Thanksgiving Recap

I posted our Thanksgiving menu here and I wanted to come report back on how things went.  I made a detailed plan for the oven, and apart from a few minutes around 1pm (when I flipped out and realized a few things never made it in the oven!) everything came together great!  We had WAY more than enough food.  One of my take aways was to halve some of the side dishes, especially stuffing and sweet potatoes.

We deviated from the turkey recipe and just went with what my mom has done in the past.  I'll be posting the rolls recipe this week, as well as the sweet potatoes and stuffing.  We LOVE the Pioneer Woman's Macaroni and Cheese, but that recipe is well documented on her blog as well as in her cookbook, so I'll just point you there!

Menu Planning Overhaul

To simplify my meal planning, I'm going to try adopting the same plan each week.  I'll try to keep posting on how it goes, and revamp as necessary.  Here's the current plan:

Mondays - meatless (ex pasta, pizza, vegetable medley)
Tuesdays - trio (1 protein, 1 fruit, 1 vegetable)
Wednesdays - casserole (ex lasagna, enchiladas)
Thursdays - soup with bread or salad
Fridays/Saturdays - out to eat
Fridays/Saturdays - slow cooker meal
Sundays - anything!

I'm excited to see how this works out...I'm working on my first menu using the guidelines, and I'll post that over the weekend.

Thanksgiving Menu

We've finally got our Thanksgiving menu settled, and I am busy making lists for baking times as well as ingredients.  I  hope to nail down our plan and get all our shopping done by the weekend before Turkey Day, so we can relax and have fun with our visiting family the week of.  We're having a mix of Pyne family favorites along with some new recipes, which I'm excited to report back on.  Here it is:

Appetizers/Daytime Snacks:
Fruit salad
Spinach dip and hummus with veggies and pita chips

Main Courses:
Herb roasted turkey and gravy
Ham with brown sugar glaze

Sides:
Quick Yeast Rolls, tripled
Stuffing, recipe TBD
PW's Macaroni & Cheese
Green Bean bundles
Sweet potato casserole

Desserts:
Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie

What are you having for Thanksgiving? Let me know if you have any great recipes to share!

Meal Planning Monday 11/8

Here's what we are having this week:

Monday -  spaghetti and salad
Tuesday - chicken fiesta soup
Wednesday - I'll be in College Station for a recruiting event so Bart will eat leftovers!
Thursday - king ranch chicken, salad, bread
Friday - out to eat @ the Cheesecake Factory
Saturday - pork roast, rice, carrots
Sunday - grilled cheese and soup

Enjoy your week!  2 weeks til Thanksgiving :)

Italian Tortellini Soup

I mixed up our weekly schedule a bit after I read this recipe.  I have classes at work all week, so I knew I'd be getting home a little later, and this recipe called for quite a bit of prep.  The good thing about this recipe is you can do 85% of the work a day or two before, so I knocked that out Sunday night.

This recipe is from a sweet lady I met at a mom's group in San Diego with my sister.  She served a chicken and tortellini soup, which was good, but also gave us the recipe for this one.  I'm trying to up my vegetable intake so this seemed like a great way! Now, I'm not saying this is all that healthy, considering it starts with a pound of sausage... :) but it is so yummy so its worth it!

Ingredients:
1 lb sausage (sweet or chorizo recommended, I used regular italian) - not pictured, it was browning!
1 c chopped onion
2 large garlic cloves, minced
5 c beef stock or canned broth- I used 3c beef stock and 2c broth from bouillon
2 c chopped tomatoes - I used crushed, and just 1 can
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 large zucchini, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 medium size green bell pepper, diced
1/2 c dry red wine - I omitted
2 T dried basil
2 T dried oregano
8-10 oz fresh cheese tortellini - like Buitoni
freshly grated parmesan cheese

-Saute sausage in large pot over medium heat until cooked through, crumbling with spoon.  Using slotted spoon, transfer sausage to a bowl. 
-Pour off all but 1 T drippings from pan (I only had about 1 T or less so I didn't pour any out).  Add onion and garlic to pan and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes.  Return sausage to pan.  Add stock, tomatoes, tomato sauce, vegetables, wine and herbs. 
-Simmer until vegetables are tender, about 40 minutes.  (Up to this point can be prepared ahead 1 or 2 days ahead.  If so, cover and refrigerate.  Bring to a simmer before continuing.)

 Here's what it looked like when it was done simmering and ready to go in the fridge

-Add tortellini to soup and cook until tender, about 8 minutes.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Ladle soup into bowls, sprinkle with Parmesan and serve.

Ready to eat!

I made some cornbread to accompany our soup.  It was a Trader Joe's mix that my sister brought me from California and it was SO good.  Trader Joe's - PLEASE COME TO DALLAS!  Everything I've ever had from there has been awesome.  I so wish we had one closer!

Hope you guys try this out, its a perfect meal for winter and quick if you do the prep the day before!  Enjoy!

Meal Planning Monday 11/1

Here's what we're having this week:

Monday - Baked chicken with Tony's, roasted green beans, fruit
Tuesday - our last premarried class at Watermark
Wednesday - Supper club! I'm bringing bread and salad
Thursday - Italian sausage and tortelli soup, leftover bread and salad
Friday - I'm heading to Austin to throw a baby shower!
Saturday - Austin
Sunday - pizza

I'll leave you with a pic from Hawaii...so beautiful!

Caramel Apples

I've been wanting to make caramel apples for a long time, but was always a little afraid of it.  I remembered seeing caramel apples on Annie's Eats, so I checked out this recipe.  She made it look pretty easy, so I decided to go for it.   You definitely need the candy thermometer, so don't even try it with out it (unless you know what candy 'firm ball' stage looks like offhand!)

Ingredients:
8 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
Pinch of salt
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
10-12 small Granny Smith apples, stems removed
Popsicle or lollipop sticks

Directions:
Insert a lollipop or popsicle stick into the top of each apple so that it is firmly in place. Melt the butter over medium heat in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan.  Mix in the brown sugar, corn syrup and salt.  Cook the mixture, stirring occasionally, until it comes to a boil.  Stir in the condensed milk.  Cook and stir until a candy or instant-read thermometer reads 248° F (firm ball stage.)

Here's me waiting for the caramel to reach 248 degrees

 

 caramel right before being done

Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

apples ready to dip - our toppings were candy corn, peanuts, walnuts, M&Ms and reese's

Dip the apples one at a time into the caramel mixture, turning slowly to coat evenly.  Transfer to a baking sheet lined with wax paper and allow the caramel to set.  Decorate as desired, with melted chocolate, chopped nuts, or candy pieces.

Some words to the wise - if you are going to decorate with nuts or candies, you need to do it before the caramel sets. My husband was helping me with this, so definitely grab a helper so one person can dip and one can add toppings.  Getting the nuts to stick was much easier when you roll the apple in the nuts rather than sprinkling them on.  The caramel is really hot, so try not to touch it while getting the toppings on.

The only negative about these was the caramel was a little too thick and chewy. Next time I will try to thin the caramel out a little with some cream and also try for a thin layer when dipping.  Let me know if you decide to try it!!