Yelling out the counts! Tae Bo: it's a family thing.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were free open classes for everyone at Omega. I easily talked Tia and Ari into going with me. In fact, Saturday I was going to sleep in and Ari woke me up wanting to go again. My girls are tough! I was so proud of them. Lots of people brought their husbands and their kids. It made for a fun atmosphere.


Here's Tia doing some ab's stuff with me near the end. Don't look close, we were all sweaty.

My sister-in-law even came. She did the whole class (it was an extra long hour and a half class even) -amazing for a first timer!

Analisa brought her whole family. I'm sorry, I'm not sure if that's the right spelling of her name. At the end we did some walking around the room, and those kids were running, jumping, and zooming past everyone. Where does that energy go when you grow up? I miss it.

We did some balance stuff near the end, and it was really good for me. That's not my specialty.

Here's my cute Ari. She loved the "exercising". Hopefully I can get them back there soon for the next school holiday.

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Meringues

If anyone else has had trouble with meringues (I notice I didn't get any advice...), I found a great link for meringues. It's Baking 911 , and it looks like they have solutions to lots of baking problems. In my case, the problem probably was that I baked it too long (thinking that under-baking was my problem last time), and then I PUT IT IN THE FRIDGE! --which I guess you're never supposed to do. Sigh. I was hoping refrigerating would help, it did the exact opposite.

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Wish you were here....

Well, we did the big Thanksgiving hoopla yesterday, and (almost) everything turned out fine. My strawberry and lemon mousse pie was kind of a mess (don't ever use puff pastry as a base for a pie no matter what their website says), but the rest turned out fine. So much thanks should be given to Tia and Ari who worked hard all morning, and Annie, who pitched in just when things were getting frantic (I forgot I was DOING potatoes -completely forgot- until an hour before T-time). My mom's turkey and stuffing were perfect, like always, and they brought the peas and pearl onions side dish like we've had for years at my Gramma Donna's.

You can see the rolls turned out a really pretty color, and they tasted good, although the bottom rack of rolls got a little too brown on the bottom. We still ate 'em up. The cranberry sauce WAS really good. Here's the recipe. Also the mulled cranberry apple cider was pretty. I love those star anise as a garnish. Jeff hated it, but pretty much everyone else liked it. Here's the recipe. I did "mull" the amount they called for and then added a lot more juice, so the spices weren't as strong.

Here's my beautiful little nieces. They lasted a good ten minutes in the high chairs, I think that's worth celebrating.

Also, the cayenne was good in the sweet potatoes. I added a good 2 teaspoons worth, and it still just added a pleasant heat, without any of the kids complaining that "the potatoes are too hot". Here's that recipe minus the pepper. Boy, I do use Cooking Light a lot huh?

Aren't the flowers pretty? Annie brought those, and they were perfect for the center of my serving table. Thanks again Annie. I'm trying to think if there was anything else. I think the mushroom sauce was a winner. Pretty sure I'm going to use it for the catering job on the third. I'm sorry i can't link to the BHG recipes, you need to register on their site to get the recent ones, and I don't want to bother. Most of them are in the November 2008 issue if you've got it lying around. Oh, one other thing, the brown sugar meringue on the ginger pumpkin pie, kind of deflated as it cooled. I've never been able to get that right. Any tips from experienced meringue makers? I'm thinking because I applied it with the oven open, the oven cooled off too much at the start of cooking time? Is that it? Do you need a hot, quick bake? Or did I just not cook it long enough? Still tasted OK, but I'd sure like to get that right.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

I'll tell you all about it tomorrow! Love, Amara

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We caught a mouse today......

Jeff TOLD Kai not to play hide ans seek in the storage room!

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"Thanksgoodness" the menu's done

All right, I think I got the menu planned for Thanksgiving. I'm going to do a couple of new recipes from Better Homes and Gardens, a couple of family favorites, and a couple more from Cooking Light magazine. I am wondering though if I need to cook a second vegetable. My mom is going to do the turkey and stuffing, and will bring another vegetable. Let me know what you think.

Fresh clementine and cranberry salad with spinach (an adaptation of 2 new BHG recipes)

Bacon laced creamy Brussels sprouts (BHG)

Velvet mashed potatoes with cremini, portabella, and shallot sauce (BHG)(It's cool I found this sauce, because I think we're going to use it on Sirloin steaks for an upcoming catering event. It even has some sun-dried tomatoes in it for color, and it's more of a saute than a sauce --really chunky)

Streuseled sweet potato casserole with cayenne pepper (family favorite, but I'm kicking it up a notch with the pepper this year)

Spiced cranberry-apple relish with orange zest (OK, new recipe I found in my catering scrapbook that was a Cooking Light recipe originally. I would be nervous about it, because my family really likes fresh, and this is a cooked sauce, but it got almost 20 rave reviews when I looked it up online, so I'm hopeful)

Buttered sweet potato knot rolls (Cooking Light)(these look so pretty with the bright orange color, I had to try them this year. There's only about 3/4 cup of mashed sweet potato though, so I doubt the flavor will be very pronounced. Hopefully though you can taste it a little)

Mulled cranberry-orange cider (My scrapbook again. This is a hot drink, but I think I'm going to make it ahead of time and chill it. I'll serve it with the star anise and orange slice garnish though - I'm excited about the garnish)

Then of course a turkey, and my mom's cornbread stuffing and natural gravy, plus whatever vegetable she's bringing. I hope she wasn't planning on Brussels sprouts.

Can I tell you about my plans for the centerpiece? I've got all these butternut squashes, and I plan on piling them up in the middle on a bed of loose colored leaves from my flowering pear trees that will run down the center of the table. Remember those trees? The torch trees? I'm also hoping I've got enough copper chargers for everyone. I think I do. Won't those be cool with the autumn stuff?

Now I've got to figure out a movie everyone likes to watch afterwards. Oh my gosh! I forgot the pies! Here's what we're doing for pie:

Ginger pumpkin meringue pie (nice gingersnap crust, and the meringue is a brown sugar meringue -really pretty --BHG)

Pumpkin Chocolate cheesecake pie (BHG too, a two layer pie, with a thin layer of chocolate in between the layers, and chopped chocolate on top)

Peanut butter chocolate pie (I made this one up. It's two layers of mousse with real whipped cream spread over the top)

Fresh strawberry pie with a lemon mousse base, and possibly a puff pastry bottom. We'll see.

(photo courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens)

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Kitchen remodel in two steps (spreading over years!).

OK. First I need to specify that I loved Wendy's kitchen even before the second remodel. She and her husband bought their house a few years ago and it really needed some work. The picture below is the "before before" picture.

This is the original "after". I loved the green cabinets, and the counters were a rustic tile. What I liked most about this kitchen was that it didn't look like everyone elses kitchen (like mine kind of does). There was some originality there. She used to hang all these antique cooking utensils on the walls, including her abelskeevers pans (which she cooked for me one weekend --YUM!). It was a really happy peaceful place to be. Wendy really wanted more space though by this time, and they had LOTS of space in the backyard to expand into, so they decided to remodel again. Before I show you those after pics, thought you'd like to see the before and after of the front of the house. Well, actually it's the "during" and after.



OK. First , below is the overall after of the kitchen (with one of her sons and his friend).

Isn't it light and pretty?

This is the addition. Basically this whole room wasn't here before. I wasn't present during any stage of the remodel, and when I walked in here my mouth dropped open. it was hard to believe it was the same house.

This unit is on the side. I love this white with a dark glaze look --I should maybe show you guys Audrey's kitchen while I'm at it. She's got a really similar look.

For accent, Wendy did a natural alder to surround her oven/microwave wall

and her fridge wall.


The best part though was the island. All of the granite in this kitchen was lovely, but there was a beautiful thick slab for the island with a natural broken stone edge.

Overall the effect was very classy, with still a little of that originality that made me fall in love with the first version of the remodel. Now if I can only wrangle another invitation for abelskeevers.......

RECIPE: by Nancy Proper (I don't think Wendy used this much shortening)

2 c. Buttermilk
2 c. Flour
2 Eggs
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
2 tbsp. Sugar
4 tbsp. Melter Butter
Crisco or other solid shortening for frying

This requires a special pan, called an Aebleskiver (pronounced Able Skeever) pan or a Monk's Pan. Can be found in cooking store.

Seperate the eggs, beat the whites till stiff and set aside. Mix all of the other ingredients, incl. the egg yolks, and beat until smooth. Allow batter to set for 30 min. Fold in the egg whites. Put about 1/2 tbsp. of shortening in each cup of the pan and heat. Pour in about 2 tbsp. of the batter in each cup and as soon as they get bubbly around the edges begin turning them - a cake tester works great for this, or a fork. Turn them a bit at a time, letting them re-set with each turn so they form a nice ball. Contin. cooking until the cake tester comes out clean when poked through the center. Serve hot with maple syrup, Rasp. jam or powdered sugar. (Wendy did strawberry syrup, and then did some others with ham and cheese -really good)

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