What's for Thanksgiving Dinner?

Unbelievable but here it is. Thanksgiving is only 3 weeks away. I've been cruising through Williams-Sonoma's dessert recipes and ran across these two that looked enticing. Please feel free to share some of your favorite recipes.

A yearly favorite here to bake small yams, then split open when done and top with sour cream and brown sugar. Yum.


This pie, which is prepared in a rectangular baking dish, serves more people than a standard round pie, so it’s great when you’re serving a crowd. To create decorative cutouts, prepare a second batch of dough using half the amount of ingredients specified here. Roll out the dough and make cutouts according to the package instructions for the piecrust cutters.

Ingredients:
For the dough:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbs. granulated sugar
1 tsp. salt
16 Tbs. (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice
6 to 8 Tbs. (90 to 125ml) ice water
For the filling:
3 lb. Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices 1/4 inch thick
3 lb. Pink Lady apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices 1/4 inch thick
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup cornstarch
3 Tbs. bourbon
2 Tbs. vanilla extract

For the streusel:

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 Tbs. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cup roughly chopped pecans
7 Tbs. cold unsalted butter, diced

Directions:
To make the dough, in a food processor, pulse together the flour, granulated sugar and salt until combined, about 5 pulses. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 pulses. Add 6 Tbs. of the ice water and pulse 2 or 3 times. The dough should hold together when squeezed with your fingers but should not be sticky. If it is crumbly, add more water 1 tsp. at a time, pulsing twice after each addition. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and shape into a disk. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough into a 20-by-14-inch rectangle about 1/8 inch thick. Fold the dough in half and transfer to a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. Unfold the dough and press into the bottom and sides of the dish. Trim the edges, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang, and fold in the excess dough so it extends just beyond the rim of the dish. Refrigerate the pie shell for 30 minutes.

Position a rack in the lower third of an oven and preheat to 375°F.

Meanwhile, make the filling: In a large bowl, stir together the apples, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, cornstarch, bourbon and vanilla until well combined.

To make the streusel, in a bowl, stir together the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and pecans. Add the butter and work it in with your fingers, pinching to form pea-size pieces.

Pour the apple mixture into the pie shell and sprinkle the streusel on top. Decorate the pie as desired with decorative cutouts. Bake until the streusel is golden brown and the apples are tender, about 1 hour and 45 minutes; if the top of the pie has browned after 1 hour, tent it loosely with aluminum foil. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 2 hours before serving. Serves 12 to 14.


MacGregor Mann, sous chef at Amada restaurant in Philadelphia, created these apple dumplings, which make an inspired dessert for autumn gatherings and holiday meals.

Ingredients:
For the dough:

2 tsp. fine sea salt
2/3 cup ice-cold water
5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
4 sticks unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes

For the apples:

4 honeycrisp apples, each 6 to 8 oz. (or use granny smith)
1/4 cup plus 1 Tbs. firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. kosher salt
12 Tbs. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tsp. water

Chopped walnutes (optional
Warmed cream for serving (optional)
Caramel sauce for serving (optional)

Directions:
To make the dough, in a small bowl, dissolve the salt in the water. In a food processor, pulse together the flour and baking powder until combined. Add the chilled butter pieces and process until the butter resembles the size of small peas. Gradually drizzle in the ice water mixture, pulsing to combine. Remove the dough from the food processor. Divide the dough into 2 balls and flatten each into a disk. Wrap separately with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.

Preheat an oven to 350°F.

To prepare the apples, peel and core each apple, then cut each apple in half crosswise. In a bowl, stir together the brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Rub each apple evenly with the sugar mixture. Combine the remaining sugar mix with the butter and set aside.

Remove 1 dough disk from the refrigerator and let stand for 5 minutes. Divide the disk into 4 equal pieces. Working in batches, on a floured surface, roll out a piece of dough 1/8 inch thick and about 8 inches square. Place an apple half, cut side down, in the center of the dough square and fill the core with some of the reserved butter-sugar mixture. Pull the dough around the apple to create a beggar’s purse and gently tie the corners together with butcher’s twine. Repeat the process with the remaining dough and apple halves.

Transfer the wrapped apples to a parchment-lined baking sheet and brush the dough with the egg mixture. Bake until the dough is golden brown and cooked through, about 25 minutes. Remove the apple dumplings from the oven and let cool slightly. Serve with warmed cream and caramel sauce. Serves 8.

Recipe by Chef MacGregor Mann, Amada, Philadephia.
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/pennsylvania-dutch-apple-dumplings.html?cm_src=RECIPESEARCH

May everyone enjoy quality time with their loved ones. Celebrate in the joy of giving and receiving freely, in laughter and love. May this year's Thanksgiving be filled with Gratitude, Abundance and Love.

My in-laws are having baked ham, creamed potatoes, sweet potato casserole (w-marshmallows), dressing (maybe sausage dressing), green beans, creamed corn, banana pudding, and I'm sure one other kind of dessert...and all the sweet tea you can stand!

That's for lunch!

Then for dinner there's:

Mom is having a smoked turkey, courtesy (purchased from) our local food bank, with green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey gravy, and probably cooked carrots, roasted brussel sprouts, collard greens, yeast rolls, and likely pecan, pumpkin, and apple pies (served hot with ice cream)

We are truly blessed.

Please let our thoughts and our bountiful tables go to those who need it most.

Hmm sounds good. We're traditional with roast Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes with gravy, green peas, rolls, cranberries, fresh picked pineapple from the yard, baked small yams split down the middle with sour cream and brown sugar sprinkled on top, pumpkin pie with whipped cream or vanilla bean ice cream and those Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Dumplings. No lunch. We eat dinner around 2 p.m. on Thanksgiving when it's just us. All the family are thousands of miles away. Maybe some year we'll all be together again for a holiday Thanksgiving feast. Yes, I think many of us are truly blessed to even have a roof over our heads and food on the table. I'm truly grateful to all of our friends and family - including our ohana at Mists.

Disclosure of Owlsden´s Secret

http://charginglife.com/2012/08/20/how-to-get-started-with-raw-food-when-you-havent-got-a-clue/


How To Get Started With Raw Food When You Haven’t Got A Clue!

Home → Blog → How To Get Started With Raw Food When You Haven’t Got A Clue!
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How To Get Started With Raw Food When You Haven’t Got A Clue!
Author: Karen Knowler

If you’re new to raw foods you may have noticed that even though there are now hundreds, if not thousands of raw food web sites on the internet, what seems to be lacking is real basic nuts-and-bolts info about how to get going from a standing start. Only too often do books and web sites jump in at step 2 or 3 (food or equipment) before setting the context in which raw food needs to be placed, or explaining how to get going when everything about raw food is new. And what newbies want to know of course is: ‘How can I do this?’, and when they ask me, apart from recommending my own book, I genuinely struggle to find a written resource to point them to that will take them from the very first basics up (which is why my new book is going to be a life changer).

Now, even if you feel that you’re personally beyond what you’ll learn about here, this information may well be perfect to pass on to a friend or family member who is struggling to comprehend just what you’ve been getting so excited about, or who may want to hear it from someone other than you! (Don’t worry, mine are like that too!). Either way, the information that follows is well worth a read as you may just get a little boost of much-needed inspiration.

1. Understand what all the fuss is about. The concept of eating raw food isn’t new by any means, but it has gained much greater popularity during recent times owing to its unquestionable benefits on health, energy and overall vitality, as well as its ability to basically make us look and feel a whole lot better than we’ve ever done before. As old as time itself, raw food was, of course, what we ate before fire was discovered (we must have done OK on it to get that far and more recently, thanks to the efforts of pioneering authors such as health researcher Leslie Kenton and others outside of the UK who bravely waved the flag for raw food in the 1980′s and beyond, we now find ourselves in an era where raw food is no longer seen as the domain of extreme health “fanatics” but instead merrily making its way into the mainstream media, celebrity diets, healing centers and retreats, increasing numbers of health and nutrition books, products and seminars, as well as featuring more significantly in supermarkets, health food stores and much more besides. And not a moment before time – because when you look at it up close and personal, it really does make a whole lot of sense…

2. So why raw? While I’m the first to admit that the word “raw” is hardly inspiring, if you can get beyond that and see that raw equals pure, fresh, vibrant, enzyme-rich, oxygen-rich, unadulterated, whole organic living nutrition then we’ll all be on the same page! But before we get to the whys exactly, and to prevent ourselves from falling into the common trap of seeing raw food as somehow “less than” cooked, let’s take a moment to look at what cooked food is, exactly.

Cooked food: Natural food which has been processed and/or heated to high temperatures where chemical changes have occurred and the food has changed from its original state to something which, depending on the severity of its treatment, can end up looking like a very pale shadow of its former self (think of spinach cooked and raw!). While cooked foods may most certainly tantalize the taste buds, this is largely because of their stimulant effects on the body which – in actual fact – doesn’t actually “understand” a lot of what it’s taken in as many of the chemicals within cooked foods are unnatural and therefore the body sees them as foreign bodies! Indeed, fascinating research in the 1930′s showed that when someone eats cooked food without having eaten some raw food first, the body sends the white blood cells (which fight toxins) to the digestive system in order to deal with the perceived “invader”. Interesting, don’t you think? And while yes, we can glean nutrition from this fractured, denatured “food”, every time we cook our food or buy something pre-prepared and cooked in a can, box or bag we lose up to 70% of the vitamins, some of the minerals, all of the enzymes, all of the oxygen, the important plant feel-good hormones and a high percentage of the water – all of which we need to reward us with truly vibrant health. So that’s cooked food! Doesn’t seem quite as attractive when we look at it that way does it?! Raw food by contrast is replete with everything that enabled it to sprout and grow in the first place – life force, enzymes, water, oxygen, hormones, vitamins and minerals and so much more besides. Untouched, untainted, raw food is quite literally honest food – what you see is what you get. No hidden ingredients, nothing messed around with, just pure delicious fresh live food that we are designed to eat – living food for living bodies. And the good news for you is this: when you start dabbling with more raw food, you don’t just understand this conceptually, you actually start to “get it” experientially as your whole body cheers, shifts up a gear and the concept of what real food and nutrition really is about takes on a whole new meaning.

3. What foods are raw? To give you a brief overview of what raw food means in real terms, here’s a list of the 20+ different raw food groups: Fresh fruits; Vegetables; Salad vegetables; Leafy green vegetables; Herbs and wild greens; Nuts; Dried fruits; Beans, pulses and legumes (sprouted); Grains (sprouted); Seeds; Sprouting seeds; Indoor greens; Vegetable seeds (sprouted); Edible flowers; Mushrooms; Sea vegetables; Algaes; Oils; Stimulants (e.g. chili, ginger, onion); Spices; Super foods; Flavorings and natural sweeteners (e.g. honey, stevia, carob). Rather more variety than perhaps you first thought? Rather than being limiting, I have found that 99 times out of 100 raw food expands a person’s culinary horizons – and if you pick up a good raw food recipe book such as Raw Food, Real World (one of my personal favorites), I promise you’ll be blown away at what can be achieved – “burgers”, pizzas, live milks, ice-cream, cakes, cookies, smoothies, soups, dips, dressings, lasagnas, wraps, crackers and so much more are possible when you know what you’re doing – now we’re talking, right?!

4. How to get started. A new but extremely common myth that I’m very keen to bust is that eating raw takes lots of time and energy to prepare. Wrong! I am quite possibly the busiest person I know, and one of the many reasons I choose to eat raw is because when done correctly it’s actually the fastest food on the planet. Getting started and keeping it doable is easy when you adopt the pure and simple approach: whole raw foods, prepared quickly, eaten simply and you must only eat the foods you love! This must always be fun, easy and delicious – that’s rule number one! Rather surprisingly to those new to raw food, the discovery process of what raw food is really all about is a never ending journey – the kind of journey that everyone I’ve ever met wished they had embarked upon sooner. So don’t wait to get ill, overweight or lethargic before you start tending to your body’s dietary needs (like I did) – start your journey to exciting and rewarding pastures new today! These first steps I’m about to outline are very straightforward but will make a massive difference – and even better, anyone can do this!

First, try your best to eat fresh fruit or a dairy-free smoothie for breakfast every day instead of your usual toast, cereal or coffee. Eat or drink as much as you want (of the raw stuff) but keep it clean. What you eat first sets you up for the day – so make sure you step out on high-energy, revitalizing foods rather than charred bread, lifeless sugar-coated grains or caffeine-laden hot drinks! For lunch and dinner, this is so easy. If you can make at least half of your plate consist of fresh living foods (salads, nuts, seeds, sprouted seeds, beans or any of the foods mentioned above in point 3 – but not all of them!!) then you’ll be doing fantastically well and will typically start to feel the difference within a matter of days (look forward to more energy, better sleep, clearer thinking and clearer skin). Improve your results even further by drinking as much pure water as possible, eat only when hungry and not beyond full, and keep the remainder of your food as whole and pure as possible (no e-numbers or hydrogenated fats and so forth) and you will feel the benefits all the more. Also, of the raw foods you do choose, make sure that most of them are fruits and vegetables as these are the most nutritious and the highest in water content. Handfuls of nuts just don’t work the same – they’re very dense and fatty, but in small amounts are very good for you. If you can put most or all of the above into practice then you’ll be amazed at the difference!

5. What you need and where to get it. Raw recipe books tend to focus on the more complicated dishes and therefore often fancy foods and equipment are utilized as part of the recipe creation – but don’t be put off, raw food prep doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive! While it’s by no means imperative that you own every kitchen gadget going, it really does help to own at the very least a tabletop blender, a cheap juicer and a basic food processor – all of which you could buy for under ?100 or even cheaper if you visit eBay; but if budget is an issue then a good sharp knife will take you a long way for free! However with the three items listed new and exciting vistas will open up to you, and if and when the time feels right to invest in something more durable and powerful then you’ll be amazed at what’s available in the health world right now. As for foods, I personally find that I can get most of what I need in the organic section at my local supermarket, and I also visit a local organic farm shop/farmer’s market for the really good stuff that no supermarket can compete with in price or quality. If I didn’t have a good supermarket then I’d opt for an organic box delivery service which can be wonderful. Most of my specialized items such as truly raw olives (most are pasteurized), nut “butters” (they’re made from just pure ground nuts but spread like butter), natural sweeteners and flavorings I buy mail order. But what I do need to emphasize if you haven’t cottoned on already is the importance of choosing organic – pesticides are never a healthy option, even if they are on raw food!

6. How to keep it interesting. When you’re new to raw food it’s easy to assume that salads, soups and smoothies is as good as it gets when you’re watching the clock. While it’s true that the more elaborate recipes often do take more time and energy, there are always short cuts and whipping up a delicious dressing, dip or even a nut “cheese” or veggie pate takes literally seconds and can totally transform a meal! When you’ve tasted a fabulous raw food pizza and raw ice-cream (no dairy, no white sugar), there really is no going back!

7. What about eating out? This is one of the most common questions asked – and the answer is – it’s completely up to you. You can choose to eat “normally”, to make healthier choices than usual or to ask for a juicy salad with all sorts of things thrown in, but above all, enjoy what you eat and feel at peace with it!

8. Does it have to be all or nothing? Not at all. Until very recent times very few people ate an exclusively raw food diet ongoing. In fact most people today still dabble for weeks, months or even years at a time until they feel inclined to “up the ante”! Also, nowadays people tend to talk in percentage terms – such as “I’m 80% raw” which basically means that they eat most of their food raw but not all of it, and they’re guessing that 80% is about right in terms of plate space/ meal make-up etc. – but it’s not really that important. What matters more is the quality of the food you choose – if 80% of someone’s diet consists of nuts, seeds and raw food snack bars then that’s never going to be a good thing (way too much fat!) whereas 80% worth of fresh fruits and vegetables is wonderful! What also matters is not just what you bring into your diet but what you leave out. It’s no good eating lots of fresh vibrant food if you “balance” it out with take-always and aspartame-ridden diet drinks! Much better to do 50/50 and make all of your foods good healthy choices, and then if you want to adjust the proportion of raw foods then you can do so at any time. All that said, the more raw food you eat, for most people at least (those with medical issues need to take professional advice), the better you will look and feel – and here’s why.

9. What you can expect. When you choose raw, as we have already seen, you choose “life”. Live food will nourish you at a deep level (deeper than any deep-pan pizza will ever reach!) and it will also start to work its magic on your body in a very short space of time. This magic sometimes doesn’t look so magical though! Because as the toxins and debris begin to leave your body as the raw food starts to cleanse your system, you may experience some detoxification symptoms such as diarrhea, rashes, pimples (spots), headaches, dizziness, coughing and mucous and other similar discomforts. This is usually nothing to worry about, but it may happen! If it does, keep drinking plenty of water and eat even more simply to speed the elimination process up if your circumstances permit it. But if you feel as if it’s all going a bit too fast for you then if you eat something cooked, especially something heavy like meat, potatoes or dairy, then you’ll slow it all down or even stop it completely. You can restart again more slowly or leave it for a few days or weeks and go again when the time feels right. On the flipside, the good news is that when this stuff comes out it means that your body is – of course – all the better for it and this will start to become apparent in your face, your body shape and body tone and your energy levels surprisingly quickly. And if you carry on the good work to any degree for more than a few weeks, then you’ll find it very hard to go back to your old ways because there’s really not a lot of fun to be had there. In fact most people find that very quickly cooked food starts to taste seriously bland and inferior to fresh and raw – especially if they’ve educated themselves in those delicious raw food recipes I keep alluding to!

10. Taking it further. As mentioned before, the raw food journey never ends, but it does get increasingly rewarding and exciting! Not only is there a whole new world of food and drink waiting for you (which is growing fast), but raw food tends to attract some pretty amazing people and takes you on an exciting adventure in terms of getting more in touch with your body and your whole self generally.

Wherever your interest in raw food takes you, what I can guarantee is that you’ll be very glad you took the time to investigate it, because you’ll be amazed at how your relationship with food and your body changes and you’ll be beyond fascinated at what you discover along the way.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/nutrition-articles/how-to-get-started-with-raw-food-when-you-havent-got-a-clue-2912565.html

About the Author

With over 17 years of personal experience of eating a raw food diet, Karen Knowler has been teaching, writing and coaching professionally on raw foods for over a decade and publishes “Successfully Raw” – a free weekly eZine for raw food lovers everywhere. If you’re ready to look good, feel great and create a raw life you love get your FREE tips, tools and recipes now at http://www.TheRawFoodCoach.com

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By Charging Life on August 20, 2012 / Blog, Food, Healing Foods, Health, Healthy Food, Physical / Leave a comment
Tags: food raw, how to eat raw, Raw Food 101, Raw smoothies

We Are You wrote:Disclosure of Owlsden´s Secret

Too funny Dear. Is that a picture of you in the Sun?

I had turkey, eggs, beans and spam...