Thanksgiving Leftovers

Day 359

Thanksgiving Leftovers

Reheating Dinner

We reheated the potatoes, carrots, stuffing and gravy for supper. I sliced the stuffing and put it in a casserole dish with a couple tablespoons of water and put the potatoes in another baking dish with a bit of water as well, then baked in the oven for about 15 or 20 minutes on 350 F. Turned out nice and hot and perfect.

Stuffing, carrots and potatoes

Mushroom Gravy

The gravy was just added to a small pot with three or four tablespoons of water and reheated on medium low heat, and occasionally stirred.

Reheating gravy

Reviews/Comments

I don't know if it was actually better reheated or if I was just hungrier, but I enjoyed it even more than I did last night. So, so good.

10 again.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Day 358

Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving dinner is somewhat modified in our house. There is no bird. We do have stuffing, but it's not turkey flavored, it's a delicious cornbread stuffing. We do have gravy, but not made from animals. We make mushroom gravy. Everything else is pretty much the same, like potatoes, carrots, squash, salads and rolls. Laura also made a lovely spicy lentil loaf with a tangy glaze.

Mushroom Gravy

Made with mushrooms, vegetable broth, butter and flour. Seasoned with sea salt.

Mushroom gravy

Whipped Potatoes

These are the last of the potatoes from this year's garden, a mix of red and white. They were whipped with cream and butter and then we folded in some garlic chives.

Whipped potatoes

Glazed Carrots

These are carrots from the garden and they're awesome. Glazed with 2 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp brown sugar.

Glazed carrots

Lentil Loaf

Laura will probably send me the recipe for this so I can post it, although, I'm pretty sure it's posted in a previous blog as well. It's soooo good.

Lentil loaf

Cornbread Stuffing

Not sure if she used a recipe for this. She usually just uses whatever is on hand and often adds pecans and cranberries to it, but not today. This one contains bread crumbs, corn meal, veggie broth, onion, veggie broth and fresh herbs.

Cornbread stuffing

Red Cabbage Salad

Original recipe
This was interesting. It's more of an Asian/Thai type of salad, but it was still good. I made one to take to Mom & Dad's but the one Laura made for supper was better than mine.

We used a red cabbage and a huge carrot from the garden, green onion from the garden and chopped nuts to make up the salad, based on the napa cabbage recipe. Same basic recipe, we just made some substitutes. On the plate at the bottom of this page, this salad is shown at the bottom of the photo.

Grated carrots, red cabbage, green onion & chopped peanuts

Salad dressing ingredients

Thanksgiving dinner

Reviews/Comments

First I had Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house with the O'Shea/Parsons/Prince/Tenass families. It was delicious and there were lots of options so I stuffed myself to the gills, then wolfed down some pie, then proceed home where Laura was about an hour away from having supper on the table. So, I wasn't super hungry, but it was completely enjoyable anyway. Everything was delicious, and I am looking forward to the leftovers.

Both meals were a total 10.

Roast Veggies

Day 339

I'm telling you, it never gets old. Roasted veggies are unbelievably good.

Roast veggies with homemade pickles

Tonight's Pan Held:

Red potatoes
Fingerling potatoes
Carrots
Parsnips
Sweet potaotes
Shallots
Dried herbs
Mushrooms
1 1/2 cups water
2 tbsp butter, cubed
Salt & pepper

Everything from our own garden with the exception of the last four ingredients.

Red potatoes

Carrots & parsnips

Sweet potatoes

Shallots

Dried herbs

Raw veggies

Roast veggies

Smashed Potatoes, Carrots & Broccoli/Cauliflower

Day 315

Saturday, August 29

Smashed Potatoes, Carrots & Broccoli/Cauliflower

Smashed Potatoes, Carrots & Broccoli/Cauliflower

Veggie Burgers, Potatoes, Yellow Beans & Grains

Day 282

Tonight, I had dinner with my mom, dad, sister, niece and nephew at the Boom Road homestead. Dad got these awesome veggie burgers at Costco, and BBQ'd them on the grill. We also had roasted potatoes, fresh yellow beans and a kale/grain dish that my sister cooked up.

Burgers

Dad grilled burgers for them and veggie burgers for me.The veggie burgers he found at Costco were super good. Will probably get some next time I go!

Dad at the grill

Grilling burgers

Yellow Beans

I think they got these at the Newcastle Farm Market earlier in the day. I slathered mine with butter and seasoned liberally with salt and pepper. Soooo good. Can't wait for ours to grow.

Yellow beans

Kale with 10 Grains

Tara made this side dish so I'm not sure about all the ingredients, but I know it had a 10-grain mix, chopped kale and minced garlic. I did not see what she used for seasoning, but it tasted good.

Kale with 10 Grains

Burgers, Potatoes, Beans & Grains

Jacob with his dinner

Veggie burger with potatoes, beans & grains

Strawberry Dessert

Dessert was strawberry-themed with the option of strawberries 'n' cream or strawberry shortcake. I had strawberry shortcake.

Mom preparing strawberries

Lily making strawberries 'n' cream

Strawberry shortcake

Reviews/Comments

The meal was delicious and the evening overall, was fun and relaxing.

Oven-Roasted Potatoes, Broccoli/Cauliflower & Garden Salad

Day 246

I love summer.

Oven-Roasted Potatoes

Broccoli/Cauliflower & Garden Salad

Oven-Roasted Potatoes

Peel, chop, toss with olive oil and lay out on the pan. Shake some sea salt and freshly ground pepper over it and toss some herbs over it and roast for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees F. This part of the meal was simple.

Oven-roasted potatoes

The herbs were handpicked by Laura the Gardener herself and include:

• Rosemary
• Greek oregano
• Parsley
• English thyme
• French thyme

Herbs

Garden Salad

First salad of the summer. And plenty more coming behind it. This part of the meal required the washing and drying of leaves and stuff.

Garden greens

Salad Ingredients
Baby leaf lettuces (Lollo Rossa, Black-seeded Simpson, & red and green Oak Leaf lettuces)
Kale (Red Russian)
Scallions
Fresh oregano
1/2 red onion (from last year's harvest, believe it or not!)
1/3 English cucumber
1/2 cup roasted, salted peanuts
1 can mandarin oranges
Pansy petals for garnish

Garden salad

Zingy Poppyseed Salad Dressing
Original recipe
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
1/3 tsp dry mustard
1/3 tsp salt
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tbsp minced red onion
2 tsp poppyseeds

Zingy poppyseed salad dressing

Broccoli/Cauliflower

With Hollandaise, of course. The original idea was to have broccoli stuffed baked potatoes, but the potatoes we had were small and looking a bit aged. So, we went with broccoli and cauliflower as a side instead. And couldn't give up the idea of Hollandaise since Hollandaise makes everything better.

Broccoli & cauliflower

Oven-roasted potatoes

Garden salad & broccoli/cauliflower

Reviews/Comments

Well, this meal had a lot of our favorite things plus a few nutrients to use later, so we both rate it a 9-er. Again, I'm looking forward to lunch tomorrow.

Mashed Potatoes, Mushroom Gravy & Corn-on-the-Cob

Day 229

My turn to cook tonight, so I decided on potatoes. I let Laura decide the rest. For some reason, deciding what to have is hard, and it's always nice to be told what to make. "Make me some corn!" "Okay!"

Mashed Potatoes, Mushroom Gravy

& Corn-on-the-Cob

Mashed Potatoes

I wanted to make enough to take for lunch tomorrow too, so I boiled about 6 small - medium potatoes until soft, then mashed and whipped them. Not much else to say about the taters.

Mashed potatoes

Mushroom Gravy

I looked up a few gravy recipes. I mean, we have a lot of things here to flavor food, between sauces, herbs, spices, condiments, etc. What we didn't have on hand is the main thing we would have used for the broth: vegetable broth. That's the only reason I googled some recipes. After reading several, I decided not to use any and borrow an idea here and a good thought there. Here's what I came up with:

Ingredients
1/2 onion
1/2 lb fresh mushrooms
4 tbsp butter - the real stuff
1/4 cup flour
1 tbsp thyme (dried)
Salt & pepper to taste
1 1/2 - 2 cups water
2 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp red wine (ish)

Directions
I simmered the onions in the butter quite awhile because Laura only likes soft, never crunchy, onions in her gravy. Once they were soft, I turned the heat up a bit and threw in the mushrooms, which I had washed and sliced. Once those were cooked, I added the flour, thyme, salt and pepper and stirred for a minute while it heat up and combined together. Then I added the water, soy sauce and red wine and brought it back to a simmer. Turned out good!

Onions & mushrooms simmering in butter

Mushroom gravy

Corn-on-the-Cob

Laura's choice was corn. It was between that and asparagus and corn won for two reasons:
1. It was cheaper.
2. We were also supposed to have fiddleheads, so I opted for a 2nd starch instead of a 2nd green. I'm like that.
3. It was cheaper.

Raw corn-on-the-cob

Corn a-boiling

Let's Hear it for the Condiments!

Pickled beets and Mama's ladies. Even though I was having gravy on my potatoes, I still wanted to have pickles. There was also butter, salt and pepper, of course.

Lady Ashburnham pickles & Pickled beets

Potatoes with gravy & corn

Reviews/Comments

I know this was a starchy meal, but I'm all about potatoes and corn. And pickles! And gravy is just...gravy! So, I call this one a solid 10.

Laura will only say "It was good." But I know she loved it. A lot. She rates it a 7, but she didn't mean it.

Do You Like Fresh Herbs?

The first one to post their favorite kind of fresh, organic herb as a comment on this blog status on Facebook shall have a bunch of it reserved for you once it has grown! I can't guarantee everything will grow, but here is some of what's been planted, and if your first pick doesn't come, then we'll go with your next choice:

• Basil (Mexican & Genovese varieties)
• Rosemary
• Thyme (French & English varieties)
• Oregano (Hot n spicy & Greek varieties)
• Tarragon
• Bay leaf
• Mint
• Sage
• Cilantro 
• Parsley (curled & flat varieties)
• Marjoram
• Fennel

Sorry, you have to be living in Canada to play! The border doesn't allow fresh produce to be shipped. Boooo!

Baked Potato Stuffed With Broccoli, Cauliflower & Hollandaise

Day 225

Not much to say about this easy peasy meal except that it comes together quickly and is full of yumminess. We gardened all day, so a simple meal was in order. Plus some nutrients, protein and carbs to replenish our bodies.

Stuffed Baked Potato

Broccoli Goodness

It really doesn't get simpler than this.

Packages of Hollandaise, Broccoli & Cauliflower

Broccoli& cauliflower in the steamer

Potato Greatness

Potatoes baked for about an hour at 400 degrees F. They were pretty big baking potatoes so they required a bit more time than usual.

Baked potato with sea salt & pepper

Stuffed baked potato

Reviews/Comments

I loved it, but go figure. Potatoes. Hollandaise. Mmmm. Gets a 10 from me.

Laura thought it was yummy and gives it an 8.