Turkey Day!

 

Good turkey morning, my friends! It might just be my favorite day of the year, mainly because I get to see my kiddos. Erik and Mae are hosting dinner this year, and so we'll be meeting them and Matthew at their place later this afternoon. As you might guess, I spent the day in the kitchen yesterday. The only thing picture worthy was this Bourbon Pumpkin Tart with Walnut Streusel. I can't remember the issue of Fine Cooking where I saw it published the first time, but it's been a standby for many, many years.

Also in yesterday's kitchen extravaganza, I made the cranberries. My dish is called Cranberry Cherry Marmalade. The "marmalade" is for the two teaspoons of orange zest included in the dish. It's a cooked cranberry sauce, and delicious. I didn't take a picture of it, but I'll share the recipe with you. I've tried many different recipes for cranberry sauce, but I always come back to this one. It's quick to make and the addition of dried cherries means that you get a little surprise in most mouthfuls. The cherries are very nice with the tartness of the cranberries. I found the recipe in our local newspaper a long time ago. I looked for it online, but couldn't find it anywhere, and so I'm going to share it here:

Cranberry Cherry Marmalade

1 cup water

1 cup granulated sugar

2 cups fresh cranberries

1/2 cup dried cherries

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 tablespoon firmly packed light brown sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger

1 whole cinnamon stick -- broken in half

2 teaspoons grated orange zest

Combine water and granulated sugar in medium, heavy saucepan over medium-high heat.  Stir until sugar is dissolved, then bring to a boil without stirring.

Add cranberries, cherries, vinegar, brown sugar, ginger and cinnamon.  Stir to mix, then bring to a simmer, lower heat slightly and cook until mixture is thickened, about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in orange zest.  Carefully, with tongs or a slotted spoon, remove and discard cinnamon stick halves.  Cool mixture to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate.

NOTES : Marmalade can be prepared 5 days ahead; bring to room temperature 15-20 minutes before serving.  It can also be frozen; defrost in the refrigerator a day ahead.

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Okay, and last but not least, I made the old standby Sweet Potato Crunch, published in Cooking Light many years ago. As a Cooking Light recipe, you know it's going to be diet friendly. And, speaking of diets, when I stepped on the scale this morning I'd lost another pound, bringing my total weight loss to 14 pounds. On Thanksgiving Day, I'm not worrying about the diet though, so let's just pretend that never happened...until tomorrow, when I'll continue on my merry dieting way, which is in no way merry at all. Just sayin'. As for the sweet potato recipe, even my brother who hated sweet potatoes loved them prepared this way.

So I have a little more cooking to do today. Even though I made dessert already, the pumpkin tart is my emergency back-up dessert. Today I'm trying this new recipe for Cranberry Pecan Tart. It's a Cook's Illustrated recipe, and so I can't link to it, but I'll show you the picture:

Looks yummy, no? If it turns out and it's good, I'll share the recipe tomorrow. 

When I finished yesterday's post, I went downstairs to find a juxtaposition of kitties. Sadie was on the top rung of the kitty tree.

She had to keep a weather eye out for that Smitty though. He's very possessive about his kitty tree, and he insists on being the top cat. She's tough too though, and she doesn't cede territory easily.

Bring it, Big Boy. I'll kick your tail up around your ears!

So while I was waiting for things to bake and cook yesterday, I got to work tracing the fourth barn for the Heartland Barns quilt. 

When that was finished, I was very close to having Calendula Patterdrip's boot finished, and so I sat and worked on that for the remainder of my sewing day. I'm happy to have it finished. There is lots of stitching in this one.

These are all the blocks I have so far. This quilt has a lot of piecing and many of the embroidery motifs span sections of blocks. It doesn't make a lot of sense when it's laid out this way, but I'll show it anyway.

Since I was focused on getting that finished, I didn't get any more top-stitching done on my cats. Thanks to my friend, Ruth, however, who pointed out that I'd forgotten to stitch the rest of Smitty's nose. Duh. I didn't even notice that...even after looking at the picture several times. How is it that our brains don't register that kind of stuff?

So, I should have some time to get back to this today, and I'll fix his nose, and then move along with the remaining nine.

As for this morning, I need to get my tart crust going. It goes through several iterations before it's ready for filling, and so an early start is advised. 

Enjoy your turkey day, my friends! Don't eat too much. On the other hand, eat as much as you want, and then lie about it.