Thanksgiving!

The turkey - brined and herbed.

Pear, kiwi, and pomegranate "salad" - pretty and tasty.

Sweet potatoes mashed with coconut milk, cardamom, cayenne, and vanilla, then baked for an hour with pecans. The flavors intensified with baking. Delicious and not so goopy-sweet as holiday sweet potatoes often are.

Apple-cranberry-sausage stuffing. This was my contribution to dinner. Tasty, but a bit dry. I would use more stock next time.

Roasted vegetables with ginger. It was broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and yellow/orange/purple carrots. Yum yum!

Garlic mashed potatoes with fried shallots to garnish.

My plate. I think I was only able to eat half of everything. It was yummy :)

Turkey stock made with the carcass, leftover herbs, onion, carrot, and celery. A little cloudy, but I think it will be delicious when I use it!

Ginger Scallops and Brown Rice

I made this dish a while back as a quick and easy meal to use up some veggies I had in the fridge. I had a bag of frozen scallops from TJ's, which I thawed and sauteed with a little olive oil and ginger paste from a jar. I might have added some lemon or lime juice too, but I can't remember right now. Anyway, I sauteed the scallops, removed them from the heat and drained all the water from the pan, then sauteed some julienned carrots and made the ginger/lime or lemon sauce. Then I added the scallops back in and finally tossed in some chopped green onions to add some green. Served over a bed of brown rice. There was enough sauce to cover the rice, so it was pretty tasty!

Pumpkin Curry Soup

I made this soup a few days after the pumpkin coconut bread to use up the rest of my coconut milk and pumpkin puree. I added in some veggies that I needed to use up. First I made a curry paste with butter, flour, and curry powder (like a curry roux). Then I added a box of vegetable stock and the chopped veggies (potatoes, carrots) and brought it all to a boil. Then I added the coconut milk and the pumpkin and stirred it in, and I brought the whole thing to a boil, then I let it simmer for a bit. I added in the green onions at the end. Seasoned to taste (it could have used a bit more salt). Pretty tasty and super fast and easy to make. I think this one might be good to experiment with in a slow cooker, and maybe with chicken and chicken broth.

What I ate last week

Molasses Bread

I made this in the bread machine with a recipe from allrecipes.com. It has a hint of molasses flavor, so it's a little sweet. I offset the sweetness with an olive-pepper spread I had from Trader Joe's.

Pumpkin Coconut Bread

(adapted from a recipe from Coconut and Lime)

This bread has canned pumpkin and coconut milk in it. There are no spices or vanilla or anything in it, just the coconut milk and the pumpkin. I used unsweetened coconut flakes in it too, and sprinkled coconut and pepitas on top before baking. This bread was light and delicious. I took it to work to share with my co-workers, and everybody loved it.

Chicken and Dumplings

I looked at a few recipes before I made this, then just made up my own. I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs and boiled them whole in 6 C chicken stock. Then I added chopped onion, garlic, and carrots, and then when the meat was cooked through, I took it out and pulled it apart and returned it to the pot. Then I added a couple cans of cream of celery soup and stirred that in. I let that come to a boil. At this point I had meant to add some frozen peas, but I forgot about them. In the meantime, I mixed up some biscuits (just Bisquick and milk). I reduced the heat and added the biscuit dough in drops. I added a little chopped rosemary to the soup and the biscuit dough, just because I had some to use. Then I covered the pot for a few minutes, and when the biscuits were cooked through (I checked with a fork), it was ready to eat! Seasoned with salt. Delicious. And even better the next day - thicker and a little saltier tasting.