Today I am Thankful

Thank you to my newest follower, Ginny Hartzler! You make my day ;-)

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Today I am thankful for:

* a mom who though ill is still with us
* a brother who tries to help though he has a lot to learn
* friends and relatives who care
* the Canadian medical system
* books to read
* a God who loves
* a home
* food
* interests outside the home
* faith
* hope
* love
* a shower
* music
* internet
* green grass
* clean laundry
* sunshine and the rain
* natural beauty all around me
* rest

There are so many things to be grateful for and this list is just but a few of them.   My list is not in order of importance, just listed as they came to me. I am celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving today with the traditional turkey, mashed potatoes, a stock reduction instead of the usual gravy and pumpkin pie.

This bird is approximately 10 pounds.

Here it looks like a monster bird as pointed out by Lonicera.

I haven't stopped often enough to give thanks but today I did just that during this Thanksgiving Day in Canada. I pray you also have much to be thankful for both this day and every day.

Baking for a Season

Welcome to my newest follower, Rachel. 
It's so nice to have you :-)

When I was browsing blogs the other day after making the loaves of bread from a fellow bloggers recipe, I also came across a blogger who made and froze chocolate chip cookies. I can't remember exactly where now but she didn't have the recipe on her blog, just a note about making Hershey's chocolate chip cookies. So on Saturday I decided to google the recipe and make them.  I also made pizza dough and pumpkin pie for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner.

I made 4 dozen cookies in 3 different sizes. The recipe says you can get 5 dozen cookies from this recipe but I tend to make mine a little larger.

Lots of cookies for the freezer!

Here everything is marked as to the contents of the bags and the dates of the packing though I hardly think they will last past due date in the freezer.

Another view of the goods all laid out for the freezer. I saw the steam was gathering on the bread so I let that out before closing up the bag and popping it in the freezer.

This is the recipe for Pumpkin Pie for Sunday's dinner.


Ingredients

* 1 (9 inch) unbaked deep dish pie crust
* 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/2 teaspoon mace (I skipped the mace because I don't generally have it on hand).
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
* 2 eggs
* 1 (398 ml) can 100% Pure Pumpkin
* 1/2 cup cream or evaporated Milk
* 3/4 milk, scalded

# Combine sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs lightly in large bowl and add cream or evaporated milk. Stir egg mixture into pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Add scalded milk and stir just until blended. Pour into chilled pie shell.
# Bake for 15 minutes in 425 degree F. oven. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees F.; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately with mounds of whipped cream or refrigerate.

My pie crust is a little dark around the edges. I think the problem was I used a very deep plate and it isn't really a pie plate. it exposed too much of the pie dough to the heat. That is my guess but I could be wrong. The big mark in the middle is made by my testing whether the pie was done. Once I cut it you won't see that. I hope the pie crust takes okay. If not to my liking I will have to keep looking for a recipe that works for me.

Taste test:  The pie was actually quite good and the crust didn't taste burnt in any way. The crust was soft but it wasn't what I would consider flaky. Perhaps if I didn't have to roll it out so thin it would have been much flakier. The filling was very nice. It was not very sweet.  It was creamy and very subtle in it's flavours. It was perfect for me but others might prefer a sweeter, spicier pie filling. In that case, add a bit more sugar and another 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of the indicated spices. I tasted mine without the whipped cream and I think this would be my preferred way to eat it because it's texture is already nice and creamy.  You will probably want to have whipped cream on hand for those who love to eat pumpkin pie this way though.

On Sunday, I will be making turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy and a side dish to go along with the pumpkin pie. This will be a smaller feast than usual. I am just happy to have the bird and will use the left overs for all sorts of wonderful dishes like turkey sandwiches, turkey soup and turkey casserole. Yum! This little bird will prepare a feast for a week.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL

CANADIANS

:-))

A Busy Day or Two

I woke up a bit earlyish for me on a Saturday. It was likely because I had a long nap late yesterday and went to sleep at a reasonable hour. This after two nights of little sleep.

I've been fighting a cold and when I went to sleep last night there was a great wind flapping up and expected rain in the forecast. I awoke this morning to rain and cloudy skies.  I stocked up on some cooking items earlier this week so I could do some baking this weekend.  This morning I got started.

For lunch I made some pot barley and beef soup.  It was quite good. and I calculated the rough cost of each serving at about $1.40 Canadian but these are huge servings.  The soup bones were not cheap.  A package of 4 small bones was almost $3.50.  Even so it was a much better deal than buying a bowl of soup in the family restaurant across the street. You can see the fat at the top from the marrow in the bones. I love marrow with a bit of salt on it.  For some people though this is probably WAY too fattening.  If you don't eat it often, this isn't a problem unless your doctor says so.

I also have some bread dough on the rise for making the two loaf bread I made earlier this week.  See here for my earlier attempt.

I also made some pie crust from a recipe I found on a blog.  I have never been good at making pie crust even with a no fail recipe so I hope this attempt will work better.  In fact, I prefer making and eating cakes or cookies to making pies.  But this weekend is the Canadian Thanksgiving and I plan to make a pumpkin pie to go along with the turkey dinner.  If I have some extra time after laundry and cleaning I am going to make some freezer pizza dough and some Hershey's chocolate chip cookies, also for the freezer for snacks later in the week.

I also managed to make two more kitchen dishcloths to add to the one I made earlier in the week. These ones are rather a loose weave compared to the ones I used to make. I enjoyed whipping these out and will use one of them shortly to "test" the weave and tension.

I also managed to make one round of my doily. I didn't get as far as I'd like and I still have six rounds to go but will likely finish it soon.

 

Finally, I got started on a book I've been meaning to read for awhile, The Pillars of the Earth. I get all my books at the thrift store these days so this is always a great bargain.  It is 973 pages long so that should keep me busy for awhile.

I always feel content when I am able to keep my hands busy, soothe my soul, save money and improve my mind.

When do you feel content?  

Update: I did some of washing up after mixing and baking. I used the  new dishcloth and it works perfectly. The bigger open weave seems to be better suited for washing up than the tighter, smaller weave.  This is a pleasant surprise. 

I hope you are enjoying your week and weekend.

Crafty Wednesday

Welcome to my newest follower, Lonicera!

Hi friends and bloggers,

I've missed doing my crafts while I've been away so much on family related matters this summer. I just had to make a new dishcloth and pull out an unfinished doily.

Here is the new dishcloth I've made. I used a larger set of needles than I am used to using. Normally I use a size 4 mm set of needles but this time I used a size 6 mm as that is what the pattern recommends. I must say it sure is a lot faster though and the tension is a lot looser and the weave more open.

I will be making several of these for a friend who wants to give them as gifts at a headstone potlatch for her deceased brother.  Click here for more information about the potlatch of the Southern Tutchone which is my friend's tribal group.  This pattern seems to go by various names but I think Grandma's Dishcloth is probably the original name someone gave it though I don't know who set out the original pattern. If I make a lot of these and I get bored with it, there are a host of other patterns out there that I can try.

It will take me a a little bit longer to get used to my tension with this larger sized needles but that shouldn't be a problem as I will be making many more of these dishcloths over the coming months.

I've also brought out a doily I started some time ago.  This is a square doily and is my first one of this shape. Normally I make round doilies (click here for a sample).  The doily is about two thirds finished. I hope to finish it in a day or two and block it so the pattern is more visible. If you look closely you can see four pineapples which join at the centre of the doily.

I think this particular colour looks really nice for this time of year in North America where it is the Fall or Autumn season. I also have some navy blue cotton which is lined with white which I think will look stunning for a pattern I've yet to settle upon.

Now that the Fall weather has arrived in the western hemisphere, do you also feel the need to "get crafty"? If you live in other parts of the world, do you find the change of seasons spurs you on to certain types of activities?

My Two Loaves

Monday was a coolish day for most of the morning and for part of the afternoon it threatened to rain. After disinfecting the kitchen, washing the floors, doing a few loads of laundry and running errands, I felt like making bread.

I got what looked like a great recipe from Rhonda's blog, if you do stuff, stuff gets done. Rhonda learned how to bake bread from her grandpa.


 Grandpa's Bread
2 cups warm water
1 package yeast (I googled this and it is 2 1/4 tsps. of yeast per pkg. in NA)
1 t salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
about 6 cups of flour

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water. Then stir in the salt, oil and most of the flour. (I used about 5 cups out of the 6 before my mixture got too thick). Mix well, then knead until you have a smooth dough. Let dough rise in an oiled bowl, covered with a clean kitchen towel, until at least double in size. Punch down. Divide in 2. Shape into loaves and place in greased bread pans.
Let rise again, until at least double.
Bake at 375 for 35-45 minutes.

Here are what my two loaves look like. Yum!

I got a fairly late start on the bread so while it was rising, I watched my favourite television program, "Dancing with the Stars" and began work on another knitted dishcloth. It's been awhile since I've made any dishcloths so I had to refresh my memory!

 For some fabulous scenery shots taken Sunday, click here. You can also join others here for My World Tuesday.