Thanksgiving According to Cutie Pie

The students in Cutie Pie’s “grade” at preschool shared recipes for how to prepare a Thanksgiving meal.  It was so incredibly cute!

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Homemade Bread

Last Thursday I got a wild hair and decided to bake some homemade bread.  Maybe it was the dreary weather or the lack of a current project that sparked this idea.  I don’t know what it was but I’m so glad I tackled this cooking challenge.  I broke out my stand mixer and went about making the most amazing bread ever.  I’ve reprinted the recipe I found here.

Fabulous Homemade Bread

Ingredients:

1/2 cup warm water 3 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast 1/4 cup bread flour 1 tablespoon white sugar 2 cups quick cooking oats 2 cups whole wheat flour

4 1/2 cups warm water 1 1/2 tablespoons salt 2/3 cup brown sugar 2/3 cup vegetable oil 10 cups bread flour

Directions:

1.	In the mixing bowl of an electric mixer, stir together 1/2 cup warm water, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/4 cup bread flour, and yeast. Let grow for about 5 minutes. It will bubble almost immediately.
2.	Measure oats, 4 1/2 cups warm water, whole wheat flour, salt, 2/3 cup sugar, and 2/3 cup oil into the mixing bowl. Mix on low speed with a dough hook for 1 to 2 minutes. Increase speed slightly, and begin adding bread flour 1/2 to 1 cup at a time until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. Humidity determines how much flour you need before the bread pulls away from the edge of the bowl. It is normal for the dough to be sticky.
3.	Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover with a damp cloth. Let rise in a warm spot for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
4.	Divide dough into 6 pieces. Shape loaves, and place in greased 8 x 4 inch pans. Let rise until dough is 1 inch above rim of pans, usually 1 hour.
5.	Bake at 350 degrees F ( 175 degrees C) for 35 minutes, or until tops are browned. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

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B brought her kids over for a play date and lunch.  She also served as my lovely assistant/partner in crime/clean-up crew as I attacked this recipe with gusto.  As the title indicates, the bread really is fabulous.  I had a slice fresh out of the oven with butter and peach jam.  It was heavenly!  In fact, the boys and I took down 3/4 of a loaf for a snack.

I would say that it was 3 and a half hours well spent.  It was difficult to do but I did manage to share some loaves with friends.  B, of course, since she helped make it.  I also gave Big Red, my in-laws and our across-the-street neighbors some.

Feast on This

I hosted a wine tasting party for some of my preschool mom friends last night.  It was a follow-up from our night out at the piano bar in February that I apparently never blogged about.  The volunteers who help out at Cutie Pie’s preschool are amazing and it is so nice to chat with them in a relaxed kid-free setting.  J took our kids over to his parents house for the night.  The weather was so lovely that I was able to open up the sliding glass doors for us to enjoy the evening poolside.  Everyone brought a bottle (or two) to share and I provided the munchies and dessert.

My friends became my guinea pigs for my first ever attempt at cake pops.  Oh, dear!  They were so yummy!

I decided to make strawberry cake pops so I baked a box strawberry cake mix in two round cake pans since my 9×13 was being used for something else.  When the cake cooled I crumbled it into a big mixing bowl.  I added about 3/4 of a can of strawberry icing and stirred it up.  When the cake and icing formed a dough-like consistency, I used a small cookie scoop to measure out enough dough to form into a ball.  I placed the balls on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and placed them in the freezer to cool for an hour.  When they were sufficiently cool, I melted a bag of pink Wilton melting chocolate in a double boiler (my version is a glass bowl on a pan of water).  I dipped a lollipop stick into the melted chocolate first then pierced a cake ball then coated the cake ball in the chocolate.  I decorated some with spring sprinkles, others I left plain.  I stuck the pops into a piece of Styrofoam to display at the party.

The cake pops were a hit!  Many moms took a couple home to share.  I’m totally making them for Wildman’s bake sale next month.

I made a bunch of chocolate-covered strawberries as well.

I tried to keep most of the appetizers pretty healthy.  There were cups of cashews and almonds, fruit skewers, pineapple salsa, crackers, several kinds of cheese, olives, marinara meatballs and edamame.  We had all sorts of different wines to sample- cabernets, merlots, a sauvignon blanc, a chianti and even champagne.  Conversation was lively and flowed easily.  It was a relaxing evening.

Just what we needed!