Countdown to Thanksgiving - Day 2

These are NOT croquet balls. They are the wonderful Sweet Potato Buttermilk Dinner Rolls I am serving with Thanksgiving dinner, the menu for which is in yesterday's post. I used the recipe posted by Nicole at Pinch My Salt.

So, as you can see, my countdown plans are going well. This is what I accomplished yesterday.

• I made the rolls and put them in the freezer. Thanksgiving day I will thaw them out in the morning, wrap them in foil and heat them up for dinner.





• I made the sweet, tart and savory Cranberry Horseradish Relish to serve as a condiment for the turkey. I will remove it from the freezer about two hours before serving.


• I assembled Cheesy Corn Casserole and put it in the freezer. I will bake it casserole Thanksgiving day.

Today I will make the Cranberry Fool (a version of cranberry sauce)and the sweet potato casserole with crunchy topping (to be placed on the casserole just before baking Thanksgiving day). To prepare to make the Roasted Tomato and Cheese Crostini, I will slice a baguette, oil the slices lightly, bake them until slightly crisp and seal them in a plastic bag. I will also roast several roma tomatoes and refrigerate them until Thursday. Finally, I will mix, then refrigerate the cheese base for the crostini.

So far so good.

Dude, It's Almost Thanksgiving !!

I'm ready. I think.

I have my menu...



Maybe it's not as ambitious as some menus, but it's enough to send me whimpering off into the night when the meal is finally over... just kidding.

What is actually missing from the menu is the Sweet Potato Buttermilk Dinner Rolls that I added after I printed and sent the menu to my guests.

I've broken down the menu into several parts and I will prepare quite a few dishes ahead of time. Today I will make (or attempt to make) these beautiful Sweet Potato Buttermilk dinner rolls, this creamy Cranberry Horseradish Relish, and my own recipe for Cheesy Corn Casserole which has basically the same ingredients as the traditional Broccoli Casserole, swapping out the broccoli for corn.

What are you having?

“All mushrooms are edible - once” ~ Author Unknown

It started cooling off here in Arkansas about three or four weeks ago, although we had a few unseasonably warm days.

All summer long, we ate grilled meats and fish, every kind of salad imaginable and maybe only one or two cold soups, like Gazpacho. So when the weather turns, I'm ready for warm, comfort foods.



I started our soup season with Cream of Mushroom soup. It was delicious and we had enough to have as a meal with truffled croutons the first night...

,

and as a first course drizzled with a little truffle oil the second night.



This soup was so good, in fact, that the next day Tom came home with four packages of different kinds of wild mushrooms for me to use next time I made this, which he hoped would be very soon.

Keep in mind when purchasing your mushrooms, you can use any combination of mushrooms you like. I've made this soup with several different types of mushrooms with the same delicious result.

Cream of Mushroom Soup
by Terri Powers for Terri's Table

1 package (about 6 - 8 ounces) fresh shitake mushrooms
1 package (about 8 - 10 ounces) fresh crimini mushrooms (they are called Baby Bellas here)
1 package (about 14 - 16 ounces) white button mushrooms
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 stick (1/4 pound) butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
1 medium sized sprig of fresh thyme, leaves removed and finely minced
1 bunch of green onions, sliced thin (white and green parts)
1/4 cup all purpose flour
4 cups chicken broth
1-1/2 cups white wine
1 cup half and half
1 cup heavy cream

Clean the mushrooms, remove the woody stems from the shitake mushrooms and thinly slice the mushroom caps.

In a large pot, heat the olive oil. Add the onion, carrot, celery and fresh thyme and cook over medium high heat until the onion is almost transparent. Add the mushrooms and green onion and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the mushrooms have softened. Remove everything from the pot to a bowl and set aside.

To the empty pot, add the butter and allow to melt completely, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen any vegetable bits. Add the flour to the butter and cook over medium heat until your roux is lightly browned, about 2 to 4 minutes. Do not allow to burn. Using a whisk, stir the chicken broth into the roux in a steady stream until all the broth has been added and the mixture is smooth and does not have any lumps. Stir in the wine.

Add the mushroom mixture back into the pot, mix well to incorporate into the broth. Bring the broth back to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook uncovered for about 45 minutes, allowing the broth to thicken a little and reduce slightly.

A few minutes before serving, add the half-and-half and cream, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Heat the soup through, but do not allow to boil. Serve with croutons.

Truffled Croutons
by Terri Powers for Terri's Table

1 loaf of french bread
olive oil
2 to 3 teaspoons black truffle infused oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the loaf of french bread into crouton-sized pieces and put into large bowl. Start adding olive oil a tablespoon at a time, continually tossing the bread, until all the cubes of bread are pretty evenly coated. Continue to toss the croutons while you sprinkle the infused truffle oil over them a teaspoon at a time.

Spread the croutons in a single layer on a large cookie sheet or baking pan. Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes, until crunchy but not hard. Sprinkle on soup to serve.

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds - November! ~Thomas Hood

I know. It's been a while since I last posted. I honestly don't know why. I have been cooking...every single day... unless I just get sick of it and ask Tom to cook, like I did last Thursday when I asked him to please cook Saturday and Sunday. He obliged.

The weather in Arkansas has turned much cooler and has been damp for a couple of days. I don't usually do a weekly menu. My moods are much too unpredictable to put anything in writing and actually stick to it. But I made a menu last week, which I have, for the most part, followed until this morning. I went to bed planning to have Cashew Chicken for dinner, but when I woke up this morning to another gloomy, damp day, all I could think about was soup. So I have a huge pot of Minestrone soup on the stove and I am much more satisfied already.

So, what have I been cooking? Well, for a week I wasn't cooking anything because I was driving to and from Las Vegas in 5 days. But since I've been back, I've been furiously feeding my body and my soul with food. AND making lots of desserts and giving half of them away to the neighbors.

Last Friday, this cake was kind of an after-thought. Early last week I used a new recipe for gingerbread cookies. They weren't my cup of tea. I liked the soft, cake-like texture, but they lacked that nice gingerbread flavor. I gave most of them away. But I still had a sweet tooth, which is a rarity for me. Then I saw this recipe on Friday Friends. Dense, rich, simple, easy, non-pretentious. My kinda cake. The only change I made was that I did not use the cream cheese based frosting. The cake recipe is Debbie's of Friday Friends. The frosting recipe is mine. The recipe for Debbie's frosting is at the link above.

Chocolate Cake
adapted from Friday Friends

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/s teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
2/3 cup cooking oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons instant coffee crystals (which I did not have, so I used instant espresso)
1 cup cold water

Grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until combined, then on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Dissolve the coffee crystals in the cold water and add to batter. Beat on low speed until smooth (batter with be thin).

Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

Frost when completely cool.

Peanut Butter Frosting
by Terri Powers for Terri's Table

5 tablespoons butter, softened
1-1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup smooth peanut butter
2 to 5 tablespoons milk

In a medium bowl using a mixer, combine butter, sugar and vanilla and beat well. Add the peanut butter and 2 tablespoons of milk slowly, beating until it is very cream. Add up to 3 more tablespoons of milk to achieve the desired consistency. Frost the cooled cake.

Debbie suggests sprinkling the cake with about 3 tablespoons of miniature semisweet chocolate chips, but I used the regular because that's what I had. I couldn't think of a better way to massage my sweet tooth!