This Week

From my lack of posts this week, you might think that I overdosed on the snickernoodles. Well, I almost. Here is a list of what I did this week:

I got up early to cover someone at work, meanwhile I took a moment or two to enjoy the sunrise.

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I went to a multicultural fair at a middle school...

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...where I learned about Ireland, had German food, tried Ukraine cake, and indulged in homemade tacos.

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At the fair, I came upon these cute little Christmas trees. Then I wonder why I can't be as creative as the sixth graders who made them.

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Through mid-week I realized that finals are next week. Next week!

No, I did not take power naps under the warm winter sun like my slightly-overweight-dog here.  Her weight-in this week revealed that those extra munches during Thanksgiving didn't help with the weight-loss process.

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I also realized that I have lots of presents to wrap. So in between studying, I did this while hoping there would be a rerun of Elf on TV.

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The Holiday is just around the corner, a couple more weeks then we are almost there!

Tree Lighting

This Saturday we went to the first Christmas tree lighting at Henry Clay Estate. The tree is over a hundred years old and stands at 120 feet tall. It is believed to be the second tallest live Christmas tree in the world. The event started with a local school choir singing Christmas carols while the audience joined them. Families, young couples, grandparents, canine pals were standing all around tree counting down to the lighting. It felt like the event brought the community together. A sweet moment to be with my love one.

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Even the resurrected Mr. Henry Clay would agree so.

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To save myself from some trouble, I decided not to bring my tripod.
Amazingly my camera was still able to capture in pitch black. But I had to set ISO sensitivity above 3200 at Hi1 and the picture quality decreased substantially. It would have been a great time to practice night photography.

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The estate was all lit up for a Dickens candlelight tour and I was able to stand in between two lawn lights to take this picture.

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I ought to go back there again with my tripod. Until then I am busy wrapping Christmas presents and listening to holiday music (after I study for my finals, of course).

Snickerdoodles

I am in the Christmas spirit. I want to make all kinds of Christmas cookies while listening to holiday music, and that was exactly what I did Friday afternoon. I made snickerdoodles. I envy those who have the time to make beautiful and delicate cookies. All those sugar cookies with colorful frosting decorations that are just too pretty to be eaten. Me on the other hand, is all about the delicious factor and what ingredients I have in my pantry.

Remember that lighting class I attended? I decided to put what I learned in good use. I moved my desk light into the kitchen.

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The cookie dough finally get some spot light.

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Except when I tried to take these, the picture came out looking orange.

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By the time this picture was taken I have already eaten three cookies and listened to Elf soundtrack for the second time. I love the holidays. Shopping and flashy sparkling decoration, what's not to like about it?

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Snickerdoodle Recipe
(Recipe from King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion Cookbook)

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup vegetable shortrening
1.5 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 large eggs
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

Coating: 1/2 cup sugar and 2 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400 F and put in your favorite Christmas jam.
2. Cream butter, shortening, and sugar in a bowl. Add eggs, beat until smooth. Add salt and flour, ixing slowly until combined.
3. Make coating, combine sugar and cinnamon together in a shallow bowl.
4. Use a cookie scooper and dip out tablespoon of dough then roll it in the sugar mix. Or put the sugar cinnamon mix in a zip lock bag, put few dough ball in the bag and shake the bag until all coated.
5. Bake the cookies for 8 minutes. Enjoy!

Red River Gorge - Gray's Arch

Instead of Black Friday shopping like millions of American, this was what we did the day after Thanksgiving:


Hiking!

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We went to Red River Gorge again and this time we took a detour at Gray's Arch.

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The hike up to the arch was quite adventurous.
I kept thinking "don't do some crazy jump and get my arm stuck", like that guy 72 hours who ended up cutting his own arm off.

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We climbed over rocks underneath this cave-like structure.
Lola was quite a mountain goat that day.
It was pretty sweet to watch Jake helping Lola up and down the rocks. He would climb down a three feet drop first then turns around and catch Lola.

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 Almost there!

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We had delicious leftover turkey sandwich up at the arch before continuing on our hike.

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It was a beautiful day to spend with my family, it was more than what I am thankful for.



p.s.  I signed up for a half marathon for end of March!

The Finish Line

On Thanksgiving Day I ran towards the finish line (I am the girl in blue long-sleeves. Photo credit: Jake).

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Not just the 5K finish line, but I crossed the finish line of my cooking marathon.

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My sister had a brilliant idea that we should stuff the turkey.
I was going to make the classic bread "stuffing", or more like bread dressing.
This stuffing is awesome, it had wild rice, fresh cranberry, and all the good stuff.

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My own finish line consisted of mashed sweet potato, garlicky brussels sprouts, fresh cranberry sauce, herbed bread dressing, berry strata, and pumpkin pie. Along with endless refills...

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Yum yum yum! I conquered my own finish line.
(or num num num as my sister would say)

Thanksgiving

I am thankful for my little family of Jake and Lola.

I am thankful for my sister who flew from California and surprised me.

I am thankful that she signed up us up for a turkey trot 5K race this morning, and I completed the race with new record time.

I am thankful that the turkey is finally in the oven.

I am thankful for my sister who made another dessert for the big meal tonight.

I am thankful that the Packers are undefeated.

I am thankful for those who love and care for me.


Finally, I am so thankful for my readers. Thank you for reading!


Have a great Thanksgiving!

Mise En Place

Mise en place, simply means "everything in place" in French.  In terms of cooking ,that means to prep all ingredients before cooking up the dish. That was exactly what I did today, putting everything in place. I diced 5 cups of onions, 4 cups of celery, mushrooms, and cubed a pound of bread.

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That was not half of the things I put in place today.

This beast almost became the nightmare. Almost.

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After chopping for an hour, I had the hardest time "de-winging" the bird. I looked through Joy of Cooking and various YouTube videos. Let's just say it was not a pleasant experience holding a bird's wings for a period of time. But it I did it. After three hours of reducing and reducing, I finally got some awesome turkey stock for stuffing tomorrow.

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Wait, there's more to my day than "de-winging".
Fresh cranberry sauce and mashed sweet potato. Yummmooo!

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Although this may seem like a lot of work and time in the kitchen, I love it. I like being busy and feeling like I am the master of this little corner of mine. I conquered the turkey wings today, wait till you see tomorrow's dinner.

Happy Pre-Thanksgiving!