A Very Beachey Thanksgiving

For my first official Thanksgiving as a Beachey, we spent the holiday with the Beacheys. I am very lucky to have married into such a wonderful family. It makes it a million times easier when you have to be grown up and big and not spend every holiday with your own family - because, you realize, you are with family. This enables you to miss your loved ones in a happy, nostalgic, "I will be so happy the next time I get to see them" way - rather than a sad, lonely way.

Anyway, I love my whole family so very much, but I don't need to gush about them, because this blog is, after all, about food ;) So rather than writing about how I miss my mom (which I do) and how I love my husband and in-laws (which I also do), I will instead share pictures of the food we enjoyed on Thanksgiving. 

Since I was not the one cooking, I had fun documenting the dishes, as well as setting a festive table with Joel. I even looked up how to fold napkins that ended up looking somewhat like a turkey :)

 

The table we set - although, the lantern from our wedding with the pretty fall leaves was already there...it just brought inspiration into how we should tie things together :)

 

The napkins I folded that look turkey-esk.

 

These were the REAL turkeys that wondered into the backyard while dinner was being prepared - I guess they decided it must be safe since we already had a turkey (from the store) cooking inside. There were at least five of them wandering around at a time.

 

Another guy.

 

I think these two had an argument. Haha.

Ok, last picture of a live turkey I promise...I thought they were pretty, but I don't want to seem morbid.

In keeping with such, I will not have turkey be the first picture of food I show ;)

Some lovely wine and sparkling catawba we enjoyed with dinner.

Garlic stuffed olives. These are a favorite of Joel's.

Stuffing, but not the traditional kind. It was made with squash and cilantro to name a few things. It was light, and flavorful. 

Mashed potatoes, a Thanksgiving staple of course.

 

Gravy, with just a peak of the meat behind it.

And....the turkey!

Also, in this picture you see the asparagus and cranberry salad we had :)

Oh, but we can't forget the 3 pie options:

Pecan, which I don't know if I ever actually got to try.

Cherry, which I definitely did have.

And...pumpkin of course! Yum! This one had a hint of mystery given to it by a secret spice ;)

We also had other delicious meals, but rather than taking obsessive pictures of everything (like I often do) I just enjoyed the meals and the conversations :)

I did make some rosemary bread while we were there, and Joel and I made some really yummy hot cider for us to have while watching Christmas movies:

We heated the cider with spices and oranges and apples. Soo yummy!

We put a cinnamon stick in the mugs, and although we didn't include the fruit in the drinks, Joel and I did eat the spiced fruit later...and it was very good. 

Yum, yum, yum.

This time of year is filled with so many happy things :)

Spaghetti (with homemade sauce & meatballs)

What does one do when they have made homemade buns, but they don't want to eat burgers more than once?

Make meatballs with your leftover bun(s)!

With 3 buns left, and a little creative thinking, spaghetti with homemade sauce & meatballs was made. With a side of sliced and oven toasted bread (or leftover bun) to dip in the sauce. Yum yum. 

These are super simple and quick to make (and we had some yummy leftover meatballs which I made into a salad -I'll show that in the end). Since we don't really have red meat very often these are (as with most of our ground meat dishes) made with ground turkey, but they were mmm mmm good. 

Baked Turkey Meatballs

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground turkey (or ground beef)

1 bun (or if using thin sandwich bread approx. 3 pieces) 

1/4 to 1/2 c. milk (I use skim)

garlic powder

parmesan cheese

italian herbs (or use whatever seasoning you like!)

salt & pepper (to taste)

Method:

Preheat oven to 400˚

Take bun and rip into small pieces. Place in bowl and add 1/4 to 1/2 cup milk in to soft bread - make sure not to over saturate...you want to soften it but not drown bread.

Bread will be soft, but there will not be excess liquid.

Add in parmesan, garlic powder, and Italian herbs. Mix together well.

 

Add in ground turkey. Mix together with bread crumbs.

Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Be sure to mix all ingredients well, so meatballs are consistently flavored.

 

Roll mixture into balls and place on grease cookie sheet or tin foil. Place in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through. Be sure to check that they aren't getting stuck to the pan as they cook. 

Meatballs!! I made twenty with this recipe.

Spaghetti and meatballs!!! YUM!

With our leftover meatballs for lunch the next day I made salad! I quartered them and sauted them a bit in a frying pan then made a balsamic rosemary dressing.


Num, num. Good, yet different leftovers :)

Turkey Burgers (with homemade buns)

With our hankering for hamburgers (or turkey burgers) but no buns at home, and the knowledge that I could probably make some decent ones myself, dinner was off to a start.

Not just any burgers though, cheddar cheese stuffed ones. With some bleu cheese on top for Joel.

We also needed sweet potato fries with this meal...and just to be a little healthier, some cut up baby cucumbers as well. 

The buns turned out great, so here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

* 2 1/2 c all purpose flour 

* 1 c whole wheat flour 

* 1 c warm water 

* 3 tbsp warm milk 

* 2 tbsp yeast 

* 2 1/2 tbsp sugar 

* 1 egg

* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 

* 2 1/2 tbsp butter, softened

(optional)

* garlic powder 

* italian herbs 

* parmesan cheese 

Method:

In a bowl or measuring cup combine warm water, milk, sugar and yeast. Set aside and allow yeast to activate. 

 

Beat egg.

 

In a large bowl combine both flours, salt, and if using, garlic powder, Italian herbs, and Parmesan cheese. Mix well.

Add in softened butter. 

 Mix in with pastry blender or fingers to make what looks like crumbs.

By the time you are done with the egg and flour your yeast should be nice and bubbly! You can see how much foam there is in the measuring cup.

 

To the flour add egg, then yeast mixture. Stirring well (or using hands to form dough).

 

Turn dough out on floured surface, and knead until smooth. Form into ball.

Place dough in lightly oiled bowl, turning ball several times to coat dough.

Cover bowl and allow dough to double. (This will take somewhere around an hour depending how warm it is where you are letting the dough rise).

 After dough has doubled, give it a good punch to deflate it a little. 

Divide into 8 pieces and roll into balls.

Place dough balls on cookie sheet (I greased it a little with butter).

Cover and allow to rise for an additional half hour.

Preheat oven to 400˚

Brush tops of buns with melted butter/garlic powder. Place in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden on top.

Voila! Buns! There are only seven on the plate rather than the eight I made because we may have tested one a little before it had a chance to make it into the picture. Oops :)

For the burgers I just used turkey burger patties we have and filled the (thawed) patty with cheddar cheese. Then grilled it on our panini press/griddler. You do have to be careful not to squish down too hard or the cheese can come flowing out - it may even be easier to cook these in a pan or in the oven.

Joel's dinner (with bleu cheese)

Mine sans bleu cheese, but remember they both have cheese hiding in the middle :)

Yum! 

Oh, and these really did taste pretty good on those homemade buns...mmm.

So much food so little time...

It has been a few days since my last post...and I have made enough different food I couldn't decide what to put on here.

So, I thought rather than trying to pick one thing to post a recipe for I would just post a few pictures of some of the things we have been eating:

Next time more recipes - or if you see something you want to make let me know ;)

This was some rosemary bread I made....we liked it so much we literally ate both loaves in one night...oops...at least they weren't large loaves :)

 Num. Num.

It was very yummy dipped in olive oil/balsamic/parmesan.

This was a lovely homemade alfredo that Joel made (yum!) and some bruschetta on homemade garlic whole wheat bread that I made.

I had a few left over wanton wrappers so I made some homemade pizza rolls.

 YUUUUUMMMY!!!

 

Finally, tonight I made chicken vegetable soup. We also finished the rest of the garlic wheat bread I had made (lightly toasted in the oven with some cheese). It was great for dipping in our soup!

Mmmm...food.