Christmas Dinner Theme is PLANNED!!!!

Sometimes all you need is the Seaside (Oregon, that is!)

Just what we needed!  A weekend at the beach, a book to read, some sunshine and we're rejuvenated.  A few more days would have been perfect and we had to cut our time short due to obligations at home, but the getaway was awesome!!  Click on the picture for some of my favorites of the pictures I took!  And here's a clip of the surf in action.  Don't blink or you'll miss it! :-)

Happy 11th Birthday, Coda!

This is the (was) napping birthday boy!  If he knew what was in the oven right now, he'd probably be sitting inside creating a saliva-puddle in front of the oven door.  Would you like to join him for some cookies later?  There's baby food chicken, peas, sweet potatoes and oatmeal cereal, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, bacon bits, cheddar cheese, egg, oat flour and oats all basted with bacon grease.  Are you sure you won't join him for his birthday treat?! ;-)
   

Or, if you'd rather, we can just have some cinnamon applesauce!!  This is the second large batch of applesauce I've made from the two FULL grocery sacks of apples that I received from friends.  I've eaten a number of the apples, but I LOVE the applesauce that come from these apples!  No sugar, just the pure flavor of the apple!  And it makes such a beautiful mauve applesauce!

Well now isn't that something?

Ah...the glorious days of fall -- something to be enjoyed while on a leave of absence from work!  EXCEPT I'M NOT ON LEAVE.  Oh, wait!  Yes, I am.  But I'm not supposed to be and so why did I work today?!  Somehow, in preparing to get ready for my Coffee Break Sabbatical and doing everything right to have that start on the 13th of January, it got entered into the computer as pending, but also completely "finished" because the date the specialist entered was January 13, 2013!!!  But my leave isn't until 2014!!  Anyway, so that explains why I couldn't assign a till today at work, and also why I couldn't even access the partner portion of the Starbucks website.  So, hopefully my specialist should be able to fix that first thing in the morning and I'll be able to work until January 2014!!!  Phew!!

So, off to coffee for my hard-working, lawn-mowing, still-sniffling husband!  And I might just need something to calm my nerves after having to try and take care of a mess I didn't create!

Lessons of the Heart

Yesterday I had the extreme pleasure of introducing the heart to three adorable young ladies!  We listened to the heart with a stethoscope, found our pulse, dissected a sheep heart and talked about what makes for a healthy heart.  I didn't feel it quite right having these girls here right after school without a snack, but I also wanted the snack to be heart healthy so I looked for an oatmeal cut-out cookie recipe that I could cut into heart shapes.  I found this recipe and want to make sure to keep it on file!  I made just half of the recipe so I had just an egg white and I also used part whole wheat flour and did NOT pack the brown sugar!  The cookies were huge hits! (As was the whole heart experience!)

Iced Oatmeal Cut-Out Cookies

• 1 c. butter
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1½ c. flour
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1½ c. old-fashioned oats (cut with a knife)

Pre-heat oven to 350°.  Prepare parchment covered baking sheets; set aside.  

Cream butter and brown sugar.  Add egg and mix well. Add flour, vanilla, cinnamon, baking powder and oats and mix well.  Dough is VERY sticky so make sure work surface is very well floured and roll out with well floured rolling pin.  Cut out with well floured cookie cutter.  Place on prepared cookie sheets and bake 7-9 minutes or until golden brown.

White Icing

• 1 c. powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. corn syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 tsp. water

Mix all together and pipe onto cookie with a #4 tip.  Start with outline and then fill in until smooth.

Cinnamon Icing

• 1 c. powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. corn syrup
• ½ tsp. cinnamon
•  5 drops cinnamon extract
• 2 tsp. water

Mix together as for white icing, adding drops of water if needed to get a creamy consistency.  Ice cookies in same way.

A different take on the Sunday Pot Roast

We bought 2 pot roasts the other day because there was a Buy One, Get One Free sale happening.   Kent wasn't too sure he wanted just the same ol' roast recipes again, so he found this one.  It was really interesting and we decided it was a keeper, too!  I made Cheddar Jalapeño Biscuits to go with this and later Kent used some leftover gravy on a leftover biscuit to expand his biscuits and gravy repertoire as well!

Braised Chuck Roast with Roasted Pepper Sauce

1 (3-pound)  chuck roast (arm, shoulder or blade)
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
4 1/2 cups beef broth
1 1/2 cups diced sweet onion
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, minced
2 poblano peppers, roasted, skinned, seeded and diced (sometimes sold as Pasilla Peppers)
4 garlic cloves, roasted and minced
2 cups heavy cream (I used half-n-half)
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup grated aged Manchego or Romano cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
 Other cuts that you can use for this recipe:
» Chuck Roast
» Shoulder Clod Roast
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Season beef with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in heavy bottom pan. Brown beef on all sides; pour off drippings. Add 4 cups broth to pan. Cover tightly with foil or lid and braise 4 hours until fork tender.
2. While the roast cooks, place remaining 2 tablespons olive oil in medium fry pan over medium-high heat. Add onions and saute until transparent; add peppers and garlic; saute 2 to 3 minutes. Deglaze pan with remaining broth and reduce by half. Add cream and reduce by half again. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Remove roast from pan and allow to rest 15 minutes.

4. Spoon 1/4 cup sauce onto each plate. Top with 3 ounces beef. Garnish with cilantro and cheese.

So, a couple of changes we've thought that might also work with this: 1.) use anaheim peppers instead of poblano; 2.) use sour cream for half or less of the heavy cream.  Reading through this now, I realize we forgot the cheese on the top at the end!  Oops!  The meat will literally fall apart done like this!  Enjoy!

A Fall Flavor

Old-Fashioned Gingersnaps

2 c. flour

 2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. ground allspice

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 c. butter, softened

1/4 c. dark molasses (not blackstrap)

1/2 c. firmly packed light brown sugar

1/3 c. sugar

3 Tbsp, peeled and grated fresh ginger

1 large egg, beaten

Turbinado sugar

Position oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven.  Preheat oven to 350°.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment and set aside.   

In medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, the 2 tsp. ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together butter, molasses, brown sugar, sugar, 3 Tbs. fresh ginger, and egg.  Add the flour mixture.  Stir to combine.  Cover and chill 1 hour.  (I did not do this step!)

Place turbinado sugar in a small, shallow bowl.  Make small balls out of dough and roll in turbinado sugar.  Place on baking sheet (2" apart).

Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are crisp and centers are still chewy.  Switch baking sheets between racks and rotate them front to back halfway through.  Remove from oven.  Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool.

These are so good!!  I didn't have near enough fresh ginger, but it was still very good and the turbinado sugar adds a nice dimension to the cookie!!