter
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1.      Rinse the beans. In a large saucepan, combine beans and 3 cups of the water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand for 1 hour. Drain beans and return to saucepan.
2.      Add the remaining 3 cups water, ham hocks, and butter to beans. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until beans are tender, adding more water, if necessary, and stirring occasionally.
3.      Remove ham hocks; cool slightly. Remove meat from ham hocks; chop meat. Stir chopped meat, onion and salt into beans. Cover and cook for 5 to 10 minutes more or until heated through. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Enjoy! And click over to check out some more Green Apple Recipes. 

Do YOU have a favorite fall recipe you'd like to share?

Oh! Did you know I'm giving away this lovely collection of novels?

To enter my Stack of Books Contest just click over and sign up for The Coldwater Warm Hearts Club newsletter. Better hurry. The contest closes September 30th. 

Oodles of Noodles

Every family has its own special "must-have" dishes to make the Christmas dinner just right. At our house, you can keep the dressing and pumpkin pie. It's all about the noodles.

When I was first learning to cook, I was so frustrated by the good cooks in my family who didn't have exact measurements for their recipes. My mother-in-law always said she'd just start at one end of the kitchen and keep going till she reached the other, dirtying up every pot and pan in the place. My mother claims she adds ingredients "until it feels right."

Grrr! How could I ever fix anything with advice like that?

So let me apologize in advance if my noodle recipe seems a bit loosey-goosey. Mom was right. Sometime, you do have to rely on feelings. And my M-I-L would be happy to know making my noodles spreads flour in all directions. But my family loves them, so here's what I do:

Ingredients:
All purpose flour (2-4 cups, depending on how many noodles you want)
salt 1/2 teaspoon
eggs 2-4 depending on how many noodles you want
milk 1/3 cup (add more if you want more noodles)
cream of tartar 1/4 teaspoon
baking powder 1/4 teaspoon

Directions:

1. Start the night before you mean to serve the noodles!
2. Whip the eggs and milk together in a large bowl.
3. Add the cream of tartar and salt, stirring vigorously (Get some kids involved at this point!)
4. Begin adding flour one cup at a time and mix it thoroughly with the wet ingredients. Eventually, you'll need to use your hands to work the flour in. But don't knead it too much or the noodles will be tough.
5. Spread some of the left over flour onto a pastry cloth, putting a pile of flour in the center. 
6. Form your noodle dough into a ball and place on the center of your cloth. Pour the last of the flour on top before you begin rolling the dough out with a rolling pin. 
7. Cover with a cloth and let dry overnight.
8. The next morning, cut the dough into noodles.
9. Heat a stock pot of broth to a rolling bowl and then add noodles a few at a time. Once they've boiled for 5 minutes under your watchful eye and stirring spoon, turn the heat down until the noodles are barely bubbling. Set a timer and stir every 5 minutes so nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot. 
10. Do not stir in a circle or you'll end up with the world's largest dumpling! 
11. After the noodles have cooked for an hour, serve to your grateful family. They'll love them!

You can make them well in advance and freeze them. Once cooked, they are great left over and can be worked into casseroles and soups.

Here's wishing you and your family the merriest of Christmases! Enjoy!

And speaking of enjoying, be sure you check out the recipes from the Green Apple Grill, home to my hunky hero in The Coldwater Warm Hearts Club. 

Ethel's Icebox Rolls

I promised to let my characters from The Coldwater Warm Hearts Club take over the blog from time to time. Up next is Ethel, the geriatric waitress at the Green Apple Grill. Jake, the owner of the restaurant, suspects she calls everyone "honey," "sugar", or "darlin'" because she can't remember their names. When she's not fussing at people for failing to clean their plates, she's sharing some of her favorite recipes with Jake. Here's the recipe for her delicious... 

Icebox Dinner Rolls

Ingredients:

1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp salt
2 pkgs (1/4 oz) of Fleishmans dry active yeast dissolved in 1/2 cup of water with a tbsp of sugar on top
6 cups of flour (more or less, depends on how it feels)
1 cup boiling water
1 cup cold water
2 eggs

Directions:

Cream the shortening, sugar & salt. Add the hot water, then the cold. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and then add to the mix. Add the dissolved yeast, then the flour. 

Ethel says once it's all together the dough is so thick she can't hardly beat it with a large spoon. That's the only reason she shared this recipe with Jake. She needs him to do that final stirring. Let the dough rise for an hour or so. Cover and refrigerate and you can use this to make dinner rolls or cinnamon rolls when ever you want.  

Roll out the batter on a pastry cloth and use a glass to cut it into circles. Put the circles in a non-stick baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. 

For a change, you can use the dough to make cinnamon rolls. Just dip the circles of dough into melted butter, stretch it into  long oval and roll it in a cinnamon and sugar mixture. Tie it in a knot and bake as directed above! 

Ethel says to serve them with love, honey! 

Jake's Lazy Man Chili

This week the weather is brisk in Coldwater, Oklahoma, the fictional setting for my Coldwater Cove series. Folks are turning up their collars against the wind that whistles down from the tired peaks of the Winding Stair Range and off the choppy surface of Lake Jewel. Jake Tyler, an ex-marine who's also the chief cook and bottle washer of the Green Apple Grill, has put his Lazy Man's Chili back on the menu. 

When he has time, Jake likes to cook from scratch, but sometimes he takes a few shortcuts. The results are still fantastic. Here's his easy recipe for chili soup guaranteed to warm up your insides:

Ingredients:

Spicy V8 juice (48 oz.)

Chili Beans (2 cans)

Pinto Beans (2 cans)

Kidney Beans (2 cans)

Rotel Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies (10 oz. can)

Bell peppers (1 red, 1 yellow, 1 green)

Onion diced

Mushrooms (1 cup sliced)

Ground Beef (2 pounds)

Minced Garlic (1 Tablespoon)

Sea Salt

Freshly Ground Pepper

Chili Powder (1 Tablespoon)

Directions:

Combine first 5 ingredients in a stock pot. Be sure to drain the pinto and kidney beans before adding. Cook on medium heat. Chop up the peppers, onion and mushrooms and add to the mix. You can also add half a package of frozen corn if you wish. It adds another pop of color to the bowl.

Jake likes to use a steamer/strainer to cook his ground beef. It drains the excess fat without sacrificing flavor. Or you can brown it in a skillet. If you prefer to use ground turkey or venison, either works well. Season the meat with sea salt, fresh ground pepper, minced garlic and chili powder. Add to the stock pot. 

Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat till it's bubbling gently. Let it cook for about an hour, stirring occasionally. 

Jake's Green Apple Grill customers garnish their chili with chopped jalapenos if they're feeling adventurous and shredded cheddar if they're not. Serve in a deep bowl. You'll want a Methodist's portion. (That means a lot!)