A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Thanksgiving Leftovers: Turkey Pasta Soup

Ruth over at Once Upon a Feast hosts a great weekly food event called Presto Pasta Nights.  She posts a round up every Friday of the previous week's great pasta dishes. 

I'm getting back into the groove of  pasta night with my turkey leftovers in a pasta soup last night.  It's all about the broth, comforting in its turkey goodness with an attention-getting mix of pasta shapes to devour.

One of the interesting little secrets about this soup was that I followed Gene's initiative and spooned it over some leftover dressing from Thanksgiving.  It may sound odd but it's really yummy, giving the soup just an extra weight and oomph, turning it from "just soup" into a full meal for Gene.

Potato Bread: A Daring Bakers' Challenge

Our challenge for this month was Potato Bread, something I already love but had never made myself at home.  But I will now! Many thanks to Tanna at My Kitchen in Half Cups for picking this recipe.

This recipe was simple, easy to follow, easy to construct, and turned out beautifully. My niece Jordan and I made this as our Thanksgiving bread. The only quirk we added to the recipe was that we doubled it and added a cup of grated parmesan and chopped 5 green onions into half the dough so that we had both "white" potato rolls and parmesan chive potato rolls. Also, on the whole wheat we used white whole wheat from King Arthur flour so that the picky eaters couldn't tell they were eating anything wholesome.  Ya gotta be sneaky like that with my family sometimes.

As with all the Thanksgiving prep, Jordan was a great helper and we had wonderful Auntie/Niece time in the kitchen followed by a long evening of fun, family, and feasting. 

To see how all the other Daring Bakers fared, click here:  Daring Bakers.

Carrianne and the Marshmallow Fondant

My friend Carrianne does some cake decorating. As a matter of fact, she and her mother made HER wedding cake. It was very pretty and sleek.  She's been asked to make the cake of a friend and this is her fondant practice piece, using the marshmallow fondant recipe I posted a while back and used on Jessica's cake.

Isn't this pretty?  I love both the dots and the colors, blue and green together make me happy, you know what I mean?  The cake is white with raspberry jam between the layers, just like Carrianne's own wedding cake. That's one of my favorite combinations too.  Did she share? Noooooooooo!  LOL!  Just kidding. Great job, Carrianne!

Kansas City: A Tale of Two BBQ's

Okay, so not the greatest pics but those two signs, or sign and a menu, are for Arthur Bryant's and KC Masterpiece Barbecure and Grill, as in KC Masterpiece of the sauce in your local grocery. The restaurant is the sauce folks' showplace. Arthur Bryant's is a over 60-year hometown original that has branched out into three locations. 

I think I might as well just say the obvious out loud: I abandoned my new found vegetarianism this weekend with finger-lickin' glee.  It is Monday and I'm back to my "no meat" ways but last weekend was all about the pulled pork.  Hey, if God didn't want us to eat pulled pork sandwiches piled high with cole slaw at least as a treat here and there then he shouldn't have invented sweet tangy BBQ sauce to smother it in or Kansas City as a place to serve it in, ya hearin' me?

We ran up to KC this weekend with friends Jeff and Dee to celebrate their mutual birthdays. While Gene turned 47 on October 24th, Dee turned 43 on the same day, and Jeff turned 49 on October 20th. We have a 20-year tradition of getting together on a road trip to celebrate and this year we took the Louisiana-born Dee to KC for the weekend since she'd never been.  Jeff and Gene grew up across the street from each other here in southwest Missouri but it's only been in recent years that she and Jeff moved back to this area after living in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Illinois.  We all had a nice weekend getaway, nothing fancy, just hanging out and enjoying the time together.

Halloween Party Recap

Halloween feast starting in bottom middle and going clockwise:  Auntie Miranda's feta triangles, Auntie Miranda's salmon dip (from Meals in Thyme and excellent by the way), Pepperoni bread for Jordan, Canadian bacon bread for Gene, decorated cookies and brownies from my sister Suzanne (you can't see them, they're hiding), Pumpkin face Krispie Kremes from Auntie Miranda (thanks for EVERYTHING you did to help, Auntie!!!), in the orange cool container is home-made pumpkin mini bread loaves from cousin Ann who was nice enough to send them over even though she and Kim weren't able to come to the party--isn't that nice?, and on the far right, tortilla chips and queso. On the stove, I had a huge pot of chicken and home-made noodle soup and cheesey herb biscuits. 

By the time the night was over the only leftovers were a couple of doughnuts and and pumpkin bread that I stored back so I'd get some! :-)  All the soup was gone. All I got of that was a few spoonfuls. Dang!  So, Gene doesn't know it but my mouth was so set for homemade noodles that tonight's dinner will be beef and noodles, beef just to try to trick him into not knowing he's getting an instant replay dinner.

I got a call from Suzanne yesterday to warn me that Jordan had asked "Is Aunt Gonnie going to decorate the whole house the way she always does every year?"  Shit. I was actually tired this year and not planning on doing much...but...have I ever denied the nieces or nephew anything?