The Land of the Free & the Home of the Brave (expats)... All Those in the US!

[UnderRated]

I just finished the old thread by accident

Yum!!! Dooney can we just come to your house this year

A favorite recipe

Cranberries Braised in Red Wine

16 oz. cranberries
1 cup of red wine
1 ½ cups sugar
peel of an orange (finely chopped)
1 cinnamon stick

Sort through the berries and get rid of any bad ones. Bring wine and sugar to a boil in a saucepan and add the other ingredients. Cover partially and reduce heat to medium. Cook until cranberries burst and sauce is slightly thickened about 15 - 20 min. Cool to room temperature and serve

Doney - Thanksgiving menu at your house sounds divine. When you get a chance, could you post some/all of the recipes?

Jabber - cranberries sound yum! Thanks for sharing.

It just dawned on me, all these recipes were on my computer last year, and it suddenly and massively died. I shall have to find them all again. I know mostly where to look, though. I'm drowning in 50 lbs of apples and pears, and have to make 2 class treats for Halloween, so I shall do so when I find time.

I wish you could come to my place, Jabber. I'm one of those the more the merrier type people.

Okay, here's what I've got:

Turkey: I've never brined before, but now I have my bucket, look out. I'm debating on this brine recipe or this one for the brine only.

Stuffing: this one is most people's favorite out of all the stuffing I've made. I substitute pancetta for bacon.

Sweet Potatoes: I use this recipe. I never follow it exactly, and always tweak something different every year, but it ends up tasting the same. This is both my in-laws favorite part of the dinner. It is great, because it heats up really well in the microwave, and I can make it the day before.

Green Beans: I lost my recipe, and haven't found it yet. I think I'll use this one if I can't find it.

Soup: Oops, I meant corn bisque instead of chowder. I used this a few years ago, and haven't found another soup I like better, so I'm going back to it this year.

Pie: I've made this pie every year. I usually add more spice than they call for. I don't dislike pumpkin, but the standard pumpkin pie seems a bit bland to me, and I love the flavors the orange and spice add to the pie, and "deboring" it.

Rolls: I lost my roll recipe, too. I love recipes from King Arthur Flour for baked goods. They never fail. I think these look the best to me. Rolls are actually really important, because we eat at 2 pm, and then have dessert around 4 or 5, and I have no desire to make dinner, so everyone grabs leftover rolls and turkey, and makes little sandwiches for a light dinner.

I can't find my recipe for brie mashed potatoes, either. I know I had it in a magazine, and I swore it was either Bon Appetit or Gourmet, so it should have been on epicurious.com, but it isn't. I'm thinking it was a recipe that used another cheese, but I used brie instead.

Not a Thanksgiving recipe, but here's the recipe I found for grenadine. It really is good, and stupefyingly easy. Even DH really likes it, and he isn't big on sweet fruity flavors in any drink.

Anyway, sorry for the book. I'm glad I did this, though, because I forgot I have none of the recipes, and at least I can look them up now, instead of frantically looking for them later.

Oh, all this food sounds fabulous. I want a Thanksgiving MN meetup with Dooney and Jabber as Chefs!

We've been busy - Rainforest Cafe yesterday (I loathe it but mum & DS had fun), Children's museum, trolley ride, bus, train, Lego Store and pumpkin carving but I messed mine up. I tried to carve a pie pumpkin which seems to be much more difficult than carving a normal huge one. Now I have to decide what to do with all the pulp.

We had snow yesterday Only tiny sprinkles but very definitely snow.

dooney - thanks so much for sharing your culinary 'gems' with us. Will definitely consider some of your recipes for Thanksgiving at our house (that is, if my flaky relatives can decide if they're coming or not!...)

OohhhhhHHHhhhh!! It all sounds so good! As does SBs list . The view looks fab BTW. Haven't made it to Chicago yet but we're thinking of going in the spring when the snow is over. I think it looks amazing and dd wants to go to the American Girl store. I have very mixed feelings about those dolls; its not right for a girl to wander about with a doll that looks kind of like her and is wearing the same outfit - pure horror film cliche - but at the same time its nice that 8,9 and 10 yr olds are playing with dolls instead of some of the things you wory about them doing.
Hope you are all ready for Halloween. Round here the kids get told what night to go trick r treating so there is extra police coverage etc. So our night is Thursday this year. Its quite nice really 'cause the police drive round all the subdivisions throwing candy from the car and they stop and talk to the kids and let them have a go on the sirens. The fire brigade do the same. ds was totally beside himself about it all last year!

Get told what night to go??? I don't understand. I thought people went on Halloween. Wouldn't it make sense to have police coverage on only one night? Why do they need extra coverage? What am I missing in this picture????

Mum and I walked past the new American girl doll store at the weekend so decided to have a peek. It is enormous and has a whole Disneyland type fake indoor street with a doll hospital (you pay a huge amount to get your doll mended and she comes back in a wheelchair ), a design your own t-shirt store, a hair salon ($20 per doll) and of course, the cafe. It was quite lovely really until you see the prices. And I am on a big anti-sexism in children's products thing. I am irritated that everything is pink or blue or is Disneyfied. But I do like the educational side of the dolls.

What night can the kids go trick or treating then, Dodgy? We're going on Friday.

My mum is rather bemused by (with?) Dinner's accent and keeps getting him to say 'bottom' (or 'bardum' as DS says). She has been calling him gorgeous so today, in music class, he sidled up to her and said, "'Ello Gawjus" much to the amusement of the other mums

We took Caitlin to the American Girl store when we were there. It was a bit scary to me, and I couldn't get over the prices. Fortunately she wasn't one bit interested in anything there, and said she wanted to leave.

DD has been asking for an American girl doll. My theory is that her interest stems entirely from the fact that most of her good friends own at least one (one girl has 4! ).

I think they are obscenely expensive, and am not convinced that dd would play with it (or enjoy it) much at all - certainly not enough to justify the price.

If I do decide to get one for her, it will be her 'main' Christmas pressie with very little else under the tree. Can't help thinking she'd feel disappointed at the lack of 'quantity' and not quite understand it's because of one huge 'quality' present.

Remind me how old Caitlin is? DD is almost 8, and can get sucked into the marketing campaigns/adverts of the 'latest/greatest' must-have toys.

My mum offered to get DD (5) an American Girl Doll for her birthday last year. ANd I said please don't. She won't even know what it is (we live in the UK) and you will pay fortune for something she certainly won't appreciate.

I am so missing the US as I do every year around this time. Must go get my tinned pumpkin at Waitrose soon.

She's only 3, but she's not immune to being sucked into the Disney Princess juggernaut. We've never seen any movies or shows with any of the princesses in it, but she loves them. Daddy thought since she liked princesses, she'd like dolls, but they weren't princesses, so he was wrong. So far she's been invited to 3 different birthday parties, all girls, and all of them are or were Disney princess themed.

earlybird, there was an article in either parenting or wondertime, can't remember which, written by a mom journalist who had her daughter earn the money towards her American Girl doll. The mom was very surprised that the little girl kept at her extra chores long enough to earn all the money and said the doll is much loved, appreciated and played with. So something along those lines might be appropriate.

Hello Athene, how nice to have someone else join us!

DS also loves Disnbey princesses yet hasn't ever seen a movie with one in. He has, however, been given a book all about them. Fairly Tales a la Disney.

I have been very busy the last two nights and, amongst other things, have made:

Pumpkin Bars with brown butter icing
Roasted pumpkin seeds
Roast Butternut Squash & Apple soup

All of which we ate by candlelight, courtesy of our Jack O Lanterns (why are they called that?). DS & Mum did a smiley face & I did bats. All very festive in the Bunny household.

We're off to Chicagoween tomorrow.

Has anyone voted yet? Today was the last day of early voting and the lines were over 2 hours long.

I am tempted to go to the Obama rally downtown on Tuesday but I think being there with a 3 yr old would be a bad idea, wouldn't it? I'd just like DS to remember the day and to know he was involved, somehow. But perhaps sleeping in his own bed, in a warm apartment might be a bit more enjoyable?

I voted last week. You gotta love mail-only elections.

Does anyone know if apples and pears multiply like rabbits? Because I keep baking things with them, and I swear when I go get more, there's more in the boxes instead of less.

Am doing up Halloween treat sacks for Caitlin's party tomorrow and Colin's on Friday. They're taking way too long.

I'm thinking Dinner probably isn't going to care if he was there or not. Especially if the mood is down because Obama is losing.

Let's see the jack-o-lantern story was on NPR a few days ago and I caught the last part. something about a spirit named Jack getting imprisoned in a tree and he could only get out one day a year. Wandered around with a candle in a turnip as his lantern. I think the turnips were English and then it became pumpkins in the US. Something along those lines anyway

EB my dd got her American Girl doll (she got Emily the London evacuee) for her Christmas and that was her only present from santa. I have added a picture of her opening it on to my profile. That face was worth every penny. When she asked for one we showed her the prices in the catalogue and explained how much other stuff she could get but she was very clear. She plays with her doll several times a week and she reads all the books from the library so I don't mind too much. If you do succumb to the emotional blackmail of a 7 yr old, can I point you in the direction of target who sell a small range of clothes and items for 18" dolls MUCH cheaper than the genuine thing.

SB the trick or treating thing is weird here. Each town gets a different night and all the police for the area are in that town for the night. Crime round here is laughable - someones car was broken into and it was front page news for two weeks! The police cycle round the streets, talking to kids and helping change the odd flat tyre. Very Last of the Summer Wine really. On Halloween they hand out candy and give the kids rides in the cars. Its their busiest night of the year.

OOPs
Photo should be there now!

Trying to do too many things at once. Im also sewing a femur back on to ds' costume for tonight

I got a catalogue fow AG last week (came addressed to the previous occupant) and I had never come across it before. I have to admit it gives me The Fear as the dolls are a bit too life-like. I can't even think about the identical doll/kid outfits.

But dodgy, I love the photo of your little girl. Aww she looks beyond excited! What lovely kids. And the puppy's gorgeous too.