The Springpad Thanksgiving Menu Contest

Have you planned your Thanksgiving menu yet? I confess it’s just over a week away and and we are still finalizing the menu. Right now we know we are having turkey—we already have the turkey in hand—and some kind of rolls, the rest is still to be decided. We always have a hard time narrowing down from our list of favorites and of course we like to try at least one new dish, so I need to get cracking!

This year Springpad wants to help you with your Thanksgiving meal planning and give you and a blogger a chance to win a little cash. Check out their Happy Springsgiving contest and pick your favorite Thanksgiving dishes from seven different menus selected by food bloggers, including yours truly. Vote for your favorites by springing your favorite recipe(s) to your Springpad account. The blogger whose menu gets the most total springs (votes) will win $500 and one lucky voter will be randomly selected to win $100. And of course I hope that one of my readers wins!

The other bloggers who entered the contest:

Back to the Cutting Board

Biscuits and Such

Coconut & Lime

Daily Unadventures in Cooking

Food Tastes Yummy

Healthy. Delicious.

Here’s my contest menu with a small family in mind:

Carrot Ginger Soup

Slow-Cooker Turkey Breast and Gravy

Brown Butter Green Beans with Almonds

Roasted Butternut Squash Puree with Ginger

Cranberry Orange Upside Down Cake with Grand Marnier Whipped Cream

I hope you have fun with the contest!

Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie with Whole Wheat Crust

We did it. I can’t believe it’s true, but we planted two pecan trees in our yard. We spotted them at Lowe’s in late September and selected a Sumner Pecan and a Stuart Pecan. We are slightly north of the growing zone for the Sumner, but our area has mild winters so it should do well. Pecan trees need another variety nearby to produce, and we planted these within 30 feet of each other. They got a little dry at one point and we were worried we might lose them, but it looks like they have taken to their new home. They don’t look like much right now, just a couple sticks about five feet (152 cm) tall since they lost their leaves, but they are full of promise, I can feel it. We have hopeful visions of harvesting pounds and pounds of pecans in about eight years. Yes it will be a long wait, but if the trees produce then my dream to grow our own pecans will be fulfilled. Read more

Weekend Gardening: Transition from Summer to Winter

Summer to winter sounds like a big jump, and that’s how it felt around here for a couple weeks. We hit a cold snap in mid October that caught the garden and us by surprise. Daytime temperatures dropped into the 40s, and though we didn’t have a frost the tomato and pepper plants stopped production. We pulled all the ripe tomatoes and left the green ones on for a little longer to see if they might ripen. After the hard frost on November 7, all the tomato and pepper plants drooped and we gathered the remaining tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos.

Read more

Drop In & Decorate

In December 2008 our family hosted our first Drop In & Decorate event in our home. We opened our house up to friends and neighbors, anyone who wanted to drop by and make one cookie or several cookies to donate to families in need during the holiday season. Our local moms group helped 17 families with food, clothing, and toys, and the cookie decorators made a dozen cookies for each family. We had a wonderful time and hopefully made life a little more special for others with the gift of homemade cookies, and we plan to do it again this year. Read more

Spiced Persimmon Cake with Dates and Lemon Glaze

We discovered the persimmon tree in September when we noticed the golden orbs hanging from the branches. We hadn’t paid attention to the tree before because it was in a relatively inaccessible area behind our house and we had no idea what it was or what if anything it would produce, it had not set fruit until this year. When we found the fruit, we realized it was American persimmon (aka common persimmon and Eastern persimmon), which is a berry in botanic terms. The fruit is small, ranging 1 to 1-1/2 inches (2.5 to 4 cm) in diameter and very sweet when ripe.

Persimmons are autumn fruits that can hang on even after frost, and you can wait until after frost to gather them to ensure they are fully ripe. The leaves start to droop and fall off the tree as the fruit ripens. The persimmons should be very soft and even a little wrinkled before eating, otherwise they’ll have a chalky taste. If the fruit starts to drop when you shake the tree, they are pretty much ready. Read more

Papas Criollas (Tiny Yellow Potatoes)

One of my fondest food memories is of the tiny round potatoes known as papas criollas from Colombia. The Colombian papas criollas grow wild in the Andes highlands and have a thin, tender skin and a buttery yellow interior that yields an amazing flavor. They are a favorite for soups such as Ajiaco or served as appetizers or sides either roasted, fried, mashed, boiled, or skewered and grilled. Here in the United States you can buy them frozen in some stores or in jars from various online grocers (see Where to Buy below). I have searched for years but still have not found frozen, canned, or fresh papas criollas in any of our local Hispanic or international grocery stores.

If you’ve ever had a memory of food so strong that you still dream of it 15 years later, you’ll understand my excitement when I spotted tiny yellow potatoes in Trader Joe’s last week. Read more

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