Thanksgiving Food - My New Favorite Pumpkin Pies!!

The 5th and final item

on my Thanksgiving cooking list

was

some yummy pumpkin pies!

 (that you can barely see in this 

picture of my little man,

raiding the Chex Mix 

- and all of the other pictures from the 

Chex Mix post)

I made 3 of them!

One or two of which are 

currently sitting in my outside freezer 

waiting to be eaten!!

For years I have used the recipe 

on the back of the 

Pet Milk can.

Pet Evaporated Milk Pumpkin Pie

but this year,

a sweet friend brought over 

a pie pumpkin

and 

we made some

pumpkin pies one afternoon,

just because...

(post-Halloween, pre-Thanksgiving)

I have always gotten rave reviews

from my Pet Milk pumpkin pies...

but these pies...

the ones that I was introduced to...

I am not sure if it was because it was

straight out of the oven

or what...

but they were INSANE!

And between

me and my 4 youngins

and 

she and her 2 youngins

we ate an entire pie!

Doesn't really sound that impressive

when I put it that way...

8 of us ate an entire pie...

it seemed way more impressive the day it happened.

I am not sure where this originate either,

but it was from a website...

so if I find it,

I will happily give credit,

but for now,

I will name it after

she who introduced me to it!

Sherry's Pumpkin Pie

1 9" deep dish pie crust

1 1/2 c pumpkin (or 1/2 cooked pie pumpkin)

1 1/2 c heavy cream

1/2 c brown sugar

1 tbsp flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

(or ~2 tsp pumpkin pie spice)

1/2 c corn syrup

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

(1)

Preheat oven to 350°.

(2)

Combine flour and brown sugar.

(3)

Add brown sugar mixture & heavy cream to prepared pumpkin.

(4)

Mix in salt & spices.

(5)

Beat in corn syrup with a mixer.

(6)

Add eggs and vanilla - mix some more.

(7)

Pour filling into unbaked pie shell.

(8)

Bake for 50-60 minutes.

*Check after 30 minutes,

it crust is getting brown, loosely top with foil,

then remove for final 10 minutes of cooking

*Pie is done, when inserted knife comes out clean

or

if only the center jiggles when you lightly shake the pie.

(yep, that's a real thing!)

(9)

After pie has cooled slightly,

resist the urge to sit down 

with the entire pie

and a SPOON

and eat by yourself!

*Thanks for introducing this one to us Sherry!!

This was a TOTAL

HIT!!!

Final talley from 

what I personally cooked for

our Thankgiving feast this year!

HITS - 3

Turkey

Pumpkin Pies

Chex Mix

MISSES - 2

Upside Down Pecan Pie

Butter Pecan Cake

Totally counts as a win to me!

Thanksgiving Food - Chex Mix & Kooking Kids!

Item #4 on the EPIC

Thanksgiving cooking list 

is really not worthy of its own posting...

Chex Mix?

Really?!?!

It is not about the Chex Mix,

exactly,

it is more about the sweet baby boy,

EATING

the Chex Mix...

(sort of)

Mom makes huge batch of 

Chex Mix

Then she puts it on the counter

as she continues her

baking

and

cooking.

Only to turn around and find

her 3 year old

pushing the cooler holding the 

brining turkey (see last post)

around the kitchen.

He effortlessly maneuvers it

to right infront of the Chex Mix.

(and pumpkin pies - take note of those

these are the ONLY pictures I have

and they will be featured in the next post)

Back to the kid pushing the turkey in the cooler

around the kitchen...

Said freaking cute 

3 year old

hops up on the brining turkey

filled cooler

and starts to 

help his little self to the 

Chex Mix!

However,

I quickly discovered that he was 

sitting there 

PICKING

through the Chex Mix

and pulling out 

JUST

the pretzels!

See?

Stinker!

(Chex Mix - HIT (the pretzels anyways))

(Talley:  2-HITS, 2-MISSES)

While Mommy was cooking away in the kitchen,

my little people wanted to help SOOOOO bad,

but I was kinda in a groove

and 

politely (maybe not quite so politely)

declined their offer/request

of help.

Then it dawned on me!

There was an

Easy Bake Oven 

sitting UNOPENED

in our garage!

(gotten by Ms. Priss 11 months ago - sigh)

So again,

Jackson was head chef

and thankfully he can read!

So I let him at it!

The littles were his sous chefs again.

They seriously needed 

MINIMAL

help from mommy!

This was cute and I was super happy that

they were cooking too,

and not "helping" me.

However,

these are the smallest,

most pitiful excuses 

for baked goods I have ever seen!

I was quite disappointed in the portion

size.

There was quite a bit of effort for

literally a NIBBLE

of a "cupcake".

But they had fun.

Thanksgiving Food - Brined Oil-less (Infrared) Fried Turkey

#3 on our Thanksgiving cooking list:

Brined Oil-less (Infrared) Fried Turkey

No recipe links for this.

We have been 

working on our own 

recipe for a few years now.

The aforementioned 

sweet hubs,

bought a turkey fryer a few years ago...

quite a few years ago.

It always tasted pretty good 

and the crunchy skin,

YUM!

But the price of the oil!

$30 for enough oil to 

put in the pot,

to fry a turkey...

ONE TIME!

Ugh - we quit using it.

Then he was in one of the mega

home improvement stores

and saw an

"Oil-less Turkey Fryer"

NO WAY!?!

So of course he had to have it!

It was a birthday gift or Christmas gift

a few short weeks later.

And this thing is pretty neat!!!

We have always gotten rave reviews.

Then we got into brining 

our larger meats

(turkeys, chickens, pork butts)

before cooking them.

And let me tell you!

This turns out to be the 

BEST

turkey you have ever had!

Moist,

crisp skin,

tons of flavor!

We had 2 turkeys

this year at Thanksgiving,

ours was GONE!

The other...

remained.

Here is the big guy brining.

I think he brined for atleast 24 hours.

Our brine recipe is pretty simple

and 

mostly unchanging...

Turkey, Chicken, Pork Brine

1 c salt

1/2 c white sugar

water

optional add ins:

a healthy squirt of molasses

dried thyme

cumin

bay leaf (or 2)

granulated garlic

whole peppercorns

*I do not add ALL of these at the same time,

I usually mix and match depending on

my mood

(1)

Put all of the ingredients of choice in a pot.

(if you are brining a chicken,

use the pot you will be brining in)

(2)

Cover with about 2-4 c of water.

(3)

Heat to just before a boil

to allow the sugar and salt to dissolve.

(4)

Throw in a bunch of ice to cool it down QUICK.

(I don't have time to sit around and wait 

for it to cool down!

and you don't want to put your 

turkey or chicken in 

almost boiling water!)

(5a)

*If you are doing a chicken,

throw the rinsed and "hollow" 

chicken into your pot of cold brine.

Put a lid on it,

throw it in the fridge!

Let it go for about 12 hrs or so.

The longer it sits, the saltier it will get.

(5b)

If you are doing a turkey,

pour the iced brine into your vessel of choice

(cooler for us - see above pic)

then lower the rinsed and "hollow" turkey in.

Continue to add cool water until the

turkey is completely covered.

Then let this boy chill for about 24 hrs,

checking frequently to make sure there is still

ice in the cooler to keep the turkey cool!!

(6)

When time,

pull the meat out and cook it however 

you want!

Oil-less infrared fryer

Rotisserie

Baked

Roasted

Grilled (haven't tried this one)

Smoked

*You can add seasonings to the outside

of the meat before cooking. 

We use Lawry's Seasoned Salt 

on our chickens when we rotisserie.

For our turkey,

we slathered him with a sweet and smoky

dry rub...

Oh.My.Stars!

I have no idea where my husband 

found this recipe,

so I cannot give credit where credit is due.

We have now used this on 

turkey & pork!!

Sweet & Smoky Dry Rub

1 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar (you can use 1-1/3 cups brown sugar if you want)

1/4 cup Lawry's Seasoning Salt

2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 teaspoons onion powder

1 teaspoon white pepper

1 teaspoon black pepper (use 2 teaspoons black pepper if white not available)

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon powdered smoke flavor (optional)

3 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning

3 teaspoons Thyme

Then we liberally slather the outside with this!

And COOK!

We use this when we are smoking

or oil-less frying.

Unfortunately,

I was with my family when we were

cooking it

and 

was too busy visiting and running my mouth...

so I did not get an after picture.

Or any other pictures after 

the one of him in his bath.

Sorry.

We have done atleast 1 more turkey 

in the fryer since then.

We tried it in our rotisserie,

because the instructions say it can handle

a 12 lb turkey!

We beg to differ...

so into the fryer it went.

And was again,

AH-MAY-ZING!

So this is ALWAYS

a 

HIT!

(score is now 1-HIT, 2-MISSES)

If you try either the brining or rubbing above,

please let me know what you think!!

Thanksgiving Food - Upside Down Pecan Pie

Item #2 on the Thanksgiving cooking list:

Upside Down Pecan Pie

A what?

So I asked the sweet man I am married to,

what did he want for Thanksgiving. 

I do that every year just to make sure

he gets what he wants too...

otherwise I would make all of my favorites

and he would just have to eat what I served.

(teehee)

He was happy with his Butter Pecan cake,

but that was 

"for his birthday,

not for Thanksgiving".

He then proceeded to tell me about

this "thing" 

that someone had at work 

last year for their Thanksgiving potluck

that looked like and upside down pecan pie.

Huh??

He said it was a crust with the pecans

and sauce just oozing all over the place.

They had flipped it out of a pan

onto a dish and it just oozed.

So on to google I went.

Then went to the images,

pointed them out to him

and said

"which one?"

This is the image he pointed to...

 

Ok, I can do that!

But I needed a cast iron skillet,

which I have wanted forever!

But have never been able to justify.

So I got one!

Whoo hoo!

 It seemed easy enough...

Melt butter in my new cast iron skillet

Add sugars.

Boil.

Add pecans.

Boil.

Let sit for 30 min.

  

Cover with prepared pie crust.

(yep, this was totally store bought!)

Bake!

This was what it looked like when I took it out.

Kinda neat looking!

However,

it didn't turn out like the picture above that

Ms. Martha Stewart

posted!

I left it in this pan,

then took it to my parents.

I threw it in the oven to heat it up

so that it would

"flip out".

Well I don't know if I cooked 

the pecans and sugar too long

in the beginning,

or what...

but it wouldn't

"flip out".

I had to SCRAPE 

it off of the bottom of the pan!

Then it was just a heaping mess

of pecans,

pie crust,

and 

caramel.

Which hardened to almost

brittle hard!

It was not very fun to eat

(tasted good!)

but did not get completely eaten.

This was another 

MISS.

So this was technically 

FAIL #2

(out of 2, for those of you keeping count!)

**I CAN cook,

and I CAN cook well...

just sometimes 

things don't work out like they are supposed to!**

BLEH!

Thanksgiving Food - Butter Pecan Cake

Phew - 

so if we hadn't already consumed enough food 

in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving...

here comes more!!

Over the next few posts,

I will be sharing 

the hits and misses

of my

Thanksgiving cooking this year!

Up First:

 A Butter Pecan cake!

My sweet husband shares

his birthday with the 

Thanksgiving weekend,

most years.

This year, I found a cake on Facebook 

that had his name written all over it,

months before his actual birthday!

(which meant I had to hunt it down

when it was actually his birthday!)

A Butter Pecan Cake!!

That is one of his favorite flavors of ice cream.

So I decided that I would make that for him!

I was super excited. 

It sounded YUMMY!!

The absolute BEST part,

hands down,

of baking this cake...

these babies!

These are buttered pecans

being toasted in my oven.

Can you just imagine the smell?

Probably not,

but lemme tell ya,

it was

AH-MAY-ZING!

Makes me want to throw a pan of them 

in my oven

RIGHT NOW!

And I am lucky there were enough 

left to actually make the cake with...

I couldn't keep my hands out of them!!

I used the recipe from 

"Taste of Home"

Butter Pecan Layer Cake

It was easy enough.

Then I had to jazz up the outside a little.

This was the outcome!!!

Isn't it beautiful!?!?

This was definitely one of my prettier cakes.

I was very happy with the final product...

on looks.

The cake was crazy dry though!

I was SOOOOO

disappointed!

It was best eaten with ice cream.

I would like to try it again, 

but with a different cake recipe.

We took it to my folks for

Thanksgiving to celebrate 

with everyone,

but wound up leaving it there in the 

commotion.

We never got it back...

just an empty container.

So my sweet man informed me

that he deserved another birthday cake

since we had left his.

I wound up making a cheesecake a few weeks later,

that didn't look as pretty as the one above,

but tasted better than I could have hoped.

Just a simple cheesecake...

that got rave reviews from the fam! 

So even though it looked great,

this was actually a 

MISS

this year.

November - All About Food (Giving Back #3)

After my quick 

sister visit...

we had 

our third opportunity,

in the month of November, 

to give back...

food style!!

Back in October,

the gentleman that turned us on to MoW (see Giving Back #1)

mentioned an opportunity at his church

(which is also where we do scouts

and play most of our Upward sports)

New Hope UMC.

They were hosting a meal packaging event

for 

Stop Hunger Now.

This organization packages meals typically for 

people in other countries.

All you have to do...

is add water!

I was eager to help as soon as I heard about it.

Surely my crew could do SOMETHING, right?

I set up the littles in the nursery

(which we were all to familiar with),

right down the hall

(and checked on them FREQUENTLY).

Then the boys and I jumped right on in!

There was a lot to be done,

and the organizers had the system down!

My guys were two of the only children there.

I am pretty sure there were a couple of others,

but I honestly can't remember!

We all had to wear these fancy hairnets.

Rico did NOT want his picture taken

with it on,

but I reminded him that it was for a good cause,

and showed that he was working!

Jackson had a BALL!

He loved feeling needed!

He was a runner,

and as the groups filled up their bins,

he would go and take them to the next station.

He was helping atleast 3 different groups, 

sometimes more,

so they would holler his name

when they needed him.

He got the biggest kick out of that.

Made me proud!

We helped package over 11,000 meals that day!

We have really enjoyed doing things like this.

I am eager to find more.

(we did do one more thing similar (through the Salvation Army) 

in December,

if I find pictures - not sure I took any - 

I will post about it later)

Sister Love

Before I start my quick 

bazillion part series

on my part of the

Thanksgiving Food

this year...

continuing on the 

November - All About Food theme...

I wanted to share the quick visit I had with my 

sisters!

My sisters and I are spread 

all across the state of NC now.

(thankfully not the country - for now)

The baby sis, Melanie,

lives in the western part of the state.

So for her birthday this year,

me

mom

and 

the middle sis (Courtney)

all drove out to spend the weekend with her!!

After I dropped off all those turkeys,

at the USO (see last post), 

I rushed home,

dropped my family off, 

and then

I drove to Raleigh and 

rode west with the middle sis!

That was an adventure in itself.

But it was the first weekend,

I have EVER

EVER

EVER

spent away from my crew!

YES,

E-V-E-R!

The WHOLE crew!

And the first time daddy 

flew SOLO

for a whole weekend!

We had a fun dinner the first night.

We went to a sweet little restaurant,

an old house turned into a restaurant.

We were shown to a small room

with a few tables.

There was a couple attempting to enjoy a quiet dinner

seated near us.

Unfortunately,

we tend to get a little loud

and 

laugh...

a lot

when the 4 of us are together...

ask my dad.

He endured many a dinner

listening

to the non-stop 

chatter,

laughter,

and

noise.

We had a very light dinner,

then headed to a little get together

that Melanie's friends were

having for her.

I couldn't show up at the party,

empty-handed...

so I searched the birthday girl's 

Pinterest boards

for things she had pinned

and came upon

something called

Birthday Cake Fudge

so I whipped up a batch

to take with me!

I love the colors!

I cut it up into tiny little pieces,

and it was surprisingly 

great!

I did not add the icing the recipe had

as an option.

I figured it would be sweet enough!

After the get together,

we headed to my baby sister's house

for the night.

We stayed up and chatted for ever it seemed.

Then crawled into our beds.

I shared a bed with the birthday girl,

and was told that I was the best sleeping partner ever!

Haha!

(That means a lot coming from her - trust me!)

Up and at 'em the next morning,

mom headed to see our Grandmother for a quick

visit and left the girls to go shopping!

But first we hit a cute little coffee shop!

Complete with little designs in the coffee foam

and 

delicious pastries!

I won't mention that we had JUST eaten 

breakfast at Melanie's...

Then a quick picture 

of the sisters.

(We all got a kick out of our photo-bomber in the back)

After we were all hopped up on coffee...

we started shopping!

I don't typically go shopping.

I hardly ever go shopping,

clothes shopping,

for myself.

For various reasons, 

but mainly

time,

money 

and 

desire.

I just happened to have 

my two fashionista

sisters with me.

And they happily helped me spend money!

I warned my husband,

and justified it as a belated birthday present.

(works for me)

We hit a couple of stores,

then the mall.

While we were walking around the mall,

we just happened to notice that 

The Limited

was having a 50% off the entire store

sale that morning!

So in we went.

Let me say it has been a LONG time

since I have shopped anywhere

like The Limited.

I have been out of the workforce

for almost 9 years.

Having and raising kids.

Living in blue jeans

and t-shirts!

(except on Sundays, of course)

After we were greeted at The Limited,

my selections were taken,

they started a fitting room for me,

put my name on the door,

then I walked in a saw this!

This was totally picture-worthy!

I had to show my husband!

Haha!

A smile immediately spread across

my face when I saw how they had

the clothes displayed!

sigh...

so this is what its like to 

REALLY

go shopping!?!?

After our shopping extravaganza

the middle sister and I headed back 

east.

It was a wonderful,

quick

girls weekend

with

my mom 

and

sisters...

which we are definitely

going to have to do

more 

often!

November - All About Food (Giving Back #2)

Our second opportunity to give back,

in the month of November,

was via the USO at our 

local Air Force Base.

USO Turkeys!!

Bare with me on this one...

the hubs received an email from someone

else from within the city

regarding a need at the USO for 

food for Thanksgiving.

Apparently there are quite a few 

airmen on base that

are in need.

And the holidays are especially hard

(as you all know).

So I JUMPED at this!!

The USO had provided a wish list,

I immediately called the contact

on the email and started asking questions!!

They had received an overwhelming amount of support

from the community but still 

had a need for 

12 turkeys and 

15+ boxes of instant mashed potatoes.

So I put the word out to our local 

homeschool group

(TEACH)

and also received an overwhelming response!

Especially when I told them

that Harris Teeter

(my favorite grocery store in the country!!)

was running a special on turkeys

and would allow me to purchase

as many as we needed

at their sale price,

which came out to be about $5/turkey!

I was THRILLED!

I waltzed into Harris Teeter with 

our money...

and due to a "computer glitch"

walked out of HT

with 

14 turkeys

and 

20 boxes of instant potatoes

for $75!!!

Then we rode right on over to 

the News-Argus,

a prearranged drop off location,

and met up with the USO volunteers who

organized the food drive...

popped open the back of the beast

and delivered all of this!

Thanks completely to my fellow homeschoolers!!