Thanksgiving

My Thanksgiving dinner was a success. The only problem I had was that the cooking didn’t really go out as I planned. We bought a smaller turkey this year and it cooked faster than planned so we had to call SIL and tell her that dinner would be earlier thus I was a little behind with my dinner rolls. My food actually turned out great and there was so much food left.
I am so glad that hubby is here to celebrate Thanksgiving with me. FIL, BIL and some of the other guys normally go up to the cabin to go deer hunting. Ever since I know FIL every year he’s really persistent on getting a deer every single year. He would go up to the cabin way before deer hunting season starts to scout out places that has lots of deer. Every year he would spend a lot of money preparing for deer hunting but not once got a deer. This year however he was lucky enough to get a deer the first day of deer hunting season. He was determine to get another deer but deer hunting season ends tomorrow so I doubt he would get one. I should inform FIL that Nikon is currently having a promotion on their long range shooting system then maybe he could get more than one deer if he quickly buys it. Hopefully FIL is quick enough to get this good deal.

*this is a sponsor post*

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving people!!Will update soon...

Thanksgiving Day Menu

This year we will be our very first Thanksgiving in Houston. This is also the first year in hubby’s life that he’s not able to go deer hunting at all. I know he’s pretty sad about it but I hope that he’ll be alright eventually. I think he just miss hanging out with the guys ie FIL and BIL during those times.

We/I have a lot to be thankful for this year and because hubby cannot go deer hunting this year and will be celebrating thanksgiving (although ever since we’ve been together he normally skips that weekend and spend thanksgiving with me anyway) I’ve decided to try and make a yummy meal for him and our guests (SIL and her hubby).

Menu for Thanksgiving dinner:
Roast Turkey
Green Bean Casserole
Scallop Cheesy Potato
Cherry Pie - Done
Pumpkin Roll
Dinner Roll

*Everything is made from scratch except the Green Bean Casserole.

I'm trying to make as many things as I can in advance so that it'll not be so hectic on thanksgiving day. I can just make the turkey and the side dishes and not have to worry about so many different food I have to make on the actual day. So far I’ve made the Cherry Pie which for some reason the Pie Crust didn’t really work out this time however I still used what I could.

I’ve seen pumpkin rolls recipe here and there before and didn’t think of trying it because hubby never mentioned about it before then I was talking to Y and she said that she was going to make pumpkin rolls for her thanksgiving meal and is suppose to taste wonderful. I am not sure it’ll work out for me this first time but I just had to try it since it sounded so divine. I’m in the process of making the pumpkin roll so fingers cross that I don’t screw up quite that bad.

I wonder what else I should add?

Homemade Dog Biscuits

I've always wanted to make treats for Stanley ever since we got him but ever single time when we go out I'm always too busy thinking of stuff to buy and hubby will try and stop me so I'll always tell him Stanley needs treats. He'll be like didn't we buy it the last time and then I'll be like he needs different flavors. How do you like it if you always eat the same thing right? So he'll be fine with it but then now hubby very smart. He's seen my stashes of treat, raw hide and toys so now when we go out not allowed to get anything for Stanley unless something he absolutely needs.

Out of blues I decided to make some homemade treats. I figure since I'll be having the two monkeys might as well I make some healthy treats for both of them although Stanley still has a ton of treats and Aunt L bought some over for Bailey too.

I actually needed baby food for the recipe but then I don't have any. I was too lazy to get into the car and go get some baby food. So I cut and clean a few sticks of carrots and celery then proceeded to steam it. I thought steaming it would maintain the nutrient instead of boiling it in water. When it was soft enough I took it out and mashed it with my food processor (see how much I use it. I think is a good investment!lol). I actually added a couple of Strawberries because we had some left and I didn't want it to go to waste. It actually smelled really good for some reason

Pureed carrots, celery and strawberries

Then I used my KitchenAid mixer to mix the ingredients for the biscuits.

Baked cookies.

Ingredients:
3 Cups of whole wheat flour
3/4 Cup of rolled oats
1/2 cup powdered milk
1 egg
5 tbsp of oil
water as needed
2 cans/bottles/jar of baby food (any flavor, all natural and no preservatives)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
2. In a large bowl combine all ingredients together and make a thick dough.
3. Knead on a slightly floured countertop for about 4 minutes until the dough is nice and smooth.
4.Sprinkle a little more flour over the dough to make rolling easy.
5.Roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thickness.
6.Use cookie cutters or a small drinking glass.
7.Bake on a ungreased cookie sheet for about 22 minute.
8.Let doggie biscuits cool for at least 1/2 hr before serving.
9.To keep fresh, package these in sealed containers.

I don't really have much cookie cutter so I used what I had which was the heart and angel (Christmas)cookie cutter. My heart shape cookie cutter is from Wilton and the angel one is a cheap one and I find that is much nicer and easier to use the Wilton one. I would imagine all cookie cutter would work as good. I guess I should start looking for more Wilton cookie cutters

I know I'm going to hear about making cute cookies for the dogs when hubby gets home because I made him some almond cookies last week and it was not shaped at all. I didn't even bother to actually rolled it out really nice. I kind off just plop on the pan. Will blog about the almost cookies soon.

I think baking the biscuits for the two monkeys is all worth it. At least I know what is in it and I can give him more than a couple if I like.

p/s: If you don't want to make your own puree you can use apple sauce or peanut butter too.

Dog Sitter

Neighbor aka Aunt and Uncle Richie has escaped from this cold weather (we are suppose to get a cold front this week) to go Hawaii for a nice and warm vacation. I volunteered to watch all 3 monsters of theirs but they decided to put the two big monster at the boarding place. I am going to be watching Bailey (the dog we found after the Hurricane Ike). I will be having TWO MONSTERS for the whole month until they return in December! It'll be a lot of yelling and smacking for the both of them. Bailey and Stanley are both equally notorious! I do miss Bailey and I'm glad that she's just living next door. I am also glad that she and Stanley get along pretty good. Aunt Richie normally just let her and Stanley play together because the other two monster are quite large hence it'll be a havoc if all four of them played together!
I'm glad that we found an extremely good home for Bailey. Bailey is just so spoiled by Aunt Richie and Uncle Richie is just constantly complaining that she spoils him too much. I guess that's the other reason why she's not being put in the boarding place and it saves them money too.

Partners in Crime!!

Is going to be real interesting watching both of them. *faint* they are sure going to be a hand full and I am pretty sure I'll be happy to take her home when Aunt and Uncle Richie gets back.

Beef with flat rice noodle/Sap chow ngau hor

So last week I had craving to cook something with rice noodle. We were eating out a lot and I was pretty sick of eating out. I knew I had beef and choy sum in the refrigerator/freezer. I know that I didn't have any rice noodles/Kway Teow but I was not afraid because I knew how to make it. Well I made my kway teow but I still ended up putting it in the refrigerator that evening because we went out to eat again! Anyway the next day I was damned that we would go out and decided to try to cook my noodle. Apart from my home made kway teow I just followed Lily's instruction.

Ingredients:
A pkt of fresh hor fun/flat rice noodle
1/2 lb Beef fillet/sirlion - slice thinly across the grain
1/2 cup drained canned straw mushroom - cut into slices
1/4 cup sliced carrot
1/2 lb Choy sum - wash and cut into 2 inch lengths - put on a plate and microwave for 2 mins.
1/4 cup of sliced young gingers
Oil for frying beef and noodle
Marinate
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp light soya sauce
1 tsp dark soya sauce
1/2 egg white
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp shaoxing wine
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp tapioca starch
2 tbsp water
2 tsp cooking oil
Gravy
3 tbsp oyster sauce
1 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp cornstarch

Method:
Knead the marinate except the oil, thoroughly into the sliced beef and when well mixed, add in the oil and knead again. Leave to marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Fry the hor fun/flat rice noodles like you would for Wat Than Hor
Heat 1 cup oil and when it is hot, fry the beef by batches. Fry beef until 3/4 cooked.
Remove all the oil and leave 2 tbsp. Fry the ginger slices, then add in the beef and choy sum. Stir fry, then add in the gravy ingredients. Cook gravy thickens and pour over the noodles.

Serve hot.

* Since I made my own kway teow and and to refrigerate it just quick nuke it in the microwave to soften it. The texture is almost like the once I buy from the oriental store.

I am not too happy with my results. I'm pretty sure number one is because my pan not seasoned. Hubby is not to keen with this noodle too. I am not sure does this make a difference but I did marinate the beef 24hrs because I didn't get to cook it that day and only had a chance to cook it the next day therefore I found the beef a little too salty (I am not too keen on eat very salty)I kind off think I messed up some where I'm pretty sure is supposed to taste better! I might decided to try this again.

Pie Crust II

Hubby lurvesss pies especially apple pie. Every time when we go to the store he'll want to buy an apple pie however he will refrain himself because he knows that I don't really care for it when he buy the pies at the store because is normally full of sugar and is always over priced anyway. I don't really do any baking in the Summer because is already so hot hence I don't really want to increase the heat in the house by baking. However I love to bake in fall, winter and spring because the heat from the over will help warm the house up. Since it's been pretty cool this few weeks I've been keeping myself busy in the kitchen. I've been trying to find/experiment with the pie crust recipes because I want to find a pie crust recipe that will work with sweet pies and meat pies. The reason is when I make my chicken pot pie I like to keep some of the gravy from the chicken pot pie but so far the pie shells (except the ready made once from the store) that I've made will absorb all my gravy thus making my chicken pot pie dry.

So far the Pie crusts have tasted pretty good but I do not dare to try making chicken pot pie with it because I'm afraid it'll be dry. On another note...I absolutely heart my food processor. I had been itching to get a food processor that I could use to make pie dough too and when we were up North after a very very long time of looking I finally decided to get one. I barely use my food processor at that time because I had a small kitchen when I was living up North. When I moved down here I finally decided to use my food processor to make dough but to my horror there was no dough blade! I was really pissed by then because I researched and researched on which food processor to get and I purposely got the Black and Decker Pro II so that I could make dough/pie crust (yes I'm dumb even though I have a KitchenAid mixer sitting on my counter). I was freaking out too because it's been like 1 year plus since I bought the food processor and I didn't think that they would replace the dough blade for me. I made up so many stories in my head so that when they ask me I can tell them smoothly a story but they just asked me some numbers and told me that they would send me the dough blade. At that time I was just relieved (lurvee Black and Decker customer service) but I did complain to hubby that they didn't even question me and I spend so many time thinking of all different stories to tell them and I didn't even have to use them!Anyway I really love how easy to make my pie crust with the food processor. I have been making up batches of pie crust or grinding food and mincing meat with my food processor. Is so convenient!!

Last weekend we looked high and low for little pie pan so that hubs can have little pies (like in the restaurants)

I decided to make a smiley.

Pie Crust
Ingredients
2 C of Flour
1/2 tsp of salt
2 tbsp of sugar (if making sweet pie)
1/2 C of shortening
1/4-1/2C of butter
1/2 C of ice cold water
1.Chill everything you will be using in the fridge/freezer.
2.(Because I'm using my food processor) Put flour, sugar and salt in the food processor and mix it.
3. Add shortening and butter.
4. Pulse it until it resemble like pea size.
5. Add water a table spoon at a time and pulse until it becomes a huge ball.
6. Separate it and wrap with cling wrap. Refrigerate it at least 4 hours or overnight (this process ease the rolling process).

* you want to work the dough as little as possible because the lease you handle the dough the flakier it gets.
** After pulsing several times if it still doesn't stick together I normally just take it out and knead it to a big ball.
***My second batch I didn't have time to refrigerate it and I did have a difficult time to roll it out. If you have a difficult time rolling it and putting it on the pie pan; roll it between parchment paper or cling wrap.

Hubby loves this pie crust but he loves all the pie crust that I've made so far so I would have to see if it works with the chicken pot pie. It's still a keeper anyhow! Everyone wanted a piece of the pie that I didn't even have time to take a picture of it after came out of the oven.