I started last night making the dip for the crudites–mostly pita and tortilla chips, to be honest– with a chevre based dip chock full of roasted vegetables (garlic, eggplant and red pepper, to be exact). It came out middling–I don’t think I got the same kind of chevre as I did last time, and its flavor was decidedly more goat. Taste improved the longer it sat out, for some reason, but at any rate, I was too busy to partake and no one else seemed interested (more like it was invisible than the chevre chasing them off).

Got up about 8:30 this morning and set about the rest of the feast, which included:

Apricot-Dijon Glazed Turkey Breast with Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Sweet and Savory Stuffing with Cranberries (using cinnamon raisin bread)
Yeast Cloverleaf Rolls
Rosemary Mashed Potatoes with gravy deglazed from the turkey
Garden Salad w/homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette
Peas
Four-cheese Rotini Bake
Ham-boiled Peppergrass
Apple Pie

It went over smashingly well, with my husband actually saying it was among the top holiday meals he’d ever had. It’s also the first time I’ve cooked on a grand scale for company in years, and my skills are much improved–both cooking-wise and in my ability to stage things well. Had almost everything ready by 1:30 only to get phone calls announcing we’re running late, so kept everything warm in the oven while the rolls got some bonus proofing time. Some of them wound up looking like mushroom clouds, they got so big.

Probably to no one’s surprise, our christmas gift haul was mostly food-related, either on the up side (an ice cream maker, a griddle) or the down side (an Eating Well cookbook, a new Weight Watchers scale). My son got a wireless hookup for his xbox, so I’ll be lucky to ever see my TV again…

The thing that sets Wawa apart, for me, isn’t the awesome hoagies or the cash registers that sound like video games or the free ATMs or the coffeetopia thing they have always had going on even before they called it that. It’s the creative way they approach snack food. Among the offerings in their prepack cooler? Hummus and pita rounds. Watermelon and canteloupe. Apples and peanut butter. Carrots and celery dippers. Perfect single servings of potato or macaroni salad. And their build menu, including their hoagies, really are awesome. If I’m in a Wawa-enabled region, I won’t stop anywhere else (with the notable exception of Gainesville, VA, which is significantly out of the way despite being only a few miles south of the Gainesville exit, mostly because traffic on that corridor is so congested).

For travelers on the I-95 corridor, it’s important to know that the cheapest gas you’ll find on that leg of the trip can be had in the Bel Air region north of Baltimore. Use exit 77 to Md. Rt. 24 north, and take the first right, follow that around to the Wawa on the right. (You can drive a little further on 24 and get to an even cheaper Wawa near Rt. 1, and in fact follow Rt. 1 all the way up to Pennsylvania, save yourself tolls and traffic, and enjoy much nicer views, but that’s another post. Also, the next cheap gas stop is in Bowling Green, VA. It’s all about strategy. Yet another post.)

So how do I get a Wawa in Front Royal?

The best banana bread I ever had was stuff that LB made. I adored that woman, and miss her horribly. JB scanned the recipe and passed it along to me.

Shortly after TB and I broke up, I found the cookbook it came from in the bargain rack of a bookstore. It’s _Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking: A Mennonite Community Cookbook_.

Tonight, I had a compulsion to make pie. I’ve never made my own pie crust before, and sifted through a couple of cookbooks before remembering I had the queen of all Mennonite cookbooks.

Flour. Salt. Shortening. Water.
Apples. Cinnamon. Sugar. Milk.

It’s better than any pie I remember. Flaky and perfect.

LB, I miss you.

It *was* the yeast. I have two different oat wheat recipes, and for some reason I think the one I brought over for Thanksgiving was a combination of the two. Try this, and see what happens.

1 cup milk
3 T honey
1 c white flour
1 c whole wheat flour
1 c oats
1 1/4 t salt
2 T butter
2 t active dry yeast

If the dough is wet, add flour til it makes a ball. Knead it for a half hour. I use a bread machine to knead it, but however you put the dough together, knock yourself out–I would give my eyetooth for a fancy stand mixer with a bread dough attachment, but I'll probably just put it on my wedding registry instead.

Let rise once as a ball, then shape according to however you want to shape it and let rise again. Bake at 350˚ for 30 minutes. Be sure to take the loaf out of/off the pan or sheet and let cool on a drying rack.

You can adjust the white/wheat ratio however you like, but the more wheat you use, the more you should knead it. I like a half and half, myself.

If this doesn't work, try the same recipe with 2 T of brown sugar instead.

Or keep the honey, and use 1 c. water and 1 1/2 T. of dry milk.

however, i did something splendid with the second loaf, knowing the the
yeast was old: I made sandwich rolls out of them, and they came out so
perfect that anyone in the DC-Philly corridor who wants some can have a
batch for Christmas, because I need to use up this yeast.

Hmm, I could ebay my rolls. HAHAHA.

Lilith sent us a lovely pesto bread that DFH descended on and is raving
about. Now i suspect I'm going to snag that recipe if it's available.

Peace Cereal – The organic breakfast cereal dedicated to peace

I joked to DH that this even had its own yogi, because there was a turbaned fellow on the side of the box. He got very excited. “That’s the same dude that does my chai!”

Sure enough, we looked on the side of his box of chai, and it’s the same guy!

I wasn’t sure if I would like the stuff, seeing as cardamom and ginger aren’t exactly what I think of when I get a hankering for Honey Bunches of Oats, but you know, it hit the same exact spot.

peace.

peace.

Let there be peace on earth.
And let it begin with me.
*crunch*

We’re due for a big storm tonight. I’m curled up with Netflix and knitting, and saying a prayer for the peace activists who have been abducted. Please God, look after them. Please.

All hail the weird Helen spice rack and lots of things in the pantry/produce bin to use up.

It has…

potatoes..
lentils…
tomatos…
jalapenos…
green bell peppers…
berbere…
ginger…
chili powder…
ancho chile pepper…
onions…
garlic…
and other various spicy spices…..

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Right now, there's the moving foreword, and a number of “blurbs” along the right-hand side.

My copy should arrive any day now. I'm excited.

Happy Thanksgiving, all. I was going to post a little thing that Fr. Jim read in church this past weekend, but I didn't find it in my inbox, so I'll post it when I can get it from him. I did do a bit of Thanksgiving reflection in this October post.

And I'm baking bread. Mmmmmm.

The weekend has filled up, as I expected. I need to find a church in the Shenandoah Valley I can go to when I'm out there, as I will be this weekend.

It's missing something, and I don't know what. I mean, Brunswick is really the kind of stew that you can make however you want, seeing as Virgina and Georgia fight over custody of it, as long as it has tomatoes, corn, and baby limas or okra, but for the life of me I can't make it taste the way my mom used to make it, which was grama's recipe and dates back goodness knows how long back.

I've looked it up in all my southern reference books and online and i still haven't figured out what's missing.

But I should mention I had this incredible couscous dish tonight at a potluck, and, having no idea who brought it, I don't know who to ask where they got it. (No comments from the peanut gallery on us bringing bought foods to a potluck. It's northern Virginia.)

Grumble. Can anything else go weird with me? I mean, I crave *cod.* And beer to fry it in. I think I'm becoming British. Er, Anglican. Yeah.

Maybe I'm just hungry.