Cultural Food Feast Day

Recently, I learned that in my FCS class, (the new, hip way to say HomeEc) "Family Consumer Sciences", we are going to do a unit on cultural food. This is by far the most thought provoking thing we ever done in this class. Last year, we had a general unit of cooking and learned how to scramble an egg by watching a video first to prepare (that took 1 day) and then took many cautions in making the eggs themselves (day 2). Since cooking is a regularity in my family, it was ridiculous to have to watch a video on making an egg. But, I guess for most people this is an issue; not knowing how to cook even the simplest of things.

Anyway, this new project this year shines a new light on this class and has the potential to be a very interesting subject.

So, how this is supposed to go...
Thus the name; Cultural Food Feast Day we will make a food from a certain country or region and present and share it in class. I am partially Polish and so I was thinking maybe something like Galumpki (spelling?) or Perogies.

Any ideas or cultural dishes and recipes that you like? That are maybe Polish and/or otherwise note-worthy?

Cranberry Salad

Today I decided to make a salad that my family traditionally makes on Thanksgiving. It is a fall dish, but I think is a very good "transition" dish into winter. The toppings above are what I put into the salad. From left: dried pineapple, dried cranberries, dried dates, dried ginger, dried blueberries, different kind of dried cranberries, maple walnuts, dried Bing cherries.

I started with about a cup of pomegranate seeds.

Then about a cup and half of cranberries. Add them to the Cuisinart.

And they come out looking like this.

Add the pomegranates and then add the lovely toppings from before and a little sugar to taste.

And the final product is really pretty with everything showing through. I hope that you can enjoy this thanksgiving-ish side dish even though it's a little late for this thanksgiving!

Take care the rest of the weekend :)

~Zoe

Just In Time for Thanksgiving:The Notorius Turkey Cake

I will leave you with just this one picture. It's layers and layers of thanksgiving-ness. It's like everything you would every eat at a thanksgiving feast except downsized. Whoever is the genius who created this...I strive to be like him/her.

I fell in love when I first saw the crazzzzy good-looking photo at Chow.com.
Here's the link: http://www.chow.com/recipes/29029-thanksgiving-turkey-cake?tag=custom-doc;gumballs

Now, now, no judging once you've seen the other photo. We (Mom and I) did our best. It may not look as appealing as the one at Chow but it sure as heck was just as tasty! I'm stuffed. One piece of this baby and your pushing away the thought of eating for weeks and rolling on the floor laughing at nerd jokes...( just my personal experience.)

WARNING: this dish can make you happy to the billionth degree.

OK, down to business. The steps we took to make this masterpiece:




First, we made the stuffing. The link I put at the top will explain everything in better detail. But for now, I just want to show you what we did with making the layers and how we put it all together.

Then came the meatloaf. You will need to make two rounds of this. One thing I thought was new and different, bizarre, interesting and otherwise note-worthy was that the recipe called for using cooking oats in the meatloaf. Awesome.

First layer; meatloaf. Second layer; mashed potatoes.

Third layer; cranberry sauce. We used the whole can here but in the original it has you split it up so you can add another layer down the road. Whichever you prefer.

Fourth; stuffing. My favorite part :)

Now is the point where it is starting to look a little messy....
But then you add some more mashers.

Then add the rest of the mashed potatoes to the sides. Sort of like frosting.

Finally, add the mashed sweet potatoes and the mini marshmallows. The only thing I didn't do that the original did, was bake it after we came up with the final product.

Check it out! A turkey cake! Ha!

A Veggie Tale.

So today I split half of a CSA share with a relative. Look at it! I just had to take a picture to show you how wonderful it looked together just by itself. I've got everything...cabbage, carrots, potatoes, garlic, onions, scapes (its an onion/garlic) something that this farm did by accident and then my favorite; acorn squash.


And then, there is this...

It is intimidating me just a little. The person who brought the food to me said that you pull the leaves off and sautee them in butter and garlic, but didn't say or know what it was called.

Any ideas? Do you know what this is?

Delicata Squash Soup

Remember that old post where I asked about the delicata squash? Well I finally have gotten around to making something with them. Sorry for the delay! But I hope you enjoy.

You will need one or two medium delicata squash, depending on how many you are cooking for. Cut them into length wise and then cross wise. (Pictured above)
Take a spoon and pull out the innards. Then, peel and cut into one inch cubes. (Below)

Then, spread them onto a pan with parchment paper and toss with olive oil and salt and pepper and thyme.

Roast in the oven at 350 degrees for about twenty minutes. And set aside.

Meanwhile, boil two cups of water with a beef flavor bullion cube.

After it has come to a boil, add the roasted squash. Then, puree with an immersion blender.


Finally, add 2 tablespoons of half and half to add just the right amount of finished creamy flavor.

Enjoy!

Response to Liv Life Recipe

Ok, so my Mom and I tried this recipe from one of our favorite blogs "Liv Life". They are White Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Cups. This was a total success and we wanted you to know about it! Check out the full recipe here: www.livlifetoo.blogspot.com