Turkey and Burns

So this past Thursday was that annual tradition of over-indulgence, aka Thanksgiving.

It started as it normally does, with the watching of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and perusing through the Thursday paper...to check for awesome Black Friday ads that I don't traditionally deal with.

Then the cooking began. It started with a new pie: Cranberry-Apple-Orange pie. How do you think it looks?




It's a bit tart, but still really tasty. (I added the little leaves for a little something extra).

The rest of the cooking went well. I roasted some green beans after steaming them to make them tender. I made the stuffing and put that in the oven. I stuffed the turkey breast with ham, cheese, poblano peppers and rolled it up with twine. The good-looking cordon bleu was seared in a pan and then placed in the oven.

And that's where it all went wrong. After everything had been in the oven for a bit, I went to check the turkey...but when I did, I didn't cover the entire pan handle with the pot holder. So, I burned it.



This pick is of the burn later in the day...but it hurt so badly...burning for hours. I was none to pleased.


At least I could enjoy the rest of the meal and though I did burn my hand, the food turned out really good.





Delicious. Happy belated Thanksgiving!

Bundle of Joy

For those of you who don't know, there is a new mouth to feed in my household...and her name is Bailey. She's a Lab and Basenji mix who is about 3.5 months old now.

So...here are just a few pics of the new little girl who is keeping me up at all hours of the night, getting into everything she shouldn't be and is so damn adorable!

Her first day at her new home.

Couldn't keep her off the couch for long :-)

After her first bath ;-)

Mugging for the camera

In her favorite spot (that isn't on the couch)

She's a great girl and while I know she'll get bigger, she'll always be my baby puppy :-)

Sara's Birthday Cookies

For my buddy Sara's birthday this year, she joked around about wanting Mickey Mouse cookies. So...I made it happen.

I couldn't find a cookie cutter I liked, so I headed to Michael's to pick-up some different sized cookie cutters and made my own Mickey Mouse shapes. If you want to do this too, here's what you need:

Sugar cookie recipe you like

Double boiler (or a glass bowl over a pot of simmering water)

2 bags of red-colored candy melt (vanilla flavored)

2 bags of dark chocolate candy melt

Yellow icing

White Icing

While the sugar cookies were baking in the oven, I started to melt down the chocolate. Here's what you need:

Once the cookies cooled, I dipped the top half of the cookie (aka the ears) into the melted dark chocolate and laid the cookie out on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Once the tray was filled, I placed it in the freezer. NOTE: You can use the refrigerator as well, just make sure where ever the cookies go, they are flat to avoid the chocolate running.

The cookies only need a few minutes to cool and harden. I then pulled the cookies out and repeated the process for the bottom of the cookie in the red chocolate. Once more I put the cookies on the sheet trays and chilled them.

Lastly, I decorated each of the cookies for the 'mickey' or the 'minnie' look I wanted. Yellow icing makes the buttons on Mickey's pants and the white icing makes the ruffles and dots from Minnie's dress.



Next step: TAKE A BITE!

Just remember to pace yourself when eating these cookies because they are super sweet....but super adorable!! Give them a try!

PS...Sara loved the cookies :-)