My Crafty Christmas

 Amanda’s Craving a Crafty Christmas!

I feel like this holiday season I have been super crafty and made some very easy things that can be used for gifts.  The first is a Monogrammed Spice Christmas Ornament.  While I was out shopping downtown with my good friend Kirstan, we discovered a loose spice and tea store.  The store was selling glass ball ornaments with their spices inside.  Well, this is an expensive store so the ornament was $20! Therefore, Yes— I stole the idea and jazzed it up by monogramming the person’s initial with a glitter pen.  You can fill the glass balls with any type of spices based on the person you are giving to.  I have 2 types- Spicy Spaghetti and Southwest Chipotle.  I also made a little recipe and tip card for each spice blend that will go with the gift.

Awesome!

 This past weekend my Mother and I became a candy factory.  It was a lot of fun and a tradition that we do every year.   Our three types of candy are Peppermint Bark, White Chocolate Covered Pretzels, & Chocolate Peanut Butter Crackers.

The preparation for all three is fairly simple.  To make the White Chocolate Pretzels, melt vanilla almond bark (a cheaper melting chocolate) with a few slivers of paraffin.  Next dip the pretzels and place on the parchment.  The paraffin is a neat tip because it helps to thin the chocolate for dipping and creates a glossy finish.

Yummy!

The Chocolate Peanut Butter Crackers are easy to make. Start by making a sandwich of 2 Townhouse Crackers with Peanut Butter in the middle. While prepping, melt the chocolate almond bark with paraffin.  Dip! Enjoy! 

Yes, I ate a few outliers.

The last holiday candy treat is Peppermint Bark.  We always buy high quality chocolate chips for the bark.  First you melt the semi sweet chips in a double boiler.  Once melted, smooth the yummy  chocolate on parchment in a thin layer. Place in the freezer to help firm it up.  Next start melting the white chocolate chips and crush the peppermints in a plastic ziplock bag.  Add some crushed peppermint to the white chocolate.  Now smooth it into a layer on top of the semi sweet layer.  Sprinkle with more peppermint and allow time to harden.  You can use an ice pick to break up the sheet into jagged pieces.  Hooray and so much cheaper than purchasing pre-made stuff!  You can now combine all 3 treats into little gift bags for your friends.

White Chocolate Melting

 

 

 

My final craft project was creating my Holiday Peace Wreath.  All you need is a fake wreath, ornaments that you want to glue on, ribbon, and a hot glue gun.  I tried to pick ornaments that I loved and related to me. Wrap the ribbon around first and then glue on your personalized ornaments  That is all for this crafty Christmas!

On my Door!







Mississippi Bound

Traveling to Mississippi for Thanksgiving is something I have always done every year.  The drive is long but it goes by quickly with the help of my Dad's conversation.  I never thought of myself as OCD like some of my friends,  but when it comes to making long trips I have to know where I am at on the map at all times.  I love atlases and figuring out the route to take. 

The first highlight of the trip as always was Amanda Craving Popeye’s.  I decided to try what their commercials have been advertising- the Crawfish Tackle Box.  It was spicy crawfish tails deep fried with seasoned fries and one of those DELICIOUS biscuits.  I could eat ten of those in one sitting.  I enjoyed the tackle box and I recommend it to anyone.  Flaky biscuit soaked in butter = heaven.

Crawfish, Fries, Red Beans & Rice, Chicken Strips

I know that my last blog was a Thanksgiving recipe but I am going to include another recipe that is my favorite dessert at my Grandma’s.  Everyone is terrified of those strange Jello salads that distant relatives bring for the holidays.  Well Watergate Salad is one of those strange concoctions, but it is amazing.  For your viewing pleasure pictured below (yes it is green in color which comes from the pistachio pudding mix).  What sounds better than cool whip, marshmallows, and pudding?

The End of Watergate Salad

-1 (3 3/4 oz) Package Pistachio Pudding

-1 (1lb 4oz) Can Crushed Pineapple

-1 (9oz) Package Cool Whip

-1 1/2 Cup Marshmallows

               Combine dry pudding mix with pineapple can with juice.  Fold in other ingredients.

One of the final food highlights of the trip was eating at Keifer’s.  I got to experience the second best gyro kebab of my life.  This Mediterranean restaurant is a delicious surprise in Jackson.  They have the kebob meat spinning on the vertical pit and it smells delicious.  The Tzatziki yogurt sauce was the perfect compliment and very creamy.  And then the fresh baked pita created the ultimate experience!  They get it sourced from local baker.  I also liked the fried potato which was a large potato cut into disks.  Keifer’s is clearly a Jackson favorite with people coming in non-stop all day.  

A Few Bites taken before I Remembered to Take a Picture

 Now the Holidays have begun!  Popeye's Trip Count- 2.

Maybe 1 Thanksgiving Recipe

Soo. . . Tonight Amanda’s craving SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE!  My favorite Thanksgiving dish besides cranberries, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie. . . umm ok, where is this going?  Tomorrow my work is having a Thanksgiving Employee Luncheon.  I immediately thought of my Mom’s Sweet Potato Crunch.  After doing some research, I tweaked the recipe just a bit.  I have poured myself a glass of Cooper Station California Pinot Noir to help during the cooking process.  (I am saving my newly released Beaujolais Nouveau bottle for when I get back from Mississippi, excited!) 

My annual Mississippi Thanksgiving will be documented so stay tuned, but back to the Sweet Potato Crunch.  Thank you Publix for having them for .39 per pound! I started by roasting my sweet potatoes at 400 degrees after pricking a few holes in each one.  I am using 6 big boys to fit in a 9x13 pan.  After about 1 hour, I add 2 whole bananas.  Roasted bananas are a secret ingredient tip from my Aunt. It helps bring out the natural flavor of the sweet potatoes and people will ask you-“Hey, What’s in that, cause its good!”  This batch took about an hour and half to be soft all the way through with a knife.  The bananas will turn completely black so don’t freak out.  

Roasted Potatoes & Bananas

I feel like the more common Southern tradition is to use pecans (PEE-CANS, not PEE-CONS) and make a streusel like topping.  Marshmallows have never been on a casserole that I have eaten nor do I really believe they should be. Maybe it is me or maybe I just know what tastes better.  The full recipe follows below:

-3 cups mashed sweet potatoes (Roasted until very tender)
-1 cup sugar

-1 Banana, Roasted
-1/2 cup butter
-2 eggs
Combine sugar and butter.  Stir in beaten eggs.  Mix with potatoes.
Combine all ingredients and pour into an 8x8 casserole dish.

Everything Mashed Together

 Topping
-1 cup brown sugar
-1/4 cup butter
-1/3 cup flour
-1 cup pecans - chopped
 Mix ingredients well and pour over potato mixture.  It will be very crumbly.
 Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Beautiful Finished Sweet Potato Crunch!

 

I just love the taste the banana adds to this classic Thanksgiving recipe which I am putting in my cookbook.  I hope everyone at work will enjoy it! I heard there is supposed to be 3 turkeys!

Sweet Potatoes are actually supposed to be very healthy for you too (http://www.rd.com/living-healthy/healthy-food-benefits-of-sweet-potatoes-/article101646.html).  I have started to add them to my normal diet instead of waiting until twice a year.  However, this recipe is not the most fat free thing to do with a sweet potato. I am already declaring this week a Wash Week for any type of diet. Why ruin such a fun week by worrying about calorie content? Au revoir Body Pump and running the Bridge. See you next week!

Bosnian & Bourdain

Soo. . .  Hooray for first blog post!
Yesterday was an interesting evening for Sarah and me.  After discovering that Anthony Bourdain, host of No Reservations on the Travel Channel, was performing at the Convention Center we had to go.  Friday night arrived to see his show leaving me with ONE main question- What was he actually going to do?  Cook? Talk? Well the answer comes later. . .

We began the evening at an interesting restaurant called Cafe Europa which Sarah had read a review about in City Paper.  It is near the CAFB and yes kind of sketch.  We enter and a very friendly woman greets us as we sit where ever we want.  This was my first experience with Bosnian cuisine, and it was a successful experience thanks to Cafe Europa.  Feeling medium adventurous yesterday, I was craving Chicken Shish Kebab while Sarah dared to try the Sarma (cabbage leaves stuffed with group beef).  Everything was delicious and what I especially loved was the lepinja bread.

Chicken Shish Kebab (front) & Sarma (back)

I have now discovered my extreme interest in different cultures' breads. Apparently, Bosians have Lepinja which was doughy, pita like and had a slightly charred bottom.  Indians have naan, French have baguette, Italians have ciabatta.  What is American's famous bread? To my horror Sarah suggested sliced white bread.  Great, guess I will have to think about that one.

Now to Bourdain. The answer is- the show was basically a foodie comedy stand up hour. Anthony came out to a bare stage and talked for about an hour and half followed by the dumbest audience questions possible.  Clearly no screening involved. (One guy self promoted his rosemary/lavender infused vodka. Why do I want to drink the flavor of French milled soap?)  Bourdain talked about his distaste for all the Food Network stars (Sandra Lee, Rachel, and Guy) which I agreed. He actually loved Barefoot Contessa (hooray!).  Next, he moved to Hell's Kitchen, Top Chef, and even his own network. 

Anthony Bourdain in Poor Lighting

He ended his part of the show with travel advice and talk of his daughter.  The best part was his discussion of McDonald's and American childhood diabetes. Studies have shown that if you placed healthy foods in the McDonald's wrapping kids like the food more. This then lead to one audience question dissing the Lee Brothers who Bourdain ate with on his South Carolina episode- "Would you like the Lee Brothers more if they were wrapped in McDonald's Happy Meal paper?" Ouch! I like the Lee Brothers just fine.
I close with to my dismay when I arrived home, I looked at Cafe Europa's take home menu.  Guy Fieri is on the cover from visiting the restaurant on his show.  This caused a slight chuckle.