Well, we did it again. We stuffed our faces full of delicious food with family and fun!

Yesterday we headed to my maternal grandparents’ house for Thanksgiving lunch. Here’s a little sneak peak at what I brought….

When we got there my mom was finishing up some gravy and setting out all the pans of finished dishes.

Of course I zoomed right in on the stuffing.

There was so much food that we actually lost a few items in the kitchen!

I loaded up on all my favorites.

Notice the Christmas plates? It’s not just Macy’s that’s jumping the gun, we’re getting a head start on Christmas too!

Someone found the mac and cheese that was hiding under another dish, so it was time for seconds.

And my dish was a big hit, it was completely gone by the end of dinner. I made baked apples and pears with cinnamon, honey, pecans, and gorgonzola.

It was insane! Super easy to make too.

I just sliced up 4 Honeycrisp apples and 4 red Bartlett pears.

Then I squirted lemon juice all over and sprinkled on a bunch of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg and stirred it all up.

Then I put a few dabs of Earth Balance on top to keep everything moist and to keep the sugars in the fruit from caramelizing and then burning on the dish.

That went in a 400 degree oven for about 50 minutes. I stirred everything about 3 times to keep it all moist. You have to be gentle because the fruit starts to get very soft and if you manhandle it you’ll just break everything up into mush.

As soon as it came out I sprinkled on pecan pieces, crumbled gorgonzola, and squeezed on the sweet tupelo honey.

It smelled glorious! I’m so glad everyone liked it so much.

I am really bad about taking pictures of people rather than just food. In fact, the only picture I managed to take of a living body was this one…

That’s Tripod, my grannys’ fat three-legged cat! The little bugger bit me too. He just got too excited with all the pettings he was getting from me.

It was a great meal and a great time with my crazy family. We had to cut it pretty short because Jeff was still really ill and needed to get home to rest. I’m not doing so great right now either; I really hope it doesn’t get as bad as what he’s had to go through.

Off to make some more tea and veg out for the rest of the day!

November 26, 2010 Alayna Discussion 3 comments

Time to relocate the dish towels…

Liam has decided that this is the best place in the house for a nap. I don’t really care to dry my pots and pans with cat butt, thankyou.

Do you ever get the feeling you’re being watched?  I do.

The Luker gives me his famous look of disapproval.

This cat has whiskers for days. It’s like he’s saving them up for hard times.

What’s with that chicken wing thing he’s got going on with his arm there? Also, he has a drippy nose. Gross.

Alright, enough foolishness.

Liam and I are gonna go load the dishwasher together.

Later!

November 24, 2010 Alayna Discussion 3 comments

Yesterday was gross out so I had to skip my trip to the market that I had planned. We had very little left to make anything with but I think I managed to create something so great you wouldn’t realize it was made from scraps!

When I don’t know what I’m making for dinner I usually start making rice and chop up an onion, there are many possibilities that can blossom from that beginning. Last night I did just that with the addition of a chopped red pepper as well.

They sweat it out in the pan while I got to work on pressing some tofu.

When the peppers and onions were soft and browning, I added the tofu. Shortly thereafter I plopped on a couple spoonfuls of this black bean sauce.

It doesn’t really matter how much sauce you add, it won’t ruin it to put too much or too little. Just make it as saucy as you want it!

I spooned it over fluffy jasmine rice. Check out all the steam, it was super hot!

It was very warm and comforting on a cold and rainy evening.

Black bean tofu with veggies

An easy vegetarian dinner with only a few ingredients and the salty-sweet and spicy flavor of black bean sauce.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients

• 1 block tofu (pressed and cubed)
• 1 medium red bell pepper
• 1 medium onion
• approx. 3 tbsp. black bean sauce
• sesame oil for sauteing

Cooking Directions

1. Dice peppers and onions and saute in sesame oil.
2. When onions are starting to caramelize, add tofu cubes.
3. Add as much black bean sauce as desired and stir.
4. Serve over jasmine rice and garnish with toasted sesame seeds if desired.

Poor Jeff is still sick. He’s already downed one whole batch of my cold cure drink so it was time to make some more last night.

I didn’t have any apple cider so I used plain water and added a thinly sliced apple and a big spoonful of my gingery pear and apple sauce. You wouldn’t have known it wasn’t cider.

He’s been sipping on it constantly and it’s definitely helping him to be able to at least go to work.

Ok, today I need to get everything ready to make a dessert for Thanksgiving with my side of the family tomorrow. Details on that to come!

November 24, 2010 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 6 comments