Thanksgiving recipe | Mommie Cooks!

Gingerbread Cheesecake

December 22, 2010 By Julie 25 Comments

It feels like the calm before the storm here. I’m sitting still for one last evening, enjoying the quiet before the entire family arrives to take over my house for the next five days. It promises to be busy, crazy fun. I have tons of delicious recipes planned for while they’re here and the boys and I ventured out today to pick up all the corresponding groceries.

Our first stop was the butcher shop to pick up a leg of lamb for Christmas dinner and our next stop was to Trader Joe’s for everything else. You don’t want to know the final bill.
I told Alex, my four year old, that we spent the arm over at Trader Joe’s and the leg at the meat shop. It’ll be worth it though. Leg of lamb is one of my all time favorites and it’s the Christmas dish my grandmother used to make for us, so it comes with happy memories. We’ll be serving up potato pancakes, asparagus, and rolls on the side. I can almost taste it.

And then there’s dessert. One treat that my family absolutely loves is cheesecake. And this cheesecake has been “gingerbreaded” up to create a perfect finish to your Christmas time meal. I guarantee it will be gone in a flash. I made it for Thanksgiving and was lucky enough to bring a single piece home with me.
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Turkey Goulash

November 29, 2010 By Julie 28 Comments

I don’t know about you, but for me the best part about the days following Thanksgiving are all the yummy leftovers. I was lucky enough to not have to cook the meal this year (my SIL took on the job and put together an amazing spread!) but I did still manage to snag a bag of leftover turkey and we’ve since been having our fill of some amazing sandwiches.

The time will most likely come, however, when you’ve had enough of turkey sandwiches. If you’ve reached that point along with me, then it’s time to check out a yummy one dish meal that I’ve cooked up for just such an occasion.

This dish makes quick work of any leftover bird you have lying around and tastes delicious to boot! If you make it during other parts of the year when you don’t have leftover turkey available, simply substitute ground turkey in it’s place. I actually used ground turkey in the pictures as this recipe was made before the big bird eating day. Either works well and makes a hearty one dish meal.

Before moving on to the recipe, I just want to give a shout out to my good blogging friend Rebecca over at Chow and Chatter. She has put together an amazing foodie app for your iphone with hundreds of delicious and healthy recipes. Guys, she’s one of us and we need to support her! I’ve put a link to her app over on my side bar and will have it up there for the next week or two. If you get a chance, click on over and take a look at all the hard work she’s done. The app is amazing and at an affordable price of only 99 cents, if you have an iphone you can’t afford not to support her!
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Kick Butt Apple Pie and a Lesson in Latticing

November 22, 2010 By Julie 40 Comments

Saturday I had the privilege of meeting up with two fellow foodies who’s blogs I love and admire. I headed up to Childress Vineyards in Lexington NC for an afternoon of wine, food, and conversation with Prerna from Indian Simmer and Rebbeca from Chow and Chatter. The wine was amazing and the conversation even better. There is just something so gratifying (and cool!) about meeting up with the people of the blogs you follow. Putting a face to a name always makes it more personal and reminds me of one of the main reasons I started blogging in the first place. Community. There are so many incredibly talented and amazing bloggers out there. Meeting other bloggers through conferences and outside meet-ups has quickly become one of my favorite aspects of blogging. Thanks for a great afternoon ladies!

But, of course, the reason we’re all here milling around is for the recipe of the day. And I definitely have a good one. Because in case you need reminding, Thanksgiving is coming. And with Thanksgiving comes eating. Lots and lots of eating. And when you’re done eating your delicious feast, you’re going to need a pie. A kick butt good pie. This is that pie. I’ve even gone so far as to put myself out there for my first ever vlog on how to easily lattice a pie. I can almost hear my mom now… “put on some make up and brush your hair! Look pretty for goodness sake!” Ok mom, I didn’t get all dolled up for my opening show, but I still did a pretty decent job of showing how to lattice a pie.

And in a first ever Mommie Cooks blunder, I completely and totally forgot to take a picture of the ingredients for the inside of the pie. I’m not sure what happened. Probably a combination of sleep deprivation, lack of caffeine and three kids talking to me simultaneously as I attempt to do pretty much anything. I did manage to snap a picture of the dough ingredients, so I at least got half there. Let’s bake a pie.
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Sweet Potato Yum

November 15, 2010 By Julie 29 Comments

Quick question; how many times a week do you eat dinner around the table as a family?

Studies have shown that eating together does so much more than just supply us with food. It gets us off of our computers and away from our tv’s, it causes us to eat healthier foods because we know what we’re putting into our bodies, and most importantly it helps us to reconnect, listen, and talk with one another as a family unit; a concept that seems to be falling by the wayside in today’s society with our busy, over-scheduled lifestyles.

Did you know…

On average kids spend almost 7.5 hours a day using some form of electronic media
1 in 5 meals are eaten in a car
1 in 3 American children are overweight or obese
67% of Teens in America want more quality time with their parents

Statistics sourced from The Family Dinner.

I don’t know about you, but for me, those are some sobering statistics. The only way we’re going to change them is by taking back the responsibility for our food and our families. This is one of those topics that I feel really passionate about. Our family has already begun to make changes that have benefited us as a family. We make it a point to always have dinner together at the same time every night, we limit ourselves to eating fast food no more than a few times a year, and we make a concerted effort to talk to each other at dinner and learn more about the people around our table. The rewards are so worth the effort, I promise you!

If this topic sounds as interesting to you as it does to me, then hop on over to The Motherhood today at 1pm Eastern where myself and a handful of other talented food bloggers will be co-hosting a talk with Laurie David, author of The Family Dinner.

Laurie has put together an amazing book detailing;

Why family dinner is so important
Suggestions for getting everyone back to the table and keeping them engaged for more than the time it takes to throw down a meal
Delicious recipes to share once you’re there

I can truly say that I was riveted from the minute I opened it and I’m sure you will be too. I hope you’ll join us!

On to sweet potato yum. So named because my kids took one bite of this and the first words out of their mouth were “Yum!” Even Nicholas, my oldest, who doesn’t care for sweet potatoes gave this a thumbs up. Now that’s saying something. Here’s what you need to grab to make up a quick batch of this sweet potato goodness.

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Cranegranate Sauce

November 10, 2010 By Julie 38 Comments

In case you haven’t noticed, Mommie Cooks has gone through a bit of a shake up! There is still work to be done in the upcoming months with regards to the overall look and feel, but for now I’m happy with where I’ve landed. The biggest change that was made, which should really help to simplify things for all involved, is to make it much MUCH easier to track down recipes. You now have both a comprehensive menu bar for searching as well as the search box on the top corner. I’ve also added a visual recipe index on the side bar for those that are more in the mood to just stroll around and participate in a little food porn (I hope you gave your kids earmuffs for that last bit). Don’t hesitate to let me know what you love and don’t love about the site as feedback is always appreciated. Thank you so much to all of you who have posted such nice comments about the changes; it means a lot to me!

Now on to the good stuff. Thanksgiving. It’s coming quickly and if you’re hosting the big event this year you’re probably starting to work on your menu for the feast de resistance. When putting together your menu, do you stick with the traditional Thanksgiving fare or do you venture out a bit and try something different? If you answered the latter, then this recipe is for you. Because after all, why stick with plain ol’ cranberry sauce when you can have a lip smackin’ delicious cranegranate sauce?

And just what is cranegranate sauce you may be asking? Well, let me be so kind as to share. It’s a combination of pomegranate and cranberry, cooked together in blissful contentment with a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg to make the whole thing sing. If that doesn’t stir up your palate for a change, I don’t know what will.
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Pumpkin Pie Creme Brulee

November 8, 2010 By Julie 38 Comments

May I have a drum roll please…..

The time has finally arrived for the dramatic Kitchen Play reveal! Those that participated were asked by Casey over at Tastestopping and Christine from Nestlé Kitchens, to put together a recipe that would deconstruct the classic pumpkin pie and turn it on it’s head. We were required to use Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin and as an added option we could also include Nestlé Carnation Evaporated milk.
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