A Thanksgiving Side Dish

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Some of my family came into Oklahoma this morning to spend Thanksgiving with us.

Today I was in charge of the carrots. The biggest part of Thanksgiving dinner, second only to the turkey. I found a really good recipe. I have to quadruple the recipe for my family. But the recipe I'll give is only for 1 lb of carrots.

All the girls worked all morning to get the dinner ready for everyone. We had turkey, two different kinds of stuffing, broccoli cheese casserole, green beans, rolls, gravy, candied fruit, and of course carrots.

(Left: Aunt Na, Boo, and Emily) (Right: Boo and Mom)

(Dad and the 21 lb turkey! A lot of meat!)

The Recipe (Glazed Carrots):

Ingredients

• 1 pound carrots, approximately 7 medium, peeled and cut on the bias 1/4-inch thick
• 1 ounce (2 tablespoons) unsalted butter
• Heavy pinch kosher salt
• 1 cup good-quality ginger ale
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves

In a 12-inch saute pan over medium heat, combine the carrots, butter, salt and ginger ale. Cover and bring to a simmer.

Once simmering, remove the lid, stir, and reduce the heat to low. Cover again and cook for 5 minutes. Remove the lid, add the chili powder and increase the heat to high.

Cook, tossing occasionally, until the ginger ale is reduced to a glaze, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Pour into a serving dish and sprinkle with the parsley. Serve immediately.

To end the season of Thanksgiving, Richard discovered that he is allergic to cats and his eye swelled up and shut. Not a good time to find that out, but after the cat went outside Richard's swelling went down.

My First Blog and My First Pie

Hello from the land of pots and pans.

Tonight I made my first apple pie! We're not eating it until tomorrow, but it looks and smells delicious!

After everything I cook I always take a tons of pictures and then text the pictures and description to Cameron, my boyfriend, and my family. So I thought I would create a blog instead of racking up my phone bill.

Grandad and I have been working on the name and profile for my new blog. We collaborated with Cameron in Dallas and my parents in the kitchen the whole time trying to pick the right name. Finally we decided on the name, picked one that was available and here we are.

So the pie... I asked if I could make the pie for Thanksgiving this year. I've never made a pie before, but I thought Thanksgiving dinner with 20 hungry people would be a good time to start learning.

It was the first time I've ever peeled apples by hand before. It wasn't hard once you got the hang of it. I only used eight apples and then Ford ate the last one.

The Recipe:

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9-inch double crust pie
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 Tbl flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 Tbl vanilla
• 8 apples- peeled, cored, and sliced

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.

Then you place the bottom crust in your pan. (I just used a premade crust, I thought it would be way to much to make my first crust too!). Then I took the sauce off the pan and in a large bowl combined the sauce and the apples, and let it marinate for a bit.

Next I filled the pie and scrapped EVERY SINGLE drop of the sauce out of the pan and into the pie. I covered the filling with a lattice work (weaving the crust).

Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and continue to bake for 40 minutes, until the apple are soft. I thought my crust was getting a little too brown, so I covered it lightly with foil and it turned out great!

I haven't tasted it yet, but my dad snuck an apple covered in the sauce before I poured it into the pie and he said it was good.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!