Claudine, Oui c'est Francais

special deal on Martha crafts

 

Two whole weeks of savings on Martha Stewart crafts at your local Michaels... the Christmas items are pretty picked over but there is always glitter, punches and ribbon. You can never have enough!

Thanksgiving-the after story

The kitchen is clean the food is wrapped up and my feet are up.... sit back and enjoy the day in pictures....

 

Gougeres, fresh from the oven. It was the first thing I made in the morning today. I almost forgot once people got here and popped them back in the oven for a warm up. They are little French cheese puffs made from Pate Choux dough and with Gruyere cheese... little bites of heaven!

 

Once grandma arrived with the gold silverware the table was complete. Gold was the theme this year. Better start to think about next year now

 

now for some of the pre meal feasting... lovely French cheeses, pears, dried apricots, grapes and a wonderful Chocolate fig slice that is perfect with some brie on a French mini toast.

 

Gorgonzola dip with veggies and Onion Confit that I made from Bon Apetit y'all but wasn't to excited with it so I doctored it up with a little balsamic vinegar and cayenne pepper and in the fridge for two days for the flavors to meld together. It was a hit

 

turkey, Cranberry Cornbread Stuffing, party potatoes, hericot vert with garlic and Parmesan, blue cheese potato gratin and cranberries from the can. It is pretty much the only thing I like out of a can and a must for the holiday.

 

Chocolate pecan pie with homemade cream cheese ice cream. We also had pumpkin pie as well but at this point we were so full only one pie would do

 

One last picture for the table for 2008. The family loved it and the gold turkeys were a big hit. Grandma thought they looked better gold then in the original form and has more if I need silver ones for next year.

Hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving, I am so thankful for all of my friends out there in the blogging world

Thanksgiving prep-part 2

 

Cream Cheese Ice cream, done and the mini-taste tester has approved.

 

pumpkins are almost done, just need to make the tags. I copied the idea from Martha of course

 

 

Cranberry-Cornbread stuffing, it is a huge help getting all of this done the night before. Just needs a little warm up and some browning after the turkey is done tomorrow.

off to check the list on what else needs to be done...

see you all in the morning!

Thanksgiving prep-live blogging

well it is sort of live, I thought I would post pictures as I get things ready today, so scroll up or down to see more....

 

part of the table, I finally made the glittered pedestals that Martha and the Glitter Lady made last year for Halloween. They are wooden candle sticks and chinet paper plates tripled and glued together. I made 10 different ones in autumnal glitter colors. I love how they turned out

 

White and cream spray roses, orange tulips and gerbers. I painted one of the gerbers gold (I don't want to hear about it) and then added some fake glittered leaves I picked up at Michaels last year. All put into a urn I painted gold

 

The Turkey plates that are used for every Thanksgiving. Grandma handed them down to me when I took over Thanksgiving. That is where I got my dish-ware fetish.... The are pretty old but almost match the Martha turkey platter from Macy's this year...

back later with more projects

golden turkey

 

*updated with Martha's gold turkeys*

 When I saw these turkeys last year in the November 2007 Martha Stewart Living I started searching everywhere to find some of these big beauties. Well a year later and still no luck. I look at ever store I go into and my searches have come up with nothing.

But after a look around my basement, where there is a little bit of everything I remembered that I had some ceramic turkeys my grandmother gave me. They were not the greatest colors and I most likely wouldn't even use them in the form that they are in. But armed with a can of gold floral spray paint, I keep a few cans available in case of emergency and presto chango here they are.....

Before, along with more items that are going to get a flashy coat of paint:

 

And the finished project

 

I have four of them now and they are ready for the table this year in all their golden glory

  and here is Martha's version she posted on her blog today.......

off to spray paint some more flowers..

45 years ago today

November 22, 1963

45 years ago today a day that I think changed this country happened. On a Friday morning in Dallas Texas, John F Kennedy was killed. It is a day that people remember exactly where they were when the heard the news. Since I wasn't born then and wouldn't be for 8 more years, I can't count myself as one that had that moment.

But I do remember sitting in my 8th grade history class and watching the mini-series Kennedy staring Martin Sheen as JFK and Blair Brown. I remember being so sad at the assassination portion of the movie. But before that the movie focused on the life of Kennedy, and his family and even what was going on in the country in the 60's. I remember vividly watching the scenes of the African American men and women being beaten by horrible white men because they wanted to ride on a bus. It sickened me to see this and I remember it to this day.

I remember watching this movie and I think that it really shaped the way I think and believe. I am a one of those bleeding heart liberals that believes that we need to help our fellow man, that social injustice is wrong and when things like Hurricane Katrina happen and our government reacts the way that they did it is  horrific.  What JFK and his brother Robert Kennedy and also during that time Martin Luther King stood for and what they tried to change in this country should be remembered and should be something we still strive for 45 years later.

I  believe that if JFK had not been shot, this country would be a very different place today.

So I now have that miniseries on DVD and I watch it every year, but this year the mini-series is also on PBS Sunday night, check your local listings

If you remember where you were that day, let me know......

Thanksgiving menu

  With just a little more then a week away to Thanksgiving I figured I should share my menu with you all. Since I hadn't done much to start planning for it yet I thought if I posted it, I would then take the first step. Last year I created a "Thanksgiving cookbook" using a notebook and some plastic sheet protectors. I can keep all the recipes in one place, some were printed from Martha Stewart.com, of course and then the ones from cookbooks were scanned and then reprinted. It keeps the cookbooks clean and everything in one place. I also use a small spiral edged notebook that has all of the day by day details and shopping lists of the last three years. It is fun to look back and see what I did. The menu doesn't change much year to year so it gets a little faster every year....

So here we have it:

Hors d'oeuvres:

the Famous Clam Dip

Gougeres (there had to be something French there)

Gorgonzola dip with Crudite

Main attraction:

Cranberry Glazed Turkey

Cranberry Cornbread Stuffing

Pan Roasted Balsamic Onions

Haricot Verts with Garlic and Parmesan

Blue Cheese Potato Gratin

Party Potatoes

Pancetta Brussels Sprouts

Finale

Pumpkin Pie

Chocolate Pecan Pie

Creme Fraiche Ice Cream

Turkey Cake

 

 So now to glitter all the pumpkins, finish making the table cloth, call grandma to borrow the gold silverware, keep looking for giant turkeys to gold leaf, and then eveything will come together.....

Martha's cooking school-fresh pasta

I have wanted to make pasta for a long time and never have. A few years ago John gave me the roller attachment for my KitchenAid mixer and I still haven't used it, that is until today. In Martha's new cookbook, Martha Stewart's Cooking School, there is a section on pasta and how to make it from scratch with lots of great step by step pictures.

My Wilton fondant mat came in handy to make the well for the eggs before mixing in the flour

 

I didn't get a lot of pictures since I needed both hands most of the time, but once you mix the egg and flour together you knead the dough for 10 minutes and then wrap tightly in plastic wrap and then it sits for 1 1/2 hours. Then it is time to cut it into 6 pieces and then start feeding it into the machine, that was the fun part.

 

The dough was so soft and lovely to work with and the KitchenAid attachment made it a breeze. I made Pappardelle which is a wider pasta, about half the size of a lasagna noodle.

In the cookbook there is also a recipe for Bolognese Sauce, that takes about four hours to make so this is not a weeknight meal. Once the noodles were cooked, which took about 1 minute, they were so light and delicious and then topped with the Bolognese sauce... it's a good thing!

Golden roses

The newest issue of Martha Stewart Living is arriving in the mailboxes now and I was very excited to look through the issue last night. In this issue Martha has a feature on her Christmas Caroling party that Martha had at her house. The theme had lots of gold touches. Well on page 167 in a small picture on the left corner of the page was a bouquet of roses that were gold, when I read the description I was very excited to see that they were real roses. The description reads: "Martha's friend Michael George, a talented florist, brought a bouquet of fresh roses he had sprayed gold"  I loved it and just happen to have a dozen white roses and gold spray paint in the house.... here you are..... before.

 

and after

 

Now I want to spray the bushes outside.....  love this idea!

Michael George has been with Martha for a long time and also has an amazing book out as well.

Favorite Salmon dish

After seeing Eric Ripert on Martha the other day I was craving some Salmon, I decided to go with my old standby favorite Salmon recipe. I found this recipe years ago in I think Cooking Light, but now it is inscribed in my memory. Although there is not a lot to remember...

 

You need to make it when you have some time, you can take a shortcut with the risotto but the tomatoes take some time, and they are well worth it.

I start by roasting the tomatoes in a oven at 350 degrees for at least 1 hour. But first you cut the tomatoes in half and core them and scoop out the seeds. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and minced garlic, drizzle a little olive oil and into the oven.

For the risotto I usually make a risotto or if in a hurry you can make a lovely wild rice mix. Martha has some great recipes on-line, I really like the Parmesan Risotto, but again, anything will work with this.

For the Salmon, cut the salmon up into individual portions and pat dry with a paper towel. Then salt and pepper and place into a hot pan with some canola oil, it only needs a few minutes per side and then you are set. It will create a great crust on the outside and delicate and wonderful inside.

Plate up like in my picture above, it is a easy one, any always gets rave reviews!

Bon Apetit!