Thanksgiving: Pumpkins, Peanut Butter, and Limes

I have baked/cooked quite a few things over the past few months or so that I have been meaning to take pictures of and blog about, but I never seemed to remember the camera; when I did remember the camera, I just never go around to writing about it.

Because of this lack of updates, I am sharing my three Thanksgiving desserts for this year: pumpkin cheesecake, peanut butter pie, and key-lime pie.  As it is not yet Thanksgiving day, I have not yet sampled any of these desserts in their finished state.  I have, of course, sampled during the process of making these desserts and I am very excited about the pumpkin cheesecake and the peanut butter pie.  The key-lime pie I am less sure of.  The crust tasted great (how could a graham cracker crust not taste good?)  The key-lime filling seemed completely overpowered by the texture/flavour of the condensed milk and the sour-cream topping seemed nothing more than 'fine'.  While the two main parts of the concoction seemed less-than-desirable, I am hoping that when they're put together they'll create something decent.  I suppose I will find out tomorrow.

*EDIT*  The key-lime pie tasted fine.  I apparently didn't cook it quite enough, so the middle wasn't completely set and the crust was moist, but, since it was chilled, it was not a soggy crust. */EDIT*

Pierogi!

The boy and I moved into a new apartment (with a small kitchen) last week and, after spending two days unpacking, I decided to take things easy. This means I have done nothing but read for the past two days, which was wonderful. Today, however, I decided to be productive, so I tried to make pierogi. For those who don't know, pierogi is a type of Polish dumpling filled with (in my case) potato-y goodness.  

Hodge Podge

There are so many things I've made over the past few months that have been reasonably successful that I've simply failed to post.  So here is my desperately late post about the hodge podge of meals, desserts, and odds-and-ends I have been concocting.

I figured I'd start from five minutes ago and work my way back in time. I made a light, fluffy pastry this morning for breakfast.  Well, maybe pastry isn't the right word.  Or light.  Or fluffy.  I made what I thought would be a light, fluffy pastry.  Instead it turned out to be an undercooked, sweet egg.

 

But that was my fault; it still tasted good. You see, since it was a balmy 80 degrees outside (yes, even at 9 in the morning) I decided to bake this German pancake in the toaster oven rather than the large oven, therefore avoiding heating the apartment up more than necessary.  I was, however, unaware that the pancakes puff up above the pan (and, in my case, into the toaster elements).  I had to let the pancake deflate before allowing it to continue cooking in the toaster, so the inside was not as fluffy as it should have been. 

Chocolate plastic and buttercream

Mothers day was approaching and I was going to get my mother flowers.   I was then faced with the dilemma of how to keep the flowers alive before I was able to get them to her.  Unable to come up with a way to prevent my mother from receiving dead flowers, I decided instead to make her chocolate flowers; but I couldn't just make her chocolate flowers, they had to go on a cake.  So I went on a baking spree yesterday, making two cakes, four chocolate flowers, and two batches of buttercream frosting.

Bacon and chicken and cheese, oh my!

Last night I was home alone for the evening, reading terribly embarrassing stories which I shall not post about here, so I wanted to make something simple for dinner, but more advanced than mac and cheese (tonight might just be a mac an cheese night, though).  A baked potato sounded great and, luckily, we recently made a trip to Russo's where we bought potatoes and tons of other veggies, so I had some lovely potatoes just yearning to be baked and eaten.

 I have made a meal out of a baked potato in the past, but I wanted meat.  Or, rather, poultry.  And I had already started defrosting a breast in warm water.  I hurried online to see what could be made from chicken, cheese, and an oven set to 350.  I ended up finding this:  http://agriculturesociety.com/uncategorized/rustic-baked-chicken-with-cheese-and-bacon/

What could be better?  Bacon, mushrooms, cheese, chicken, garlic, onions, and a potato?

We already had all the ingredients in the house, so I pulled them together and made a tasty, tasty meal.  (I will get confirmation on said tastiness when I make it for the boy in a few days).

Broccoli, Cheese, and Potato Soup

For the past few days, I have been craving something hearty for dinner.  I had a wonderful dinner on palm Sunday with friends and family and there was pasta, lamb, potatoes, and a myriad of other things.  For days after that, I just wanted something simple and filling.

Yesterday at work I saw a coworker eating cream of broccoli soup and I realized it was just what I was looking for.  I perused the interwebs and found this recipe.

I adapted it and came up with the following:

1 cup of Chopped onion
4 Garlic cloves, minced
Butter
5 Medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 cups of Milk
1 cup of Boiling water
4 Chicken bouillon cubes
3 cups of Broccoli
1 1/2 - 2 cups of Shredded cheddar cheese
Ground black pepper

The quantities are assumed, not necessary - I pretty much used whatever I had leftover.  We had a bag of squishy, sprouting, not-quite-gone-bad potatoes, so I just threw them all in the soup.  I had a piece of a block of cheddar cheese left, so I shredded it all.

A Caribbean Adventure

I recently returned from a nine day long trip to St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the West Indies. I don’t love humidity and hot temperatures, but it was nice to escape the New England weather for a little while.

I was going to write a blog about everything that I did (accompanied by pictures, of course) and I would love to write about the people there, the life they live, the general attitude, before I forget, but I don’t know if I could do it justice. I’ll try, though. This first entry will simply be about where we went and what we saw.
 

I feel like I’m letting my blog (and myself) down by not writing once a week, but I want it to be something I want to do, not something I’m forcing myself to do. Like running. I love running and while I may have to convince myself that, yes, I really do want to go for a run today once I’ve started running I really do want to be there.