Thanksgiving wishes and recipes.

This Thanksgiving as usual, my family is getting together and having lunch buffet style. Everyone brings a dish to share and we eat, play games, and usually go for a walk. This is what I made/making. (seeing how I still have stuff in the oven)

Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Cauliflower.

• Brussels sprouts, halved, cauliflower cut biteable size. 
• Enough olive oil to drizzle over
• 1 Tbsp caraway seeds 
• Salt and pepper

Spread the cabbage cousins (Brussels and Caulies) on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with the caraway seeds, and salt and pepper to taste. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes. 

Green Bean Casserole, from scratch. 

I use Alton Browns recipe, but instead of using fresh beans and blanching them, I use frozen beans and I just rinse them in hot water until they are de-thawed since they are pre-blanched. Everyone always loves it, well, except for me, (I hate mushrooms). You can find the recipe here. 

Cranberry Blueberry Smoothie. 

This was my breakfast. 

• one cup of frozen blueberries
• a small handful of cranberries
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1tsp of vanilla powder or extract. 
• enough water to cote 

Blend and enjoy. :)

Things that I'm really into right now.

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Vintage button rings

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Anything that looks like it belongs in a Doris Day Movie. (and the store this comes from)

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Old Phones 

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Hair and Hat pins

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Jewelry party

This weekend my mom hosted a party to benefit women in Thailand, giving them jobs, so that they don't have to work on the streets anymore. To go to their website click here, and to learn about their organization go here. We did it as a open house in my dads recording studio, so that my moms clients could come as they could and after, or before they had their hair done. We sold over $1,300 of merchandise. The cards are really neat, they have the woman who made the jewelry piece's name and age on the card. 

handmade cards, with handmade paper. 

this is one of the things that I got. 

delicious treats that I made for our guests. 

Easy leftover fried rice.

If you have leftover rice, for any reason and don't know what to do with it, try this recipe. Also if you have a bunch of veggies that need to be used then this makes good use of those also.

If you are using this as a meal double or triple the recipe.

• 1/2 a cup of rice per person
• 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of veggies per person
• 1/2 to 1 egg per person
• your favorite chinese sauce.

What my favorite is, I loke to make this for my family, and they love it. 

• 1/4 cup of peanut or sesame oil
• 4 to 6 eggs 
• 1 clove of garlic
• 4 cups of rice
• 4 carrots sliced into quarters
• 4 shallots chopped
• 3 green onions chopped (save one for topping)
• 2 celery stalks
• 1/2 a cup of whatever cabbage I have, usually nappa works best

For the sauce

• 1/4 cup of whatever oil you used before
• a 1/4 tsp of szeshwan pepper sauce
• 1/4 cup of sherry vinegar
• 1/4 cup of soy sauce or tamari sauce
• a tbs or two of hoisin sauce
• 4 tbsp of peanut butter or tahini (sesame butter) 
• 1/4 of a bunch of cilantro plus some for topping

Whisk the sauce together.

Heat the oil in a wok, and scramble the eggs, scoop them out and set them to the side. make sure the oil is still hot and add the rice, let it fry a couple of minutes before adding everything else. Put on the lid and let it cook for a bit, stirring every minute or two. When the carrots are soft, add the eggs and mix them in, then mix in the sauce and enjoy. :)

Chai Tea recipe, and Chicken Update.

Chai Recipe : Arti Sequeria

The recipe says that is yields 8 to 10 servings, but I get barley one and a half because I do mostly tea with about 1/4 cup or less of cream. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 1 (1-inch) piece cinnamon stick
• 4 green cardamom pods, smashed
• 4 whole cloves
• 1/2 star anise
• 2 quarter-sized coins fresh ginger
• 2 scant teaspoon black tea leaves (recommended: Taj Mahal) or black tea of choice (I used CHina black, its what I get in bulk at my Natural Grocers) 
• 2 teaspoons honey, or more to taste
• Whole milk or half-and-half

Directions

In a medium pan, bring the water, all of the spices and the ginger to a boil over medium heat. Turn off the heat and allow it to steep for 15 minutes.

Bring the mixture back to a boil, then add the tea. Turn the heat off, and allow it to steep for 3 to 5 minutes depending on how strong you like your tea. Stir in the honey and add milk to your liking. Strain it into a bowl or pitcher and serve!

Recipe from http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/chai-recipe/index.html 

Now its chicken time. My chickens were supposed to start laying eggs way back in August, but them with their stubbornness it took, well one of them about 3 months later. The Susex are still not laying, but Sasparilla (the austrolorp) is! She has laid 5 now! She started laying last week, 

The perfect summer to autumn late night snack.

I know its kinda late, (I forgot to post this a lonnng time ago) but I'm sure it tastes just as good in just the fall than in the summer-fall transition. After a long day of church going, chipotle eating, and some extreme babysitting that lasted longer than expected I felt like I needed to crawl into bed and go into a coma. After I had some food in my belly of course. When I came home it was dark, and a tad bit chilly, and I had raspberries waiting for me in the fridg.
This is what I made:
Chai tea

• Chai tea packet
• water
• honey
• goats milk (after about 3 days of sitting in the fridge the cream starts to settle on top, perfect for creamer.)

Raspberry awsomeness

• Raspberries
• Goat feta cheese (or some other sort of goat cheese)
• Honey to drissle over top
• Orange rind, you can use  basil, mint, pepper or some other spice that's in the chai, instead or with the orange rind. 

Serve in a pretty bowl with a dainty fork. 

Vegas and donkeys

Last weekend I took off Tuesday with my parents in our Camper van on a trip to Las Vegas to visit my cousins, on the way we went through Navajo and Hopi Lands and Sedona in Arizona. Be prepared, I went many a place, and had many a delicious treat. 

 Sedona, No 4 way stops, or stop lights, just a lot of crazy round abouts. 

 I thought it looked colorful so I took a picture. 

 This is a franchise that is only in Arizona, so yummy. 

 I had Tomato garlic Bisque soup, it had bits of sun dried tomato in it. Amazing! (Oh, and yes, that is real butter.)

 My mom had a squash soup and this turkey, cranberry, walnut stuffing sandwich. Quite delicious. 

The hoover dam, we didnt do the tour, just all the free stuff which was some nice dam fun. lol. W pretty much tried to put Dam into every sentence, but hay you've gots to. I love the winged statues, and have wanted to go see them forever!

 Wen we were in Las vegas we went to Nordstroms Cafe (it's tradition). Split a bowl of their tomato soup (another tradition). :)

 This was a chicken basil tomato thing, supper yummy. 

 Boston Cream Pie. I never had it before but I must say, it's like an american tiramisu kinda, really good. 

 On the way to Costco we went to Joe's Cactus, (I think is the name). Tones of Cacti and things for your garden, they are also an animal rescue place, with lots of animals. Their are usually goats, lots of dogs, and we saw a pig, so cute. 

 Not shure what this is, I was thinking it is a hot water solar panel. Looked neat so I took a pic. 

 Rescued, dog.

 Their were wield donkeys, but...Tame. They were so soft! We fed them apples. :)

That was part of my trip, well the part I documented. Hope you have a great week. :)