recipes

KN, p. 91 “Happy Thanksgiving from the Kerrians!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s easy to be thankful when life is going well. If there is plenty of love to warm your heart, your wallet has enough in it to pay the bills on time, everyone in the family is healthy on the same day, your home is warm and dry…then that’s a happy life to the average guy or gal.

Not everyone has an easy time of it. Some families go through a divorce, a spouse passes away, a family member loses a job, the bank wants to foreclose just at the time when you need a sound roof to sleep under more than ever – maybe a lengthy illness puts a strain on the pocketbook.

Recent hurricanes have left hundreds of people homeless. Wildfires and tornadoes across the country this past year ripped many families’ lives apart.

Sheila and I have friends who’ve lived through both extremes – one year all smiles and parties and new bikes – the next year a disaster because his company closed the local plant, a good-paying job was lost and all the savings went into caring for a really sick daughter who had Lymes Disease. They came close to losing the house, but the banker had other foreclosures ahead of theirs. They got lucky.

What was amazing to everyone who watched them go through the tough time, was that the family was still thankful. Yes, they were struggling, but if you asked them about their great attitude, they said that they had each other, they had caring friends who supported them with occasional dinners, they had help with the house repairs, had been incredibly fortunate up until the rough patch of a year, and they had their faith.

That’s kinda humbling. They never seemed bitter about a bum deal with the job, they were always hopeful about the daughter (she pulled through) and they clung to each other rather than fighting about what could not be controlled with their finances.

So, here’s what Sheila and I are thankful for:

1.     We have each other and that will never change.

2.     We have friends that would help if we asked and we would do the same for them.

3.     We have a solid house with enough space for family dinners and football parties.

4.     We have enough cash in our pockets to pay the bills on time and a little left over so that we can go out to dinner or even take a vacation.

5.     We can each have fun without the other – I play golf and Sheila plays tennis, but it’s great to know that at the end of the day, the other one will listen to the ‘war stories,’ share the best/funniest moments, but also be there for the lousy times.

6.     I am seriously thankful that Sheila is a great cook.  Seriously.

7.     We are really thankful that there are so many people who read Kerrian’s Notebook and like it. And come back to read it again and again. Ya make us smile, K.N. friends old and new, near and far, with your comments on the site and your great emails.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! In case you didn’t guess, we’re having pie for dessert. There’s going to be a big crowd, so Sheila made my favorite chocolate cheesecake and that white sweet potato pie I love. A slice of each would be a very good way to finish the dinner. Along with a strong cup of coffee, of course.

Drop by if you get a chance. There’s some sweet tea (or coffee) waiting for you. If you get lucky, there might even be some pie.   🙂

 

*Photos and recipes by Patti Phillips

 

 

 

Save

KN, p. 91 “Happy Thanksgiving from the Kerrians!” Read More »

KNR, p. 126 “75 Second Mookies”

 

I’ll admit it. I’ve got a sweet tooth. That’s not a secret, but the doc says I should drop ten pounds and that means cutting back on calories. No more eating a dozen cookies in one evening, or having two of those amazing chocolaty chocolate muffins for breakfast, or several of the Vegetarian Detective’s super brownies at one sitting. I could have gotten away with extra helpings of everything before I got sidelined from my very active job, but no more.

 

We plan a pretty balanced menu, with lots of fruits and veggies, but it’s the extra potatoes and slices of pie that do me in. Exercise burns some of it off, but pushing away from the table is the best diet plan out there.

 

The Doc and Sheila and I came up with a way to help me lose the weight and it’s mostly about reducing the desserts. She promised not to bake batches of three dozen cookies/muffins at a time and I promised not to hound her or sneak out to the bakery. The Doc admitted that I might feel deprived if I gave up dessert completely, so the new plan could include a daily ‘something’ for my sweet tooth – just not five daily ‘somethings.’ He hinted that fruit between meals might change my cravings, but I’m hedging my bets on that.

 

So, here’s what Sheila came up with: single serving cookies. That way, there won’t be yummy leftovers calling me from the kitchen, tempting me. She tells me the idea has been around for a long time, but she never had a reason to try it before.

 

I call them mookies, because to me they’re like a cross between a cookie and a muffin. So simple to make, not a lot of cleanup involved and I can make one myself. All you need is a microwave and a few ingredients and in less than ten minutes of prep and cooking time, you’ve got a dessert. 

 

Chocolate Chip Mookie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients for Chocolate Chip Mookie

1 Tablespoon butter or margarine

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon Mexican vanilla extract

pinch sea salt

1 egg yolk

4 Tablespoons King Arthur’s cake flour

2 Tablespoons Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

 

 

Pumpkin Mookie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients for Pumpkin Mookie

1 ½ Tablespoons butter or margarine

2 Tablespoons light brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon Mexican vanilla extract

pinch sea salt

1 egg yolk

1 ½ Tablespoons organic pumpkin puree

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

4 Tablespoons King Arthur’s cake flour

2 Tablespoons Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

(Topping is frozen vanilla yogurt and a sprinkle of cinnamon)

 

 

Double Chocolate Mookie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients for Double Chocolate Mookie

1 Tablespoon butter or margarine

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon Mexican vanilla extract

pinch sea salt

1 teaspoon Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa powder

1 egg yolk

4 Tablespoons King Arthur’s cake flour

2 Tablespoons Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

 

 

Preparation for all varieties

Use a medium sized glass or ceramic mixing bowl.

Melt the butter for 20 seconds in the microwave. (Doesn’t have to be completely melted)

Add all ingredients for the chosen mookie to the melted butter.

Mix thoroughly using a fork.

Transfer mookie dough to a ramekin or other cup-sized glass or ceramic dish.

Place in microwave and cook for one minute + 15 seconds (75 seconds).

Serve immediately in the ramekin.

The ramekin will be hot, so handle with care.

 

 

 

 

*Photos by Patti Phillips

 

 

 

KNR, p. 126 “75 Second Mookies” Read More »

KN, p. 128 “Thanksgiving is a time to…”

 

Chestnut-Sausage Stuffing

 

Pumpkin Mookie

 

 

 

 

We love to celebrate Thanksgiving in the USA. We travel for hours by train, bus, car, and plane to spend the day with relatives and friends. We Skype, jam the phone lines and cell towers with calls to people we won’t get to see in person that day. We buy exotic foods we’ve never eaten before, and try out new recipes to dress up the green beans.

 

Food shopping becomes an event to be feared. Will the store have enough cranberries/pie crusts/sweet potatoes?  Will they have a big enough/small enough turkey? Did we leave anything off the list that we’ve been adding to for days? We load the grocery carts as if we’re stocking up for the entire neighborhood for a month and are willing to stand in line, even if at any other time, we would not have the patience to do so.

 

For some, Thanksgiving is a time to eat out and avoid the challenge of roasting the bird. For others, it’s the highlight of cooking for the year – who can forget Aunt Edith’s food extravaganza for fifty cousins and assorted strangers in 2009? I have no idea what some of that food was and I stuck to the stuff I recognized.

 

On Wednesday evening, Sheila and I will help our church deliver cooked turkeys and the trimmings to needy families in the area. The next day, the Kerrian household will celebrate Thanksgiving with a sit down dinner, including the chestnut-sausage stuffing and pumpkin mookies. There will be eight of us this year. Yup, just eight. All the kids are grown, with families of their own and obligations of their own with their own in-laws and we don’t try to gather the crowd that day. Then, on Friday and Saturday, we plan to make the rounds at houses of other branches of the family, eat leftover turkey, hug the new babies, and have a slice of pie.

 

Thanksgiving is a time to say thanks for:

  • Family
  • Friends
  • Good health
  • Enough food to eat
  • Enough money to pay the bills
  • Heat
  • The freedoms we enjoy
  • The fabulous Kerrian’s Notebook community that now stretches to four continents. We are so grateful to have been able to share the stories with you during the past seven years and hope to share more in the future.

 Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!

 

 

*Photos and recipes by Patti Phillips

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KN, p. 128 “Thanksgiving is a time to…” Read More »

Scroll to Top