A Farm Stand Thanksgiving

Turkey-Day Recap!

Check out this map... You've got Monterey Bay on the left, what is probably Elkhorn Slough up top, and Highway 1 going up the center. 
That star-arrow thing in the middle is pointing right at one of the neatest/cheapest/diverse produce stands in the whole entire world: Farm Fresh Produce. 
Check out the Price indicator on Yelp. ONE DOLLAR SIGN. That's not a joke! This place is super duper di doooper cheap! Also check out "Hours Today: 6:00 am until 5:30 am" That's not true, because that would mean that they are open for 23 1/2 hours a day. You know what? They are actually open 24 hours a day! 
They get new produce around the clock so why not stay open around the clock? Driving from Santa Cruz to Monterey at 3 am and need 10 oranges? Want to get them for a buck? Well this is where you should stop!
My roommate Sarah originally told me about this place and the first time I went I was overwhelmed by all the deals. Now I've got it down to a science... I like to get grapes there, and freeze them for snacking on during the week. I'll also get some apples, plums, and usually an onion.

Before Thanksgiving, I made a booklet of all the dishes I wanted to prepare on turkey day:

1. Seared Brussels Sprouts
2. Orange Cranberry Sauce
3. Alton Brown's Best Ever Green Bean Casserole
4. Honey Glazed Carrots
5. Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms
6. Cornbread and Dutch Crunch Apple Stuffing
7. Pumpkin Pie!!
8. Salad stuff <- but I didn't end up making the salad



I bought my brussels sprouts from the Marina Farmer's Market on Sunday and the rest of my veggies came from Farm Fresh Produce in Moss Landing. Check out my spread:




Orange (#2), Green Beans + Portobello Mushroom + Onion (#3), Parsley + Carrots (#4), Baby Mushrooms (#5), Apple + Onion + Celery (#6), Lettuce + Tomatoes (#8)... Lemons are for beer... MMMMM I love lemon in my beer. Better than orange fo sho.




Yeah... and my total for ALL of that was $12.78 (plus I got a bunch of frozen grapes, not pictured).




Thanksgiving morning David, my mom, my sister Nicole, and I drove at the crack of dawn in the freeeezing San Jose weather to go run the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot! 
One of my favorite traditions is running this race with my Mom and Nicole and Aaron, but sadly he couldn't make it this year because he has a girlfriend and she lives in LA area.

We quickly started the race, and finished the race, and grabbed a bunch of freebie snacks - hoping for any sort of warm sun rays (didn't get any though). Instead of sticking around for a while, we jammed back to the car and drove back to my moms.

After showering, I got to work in the kitchen. Timing things is pretty difficult. I was so nervous that it would be 5pm and everyone would be starving with no food ready. With Nicole and Kyle's help, we actually got a lot of the food ready to bake ahead of schedule.

Adding to the list above: the turkey, Kyle's mashed potatoes, Nicole's secret-ingredient banana bread, and my mom's sweet potatoes (favorite dish), we had 5 things that needed oven time.

Luckily, everything finished on time and was warm and delicious. While it sounds kind of corny,  Thanksgiving dinner truly was delightful. In attendance: Mom, Nicole, David, his 3 sons: Nathan, Sam, and Ben, David's coworker Doug, family friends Becky, Megan, and Andrew, and good ol' Kyle Dozeman... and myself. After my pumpkin pie slice, Ben brought me a chocolate chip cookie he took home from Starbucks - perfect end to the perfect meal. It was so much fun to spend the day cooking in the kitchen with Nicole and Kyle.

I wish I had more time to make fun, creative meals. Sadly, during the week I just don't feel as motivated to make tricky things for just myself to enjoy. Maybe if I had the "Cooking for One" cookbook I could learn how to spice things up without having to eat leftovers for lunch/dinner 2 or 3 days straight!

"Cooking for One"??? That sounds like a depressing gift. Nobody give it to me out of pity! I will make do until my move to San Jose. Hopefully then I can cook with my mom, Kyle, friends.... any takers for dinner dates??

While there weren't any pictures taken of the Thanksgiving dinner spread, I did take pictures of breakfast the next morning: Apple Walnut Sticky Buns!!




Adapted from a Sandra Lee recipe I saw on a Bake Sale special on the Food Network:

You'll need:
1 Granny Smith apple
1/2 C chopped walnuts
1/4 C brown sugar
2 T. softened butter
1 (8-count) tube of refrigerated cinnamon rolls
1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice
1 to 2 t. water

Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter a 12-count muffin tin a lil' bit.
- Peel/core/dice apple into 1/2-inch cubes
- Stir together diced apples with walnuts and brown sugar.
- Divide apple mixture evenly into 8 of the 12 muffin tin slots.
- Put the 8 cinnamon buns, cinnamon side up, on top of the apple mixture.
- Put the muffin tin on a baking sheet and bake until the tops are golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes.
- Remove the muffin tin from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Put a clean baking sheet on top of the muffin tin and flip to remove the sticky buns.

For glaze:
- In a small bowl, combine the frosting from the cinnamon roll tube with the pumpkin pie spice and 1 to 2 teaspoons of water.
- Mix until very thick and of pourable consistency. Drizzle over buns and serve.

SO YUMMY!




Now let's start thinking about Christmas dinner... I'm thinking Vegetable Parmesan?

Pumpkin: Roasted, Pureed, Baked

I dream about cooking and baking with real pumpkin. For the past few weeks I've flagged a bunch of pumpkin recipes - but I wanted to try using an actual pumpkin, rather than canned pumpkin. When I was driving back from Santa Monica/SLO two weekends ago, I stopped at Walmart to stock up on food for the day (I was also looking for suspenders - FYI nobody sells FFFing suspenders!)

Sidetracked.

Right, so the week before I went to London to study abroad I watched Cinderella 2: Dreams Come True:

And I really liked Cinderella's haircut, so I asked my hairdresser to do my hair just like hers...

Cinderella reminds me of pumpkins.

"Impossible, for a plain yellow pumpkin to become a golden carriage!" 

Sidetracked again.

So there I was standing in Walmart, the carton of pumpkins calling my name... "Cinderella!" (too cheesy?)

It was stashed in my pantry for a week. I could have kept it in there for a month as long as it wasn't bruised (pumpkins grow mold faster when bruised FYI). On Monday I decided to finally transform the fruit (yes, pumpkins fall in the fruit category) into something delicious. Indecision got the better of me, as it usually does, so I decided to try two methods.

Here she is. Preheat your oven to 450.

Rinse!

Cut off the stem. It's the only part you won't be eating.

Cut pumpkin in half crosswise.

Scrape out those seeds!

Try to remove all the stringy bits too.

Pull out your peeler.

Peel the skin off of the side(s) of the pumpkin you want to roast.

One half is naked!

Throw away the scraps.

Start slicing the pumpkin. Looks like cantaloupe?

Cut into 2-inch chunks.

I roasted half the pumpkin with olive oil, cut up shallots, thyme, oregano, salt, pepper, and a sprinkle of cayenne.

Before: toss the olive oil, shallots, and herbs directly on the baking sheet (I covered mine in tinfoil)

Roast until the pumpkin is tender, a little over 30 minutes.

My roasted pumpkin went into a bowl with potstickers and veggies, covered in a random satay I whipped up in my food processor. 

MMM tender!

There were enough pumpkin chunks for 4 meals!

What about the other half? Well, I reduced the oven to 350, lined the baking sheet with parchment paper, scraped out the seeds and placed the pumpkin half, flesh side down, on the baking sheet.

I covered the top of the pumpkin with tinfoil and baked it in the oven for an hour. 

You'll know it's done when you can easily pierce it with a knife.

Let it cool and then simply scoop the flesh from the skin. Very easy! 

You can put it immediately into the food processor, but I decided to put mine in a sifter, over a glass bowl, in the fridge, overnight. This helped drain some of the excess water from the flesh.

In the morning I scooped the pumpkin flesh into the food processer and processed until nice and smooth.

1/2 a cup went into the container (back) and into my fridge for later. Refrigerated pumpkin puree will last a couple of days. 1/2 a cup went into the freezer bag (front) and into my freezer. Frozen pumpkin puree will last about 4 or 5 months in the freezer and not lose any of its va-voom. Cool, huh? All you have to do is take out the little bag and let it thaw for about 20 minutes and you're good to bake!

So what did I end up using the pumpkin puree in?

Clue: apples

Clue: batter (?)

Still guessing?

Waffles!

I chose to go with the Ultimate Pumpkin Waffle recipe from The Ultimate Pumpkin Waffle. Yes, it is a blog all about the quest to perfect pumpkin waffles. I halved the recipe and made a few alterations.

I ended up using:

- 1/8 cup light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch
- 1/2 & 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. ginger
- 1/8 tsp. cloves
- 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 large egg whites
- 1/2 cup soy milk, with a little of that half cup actually being chai concentrate mix and hazelnut coffee creamer < < I'm weird
- 1/2 cup FRESH PUREED PUMPKIN!!
- 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and warm
- An apple, finely chopped and divided (1/2 went into the batter, 1/2 went into my syrup)

I followed all of his crazy instructions too. Whipping the egg whites at the end, folding them into the batter REALLY gently.

Gorgeous!

The pumpkin waffle master advises to let the waffles cool on a wire rack to let the pumpkin flavor really sink in. He recommends putting them back on the griddle for a little bit to warm up before digging in.

Look! Syrup-y waffles.... mmm!

These were really really really really good.

What about the seeds?

I cleaned the seeds, placed them back on the same parchment paper, and popped them into the oven for about an hour at 250 degrees. When they came out of the oven, I put a tablespoon of canola oil in a skillet and heated it up with a tablespoon (or more?) of sugar. I quickly added the pumpkin seeds and swish swashed them around for about a minute. When they looked caramelized, I transferred them to a bowl and tossed them with cinnamon, sugar, cardamom, more sugar, nutmeg, ginger, and sugar.

All in all I say my first pumpkin experience was a success! Do any of you have recommended pumpkin recipes? I want to bake the most legit pumpkin pie ever for Thanksgiving - pie dough from scratch, bake and puree a pumpkin, do a fancy crust design, the works.