Thanksgiving Turkey Cheese-ball and Texas Trash!

Gobble gobble!  That’s something you see written a lot at this time of year.  I would say “hear a lot this time of year” but honestly, it’s been years since I’ve heard a real turkey’s garbled yell.  Not something the next door neighbors keep in their yard.  Maybe your neighbors do…..?

I don’t love turkeys, but I do love cheese-balls!  And snacky foods.  And cheesy foods.  So I saw this baby on Pinterest and felt in my bones that I should copy it!  I followed the recipe from Homemade in the Heartland for this handsome gobbler, though I didn’t have all the decoration ingredients.  We ended up having a Thanksgiving snack table before the actual turkey dinner, and this gobbly guy fit right on it!Instead of starting life out as an egg, he started out as this (cream cheesy, oniony, pinappley goodness):And then rolled around in this (pecans):I found that after sitting around a while, the pecans started to soften up (especially the next day).  I think I would try and roll him in pecans at the very last minute before the party!  I used white chocolate chips for his eyes, glued him together with black candy melts.  His neck is a pepperoni stick and candy corn for beak and feet!With the extra red candy melt I made his “gobbler” and wrote….a little word….I was in a hurry, ok?!!  (and my brain has been turning to mush lately)To go along with Mr. Gooble, I was all excited to try this traditional Texas snack mix!  (Texans, tell me the truth in the comments below:)  A delicious recipe for Texas Trash!  I found it on Little Magnolia Kitchen and just changed her recipe a bit to fit with what I could easily find.  The only Chex cereal I could find was Honey Chex  (see photo above)!!  And the nacho flavored Bugles.  I made up half the recipe, and could barely squeeze it into my pan.  Little Magnolia’s recommendation to use a large aluminum foil roaster is a good one….next time!  I didn’t have steak spice, so just kinda made my own with what I had.  So things were kinda different, but kinda……AWESOME!It turned out Y.U.M.M.Y!!  Definitely a hit!!!  I think it might go on our “traditional” list.  We thought of our Texan relatives while we ate it!! 😉  (Oops, should I have said that???)There were some other new recipes that I tried out this year…..let me get it together and I’ll do another post…..

Thanksgiving Pies

Canadian Thanksgiving has come and gone.  But we are thankful still!  This fall was fairly busy for me, hosting Thanksgiving, several birthdays and a surprise trip!  I haven’t posted any pics from our little Canadian Thanksgiving celebration and thought that now would be a good time, as our Southern Neighbors take their turn to celebrate.  So here’s a word of gratitude for our family and friends who are celebrating this week!  “Thankful for y’all!!”

And there were some pies that I made.  Of course the idea of a “typography pie” was something I found on Pinterest, but I switched it up a bit…and cut the letters right into the top pie crust, instead of laying the baked letters on the pie.  Last year I had made a cherry cheesecake pie, and liked it so much I figured we should make it a tradition.Of course there was a more traditional pumpkin pie, don’t they look yummy, just out of the oven??   But looks can be deceiving….Some little elves were helping me in the kitchen that day…..just sayin’…….

Cookies were baked, for our (also traditional) Linzer cookies (though I tried a new recipe, haven’t found one I love yet).  Little acorn cookie cutters from my sister and leaves for pie decorating!

{Linzer cookies are the ones with jam in the middle.  This year I tried baby squirrels inside of mommy squirrels and hearts in hearts.}The pie crust “cuttings” baked up and dipped in cinnamon and sugar (another tradition!)  ❤ you!!So the pumpkin pie made it to the Thanksgiving table, all dressed up in it’s Linzer cookie finery….with dollops of maple whipped cream….and thank goodness for that whipped cream!!  After a few bites, I felt that something was wrong with the beautiful pie, the one I had so looked forward to eating.  My husband says, “Don’t take this wrong, but it’s kind of salty!”  And yes, yes it was.  Could it be the “extra twists” I gave to my traditional pie crust recipe this year?  Oh dear, and here everyone was bravely eating away…but I couldn’t stop commenting on it!  And could hardly eat it, even slathered in whipped cream.  Was it the crust or the filling that was so salty?  When I announced that I was going to throw the leftovers away, my husband said, “no offense, but go ahead!” (or words to that effect)  I begged everyone to stop eating and leave the rest.  What a disappointment (for those of us who love pumpkin pie, I don’t think the other people were super heart-broken).

What is happening to my baking? I thought. In the end, I like to think that it happened because of one of those “helpful elves” who helped me in the kitchen that morning….either adding or distracting me!!!

Good thing it was the filling and not the crust, so the really special pie tasted great!!Thank You God for family and friends, cozy homes and food on our tables.  Love You, God!!

Fall Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Do you ever find yourself with one cup of pumpkin puree just sitting there in your fridge, a day or two after baking something delicious?  And you think to yourself…what could I do with one cup of pumpkin?  That’s what I was doing yesterday (when I should have been doing something else).  After a few clicks around online, I found this yummy-sounding recipe for Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies, with ingredients mostly found in my house!!  I adapted the recipe from Family Fresh Meals and cut out the stuff I didn’t have.  I also made some modifications because my mixer is deceased and I had to mix everything the old fashioned way…by hand!  Thus the melted butter.  So the recipe is written as if you are going to whisk things by hand. Feel free to use a mixer 😉

I’ve never had pumpkin spice in my spice rack, so I improvised.  (You could also pre-mix some for yourself, find it on this idea page).Are you excited about fall, and baking with pumpkin?  How about pumpkin+chocolate chips+oatmeal?  Doesn’t that sound good?  Ok, ok, here comes the recipe:

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

2 cups flour

2 cups oatmeal

1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. ginger, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, 1/4 tsp. ground cloves, 1/4 tsp. ground allspice

                                            OR  1/2 tsp. cinnamon and 2 tsp. pumpkin spice instead

1 Tbsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup butter (salted or unsalted)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup pumpkin puree (I use canned)

1 egg

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In any old bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda,  spices and salt. Set aside.

2. Melt butter in a  large microwaveable bowl, add sugar and brown sugar and whisk or beat until mixed together.

3. Now add in pumpkin puree, egg and vanilla. Beat or whisk until well combined.

4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until incorporated.

5. Now stir in the oats. Mix well.

6. And lastly, stir in the  chocolate chips.  Cover well with plastic wrap and refrigerate for while. (or not. You could do that while you get a cookie pan+baking parchment paper ready)

7. Drop cookie dough by the rounded tablespoon on to the prepared baking sheet.  I tried pressing some of them down with a fork (for the photos) but ended leaving the rest mounded up because I liked the texture better that way, so they were smaller, thicker cookies.

8. Bake cookies for about 14  minutes (cookies are lightly browned). DO NOT OVER COOK. They will seem a little soft, but will firm up as they cool. You want to keep the nice, soft texture!  So here’s the recipe in photos, since I was having fun in the kitchen instead of doing other things…

oooo I love this photo with the vanilla swirling around the island of pumpkin…

whisk up the yumminess!

the dry ingredients

add that snow-like powder!

the chocolate chips weren’t really purple….they were Costco, ethically sourced chocolate…

oops, the oatmeal was mixed in before the chocochips actually

I was going to include a few spoonfuls of molasses in this recipe, but then realized my cupboard was bare!  Anyways, everyone liked these cookies, they are very soft and are getting softer…though they are disappearing fast.  And here are the winning “after” photos:I found it hard to do the cookies justice in the photos.  They were nice and warm and just jumped off the plate into my hand and into my mouth….The cookies could have been larger, maybe they would have looked more awesome.  Here they are on my favorite fall plate…and now they are… gone….

(so much for my facebook photo voting…I just didn’t want to disappoint anyone, so felt I should add all the cookie photos here. Thanks guys! Wish you could’ve stopped by and had some cookies and tea with me!  Maybe next time…)🙂