Leftovers, part two.

We had frittatensuppe with our leftover broth tonight for dinner.  We made tafelspitz and frische kase spätzle for dinner last night and made soup with the leftovers because the broth was delicious!

I made crepes for the first time since my 4-H cooking days back in middle school and then we cut them into thin strips, put them in the broth and sprinkled chives over the top.  Overlooking the whole tafelspitz prep part, it was actually a quick end easy dinner, esp for a weeknight.

Lulu, however, was NOT thrilled at the prospect of frittatensuppe (even though she ate her weight of it in Europe this summer?).  Someone ended up giving herself a yogurt facial instead...

Breakfast

After an awful start to our weekend that involved the Golf not starting once I had Lulu loaded in at Merryhill and then having to sit there for an hour, waiting for Walter to arrive and then trying to figure out why it wouldn't start before finally loading all of the groceries from the trunk and Lulu + carseat into HIS tiny car for a ride home, I decided that Saturday morning HAD to be better, right?  Right?

So, we enjoyed some blueberry scones with some leftover Thanksgiving pecans with fresh coffee this morning.  Much better!

Lulu thought so, too:

Happy Turkey Day!

Or Tofurky (your choice!).  Gropius and I were busy cooking like crazy people most of the day:  turkey, pumpkin pull-apart dinner rolls, wild rice dressing, southwestern roasted green beans, caramelized carrots and pecans, sage-scented mashed potatoes,  gluten-free apple pie, and sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top.

Hey, you can take the girl outta Texas, but you can't take Texas outta the girl!

I tried to shoot a few shots of the dinner prep for the folks who were unable to make it:

turkey brining in our ice chest--compliments of the freezing overnight temps, this worked out well!

Lots of chopping going on--and a whole lotta rice.

My precious dinner rolls--my first attempt at baking dinner rolls that didn't come from a box.
Yes, I AM quite proud.  Thank you.

Pumpkin + poppy seeds = DELICIOUS!

The table set and ready for guests....

We had a very merry, Jewish thanksgiving this year, completely unintentionally.  We realized after we invited everyone that all of our Jewish friends were coming (which settled the annual turkey vs. ham question!).  It was also our first gluten-free thanksgiving because we wanted Tina to be able to enjoy everything (hence the wild rice dressing).

We also set up some cheese and crackers on the "piano bar" and served everyone clove-scented Sidecars (see the last page of Sunset's Dec 2010 issue for the recipe) in the living room.  (forgot to take pictures of that, but it looked really swanky!)

Tina and Shaya arrived first and Lulu was SO excited to have Shaya over, even if it took Shaya a while to feel comfortable enough to take off her coat.  :)  Then Todd, Delia, and Max (aka Zorba Spartacus) arrived from Grass Valley and we settled in to our cocktails and appetizers while everything finished cooking/warming up in the oven.  Tina's friend, Karsten--a neurologist who was on-call at the closest hospital, was also able to join us for the main event.  Gropius carved the turkey and then left to pick up Elisabeth at the airport while we all settled in at the table....they arrived back in time to join us for our second helpings and apple pie for dessert!

Unfortunately, once everyone arrived, I didn't get too many shots b/c I was busy playing hostess, but here are a few I managed to snag before the evening was over:

Lulu and Shaya snacking on some pre-dinner bunny grahams

The only picture I've got where you can get a sense of the scale of all the food.
Walter's getting ready to carve the turkey in this shot.

Lulu and Max playing "we're cooking, too!"

Tina, Shaya, and Karsten--Shaya's already dressed for bed!

Dinner

We put some of that excess of tarragon in our garden to good use last night for dinner:  chicken with tarragon-mustard cream sauce over buttered noodles with fresh green beans from the garden and a nice green salad.  Add in a splurge for a nice Cremant d' Loire and it was a wonderful night!

Gropius savoring his wine

The wine splurge of our weekend.

The meal in question

close up of the noodles and mustard-cream sauce

salad had a hazelnut oil dressing that was delish!

view of Walter's plate from mine...

A Dash of Cold Water...

...on youthful optimism.  This is compliments of a friend who teaches in the Humanities, but a fair bit of it also applies to those of us teaching in the CSU system as well, I think.

Stir-fried Sweet Potatoes

Gropius and I made a new recipe recently that was a bit of a crapshoot and it turned out incredibly tasty, so I have to share.  I came across a recipe for stir-fried sweet potatoes, noticed that I liked all of the ingredients, and thought, "Why not give it a try?"  When I think of stir-fry, I tend to think of chunky vegetables, but this recipe called for grated sweet potato and it worked out well (and sped up the cooking time!).  It was a quick weeknight meal and I think it may see regular rotation because even Lulu was a big fan of the leftovers.

The observant of you can date this photo by the NYTimes food section articles. 

It had a nice amount of spice without being overpoweringly hot.

We decided to serve it over white rice and it was a great combo.  I don't know that brown would've tasted as delicious.

Dinner

butternut squash "farrotto."  Very tasty, whole grain, and vegetarian.  Very spicy with three red, late summer/fully ripe jalapenos!

Yogurt-cumin sauce in the bowl and roasted butternut squash seeds with a little chipotle chile powder.