Carrot Pumpkin Cake

Carrot Pumpkin Cake

1c sugar

0.5c brown sugar

3/4c veg oil

1tsp vanilla

3large eggs

1.5c pumpkin puree

2.5c AP flour

2tsp pumpkin pie spice mix

1.5tsp baking powder

1.5tsp baking soda

1tsp salt

3c shredded carrot

0.5 c walnuts

Combine eggs and sugars and mix until eggs are light and fluffy. Add the oil, vanilla and pumpkin and mix till fully incorporated. Add the dry ingredients and carrots and fold till combined. Sprinkle walnuts on top

Bake at 350F till skewer comes out clean in center.

I did this recipe to cut down the amount of oil usually used in a carrot cake so I added pumpkin puree. It made the cake a bit dense but really moist. Next time I would separate the eggs and whip the whites separately and fold them in at the end to lighten it up.

Turkey Pot Pie

Since I still had a pint of green bean casserole left I decided to make that the base of the pot pie. The casserole was made with a rue for thickening which is also the base sauce of pot pies so it was perfect.

Finally all the turkey is gone.

Turkey Hash and Eggs

Still stuck with left overs!

I love corned beef hash and eggs when I go to diners so I thought Turkey Hash is a good way to use up all the scraggly bits from the carcus you can pull off. (Don't waste anything.. there are starving kids in Somalia! haha)

(scrambled egg whites, cranberry sauce, turkey hash, whole wheat toast)

Finely chop the shredded turkey and place in a hot pan to slightly brown. Add some left over gravy or turkey stock and some left over sweet potato/ potato (finely chopped or mashed). Mix it all together and cook until brown and crispy. Top with a fried eggs.

Leftover Turkey Fried Rice

2 servings

1 cup left over turkey

2 cup left over rice

1/4 cup frozen peas

1/4 cup frozen corn

1/2 cup turkey stock

pinch salt & pepper

2 eggs

Chop or shred turkey meat. In a hot pan cook turkey to re-crisp any skin and caramelize meat. Pour turkey stock over meat and de-glaze pan. Reduce stock and add corn and peas. Add rice, salt and pepper and cook till all stock is absorbed. In another pan fry the egg and place over rice.

(I also added tobasco and ketchup on top)

First Thanksgiving

My family has never had a real Thanksgiving meal. We usually have a hodge podge of food. I usually try to inject a little bit of the traditional in with my mom's Chinese food. So we might be eating Chinese roast duck with bok choy, winter melon soup mixed in with some stuffing or mashed potatoes. That was my worst nightmare. I hate eating foods that don't belong together.

This year I decided I would cook a full fairly traditional Thanksgiving meal. It may not have been like the first Thanksgiving the Pilgrims had but its probably more like what they would have in gourmet magazine. No Chinese Food Allowed!

The turkey was brined for 2 days then rubbed with herb and spiced butter. Stuffed with carrots, onions, apple, lemon, sage, thyme, and rosemary.

( Never trust the pop up thermometer! you'll be eating dried out bird )

My favorite dish of the night (and every night) Maple Bacon Brussels Sprouts

Green Bean Casserole

Corn with brown butter and Parmesan cheese, Roasted butternut squash with sage brown butter, Brussels Sprouts, Cornbread andouille sausage apple and chestnut stuffing. (not shown: mashed sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, turkey giblet gravy)

It was a lot of food and my family doesn't eat much so I'll be transforming the leftovers into many more meals. Next year we are eating Chinese food.

Dumpling Party! and Hot Pot too!

I love dumplings but store bought ones are just not that great and its just not the same when they are made fresh, not frozen for god knows how long. So some of us girls who have been sort of unemployed for the past few months decided to make dumplings.

Pork and Chive Dumplings

4pkgs dumpling skins

2lbs ground pork

1lb ground fatty pork

1 bunch Chinese chives (finely chopped)

3Tbls grated ginger

1 med head of Chinese cabbage (finely chopped)

10 shitake mushrooms (finely diced)

4Tbls soy sauce

1Tbls sesame oil

2Tbls vinegar

3/4cup water

2Tbls salt

1tsp white pepper

Mix all the ingredients together very thoroughly, preferably with your hands.

Fill the skins with the meat mix and seal with water.

I like to pan fry them with a little oil to start then cover them half way with water and put a lid over them. Cook until the dumplings puff up then remove lid. Let all the water evaporate and the bottoms of the dumplings get crispy.

And then we had Hot Pot ( which I don't like because all the flavors get melded together, but it was for a friend who got a job in New Orleans and was leaving that weekend).

We had a half and half pot with super spicy soup base on one side and I made a pork stock for the wusses. A full line up of mushrooms, tofu, fish cakes, fish/ squid balls, konyaku, veggies, dumplings, lots of fatty beef slices and of course the Taiwanese bbq sauce (sa cha jiang).

After all that I made them test my gram cracker ice cream and we had cake from red leaf bakery in flushing.