Happy Thanksgiving!

I posted the recipe for our gravy and the icebox cake below (thanks Aunt Nancy!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Icebox Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 pkg. (9 oz.) FAMOUS Chocolate Wafers
• Garnish
  

Directions:

1. Beat cream with mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently stir in vanilla.
2. Spread 1-1/2 tsp. whipped cream onto each wafer; stack, then stand on edge on platter. Frost with remaining whipped cream. Sprinkle with garnish if desired.
   
3. Refrigerate 4-6 hours. Cut into diagonal slices to serve.
   

White Wine Gravy

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) reduced-sodium chicken broth
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
  

Directions:

1. While the turkey rests, place the roasting pan on the stove across two burners (if using a disposable roasting pan, scrape drippings and browned bits into a medium saucepan). Heat drippings over medium-high, scraping up browned bits, until thickened, about 10 minutes.
2. Add wine; cook, stirring constantly, until syrupy, 5 to 6 minutes. Gradually whisk in flour, and cook, whisking constantly, until incorporated, about 1 minute. Gradually add 1 cup broth; cook, whisking, until flour is a deep caramel color, 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Gradually stir in remaining broth and 4 cups water. Bring to a simmer; cook, stirring occasionally, until gravy reaches desired thickness, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove neck and giblets, and strain gravy through a fine-mesh sieve; discard solids. Season generously with salt and pepper.
   

Holiday Cookies!!!

I made three batches of my favorite cookies to send out to family and friends for Thanksgiving... I'm pretty sure they'll arrive late but I figure better late than never!

YUM!!!

Butter Pecan Cookies

Ingredients: **I double this recipe as it's a small batch.

• 3/4 cup pecans
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/3 cup sugar, plus more for coating
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a baking sheet, toast pecans until fragrant, about 6 minutes. Let cool completely; finely chop.
2. With an electric mixer, cream butter and 1/3 cup sugar until light, about 1 minute. Beat in vanilla, salt, and flour, scraping down sides of bowl, just until dough comes together. Fold in pecans.
3. Separate dough into 12 pieces; squeeze dough to shape into balls. Roll in sugar. Place, 3 inches apart, on a baking sheet. Gently flatten with the bottom of a glass (reshape sides if necessary). Sprinkle with sugar.
4. Bake until golden brown, rotating sheet halfway through, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle with more sugar. Cool cookies on a wire rack.
   
   

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) Milk Chocolate Chocolate Morsels
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375° F.
2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
   

Coconut Macaroons

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg. (14 oz.) Angel Flake Sweetened Coconut (5-1/3 cups)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 6 Tbsp. flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 4 egg whites
• 1 tsp. almond extract
  
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and flour baking sheets; set aside. Combine coconut, sugar, flour and salt in large bowl. Stir in egg whites and almond extract until well blended.
   
2. Drop coconut mixture into 36 mounds, 2 inches apart, on prepared baking sheets, using about 1 tablespoonful of the coconut mixture for each mound.
   
3. Bake 20 min. or until edges are golden brown. Immediately remove from baking sheets to wire racks. Cool completely. Store in tightly covered container at room temperature up to 1 week.
   

Amazing Pumpkin Bread

Ok, I think it's safe to say I found the most bad ass pumpkin bread recipe ever! I did break my favorite santoku knife while cutting the pumpkin so at least it was worth it, lol. I'll post the original recipe and note the changes I made at the bottom.

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree *
  
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 cups white sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour **
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda ***
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

* I baked then mashed a fresh sugar pumpkin, please see directions below.
** I increased the flour amount by 1/4 C. due to high altitude.
*** I used 2 tsp. baking powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.**** In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

**** Please note: I don't have 7x3 pans so I used two 9x5 in. and increased the time to 65-75 minutes. The bread is very moist but the center should be set and not "goupy" before you remove it from the oven.

This is about the size of the pumpkin I used. I cut it in half, removed the stem, seeds and pulp, then wrapped the two halves separately in foil and baked at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. You'll have to wait until it's cooled completely before you can peel the skin off. After you've removed the cooked portion of the pumpkin, mash it. This pumpkin is also known as a "Pie Pumpkin" so you could see either or at the grocery store.