Thanksgiving 2022 (with a Lesson in Baking: Pumpkin Cornbread)

We had Thanksgiving 2022 over at my mom's and because of the cornmeal I still had from the cornbread I made earlier this month, I offered to bring cornbread. I think it's the first real fail I've had lately. I wasn't super impressed with the previous recipe I used so in looking for another, I found a pumpkin cornbread recipe, and since we had a pumpkin from the farm, I figured I'd give that a shot.

Well, first I had to make the pumpkin purée. (It sure was depressing to see how much purée you end up with from that whole giant pumpkin in the end)!

Jarred pumpkin purée

I was a little nervous about the cornbread because, with the purée added, it would be a lot of extra moist liquidity, and wasn't sure how evenly it would bake. And I did kinda have issues with the edges looking okay but the middle still being pretty moist, but I think it turned out okay in the end, baking-wise.

I thought I was so clever garnishing
it with the roasted pumpkin seeds

The real problem ended up being the flavor and taste - it was pretty bland. I guess it was fine for cornbread, but I couldn't taste the pumpkin flavor at all. Turns out just puréeing a pumpkin isn't enough, my mother informed me you're also supposed to add spices and cinnamon. That's right, I didn't pick up on that and the recipe didn't inform me to do it and it was my first time so I had no clue what I was doing. Sorry for the guinea pigs who had to be subjected to that on Thanksgiving!

Sophie seemed to have a decent time although she didn't want to eat much other than the cornbread (ironically, and maybe the only one) and we played a lot of Yahtzee.

We followed with the tradition of dedicating the Friday after Thanksgiving to setting up for Christmas, which Sophie mostly loved. She's obsessed with the Hogwarts Express train that we got as a gift from AJ's sister (I mean who wouldn't be?) but we're definitely going to wear out those batteries soon, I can tell.

Sophie's Cocomelon characters on
their way to Hogwarts

AJ also had friends over on Sunday and ended up ordering wings and fries, of which Sophie had some. She enjoyed dipping the fries into the ranch dressing so much that she started dipping everything into it, including her orange slices. And she must have really loved it too cause she didn't just do it once, she repeated it several times.

Happy Christmastime officially!

Lessons in Baking: Cornbread (AND!) Cooking: Brunswick Stew

This wasn't a huge endeavor and and wasn't too special so I didn't think to document anything until it was about over. And it's just as well because I wasn't too impressed with either of them, but they were okay.

I LOVE soups and stews and I could eat them at any time of year, but I know they're better crowd pleasers in the fall and winter, and since the weather has finally turned I decided to get on it. I originally thought to wait to make it until next Monday or Tuesday since there's rain in the forecast, but it's Debbie and Sophie's birthdays so they probably want something more exciting than my experiments.

So I found a recipe for "Brunswick Stew" which, I had no idea what that was exactly, but seemed like a good enough stew to try. Apparently it's "a tomato-based stew generally involving local beans, vegetables, and originally small game meat such as squirrel or rabbit, though today often chicken." (Spoiler alert: I used chicken.) It was fine, but it didn't seem to have too much unique taste or seem much different than anything other than a generic stew. It did have a slight kick to it because I put in a little too much cayenne, but that was about it. I will said I learned that celery seeds as a spice exists and I loved what they added to the flavor and aroma at the very beginning when it was just onions and potatoes and spices. Likely going to incorporate that more often.

This was after the squirrel (I mean, chicken)
was added

I made cornbread to go with it, which was my first time doing that too. (And where I realized that I should have looked at the serving amounts before I made either of these because it was wayyyy too much for 3 1/2 people, even for a day or two with leftovers!)

The cornbread was fine, but like the stew, nothing very impressive or memorable, just fine. The recipe called for 3/4 cup of sugar and I'm absolutely appalled at how much sugar goes into everything, so I'm often cutting it back, although not too much because I'm nervous the recipe may need sugar for chemical reactions and not just taste, so I took this one down to just 1/2 cup instead, but I don't think that's what made this just whatever.

Cornbread prep

Finished product

Well, you win some you lose some. At least it was pretty easy and good to know I could probably recreate it in a pinch, and I learned about celery seeds.