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27 April 2013
20 November 2012
The Ultimate Thanksgiving Stuffing
Stuffing or dressing? You can only be on one side of the debate. We don't do turkey, yet I find myself on the stuffing side of the debate. Something about the title "dressing" just doesn't fully cover this Thanksgiving necessity. Until I can come up with an altogether new title I'll continue being a conundrum…
Here is our family's favorite "stuffing" recipe. I've made this every year since we were a family of three. Eleven years, 2 more kids and one Chocolate Lab later and it's still amazing. It's buttery and herby and makes everyone happy and content. The only alteration I've ever made was the addition of a handful of cranberries this year.
It's all vegetarian just like us, but switch the butter to Earth Balance and you just went vegan!
Makes plenty for 8-10 people (and most of their kids)
Ingredients:
2 loaves of crusty French Bread cubed and dried - I used 1 baguette and 1 regular loaf
2 lb. yellow onion diced
12 stalks of celery diced tiny
1 small bundle of fresh sage
4 C vegetable broth - 2 C for cooking and 1 to 2 C to add before baking
2 sticks butter
2 tsp salt
2 C chopped parsley
a handful of dried cranberries - optional
Cube your bread into 1 inch pieces. Divide the cubes among 2 large sheet pans and dry in the oven at 175 degrees for about 30 - 45 minutes. No need to stir the cubes but you may need to rotate the pans about halfway. Once dry, set aside.
I like to dice my onions and celery tiny so their flavor is everywhere in every bite. I split larger stalks of celery into 3 or 4 lengths and keep the inner stalks whole since they aren't too stringy. Sorry I had to use that word in a recipe… Leaves are fine. Eat more leaves right?
Melt the butter in a large high sided skillet
Add the onions and celery and cook until the onions are translucent. About 8 - 10 minutes
While the onions and celery are cooking get your 2 C of veggie broth ready and chop the sage. By the way, if your veggie broth doesn't look like this - you're buying the wrong kind! We need flavor here!
Add the sage! At this very moment is when the kitchen officially welcomes Thanksgiving. If your kitchen window is open, neighbors may start knocking on the door at any moment.
Cook the sage for about 5 minutes then add the 2 C of veggie broth and 2 tsp of salt. Simmer until the liquid has reduced, about 10 minutes more.
Add the dry bread cubes to a huge bowl and chop the parsley.
Butter a 10 x 13 baking dish, or butter two smaller sized baking dishes. I use about 2 tablespoons of room temp butter and spread it with the spatula I mixed everything with. Yes, you just made and greased the pan with herb butter!! Hooray!
Pour the mixture into the prepared dish and add the remaining 1 - 2 C of veggie broth. I like my stuffing on the drier side so I only use about a cup at this point. If you're family is finicky, you can use two baking dishes and make one a little drier and one on the soggy side for grandpa!
To make in advance, don't add the extra broth just yet. Cover and store in the fridge (or freezer if you're preparing more than 2 days in advance) at this stage. Then, take it out either the night before if frozen, or the morning of if refrigerated. Allow it to come back to room temp then add the extra broth just before baking.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 - 45 minutes.
I make another as left overs since there won't be much "left over" after dinner.
15 November 2012
Get (cranberry) Sauced!
Every year I make cranberry sauce. I also tweak the ingredients and the process every year. This year I think I got it as perfect as can be! This would be great with turkey, but my family doesn't eat turkey! Because of this it has to be so good it can stand all alone. This makes about a 12 oz. jar. There is no way this jar will last until Thanksgiving, so you may want to double it…
You can even make it vegan by replacing the butter with Earth Balance.
Makes 12 ounces.
Ingredients:
You can even make it vegan by replacing the butter with Earth Balance.
Makes 12 ounces.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 lb fresh cranberries rinsed
- 1 Bosc pear pealed and diced
- 1 C orange juice
- 2 Tbs. butter
- 1/4 C packed brown sugar
- 2 thin strips of lemon peel
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 8 whole allspice or 8 whole cloves
- 1 star anise pod (mine were small so I used two)
With a 4 qt. saucepan over medium high heat, melt the butter. Add the diced pears and cook until they start to brown.
Once the pears begin to brown, add the cranberries, orange juice, brown sugar, lemon peel, cinnamon sticks and the spices tied in cheesecloth.
Organic citrus is really hard to find, usually impossible unless you grow it yourself or know someone who does. Trader Joe's actually has an organic orange juice that is amazingly good. I challenge you to find it. Ready, go!
Bring everything to a simmer and reduce the heat to medium. Stir occasionally until the sauce has thickened and the cranberries have burst, about 15 minutes. By the way, the sound of bursting cranberries along with the smell of the spices and OJ is the official start of the season...
Remove from the heat and toss the spice packet. You can toss the lemon peel too, but after cooking in this mixture it is sooooo good. Leave it if you want, or treat yo self! I also left one cinnamon stick since you can never have too much cinnamon. Serve warm or cold, or semi lukewarm room temperature.
No turkey required!!
15 September 2012
New in the shop… Halloween Boxes!
It's the most wonderful time of the year!
Looking for something to tempt the trick or treaters with? Want to entrance your party goers with something a little more special than the norm? New Halloween boxes are now in the shop! More will be added as soon as I have a spare minute!
14 September 2012
Past Events... Christa + Farrah
One of my favorite couples to work with. Christa and Farrah had a Halloween wedding in 2009. They wanted Halloween colors without the Halloween colors... We went with shimmery copper, silver and black and then we glittered and glittered. Everything worked amazingly. As members of the Screen Actors Guild, they took designing their wedding to a whole new level and it was so much fun!
image via Raw Photo Design
Christa and Farrah decided on this invitation set way before any wedding design plan had been made. These were so fun to make and helped set the tone for the programs, table numbers, place cards and Hooray flags that I made later as the "day of" design came together.
13 September 2012
New in the shop!
New Hooray Flags are in the shop! All of the new colors are so amazing, its impossible to pick just one. So I've decided one of each is just the right combination! One for every birthday guest! I'm thinking of making some for Teacher Appreciation week too... What a nice surprise for our teachers to walk into their classroom and see all of these colors waving!
24 August 2012
Inspiration Edition - Vintage Revolution
I have vintage on the brain… Oh how I would love to be at a wedding where everyone is transported back in time to a Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes like era… It could happen, right? The world just needs MakerMaximum to invent a time machine.
Sources:
Tim Walker is amazing!
This Dress… This is the one...
Here Comes the Bride Flags by me!
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