Mimmsical Creations

For our first Thanksgiving as a married couple, Mike and I stayed home on the day of! We cleaned the house like maniacs, and I cooked up a storm! We went to his family gathering on Friday, and his dad and step-mom visited us on Saturday, so it was a busy weekend!

Our menu for Thursday was rather "odd" for a Thanksgiving meal, but Mike doesn't like turkey, so I made stuff I knew he would like! I made a pot-roast with veggies in the crock-pot, creamy brussel sprouts, and rosemary bread!!

First the pot-roast:

When I asked for help in the meat department on Wednesday, the guy was incredulous that I wasn't buying turkey! Buy red meat the day before Thanksgiving! It is WAY marked down! No one is buying it! He told me it didn't really matter what cut of meat I chose if I was going to slow cook it, and he was right - it was absolutely fall apart tender after 7 hours in the crock pot!

I took my friend Andrea's advice and cooked it with a can of coke. This is supposed to make it even more tender I guess. The only thing I would do different next time is maybe use only half a can plus some water - the flavor was just a bit sweet from the coke! (not bad - just a bit sweet!)

I placed in about 4 small chopped red potatoes, 1 onion, chopped in large pieces, 4 carrots chopped in coins, and towards the end 16 oz. of mushrooms. For spices - I used 3 bay leaves, garlic, salt and pepper. That was it! I let it cook on medium heat for about 7 hours - until I could tell that the meat was totally tender. I pulled the veggies out about mid-way through because they were too soft! Next time, I'll wait and add the veggies mid-way through instead of at the beginning. About an hour before we were going to eat, I added the mushrooms (they don't take much time to cook.) YUMMY! I also did make some gravy from the liquid, but it was pretty sweet from the coke, and the veggies didn't really need gravy, so we didn't use very much of it!

Now - for the brussel sprouts. Wow. I have to say, this is one of the best dishes I have ever made!! I found the recipe online at the Dutch Girl Cooking blog (which I found via one of my favorite food blogs - Pioneer Woman). It was super yummy - if not super healthy! Mike and I both love brussel sprouts, and these were the best ever! Her recipe is very easy to follow, so I'll let you do that (plus she has step-by-step pictures!) The only thing I did wrong was I didn't see that I was supposed to cut the sprouts in half, so ours were whole. I would definitely cut them - they were a bit difficult to manouver on the plate in whole form! I WILL be making this one again (perhaps even this week as I have everything leftover to do so!) My only modification was I used half gruyere and half havarti cheese. For some reason, gouda was ungodly expensive!

I neglected to get pictures of our other cooking ventures for the weekend! I'll do better next time! For our Thanksgiving dinner with Mike's dad and step-family, I made creamed corn! I used a recipe I found online (of course!) I would have liked to make it with fresh corn, but in November, that wasn't possible, so I used organic frozen corn - and it turned out great anyway! The recipe I used is this one - I didn't make any modifications except to make the recipe a bit larger since there were quite a few people to serve! (Oh - I did add a bit of nutmeg - I had used it in the brussel sprouts and really liked the flavor, so I thought it would be good in the corn, and it was!)

On Saturday, Mike's dad and step-mom came up to our house to visit. It is easier to visit with them one-on-one than in the big group such as the day before. More enjoyable in my opinion! They requested Mike's pulled pork recipe for lunch. So, he pulled that together while I made potato salads to go with it. I will share his recipe here at some point, but I don't have it to share at the moment! (It is a TON of spices making up the rub followed by hours of baking at a low heat! Yummy!) I made two versions of potato salad. I like mine made with green olives/olive juice, but some people don't so I did another version made with my homemade bread and butter pickles. Both turned out great!!

I had fun cooking up a storm all weekend! Now, I have to get on the ball and make Christmas cookies to mail out for a swap, which I am behind on! (Thankfully my partner is OK with this!! I promise they will be on the way soon Terrie!) I have a busy weekend ahead again too! Wow! And Mike's birthday is on December 15 - he is turning 40!! Busy month for us! How is your December starting out?