Day after Thanksgiving

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving ! Ours was a lot of fun , very tasty and rewarding . Being laid up and depending on others to follow directions can really give you an insight as to how much you have learned through experience, and just how valuable the role of a stay at home mom/wife really is . I am deeply grateful to Bob and Nick for being so willing and able to help pull the day off !

We all pitched in to create a holiday meal  that was tasty and filled with real ingredients. I am refusing to use low far, low sugar anything anymore, and we are following a 90/10 plan with soaked grains. All grains must be whole grain, and freshly milled if at all possible. End result is a very tasty and healthy meal that is very satiating. It does require planning and forethought ( flours need 8-12 hrs soaking before baking) and when you add instructing others how to do certain things, pictures are a forgotten thing.( Sorry about that).

The day before Nick tried his hand at his very first cake- and he was very proud of it. The results came out a different size than the original recipe because of an uncertainty of how the batter would rise, but the taste was absolutely delicious !

Cranberry Pecan Pumpkin Upside - Down Cake

Serves 8-10
8 ounces (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 cups cranberries
4 ounces (1 cup) coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
2 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line the bottom of a 9-inch square pan with parchment paper.
3. Melt the butter in a small saucepot over medium heat. Add the
brown sugar and whisk until smooth.
4. Pour the brown sugar mixture into the bottom of the cake pan.
5. In a medium bowl combine the cranberries and pecans. Place
them in the pan over the brown sugar mixture.
6. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin puree and oil.
7. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
Stir the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture. Carefully spread
the batter over the cranberry pecan topping.
8. Bake until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean,
35-40 minutes.
9. Cool the cake for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Place a large plate
or platter on top of the cake. Invert the cake and plate together.
Remove the pan. Carefully peel off the parchment paper.
Cool completely before serving.

I will be honest- the smell of the cake was so tempting that we decided to dig into it the night before. And then more at breakfast. And the leftovers are going to be tasty snacks for the next day or so.

For the actual meal we made a brined turkey breast , fresh cranberry and orange relish ( no sugar- just a pureed navel orange and the berries cooked with cinnamon and nutmeg), Turnip Potato Gratin and a stuffing made from soaked corn bread , soaked whole wheat bread, sausage, celery, apples and almonds. For desert we made a crustless Pumpkin cheese cake and Homemade Pumpkin ice cream sweetened with real maple syrup. We cracked up over the black friday commercials, read the ads, watched the parade and just had a nice, low key time.

Now if my knee will let me bend it, I could get in the shower and perhaps walk without my friendly chair ! Sponge Baths will get you clean, but they will never replace a shower or bath !