I'm trying something new this year

For Mother's Day this past year my two daughters gave me an embossed rolling pin, the kind of rolling pin that imprints a pattern onto dough as you roll across. I decided I would try this rolling pin out on a new-to-me recipe for speculaas cookies. New things are always fun. And so I thought these would make a nice addition to our Christmas cookies.

Speculaas are known for their spices, their thin and crunchy texture, and sometimes their ornate patterns. This cookie is tied primarily to Dutch holiday tradition, although they're also commonly enjoyed in Belgium and Germany. In all three countries, these cookies are associated with St. Nicholas Day and Christmas.

It should be noted that speculaas and speculoos are not the same. While both are a thin, crispy, and spicy cookie, speculoos tend to be sweeter and less spicy, like Biscoff cookies, while speculaas are heavily-spiced and have a richer flavor and deeper color.

The spices in the recipe that I tried included cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, anise seed, black pepper and white pepper. I'm sure this is the most spices I've ever used in a dessert, both in variety and total amount. In addition to the spices, the recipe called for molasses, dark brown sugar, and cocoa powder -- deepening the flavor and color of the finished product. The resulting cookies are very flavorful as well as pretty. 

The actual spices used in a blend for speculaas varies from one bakery to the next and one recipe to the next, creating  a baker's identity or a signature flavor. Traditionally, speculaas were made by pressing the dough into hand-carved wooden molds, then turned out onto baking sheets to bake. You can still buy wooden cookie molds, but for home-baking, an embossed rolling pin creates cookies with intricate patterns and less work.

I froze most of these cookies to have closer to Christmas. But I may have to rethink that. In just a day and a half, we've eaten almost all of the ones I didn't freeze. These may be a Christmas cookie, but I can see me making these throughout winter as a nice treat to have with a cup of coffee or tea.

Beautiful Vintage Christmas Cookies That Are Actually Fairly Easy

My daughters made these over the weekend. I thought they were so nice-looking, good enough that someone else who gifts cookies to friends, family and neighbors might want to try them.

The recipe comes from C & H Sugar Co from an advertisement in the Dec. 1988 Family Circle Christmas Helps magazine. My daughter picked up the magazine from a free pile at an art workshop she was attending sometime last winter.

Above is the full page ad. The cookies are called Snow Flurries.

And here's a pic of the actual recipe in the ad. In case it's not readable for all, I've written out the ingredients and basic rolling and baking instructions. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Roll out dough to 1/8' thickness. Use a 3"star-shaped cookie cutter. Bake on ungreased baking sheet for 8-10 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove from baking sheet right away. 

for the cookies themselves:

1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening (Crisco-type shortening)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

after baking and cookies have cooled, you'll need:

1/4 cup thick jam (my daughters used homemade icing), to sandwich in pairs, off-center points
1 cup powdered sugar for sifting over finished cookies.

Anyway, the cookies use basic ingredients and a simple star cookie cutter. Two cooled cookies are stacked together, with points off-set, and a small dollop of icing or thick jam to hold them together. Any firm sugar cookie dough would work (a dough that holds its cut-out shape to ensure the points remain pronounced). After the icing or jam has firmed up (my daughters used a homemade icing, and it worked well), sift powdered sugar liberally over each cookie stack.

I thought these made such a lovely Christmas cookie that I copied the recipe into my holiday journal for future reference.

Since I know you'll want to know how they taste -- we all thought they tasted better than standard sugar cookies. The hint of lemon from the zest is very nice. A lemon icing to glue these together would enhance the lemon in the cookie, I think.

Our Christmas Herb-Roasted and Orange-Glazed Chicken

So delicious -- the glazed skin is sweet and herby, the meat is tender, and the gravy is delectable.

I based this recipe on a turkey recipe from a Southern Living Christmas cookbook (about 2010). Their recipe called for sage, savory, salt, pepper, butter, orange juice, orange marmalade, and honey. My version is suited for a smaller whole poultry, is more intense in herb flavor, adds onion, and uses a slightly less sweet glaze.

Here's the recipe:

Christmas Chicken

• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried sage
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder
• the juice from 1/2 an orange
• 1/4 cup of jam or cranberry sauce (I've used plum jam, but other jam flavors would work. We also really love this glaze using cranberry sauce.)
• additional 1/2 teaspoon dried sage

In a small bowl, mix together the first 5 ingredients. 

After cleaning and patting dry a whole chicken (about 4 to 5 lbs), tie the legs and wings with kitchen twine, then rub the dry seasonings all over the top and sides of the chicken.

Bake the chicken for about 1 hour at 325 degrees F. Meanwhile, combine the orange juice and jam (or cranberry sauce), and additional sage.

After 1 hour of roasting, spoon the glaze over the entire partially-roasted chicken. The chicken goes back into the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, the temperature is checked in the leg/thigh and in the breast. If it is not quite to doneness, loosely tent the glazed chicken with foil (to prevent the glaze from burning) and return to the oven. Once the chicken has reached the desired temperature, remove it from the oven, leave tented and allow to sit for 15 minutes before transferring to a cutting board.

The juices in the pan are used to make a sweet and savory gravy. Pour the juices into a glass measuring cup and chill briefly. Scoop/spoon the fat that has risen to the top and heat it in a heavy-bottomed saucepan to cook out any liquids before adding flour, followed by remaining pan juices plus some water. No additional seasoning to the gravy is needed, in my opinion.

If what you have is orange marmalade, by all means you can use it. If you have orange juice and not a fresh orange, orange juice will work, use about 1/4 cup of juice  The primary dried herb to use is the sage. If you don't have thyme, then marjoram, savory, or additional sage could be substituted. You could omit the onion powder, but I like the flavor it adds to the herb rub.

I've roasted a whole chicken for the last several Christmases and Thanksgivings using this process of herb rub followed by sweet glaze. A whole chicken is a more manageable size for our family. As well, we prefer the flavor and texture compared to turkey. 

If you were planning on roasting a whole turkey for Christmas (I know that's customary in some areas), you may want to consider an herb rub followed with a sweet glaze. My recipe is the right amount of seasoning and glaze for a 5-lb bird. For a larger turkey, do the math to increase the amounts of both herbs and glaze and roast for longer with just the herb rub, glazing in the last 30 minutes to an hour (tenting with foil as needed to prevent burning the glaze).

Happy eating!

Corn Pudding: Lunch For Two

Corn Pudding Topped with Ham Cracklings

I made this as a lunch dish for my husband and I one day last week. In the past I've made this as a brunch dish, light supper dish, and as a side dish to a regular dinner. With a green salad on the side, this makes a light meal, serving two (possibly three if ham, cheese, or bacon are added). If using this as a side dish or one of several dishes, it serves 4 to 5.

As I know there are several here who find themselves cooking for two as a regular thing, I thought someone might benefit from this recipe.

Corn Pudding

• one 15 oz can of corn, save the liquid
• 2 tablespoons butter (or other fat, I used ham fat in the pudding pictured above)
• 2 tablespoons flour
• cream, milk or water, to add to corn liquid to make 1 cup total (drained corn liquid + extra liquid = 1 cup total)
• 2 eggs, separated (whites in a medium to large bowl, yolks in a small dish)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika

optional add-ins (one or several):

• 1/2 cup grated cheese
• 1 1/2 cups chopped ham
• 1/4 cup diced bell pepper, red or green
• 2 to 3 tablespoons canned green chiles, diced
• 1/4 cup crumbled, cooked bacon
• a sprinkling of meat cracklings, such as ham, pork or beef, to top just before baking

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Butter a 2-quart round casserole or 9 X 9 pyrex.

Drain can of corn, reserving liquid in a measuring cup. Add cream, milk or water to reserved liquid to make 1 cup of liquid, total. 

In a saucepan over Medium heat, melt butter. Stir in flour. Combine this with reserved corn liquid plus extra liquid of choice, stirring well. Continue cooking until sauce is smooth and has thickened. Add drained corn, peppers, chiles, ham, or bacon. Remove from heat.

Beat the egg yolks with a fork. Spoon a tablespoon of the sauce over egg yolks, and stir well. Add another spoonful of hot sauce to egg yolks, and stir well. Repeat one more time.

Add the warmed egg yolks to the sauce. Stir well. Return to heat (Medium), stir and heat for 3 or 4 minutes, until egg yolks have cooked and thickened the sauce slightly. Stir in salt and paprika. Remove from heat.

In medium or large bowl, use a mixer to whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Sprinkle with grated cheese (optional). Fold the egg yolk, sauce and corn mixture into the stiff egg whites (and grated cheese, if used). 

Transfer to a prepared casserole or baking dish. You can top the mixture just before baking with additional bacon or ham bits, more shredded cheese, or cracklings (if you make them).

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until puffy, golden and eggs are set. Serve immediately.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Early December

As we're eating fresh oranges regularly, now, I thought I'd save some of the peel and make a batch of candied orange peel. My kids all think of this as a Christmas treat, and I love this stuff. Some people don't care for it. So I guess this is a love it or hate it treat. In any case, it's a thrifty candy.

My whole family agrees that candied orange peel is even better when coated with dark chocolate. I used about 1/2 cup of chocolate pieces, combining semi-sweet chips and broken pieces of unsweetened baking chocolate for a dark chocolate with about 70% cacao.

 It's reminiscent of those jellied orange sticks enrobed in chocolate. I didn't coat all of the candied orange pieces, but saved some as is to chop and freeze to add to cranberry bread later this winter.

On with the suppers this week.

Friday  pizza and movie night

scratch pepperoni and olive pizza

cabbage and avocado salad with salsa and mayo dressing
carrot sticks
leftover pie

Saturday
leftover Thanksgiving dinner
leftover pie

Sunday
chicken soup, using chicken carcass from Thanksgiving plus veggies and potatoes
scratch biscuits

Monday
beef stew
pumpkin scones
salad of shredded cabbage, lentil sprouts, sliced celery, avocado chunks
persimmon wedges (our neighbor gifted us with a box of persimmons)

Tuesday
Salisbury steak and gravy
brown rice
frozen peas
roasted root vegetables (garden beets, garden turnips, store carrots)
stewed prunes

Wednesday
beet green frittata (beet greens from yesterday's harvested beets)
toasted whole wheat bread
Asian slaw
steamed carrots

Thursday
tuna melts (gotta get our fish in some way)
roasted pumpkin (our last fresh pumpkin)
canned green beans
sautéed gingered pears (Asian pear chunks I froze in September from neighbor's downed tree branch, butter, ground ginger -- delicious and no sugar needed)

What was your favorite meal this past week? My favorite was our pizza night. The pizza was good, but it's more than just the meal. I really look forward to sitting and watching a movie with family each week. It's relaxing and takes me out of my own life for a few hours, if that makes sense.

Everything so quickly changed from Thanksgiving and late fall to Christmas season. I've got some gingerbread cookie dough in the fridge to make little men and women tomorrow. I listen to Christmas music (using Roku to find yule log Christmas music videos) all day while I'm working in the house. The dining room has been transformed into gift wrap central. Saturday we'll pull out the rest of our Christmas decorations (tree went up on Thanksgiving and outdoor lights on Sunday) and have a decking the halls snacky dinner. I feel like we're full into holiday mode. How about you? Are you all in on the Christmas season already, or are you putting it off another few days. I understand going either way. I really wasn't looking forward to doing the Christmas season work. But now that I'm listening to music, lighting candles, reading Advent scripture, and making plans for gifts for my loved ones, I think I can do this and be cheery about it.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

What greens are available in your area for holiday decorating?

Holly is a favorite in some areas. Fraser fir (love that scent) can be found I believe in parts of Virginia. You can find boxwood in many parts of the US. 

For the fireplace mantel, I simply lay cut branches on the mantel,
and add pinecones, unbreakable ornaments,
and chunks of paper birch.

What greenery and berries grow abundantly in your area?

I make my own holiday potpourri, using cedar, cinnamon sticks,
whole cloves, and dried orange slices. I saw a bag of this selling
 in a gift shop years ago and thought I could easily make my own.

Are any in your own backyard?

This is one of two wall planters by our front door. I fill
the coir liner with branches of cedar
then top with pine cones and unbreakable ornaments.

I use cedar, holly, and occasionally Douglas fir to decorate our home, inside and out. We also have a couple of different red-berried shrubs in the yard that offer a little pop of color to indoor arrangements and displays.

Holiday swags are perhaps the most complicated decorations
I make with greenery. I bundle together cedar branches, secure
 with a piece of green wire, then wire on an ornamental florist pick .
To top it off, I tie on a plaid bow.
Very easy and done in about 15 minutes, start to finish.

Greenery from the yard is not only beautiful, but free and regenerates itself. I understand that for some households cut greenery just wouldn't work or isn't an option.

But if you do cut your own greenery for indoor Christmas decor, how do you like to use it? What materials do you have naturally available to you?

Grocery Spending November 2025

my 2nd grocery haul of November, just before Thanksgiving

I grocery shopped 3 days in person in November, one at Walmart, then the trip that I previously blogged about and this one above. I also gave my daughter $10 to go get some donuts for us on the day after Thanksgiving. It was the end of the month, and I knew we had at least $10 left in the budget, so we splurged! She spent all $10 and chipped in about 75 cents of her own money.

Just before Thanksgiving I needed a few items, so I made the trip down to WinCo, photo above. From left to right, front to back, here's what I bought at WinCo for $119.38:

2 dozen eggs

1 gallon milk

1 bundle celery

8 Fuji apples

4 bananas

1 head cabbage

10 lbs carrots

big bulk bag raisins

big bulk bag peanuts

2 large sweet potatoes

2 bags of cranberries

4 cans corn

3 avocados

1/2 lb mushrooms

4 lbs oranges

4 cans green beans

bulk fresh ground peanut butter

small bulk bag iodized salt

small bulk bag almond flour

2 lb bag tangerines

8 lbs butter

2 blocks mozzarella

1 block cheddar

2 large cans tomato paste

4 cans black olives

1 jar green olives

1 bag breakfast sausage

1 pint whipping cream

small amount of bulk bin coffee for making cold brew

2 bags frozen peas

We're pretty much well-stocked. Some of these items I haven't even touched yet, obviously some of the canned veggies, but also the bag of tangerines, the bag of carrots, the avocados, the eggs, most of the butter, and the peanut butter. 

Most of what I bought specifically for Thanksgiving was priced near what I recall spending a few years ago. The celery was 97 cents/bundle, cranberries were 97 cents/bag, sweet potatoes were 97 cents/lb, canned olives were 98 cents ea, and canned veggies were 50 cents/can. The whipping cream was $2.58/pint, and I can't recall what I've paid for that in recent years. Do you recall if any of the Thanksgiving foods were a fair deal this year? I wouldn't say we got bargains on those foods, but at least I didn't feel gouged.

My total for the month spending, then, was $255.19 ($11.06 Walmart, $114.75 WinCo, $119.38 WinCo, $10 donuts) in person plus $119.66 pro-rated portion of beef delivery, for a grand total of $374.85 My budgeted amount is a max of $400 per month, with usual spending typically between $375 and $400. I came in just about average this month. 

Next time I shop I'll be buying Christmas foods!

How's the snow been in your area? We had a tiny amount of snow and rain mixed yesterday afternoon, but just rain since. I will say that it's been cold for here. I now get out for a walk in the afternoon, after the real chill has worn off, and it is still quite cold. And the nights have been very cold for me. Today when I did the laundry and remade the bed, I added a comforter to the layers. I'm hoping this will make sleeping much more comfortable. It's tricky. You put too many layers on the bed, and you wake up sweating, or like for me, I wake with a headache. If you put too few layers on, I find it too chilly to sleep well. Let's hope I got it right for tonight. I hope everyone is warm and cozy right now. Talk to you more tomorrow.

Christmas Decorating on a Dime (or Less)

How was your Thanksgiving weekend? Did you have a good time connecting with loved ones? How many here went out Black Friday shopping? We enjoyed our Thanksgiving. But was I ever tired after. I felt like I couldn't focus my mind at all on Friday. I stayed in and baked a batch of bread and washed a lot of dishes from Thursday's dinner. No Black Friday shopping for me. Or Saturday or Sunday. But I am gearing up for some shopping, just as soon as my family gets back to me on what's most important to them this year.

I have begun decorating, however.

You reach a point in life where you really have a lot of holiday decorative pieces. For me, unless I need to replace a worn out something, I'm not inclined to add more to our stash. So my cost to decorate is just about zilch.

Here's a cozy spot in our kitchen that I pulled together with what I have already. At first I just wanted to do something nice with my kitchen candle. I light this candle when I wake up. This time of year, it's dark for a couple of hours in the morning, and a little candle glow has a comforting feel.

First, I put the candle on a plate and surrounded it with greens from outdoors and some pinecones, red balls, and chunks of cinnamon that I had in a bag with our Christmas decorations. It looked nice, but I also wanted to accent more of the red. So I folded a red striped kitchen towel and placed it under the decorated candle plate. Nice, but not quite. So I added a wooden tray under the towel and candle plate. Good, but this would be the prefect place for our Christmas coffee mugs, I thought. And now, it has just the cheery look I was after.

I didn't spend a lot of time working on this. In fact, I was washing a large batch of dirty dishes (still no dishwasher). As I would finish a chunk, I would reward myself with a minute to do something with the candle plate. Switching up dull jobs with tasks that I enjoy helps me get through moments of drudgery.

Where is your cozy spot in the house? Have you added some Christmas cheer to that place?

One last invite reminder (I'll keep a link in the side bar this month) -- I'm doing some Advent readings on my other blog. You're welcome to join me. The first one went up yesterday morning, the second one this morning.

How to Not Eat Too Much at Thanksgiving

So, you've dug out your stretchiest, most loose-fitting clothes from your closet and simply accepted the fact that you will eat too much. Experts estimate that Americans typically consume ~3000 calories on Thanksgiving in the main meal alone. (That's enough for two of me on one day.) But it doesn't need to end this way.

I've been using this technique to "survive" Thanksgiving without the excess bloat and discomfort since I was 20 and had just lost my teen "baby" fat. It works. It's sensible. I have zero regrets after the big day.

Plan What You'll Eat in Advance

• if you're in charge of the menu, you already know what will be served. If you are guesting at someone else's table, inquire in advance what everyone else will be bringing.
• if you have no way of knowing what will be on the buffet or table in advance, take a few minutes before filling your plate to assess all that is there. Size it all up. Don't wait until you come to each section of the buffet or each dish is passed to decide if you will have some. 
• decide in advance what matters the most to you in the meal to come. 
• decide in advance whether or not you will have dessert. If you will, then you may need to eat less of some of the main plate foods, such as carby foods or high-fat foods.
• use the 1/4, 1/4, 1/2 rule for filling your plate. 1/4 filled with protein, 1/4 filled with carbs, and 1/2 filled with fruits and vegetables. Within that 1/2 of F/V, consider if the offered selection has a lot of high-fat options, like vegetable dishes in sauces, and limit the serving size of those dishes to just part of the 1/2 and fill the rest of that 1/2 plate with lower fat veggies/fruits.
• remember, when you dine in a restaurant, you don't order some of everything. You read over the menu and make your selection, knowing you won't be tasting everything offered. And this is key -- you know that you'll still be satisfied.

Let me give you an example of how I'm planning my plate to look: 1/4 smoked pork and sliced roasted chicken, almost 1/4 bread/herb stuffing with a single roasted baby potato and 1 tablespoon of sweet potato casserole, a small portion of green bean casserole and a larger portion of kale/prune salad plus a couple of carrot, celery sticks, and olives. There will be 2 tablespoons of gravy divided between the chicken and the stuffing.

Portion Size

• visualize how much you would normally eat for an everyday dinner
• try not to pile the plate high. If your everyday meal lays low on your dinner plate, then try to make your Thanksgiving plate look this way, too.
• dinner plates are big. Don't put any food along the outer 1 to 1.5 inches of the plate. Only use the center and a little bit of the rim of the dinner plate.
• remind yourself that dessert is still to come.

How to Deal With FOMO

• if you know you will have FOMO, make a plan to focus your plate on those specific foods. If you know you often eat mashed potatoes at normal dinners, put just a taste of potatoes on your plate at Thanksgiving. But you may also know that Auntie Peg always brings your favorite green bean casserole. Make sure you incorporate some of this deliciousness on your plate.
• set aside (in another copntainer) a small portion of the foods you really like but don't have room for to eat the next day. If you're guesting and your hostess provides a disposable plate for you to fill to take home, plan on adding those foods that trigger FOMO for you.

How I'll deal with FOMO: I'll have some pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving, but save a slice of apple pie for Friday. I don't want to forgo that apple pie altogether.

Skip Seconds

• this one is hard, I know. When everyone gets up to get second helpings or passes the dish around the table another time, fill your glass with sparkling water, maybe grab a couple of carrot and celery sticks, and wait for dessert. The important thing is to make this decision in advance of sitting down to the meal. And remember, you can set aside some of your favs or ask your hostess if you can take a plate of your favs home to have the next day for your lunch.

This plan works for the entire holiday season. There will be so many opportunities to indulge over the next 5 weeks. Next week you'll have a new selection of holiday treats and goodies. Every time you gather with family and friends or open a gifted tin of holiday cookies or show up to a work buffet lunch, you can take charge of what you choose and still not feel deprived. 

If you are underweight and need to gain a pound or two, disregard this entire post. Eat away, my friend!

One of the great things about preparing for Thanksgiving dinner . . .

. . . is all of the tasting I get to do the days before the holiday.

Today I made the apple pie filling and cranberry sauce (yes, I decided to buy cranberries). Both are so delicious that I can hardly wait for Thursday. For the pie filling I used frozen apple chunks from our tree apples. When apples would fall or get knocked off in summer, I would cut off the bad parts and chop and freeze the rest. Well, those chunks are what I used for the apple filling. I also used some of the crabapple juice made this fall to flavor the syrup/sauce for the apple pie filling. The combination of tasty apples and the crabapple juice really made the filling out-of-this-world delicious!

In addition to the sweet stuff, I made the cream of mushroom soup for green bean casserole. Oh my, I know I was hungry for lunch while I was cooking, but homemade cream of mushroom soup is some seriously awesome stuff. I used a lot of mushrooms in this soup. If you've never made cream of mushroom soup, and you'd like to try it (either for dietary restrictions of simply because you want to try something yummy), it's basically a white sauce started with minced onions and sliced mushrooms in the melting butter/olive oil, cooked until most of the liquid has evaporated from the mushrooms, then stir in the flour and add milk or cream. I used plain, unsweetened soy milk as my milk. Once thickened, I season with onion powder, dried thyme, salt, black pepper, and a dash of nutmeg.

I also chopped celery and onions for bread stuffing, and I cut carrot sticks and submerged them in a jar of leftover dill pickle juice to make refrigerator pickled carrots.

It's been a busy day, but productive.

How are your prep activities coming?

Invite reminder -- I will begin Advent readings, various Old and New Testament passages and verses on Sunday, Nov. 30 on my other blog His love resets my heart. I would like to invite you to join me in these daily readings leading up to Christmas. I usually have the day's readings posted by 7 AM PST, if you're interested.

The components of my morning power smoothie

I call this a power smoothie because it fuels me for several hours, despite being primarily fruits, vegetables, and a little protein. After one of these, I can go for 4+ hours before I need to eat anything else. Any other breakfast and I'm hungry and lackluster 2 to 3 hours later. My version of a smoothie may not be a power one for you, however. But here's what I put in mine, nonetheless.

Making smoothies can be a bit of a pain first thing in the morning. To at least have 2 out of every 3 mornings easy for me, I make 3 days worth of smoothies at a time, refrigerating the leftovers to stir and pour the following days.

As I'm assembling a 3-day master smoothie, I consider these categories:

• orange vegetables
• red vegetables
• green vegetables
• purple/blue fruit
• any miscellaneous fruit that would add sweetness and bulk
• protein
• plus green tea for caffeine and antioxidants and flax seed meal for fiber and omega-3s

I incorporate a total of 6 servings of fruits and vegetables in the master, so that I will get 2 servings with each day's portion.

In this day's mix I added a whole banana, a serving of frozen blackberries, a serving of pumpkin puree, 2 tablespoons of organic beet root powder, and a scoop of greens powder = roughly 6 servings of fruits/vegetables. I also added 6 tablespoons of defatted peanut butter powder for protein, the contents of 1 green tea tea bag, and 1 tablespoon of flax seed meal, plus water to puree the batch.

🥕I alternate orange vegetables between pumpkin, cooked sweet potatoes, and steamed carrots (leftover from a previous meal). All three options provide a lot of Vitamin A. 

 Beet root powder (the red vegetable) helps control blood pressure, improves recovery after exercising, and improves blood flow to the brain. All are areas I need help with. 

🥬 I use a commercial greens powder, but could also use a 1/2 cup of cooked leafy greens like spinach or kale. However, the greens powder I use contains two types of beneficial algae, which I especially appreciate for their cardiovascular benefits. Commercial greens powders can be expensive, so I use just 1 scoop (serving) per 3 smoothies.

🫐 We have a lot of frozen blackberries from our backyard patch harvested each summer. We also have some blueberries and some raspberries. The blackberries are wild ones, with large seeds. The seeds themselves are good for digestion, contain omega-3s and omega-9s, contain protein, and are beneficial for both skin and hair. The flesh of blackberries are rich in antioxidants, high in Vitamins C and K, and contain compounds that may help prevent heart disease and insulin resistance. I also like to use our patch's raspberries. Both raspberries and blackberries contain ellagic acid, which may work to prevent age-related cognitive decline and slow the growth of cancer cells.

🍌 The miscellaneous fruit is often bananas, as they're inexpensive, provide bulk and sweetness to cover strong flavors like beet powder or cooked green vegetables, and they contain potassium and magnesium. I also use homegrown crabapple and apple sauces or frozen pear chunks in smoothies when we're out of bananas.

🥜 Protein is a little more difficult for me, as I can't do dairy. I use plenty of soy milk in baking and cooking during the day, so I prefer not to also add more soy to my smoothies. My most favorite protein sources for smoothies, then, are peanut butter powder, natural peanut butter, and almond flour. I also sometimes add a couple of spoonfuls of cooked brown rice or cooked quinoa to complement the amino acids in the nut and peanut butter protein components. 

🫖 This next addition to my smoothies may sound odd, but I empty the contents of a single small green tea tea bag into the master smoothie. If you've had matcha tea, you've eaten tea leaves. Matcha is finely ground green tea leaves (of a particular green tea plant), ground to a powder and stirred into hot water. As a tea, each cup contains greater concentrations of both flavor and antioxidants of green tea compared to infusing a tea bag in hot water. So, adding the contents (but not the bag itself) of a  single green tea tea bag adds concentrated antioxidants to my smoothie. Green tea contains polyphenols, l-theanine, and caffeine and may help with cholesterol, brain health, metabolism, and mitigating cancer risk.

🌾 Finally, I add 1 tablespoon of flax seed meal to the master smoothie, adding omega-3s, fiber, protein, and lignans (fights plaque build-up in arteries and may help prevent hormone-fueled cancers, like breast cancer).

I said that making a 3-day master smoothie saves time for me. But I also like making this 3-day batch because it allows me to have greater variety of ingredients than I would likely add to a single day's smoothie. I likely wouldn't add 1/3 of a banana or 1/3 of a tea bag's contents or a single teaspoon of flax seed meal if I were making just that morning's smoothie. This way, I include a kaleidoscope of colorful ingredients in every sip.

My thoughts on powders vs whole foods

Some of the ingredients that I use are in powdered form, like the beet powder, the greens powder, and defatted peanut butter powder. In a perfect world, I believe it would be better to only use whole foods. However, for the beets and algae in particular, the powder is such a convenience and ensures I actually use both beet root and these particular greens in each smoothie. The defatted peanut butter is high in protein and low in fat, and I will favor those attributes over actual peanut butter for protein for a few days per week. The peanut butter, though, adds needed fats. So I like to rotate what I use for protein.

Do you have any favorite smoothie variations or additions? Bottom's up!

On another topic -- I will begin Advent readings, various Old and New Testament passages and verses on Sunday, Nov. 30 on my other blog His love resets my heart. I would like to invite you to join me in these daily readings leading up to Christmas. I usually have the day's readings posted by 7 AM PST, if you're interested.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the Week Before Thanksgiving

oven fries baked in beef fat

Friday (One daughter now does the pizza on Fridays. She wanted to master making pizza from scratch, so I suggested she take over Friday's dinner. She's now a pro.)

scratch pepperoni pizza
cabbage, kale, raisin salad
steamed carrots (saved the residual water to add to my breakfast smoothie the next day)

Saturday
bean and cheese burritos in homemade tortillas, salsa on the side
sautéed beet greens and onions
sautéed spiced apples

Sunday (My husband made dinner for us. He has a couple of things he makes regularly for us, soup being one, burritos including the tortillas being another.)
chicken and vegetable soup, using frozen chicken in stock from last week's roasted chicken
scratch biscuits
apple wedges

Monday
BBQ beef bowls -- beef simmered in BBQ spices, a little tomato paste, vinegar, and brown sugar, topped with cheese, all on top of brown rice, with shredded radish leaves dressed in avocado oil, salt, and chive blossom vinegar on the side, along with avocado slices and chopped yellow tomatoes
sweet potato oven fries baked in a mix of beef fat and vegetable oil
carrot cookies

I had some fat that I cut off of the cut of beef I used in the BBQ bowls and set aside until Tuesday. On Tuesday I cut the fat into small dices and rendered fat to use in cooking. This fat was then used in oven fries on Tuesday and Thursday. I froze the last bit of rendered fat after using what I needed to make the fries.

Tuesday
tuna melts on scratch French bread, yum!
roasted pumpkin cubes
oven fries baked in beef fat
sautéed Brussel sprout leaves, kale, and cabbage sprouts in ham fat (cabbage sprouts are the baby plants which grew at the cutting spot from harvesting cabbage heads) 

Wednesday (My other daughter has wanted to make eggs Benedict for a while, and this was the night she tried them. The English muffins turned out great and the Hollandaise sauce was perfect. We have some leftover Hollandaise -- any suggestions for using it?)
eggs Benedict on homemade English muffins with scratch Hollandaise sauce
frozen peas
stewed prunes

Thursday
leftover cooked ground beef patties in gravy from the freezer
oven fries baked in beef fat
beet leaves mixed with Swiss chard sautéed in ham fat
roasted pumpkin cubes
sautéed frozen apple chunks, using up last of spiced cider for the liquid

Preparing for Thanksgiving

Our fridge is beginning to empty out after doing my big stock-up at WinCo a week ago. Empty is how I want it going into the prep for Thanksgiving, so this is a good thing. You know how this is. I wish there was a rent-a-fridge just for a holiday, or an expandable feature to temporarily increase the capacity of the fridge you have. I need space to thaw some frozen meat and store casserole dishes as they await baking on Thursday. I will also need space for leftovers on Thanksgiving. I'll do a good cleaning of the fridge in the next couple of days, and that will hopefully identify more than can be used or thrown out. No grocery shopping this week, not even to pick up bananas.

In the garden

Unless we have a very mild rest of November, I think the Brussel sprout leaves and Swiss chard are done for the season. If winter is mild, both might come back briefly in spring. I still have some kale, radish leaves, beet roots, and turnips in the garden. I'm also down to my last homegrown pumpkin (out of 8). This last one is the largest. I think I can get 3 meals out of this one. I still have 2 large purchased Jack o' lantern pumpkins to cook and puree. With each passing week we use more and more purchased vegetables.

My favorite meal this week -- honestly I loved many of them. But if I had to choose one which surprised me how much we all enjoyed it was the BBQ beef bowls. All of the combine flavors and textures made this really delicious. Taking a bite of the tangy radish greens (dressed in an oil and vinegar) along with a slightly sweet bit of BBQ beef and a creamy bite of avocado was awesome.

Did you have a favorite meal this past week?

Vintage Thanksgiving: 1960s Edition

One of my daughters picked these 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s cookbooks up at Goodwill for me, knowing my affinity for vintage cookbooks. The (c.1959, p. 1965) holiday one has a multipage section devoted to Thanksgiving. I love reading vintage holiday menus. Although the specific recipe may be different from what my mother prepared, they conjure up what my memory wants to believe holidays were actually like, maybe in a different home or as featured in an advertisement or movie. I thought it would be fun today to go through their suggestions.

First of all, they provided 3 different menus, one featuring turkey as the main dish, the next featuring a roast chicken, and the third with rock Cornish game hens. Poultry, whichever you choose, was the featured type of meat. 

In the section for the turkey menu, they provided a handy guide for how to carve a turkey. 

Cooking instructions, from what I understand, are outdated, as turkeys that you purchase today cook faster than those in the past. The turkeys today are different, as well as our now preference for slightly less done poultry.

There was even a handy guide for spiffing up some of the traditional foods you might serve.

Dinner Accents: appetizers, salads, hot side dishes

apple-pineapple slaw, cranberry jello ring
I think the dish at the top is mayonnaise

creamed onions

an assortment of side dishes -- pretty serving dish

Some side dishes are what we might find on the table today, like baked butternut squash, buttered green beans, orange-glazed sweet potatoes, green peas, Waldorf salad, and pickled beets. But others were less familiar to me, such as creamed onions, a cranberry-strawberry-cream cheese-marshmallow-pineapple-lemon-mayo jello ring, and an apple-pineapple slaw.

The starchy dishes included herb and bread stuffing, corn bread, mashed potatoes, mushroom wild rice, and biscuits.

hot tomato starter

All menus had a starter dish -- hot tomato soup, hot oyster stew, or harvest fruit cup.

And I think there was a lot of coffee poured at holiday meals, if the menus are any indication. Hot coffee is the only beverage listed for all three menus.

mincemeat pie, pumpkin custard pie, cranberry mincemeat pie

Happy Endings

Let's get to the desserts.

pumpkin chiffon tarts, date-orange pudding, steamed cranberry pudding

The list is extensive: classic pumpkin custard pie, mincemeat pie, cranberry mince pie (that sounds interesting), pumpkin chiffon tarts, cheesecake mince tarts, date-orange dessert (a cake-like pudding topped with na glaze and hard sauce), cranberry steamed pudding, and something called pilgrim hats made with upside down, flat-bottomed ice cream cones, puffed rice cereal, and caramel candies made to look like a pilgrims hat. The hat band is made from jelly candies cut into strips. I think that last one was meant to appeal to children at Thanksgiving.

The cookbook also provided instructions for crafting table favors/place cards for each place setting, little pilgrim men.

So, tie on your apron, put on your string of pearls, and get those high-heeled pumps on. We've got a Thanksgiving meal to make!

Carrot-Spice Drop Cookies

I mentioned these cookies in yesterday's post on my recent grocery haul and how I would/could use those foods. These are tasty and pack some Vitamin A into each bite. Any time I can work a little more veggies into our foods, I consider that a win.

Carrot Spice Drop Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup gently packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

pinch ground cloves

1 large grated carrot, about 1 cup plus a tablespoon packed into a measuring cup once grated

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Wash, but no need to peel carrot. Grate carrot, measure, and dump onto a small paper towel. Allow to drain while mixing the rest of the batter.

Cream butter and brown sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in soda, salt, and spices.

Fold the paper towel over the grated carrot and gently press out moisture. Dump carrot into batter. Stir in flour.

Grease a large baking sheet. (I use an insulated one.) Drop dough onto the prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart. (I use my smallest -- 1 tablespoon -- cookie scoop.) Gently tuck in any stray shreds of carrot hanging off the dough.

Bake for 14 to 16 minutes in the middle of the oven, until the edges are lightly golden and the tops look set/dry. Allow to sit on sheet for 1 minute then remove to a cooling rack. If you use a non-insulated baking sheet, check for doneness at the 14 minute mark or slightly before.

Once cooled you can frost these with a vanilla or cream cheese frosting or drizzle with a powdered sugar and orange or lemon juice glaze or just eat them as is. I personally just like them as they are. They are plenty sweet for me. However, if you have family members who might be put off by the appearance of carrots in their cookie, a frosting would conceal that. LOL! But, I will add, I cannot discern a carrot taste or texture at all in these cookies. They're a mildly spiced, mildly sweet soft cookie.

By the way, these freeze really well. Just layer between sheets of waxed paper to prevent sticking.

yields:34 to 36 cookies, about 60-65 calories per cookie

Enjoy!