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 :)

Sour Cream & Green Onion Chicken and Mashed Potatoes

As with what seems just about everyone else, we feel like we are on the verge of coming down with something. Whether it is the change of weather, or an actual illness, warm comforting food to ensure our bodies are as well taken care of as possible, is an essential (not to mention the obvious fact that we also like to eat...). 

With that, tonight's dinner was chicken baked in a sour cream and green onion sauce (and shredded), mashed potatoes, and corn. I realize in my last post from the day before yesterday we also had a potato mash, but the sweet potato mash is such a different flavor from regular mashed potatoes I figured it wasn't really like we were eating the same food again two nights later. 

Here follows the recipe for the chicken and mashed potatoes, both very simple, and very satisfying :)

Sour Cream and Green Onion Shredded Chicken:

(top it on the potatoes like you would gravy)

Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinnless chicken breasts

1/2 c. sour cream 

3 green onions

garlic powder to taste

1 tsp worcestershire sauce (this could be omitted, but does give a nice punctuation to the sauce)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350° 

Thaw chicken.

For more tender chicken pound with meat mallet or meat tenderizer. (As we are back at our apartment and meat mallet-less I used our above pictured meat tenderizer.)

Stir together sour cream, worcestershire sauce, and garlic powder. Cut green onion and stir into sour cream.

Put sour cream mixture in glass baking dish and place chicken on top. 

Cover chicken with mixture. Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes, stirring sour cream mixture several times and flipping chicken after 15 minutes. 

After about 30 minutes chicken should be cooked through (depending on size and thickness of your meat), at this time remove from oven, shred with forks and place back in the oven reducing the temperature to 250° and bake for an additional 15 minutes, remembering to stir occasionally. 

Ingredients for mashed potatoes:

4 potatoes (this made 2-3 servings, and these potatoes were not very large).

1/4 c. milk 

1 tbls butter

1 (heaping) tsp of sour cream 

salt to taste 

Method:

Peel potatoes and slice, place in pot and fill with water just covering potatoes. Cover with lid and boil until tender. 

When potatoes are tender, drain, then mash. After mashing potatoes to desired smoothness add in milk, butter, and sour cream. Mash in ingredients. Add salt to taste. 

When complete I placed mashed potatoes in a glass oven dish and placed them in the oven during the last 10 minutes the chicken was cooking with a bit of butter on top. 

Take it all out of the oven, place chicken on potatoes, and....

.... poof! Dinner :)

Friday Foods: Lunch and Dinner

 

Today's lunch: Turkey Bruschetta

On most days I am lucky enough to be graced with the presence of my lovely husband at the lunch hour (he gets an hour break and we live close to the school). It is a nice midpoint to the day, and another reason for me to make a meal...as though I really need another reason...

With that said, it also means planning a meal I can get ready quickly or have done by the time he gets home so we are able to enjoy our food rather than wolf it down before he heads back to the salt mines (ahem, I mean class).

I quickly learned while we were still dating that in most cases, to him, it is not really a meal unless there is some form of meat involved. So today I took a little twist on something we both really enjoy: the bruschetta burger. We usually use ground turkey instead of beef for these (less fat and still yummy) and top the patty with bruschetta toppings. Well today, I decided instead to make it as I would regular bruschetta only incorporating the ground turkey on our multigrain bread. 

The result was very similarly flavored to our regular bruschetta burger, just in a bite size package :)

 Hours later, after a trip to the grocery store (where I am convinced they probably think I am shopping for a family of ten...but our groceries last us a week and a half to two weeks...) it was time for dinner.

Tonight's food of choice: Chicken Quesadillas and Cheesy Cilantro Rice 

(with sweet mini peppers)

Quesadillas are always a favorite of a certain husband of mine, but we don't have them exactly the same every time. Tonight's version was on a whole wheat tortilla and was baked in the oven for a delightful, yet healthier crunch than frying them. All and all a pretty good meal, especially with a nice beer on the side.

A little P.S.

The dinner of choice for last night was lightly breaded chicken and mashed potato stuffed yellow bell peppers with a red wine vinegar sauce. Here's a little peek:

Not a great picture...but it was pretty yummy!