Only the US would have a holiday devoted to eating

...But I am NOT complaining.

In addition to going to home for the longest period since May, I spend a lot of last week/ weekend making and eating some really delicious food. It began on Tuesday with this...

That's right. An inside-out, deep fried pizza, full of broccoli and onions. Courtosy of Kyle's hometown pizza shop. I'm not usually a big deep fried person, but I was in heaven with this. Yes, I did eat the entire thing. And no, I didn't regret one bite.

My family's thanksgiving feast was fabulous as usually. I didn't miss eating turkey at all really, and my Gram's famous stuffing recipe is conveniently vegetarian. By Saturday there were enough leftovers to justify make MORE food. My friend Mike and I whipped up a whole bunch of goodies. 

I'm not going to go through intricate detail since I'm a little strained for time (the number one thing I will not miss about college is finals). But here are some pictures and recipe links, enjoy!

Orange, Cumin, Vegetarian Chili

Betty Crocker Smores' Bars (with pumpkin spice marshmallows, peanuts, walnuts, and pecans!)

Peanut Butter, Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Best of Fall in a Single Cookie

I don't know about you, but when I read/hear anything about the flavors "pumpkin," "ginger," or "molasses" I immediately think of the months October, November, and December. And what better way to celebrate the season (/ console myself that the weather is actually getting colder now) than to make a recipe to combines all three?

Eat, Me, Delicious had posted this recipe for Pumpkin, Ginger, Molasses Cookies last Monday. And with my first few hours of the week on Friday (yeah, it was one of those weeks) I knew I had to make them. I had a suspicion I knew someone who'd be all about helping me, so I invited Kyle over to help:

(Yep, I'm super lucky, and my boyfriend actually likes baking with me. Or he's a really good liar).

I had the ingredients on hand for the most part. I was a tablespoon short on the butter, so I just added two extra teaspoons of olive oil. 

It was pretty much your basic cookies recipe. I liked that it called for whole wheat flour from the beginning. I creamed the butter and sugar, and Kyle measured and mixed the flour and spices

I didn't realize the dough was supposed to be refrigerated for an hour before baking when we started, and I was kind of short on time (FeelGood was making sandwiches for The Original Magazine's Release Party - shameless plug, I know). Instead I put it in the freezer for 20 minutes or so and that seemed to do the trick. 

Next, we rolled balls of dough in sugar and put them on the baking sheet. Kyle gets most of the credit for this since I was running around cleaning and getting ready.

I think we ended up making them larger than we were supposed to. They took almost 20 minutes per batch (vs. 10-12 min) and we only got about 2.5 dozen (instead of 3.5). However, it did give us an excuse to eat them immediately when we took them out of the oven though! (Had to make sure they were done, right?)

The sugar baked into them more than the original recipe, or at least that's what I figure from the pictures. Either way- these were delicious! (and also fantastic with ice cream, if you're feeling adventurous). Christmas cookie season is quickly approaching and I can definitely say that this recipe will be repeated.

Happy Early Thanksgiving!

..and 15 minutes later it was gone.

That got your attention, right? It's not even an exaggeration. I brought this taco dip to a FeelGood pot luck we were having and within minutes if me setting it down, there were maybe a few chipful's left. For an added bonus, it took about 20 minutes of active work to make, and almost all of that was cutting veggies. AND it was just-about vegan (ie. it would have been vegan had I put out the extra dollars for dairy free sour cream). I bookmarked the recipe ages ago in my Google reader, but I was waiting for a good occasion to make it.

Ingredients:

FeelGood errands have me in The Strip District every Wednesday, so I was able to pick up refried beans from the Mexican Grocer and get discounted veggies from Stan's.

I really don't enjoy cutting veggies... so I did that first:

I didn't end up photographing the next few steps. It really just was a matter of spreading the layers. First, the beans, than the avocado, then the taco seasoned sour cream. I didn't end up using all the taco seasoning (didn't want to burn anyone's mouth), but I did add the 3 jalapenos (the recipe called for 2-3, I was living large).

Finally, I just popped it in the oven for a little over 25 minutes. Conveniently I was still getting ready, so it had a little time to cool before I carried it to my friends place.

And then we dug in. The picture was taken mid-destruction with my rather terrible phone camera, but you get the idea.

I'm sure the Trader Joe's Flaxseed tortilla chips helped a little too (seriously though- they're like crack). I also skipped the cilantro because I knew some of the people who'd be dying to try this (Alyssa) weren't fans. In the end I forgot about the parsley substitution as well, but clearly, neither was needed :)

Halloweekend

If there's one thing I've learned in the past four years of college, it's that there is no such thing as a calm Halloween weekend. Not in Pittsburgh, at any rate. This year was even more crazy since I had been away the weekend before (read: no Halloweekend prep time). In addition the normal levels of crazy (you know, the ones related to costume shopping, increasing one's alcohol tolerance, etc.), there was a whole lot of food to be cooked. 

I won't bore you with all the detailed cooking instructions like I usually do. Instead, here's some Halloween themed food porn. Enjoy!

(more to come about that last pic, Happy November!)