Edible Christmas Gifts

That I received:

Edible bouquet.

Chocolate covered strawberries.

Candy made by my baker friend.

Four varieties of cheesecake created in the kitchen of my friend the baker.

Rotisserie

The backyard BBQ has a rotisserie feature.

The chicken ready to be sent to the table.

It's working.

She's on.

In marinate.

It's fun learning new cooking skills.

Pretty Pumpkin Muffins

It's fun sharing recipes with friends. Or better yet, get connected through cooking with others even if through blogging. My friend makes this yummy cake and I wanted to give it a try. I made muffins using my pretty muffin tray.

Ready for the oven.

Out of the oven.

How about that!

What to do with green tomatos

The final product. Green tomato soup.

Ready to eat.

Must pure first.

Added the tomatoes, green and red, as well as vegetable stock made at Thanksgiving.

Saute the onions and turkey bacon. Ham works too.

The star ingredient. Beautiful!

Great Food

All together now... Oh the flavors!!

The plate. The apple stuffing was divine. I decided to spread my wings and try a new recipe.

All done... 180 degrees hot.

The brine.

Before Thanksgiving...

I prepare the vegetable stock.

Celery, onion, garlic, 1 lonely mushroom, and carrots. Add salt and pepper and it simmer for 1-2 hours. The house smells divine.

From the Farmer's Market

I made my way to the farmer's market with Snowden on Thursday. It reminds me of when Momma did her weekly shopping at the nearby shops. The bulk of our shopping was done once a month in downtown Beira, but we always made it to the Peixaria, Padaria, and Talho. I loved these adventures.

We purchased some locally grown vegetables and this wonderful pumpkin bread.

The pumkin called Carrot

Grasshopper likes to personalize everything. This pumkin was named Carrot and was displayed around the house for most of October.

But, in the spirit of not wasting eadibles, I asked if I could cook Carrot.

As you can see, the answer was yes, and carrot is now ready for roasting. I did eat most of it at various meals.

White chili with pork

With a coke!

Pool side.

Served with rice. Can eat in pool.

Halloween celebration

At school.

Cheery cupcakes.

Eyeballs.

Fruit Skewers

The final product. Covered in chocolate pudding. Blogger is adding pictures in reverse.

Some leftover on plate.

Skewered.

She picked out the recipe.

Fruit is carefully cut by Snowden.

Asparagus

One more cooking lesson for the youngens. TJ wanted to serve asparagus to our guests and off we went in search of some, placed the in water for plumpness and then cooked them.

The cold bath to stop the cooking method.

In the butter with garlic sauce.

It was simply divine, and check out the nutritional value.

Eggs

Grasshopper seems to have a fascination for pealing. She tried pealing the shell off hard boiled eggs.

Gently.

Almost done. I love teaching them tricks I have learned myself.

She will add this to a potato salad. One more skill under her belt.

Fall Food

Love is warm baked sweet potatoes or yams (I haven't yet registered the difference). Add some regular potatoes for the youngens, and some Brussels sprouts and the smell permeates the house, prompting Snowden to announce that it smells like Thanksgiving.

TJ does the BBQuing. The boneless chicken thighs were marinated overnight in garlic vinegar.

But the trick to a fantastic taste, is to use these in the grill. We have determined that this is a MUST thing to do. The taste is simply incredible. Who knew wood chips were so good.

Grasshopper's Birthday

Snowden and Grasshopper helped make the cupcakes for the party.

We have developed a groove.

Snowden took charge of the frosting.

I applied it.

Happy birthday Grasshopper!

Potatoes

Little hands peel the potatoes and while at it, express a bit of creativity.

The potato people.

The beginnings of potato salad.

Rice Cooker

Having been raised by a Portuguese mother, we ate rice often. Unlike my sisters, I never mastered the art of rice cooking. Until the RICE COOKER from Pampered Chef.

This is the finished rice. You follow the same rule of twice as much water as rice. Add spices you like. I have made my liquid soup that is like a broth.

This is the inner cover.

The outer cover is snapped on.

It can be picked up.

And it cooks in the microwave. I cook 3 cups of rice in 20 minutes. Go to the top picture to see the finished product. I now make perfectly yummy rice.

Dim Sum

We celebrated with friends at China King. Dim Sum was interesting.