A Sustainable Holiday Season...

I have to tell you...  If you are looking for a great Dressing recipe, you should definitely try mine.  It's a newbie to the recipe book, I tried it for Thanksgiving and it was a HIT!  It was sooo much better than the baked squares that I've had in the past.  Also, I came up with a yummy alternative to the typical turkey and dressing leftovers.  I made our favorite waffle recipe (Paula Deen's substituting our flour and adding xantham gum) and added some chopped leftover smoked turkey (my brother-in-law's recipe) and dressing.  The turkey and dressing baked into the waffles with that added texture from the waffle iron.  It was made even better with the addition of leftover cranberry sauce added to our maple syrup and heated through.  It was so good that I can easily see it becoming a family tradition for a Black Friday Brunch.  I hope you'll consider trying it.  As we started taking down the Thanksgiving Decorations to make room for the Christmas Decorations, I decided not to let a perfectly good pumpkin go to waste.  While the kiddos took the seeds out, my husband began cutting the pumpkin into easier to handle chunks.  We cleaned the seeds and roasted the seeds and flesh of the pumpkin in a 300 degree convection.  When pumpkin flesh was fork tender; I added to the food processor and pureed until smooth.  From this point- so many things can be done with pureed pumpkin.  You can add stock to make a soup, add to your favorite muffin, cookie, or bread batter, or you can add to your favorite pasta dough recipe.  If you're not sure, pour into your muffin tin and freeze; when frozen remove from muffin tin and place in freezer container for future use.  I do this with soup; when I want my favorite soup I can place in mug and heat up.  I refuse to let anything go to waste, and given our diet I always prepare food in bulk.  Sometimes I get so frustrated with our freezers, we have three.  Everytime I open our freezer, ziploc freezer bags and containers are everywhere and it can be difficult finding what I need at times.  One of my resolutions for the upcoming year is to find an easier way to store everything.  Any ideas would be appreciated...  Happy Christmas to Everyone!  I hope you have a wonderful Holiday Season.  If you are running short on christmas present ideas, I would suggest some homemade goodies.  I enjoy sharing my homemade extract recipes with friends and family as special gifts.  You can find my vanilla extract listed here. This year, as presents, I also made a Bourbon Vanilla Extract as well as Orange Extract.  They are super easy to make and make great gifts.

An Update and Homemade Vanilla Extract

I have been gone from the blogosphere for a while now.  Not by choice, granted.  It has been nutso in my neck of the woods.  Snow storms, tornadoes, kids, chores, farm, etc.  You get the idea.  I’ve been having a hard time with recipes, lately.  I seem to be stuck in a rut and when I do try to think “outside the box”, it’s been pretty gross.  Does that happen to anyone else?  I guess I need to get back to basics.  My family and I recently took a trip to Nashville, TN for a weekend; it was great!  We found lots of restaurants that we could eat at.  There is a bakery called Fiddlecakes that made us a batch of brownies when I called ahead and alerted of particular allergies.  They make their own gluten free bread and fresh sandwiches that made for a yummy lunch.  We also encountered Mellow Mushroom for the first time.  It was such a treat for all of us to enjoy pizzas together as a family.  We ended our trip with a visit to The Whole Foods Market to store up favorites that are unattainable in our area.  Lots of pastas, panko bread crumbs, snack bars, you get the idea.  Needless to say that we had our Expedition loaded for our trip back home to Kentucky.  My daughter also had her Immunocaps drawn for an upcoming appointment with her allergist.  We’re not sure what, if anything will come of that.  Did I mention that my baking has been a bit “different” for the past couple of weeks?  I’ve been experimenting with a lot of different flour combinations trying to find a “fit”.  Up to this point I have been splurging on Bob’s Red Mill AP flour but I really want to make my own mixes.  What I have accomplished is the best vanilla extract.  We started it before Christmas and are currently enjoying homemade vanilla extract.  Super easy to make, I plan on gifting it for the holidays in the future.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

1 jam jar

2 vanilla beans split

Vodka

Place the vanilla beans in the jar and cover with vodka until filled.  Place top on jar and let it rest in a cool, dark place for at least 6 weeks; shaking occasionally.  I currently have mine located on my counter top to use at my whim.  Nothing tastes as good as homemade vanilla extract when a vanilla bean cannot be used.  Keep it natural.