Simple, from Abroad Thanksgiving Recipes

November 30, 2016 by Mackenzie

Most of you know this blog started out as a cooking blog. Cooking is my thing. I love to browse for recipes, shop for ingredients, and spend a whole day in the kitchen. Since I’ve been in Indonesia on my two Fulbright grants, I’ve done a lot less cooking then I used to, and my blog turned from a cooking blog to a travel blog.

However, this year I’ve been much more adventuresome in the kitchen. Last weekend we hosted a Friendsgiving complete with mashed potatoes, stuffing, and pumpkin pie! I scoured the internet for simple ingredient/stovetop recipes, seeing as we don’t have a stove, and as there were all a success, I figured they might come in handy for future Fulbrighters/expats wanting to experience a Thanksgiving of their own, but with very limited resources and ingredients. Thus, here are our recipes!

Creamy, Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Recipe Type: side dish

Cuisine: Thanksgiving

Author: Mackenzie, adapted from Alton Brown

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 50 mins

Serves: 10-12 servings

An easy, but delicious mashed potato recipe. Proportions edited from Alton Brown’s recipe – http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/creamy-garlic-mashed-potatoes-recipe.html

Ingredients

10 medium russet potatoes
2 tablespoons salt
8 oz “cooking cream” (what we found in Indo or heavy cream/half and half if you can find it or milk if you want to be super cheap)
3 gloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 tablespoon (ish) salt

Instructions

Wash, peel, and dice the potatoes. Place in a large saucepan or wok and cover with water. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to maintain a rolling boil. Add salt. Cook for about 15-20 minutes – until the potatoes are soft and fall apart with pierced with a fork.
When potatoes are almost done cooking, heat the cooking cream and garlic over medium heat until simmering. Remove from heat and set aside.
Drain the potatoes, move to a large bowl, and mash them.
Pour the garlic cream mixture over the potatoes and mix it all together. We then moved it to a rice cooker to keep it warm while we prepared the other food. Just before serving, stir in the softened butter and additional salt, to taste.

Garlic cream sauce

The almost-finished mashed potatoes!

The original recipe for this came from Alton Brown and I only modified the proportions, and took out the parmesan cheese.

Sorry, apparently I can only add one fancy looking recipe in each post – but I want them all here so I’ll have to make do.

We based our sweet potato recipe off of this recipe from Tyler Florence. We made ours more of a mashed version, but flavor-wise it was this! (We bought non-orange sweet potatoes so it turned out really ugly and gross-looking but it was delicious so… no picture 😀 )

Our no-bake pumpkin pie was more of a challenge but in the end, it turned out to be pretty simple and delicious!

First, I bought a pumpkin, halved it, scooped out the goop, chopped it into big slices, and boiled the slices until soft.

It took about 20 minutes to get them soft and then I pulled them out, let them cool, and peeled off the skin. I stuck it in a tupperware to cool and came back to it later!

I used this recipe for a no-bake crust. We couldn’t find graham crackers here so we bought a similar type of cracker and it worked out fine (we used the Indo brown Malkist crackers). I also used less sugar than the recipe called for, per the reviews. Oh, and we couldn’t find normal size round pans so we bought smaller ones and had enough for two pies! (This recipe was enough for two smaller pies)

We followed the directions exactly – crush the crackers, mix it all together, press it into a pie pan, and refrigerate for an hour before pouring in the filling. And when we served it, we had no trouble getting it out of the pan or keeping it together – my initial concerns with a no-bake crust.

I used this recipe for the filling – it was delicious!! Gelatin is a no-no here (Muslim community) so I used a substitute, agar, instead. It came out of the package red and we were worried it would taste like strawberry… but it didn’t so don’t fret! Only other differences were fresh ginger and my pumpkin, but otherwise we followed it to a T. AND IT WAS SO GOOD. I WILL NEVER GO BACK TO CANNED PUMPKIN EVER AGAIN.

Cooking the pumpkin mixture

Ready to chill!

After pouring the filling into the pies, we put both in the refridgerator and within an hour it seemed ready to serve but we didn’t use them for another three hours or so.

The final things we made was stuffing! We were really unsure about this one since we didn’t have an oven and were worried about finding all of the ingredients. But in the end, it turned out perfect!!

We used this recipe for a stovetop stuffing. Edits:

Didn’t use a crusty loaf because we couldn’t find one. Instead we used a regular loaf of whole wheat bread (from the bakery at Hypermart) and cut it the night before and left it out to dry
1 regular onion (not 2)
Couldn’t find celery so we swapped it for two diced apples
6 cloves of garlic (not 3)
No sage (couldn’t find it)
Dried thyme, rosemary, and Trader Joe’s 21 Spices Seasoning (~1 tablespoon of each? I can’t remember)

Basically, we doubled the herby goodness. We initially made it as the recipe called for but it smelled so damn good and didn’t seem like enough so we doubled it (kinda).

We made a lucky find of thyme and rosemary seasoning the night before in a random little grocery store and that was clutch. The TJ’s seasoning Kate had brought from home.

We followed the actual directions exactly and it tasted unbelievably good. I couldn’t believe I was smelling those smells and tasting that in Kendari!

So that’s what we did! It all turned out fantastically and we were thrilled! If you want to attempt your own Thanksgiving feast, I’d recommend these recipes (and modifications!)

Orange Cranberry Sauce

December 22, 2014 by Mackenzie

Can you believe Christmas is this week? December has flown by and I can’t believe we’re here! It’s wonderful to be home with my family. I just finished reading The Vacationers and eh, it was okay. I had heard great things about it but it was pretty predictable… I guess I rarely read light, “beach” books like this so I’m not used to the lack of a complex plot 🙂 On to the next book on my list! Anyone have any recommendations to add to my list?

I have a quick post to share today – cranberry sauce is one of my favorite side dishes during the holidays. Thanksgiving or Christmas… I just love cranberry sauce on turkey or on sandwiches stuffed with leftover meat. So if you’re making some kind of meat for Christmas – why not try this Orange Cranberry sauce to go with it? It’s festive and delicious! We originally got the recipe from about.com and I’ve been making it now for several years and I love the flavor combination of sweet oranges, tangy cranberries and nutty toasted pecans!

Merry Christmas! Enjoy the time with family and friends!

Orange Cranberry Sauce

Recipe Type: Side dish

Cuisine: Holiday

Author: Mackenzie

Prep time: 25 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 3 cups

Ingredients

1 navel orange
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
4 cups fresh cranberries, rinsed
1/2 cup chopped pecans, roughly chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grate the orange peel and place grated peel in a medium saucepan. Stir in the sugar and ginger.
Juice the orange and add it to the saucepan, bringing the mixture to a simmer over medium heat. Stir frequently with a whisk, about 5-10 minutes, until the sugar is dissolved.
Meanwhile, toast the pecans in preheated oven for about 5-7 minutes, until fragrant.
When the sugar has dissolved, add the fresh cranberries. Cook, stirring often, until the cranberries begin to pop (about 5 minutes). Stir in the toasted pecans and remove from heat to cool.

Peppermint Bark Popcorn

December 18, 2014 by Mackenzie

I’m excited to be writing this post from Seattle! Woohoo! After a long day of traveling, with 2 flights, 3 mean flight attendants, 2 nice flight attendants, 1 allergic seat mate and finally 2 nice guys who put up with a sleepy, smelly puppy… we made it! She’s happy to have a yard, I’m happy to have someone else to pass the responsibilities off to and we’re both happy to be home with our momma, Tom and Spence!

Before I left, I had to proctor and grade exams for the class I’m a TA for. I knew we had a long night of grading ahead of us so I decided to bring this Peppermint Bark Popcorn as a treat to munch on all night.

I was inspired by this post from Plain Chicken and knew I had to give it a shot. I had tried making it a few times in the last week and each time was a failure! Either I didn’t let the oil get hot enough and burned the kernels before they popped or the white chocolate didn’t melt and I had clumps of chocolate in my popcorn (not complaining). But I finally figured out the trick of it and am ready to share the recipe with you! It’s really quite easy to make and is perfect for a family movie night or to wrap up as gifts for friends! Let me know what you think!

Peppermint Bark Popcorn with Homemade Popcorn

Recipe Type: Snack

Cuisine: Christmas

Author: Mackenzie

Prep time: 20 mins

Total time: 20 mins

An easy Christmas treat! I make my popcorn over the stove so I know exactly what is in it – no creepy chemicals please! Once you get the hang of it, it’s easy!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup popcorn kernels
2 teaspoons peppermint extract, divided
3 oz candy canes, crushed
1 cup melting white chocolate chips, (don’t use chocolate chips – they don’t always melt well. Buy the melting chocolate – it’s so worth it)

Instructions

In a large pot with a lid, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Important: wait until it is HOT. Drop a kernel or two into the oil, swish it around so it’s coated, put the lid on and wait for it to pop. Don’t add the rest of the kernels until this one has popped and the oil is hot enough. Otherwise, you’ll just burn your kernels and they will never pop (trust me on this).
When the first kernel has popped, add the rest of the kernels, swish them all around so they are coated in oil, put the lid on with a crack of air and watch them pop! When they have slowed down, turn the heat off and shake the pot to get the last ones to pop. Pour 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract over the popcorn and stir it in with a big wooden spoon.
While the popcorn is popping, remove the wrappers from the candy canes. Crush them by hand or in a food processor (so much easier). Pour half of the crushed candy canes over the popcorn and stir to mix.
Melt the chocolate according to package directions. Pour the remaining half of the candy canes into the white chocolate and stir. Pour the melted chocolate over the popcorn and mix well.
Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread the popcorn over it to allow the chocolate to harden.

Pear Butter

December 14, 2014 by Mackenzie

Oh, it’s been so nice to have free time again! I’ve been able to go to the gym most days or at least take a big walk with Calli, have been able to cook and join my friends for meals, watch The West Wing, and sleep! Two nights ago I fell asleep on the couch and fell asleep there again yesterday afternoon! But who cares, right? Yes, I should be working more on my thesis then I am, but hey – I’ve got a great start on it and am trying to spend at least two hours a day on it. That should give me a solid start come January when I really need to get cracking.

I head back to Seattle on Wednesday and am looking forward to spending time with my family and seeing old friends! I’ve only spent 11 days in Seattle since January so it will be some much needed family time before I venture off into the unknown come May!

This week the Coop had our annual Winter Potluck and I brought this Pear Butter with Brie and crackers. Oh my goodness, it was delicious! I found the recipe in the Weight Watcher’s Holiday magazine and was excited to have an opportunity to try it! The recipe itself is so easy to make – have you ever made homemade applesauce? It’s just like that. You cut the pears into small bite-sized pieces and boil it down with apple cider. I used an immersion blender to make it smooth and voila – a delicious and easy appetizer! It’s a perfect spread on crackers and cheese or toast, or even just to eat like applesauce!

Pear Butter

Recipe Type: Appetizer

Author: Mackenzie

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 12 servings

A great holiday appetizer! Quick, easy and only 1 WW point per 1/4 cup.

Ingredients

5 Comice pears, cored and chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 1/2 cups apple cider
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
Serve with cheese and crackers

Instructions

In a medium/large saucepan, add the chopped pears, apple cider, and the cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook over medium-high heat to get a roiling boil. Continue to cook at medium heat until the pears are soft, 10-15 minutes.
From here, you can do a couple of things. I used an immersion blender to puree the pears while still in the saucepan. It left a few small chunks but I loved it that way and it was super easy.
Alternatively, you can remove the pears and puree them separately in a food processor. Continue to simmer the remaining liquid until it reduces to a syrup. Then pour the syrup into the food processor and blend it with the pears. This will probably get you a smoother substance but I couldn’t find the Coop’s food processor so I was left with the immersion blender.
Serve with crackers and cheese for a great appetizer!

Spaghetti Squash with Thai Peanut Sauce

December 10, 2014 by Mackenzie

Happy Wednesday everyone! I can’t believe it is already December 10th – I head home for Christmas in a week! Those of you who follow me on Instagram may know that I brought my doggie out to college with me after Thanksgiving. I talked my family into letting me take her for the three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas – and boy has it been fun!

She slept on my lap on the whole (4 hour!) plane ride and while it took a few days to get used to my apartment with all its new sounds and people – we have settled in quite nicely! I take her with me almost everywhere – to (some) classes, for walks all over campus, to visit my professors, to meetings on campus, downstairs to dinner with the Coop… she loves it. Go check out my photos on instagram – and follow me to see the rest of our adventure!

I finished my classes last week and am pretty excited to have NO FINALS or any papers due this week! I’m DONE! I had a crazy last week of class with 6 papers and a final but got through it and am pretty happy to have lots of free time! Of course, that means plenty of cooking and baking! One of the first things I made was this Spaghetti Squash with Thai Peanut Sauce from Leelalicious. I wanted an easy, healthy meal that I could take on the go with me last week and this was perfect!

This recipe makes double the sauce that you need for one spaghetti squash – but it is easier to make double, and save it than only use half a can of coconut milk and figure out what to do with that. I ended up saving the second half of the sauce and buying another spaghetti squash yesterday to finish off the sauce with!

And if you’ve never made spaghetti squash, you are in for a real treat 😀 After you roast it, run your fork through the flesh to make noodle-like strings. It’s a great, healthy alternative to pasta!

Spaghetti Squash with Thai Peanut Sauce

Recipe Type: Main Course, Lunch, Dinner

Cuisine: Vegetarian, Vegan, Weight Watchers

Author: Mackenzie

Prep time: 25 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 55 mins

Serves: 4

For those of you on Weight Watchers, one serving (so 1/4 of the squash and 1/4 cup of sauce) is only 4 WW points

Ingredients

1 medium spaghetti squash
Olive Oil
Salt
1 14 oz can light coconut milk
2/3 cups peanut butter
1/8 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons red curry paste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 tablespoons crushed peanuts

Instructions

Prepare Spaghetti Squash: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Carefully halve the squash (top to bottom) and scoop out the seeds and guts. Drizzle inside with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Place cut side down on a baking sheet and roast for 30+ minutes, until flesh can be easily pierced with a fork.
Remove squash from oven and let cool. Run a fork through the flesh, scrapping the inside into “noodles.” Place noodles in a bowl until ready to add to sauce.
Combine the coconut milk, peanut butter, brown sugar, water, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, sesame oil and red curry paste in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for five minutes. Remove from heat.
In a large skillet, add the minced garlic, chopped parsley and 1/4 cup of the peanut sauce and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the squash, peanuts and 3/4 cup more sauce, stirring to coat all of the squash. Continue cooking until heated through. Garnish with parsley and more peanuts.
Store leftover sauce in a closed container in the refrigerator.

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

November 28, 2014 by Mackenzie

Happy day-after Thanksgiving! How was your holiday? Mine was fantastic – I am back in Seattle and am so happy to be with my family and friends. We had a full house – family and friends from Spokane, California, New York, Indonesia… quite the holiday!

We tried a couple of new recipes this year – the Dutch Apple Pie from Dieter’s Downfall was my personal favorite! And Smitten Kitchen’s Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Praline Sauce was to die for! Then we did all of our standards – my stepdad’s stuffing, my aunt’s mashed potatoes, these lightened up sweet potatoes… One of my favorite appetizers is my Rosemary Roasted Cashews – we only make them for the holidays because they are so addicting!

Are you ready to switch gears to Christmas? Already there? Well, today I’m diving into Christmas cookies! These Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies are probably my favorite Christmas cookies of all time! I’ve been making them with my aunt since I was little and always know it is the holidays when we make these cookies!

I’m participating in a Christmas cookies roundup with some fellow bloggers! Check out their posts after the recipe for some more holiday favorites!

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

Recipe Type: Cookies

Cuisine: Christmas cookies, dessert

Author: Mackenzie

Serves: 36 cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup turbinado sugar (or regular)
36 chocolate kisses, unwrapped

Instructions

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl with a hand mixer), beat the butter until creamy and smooth. Add the peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat to combine. Beat in the milk. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the peanut butter mixture and beat until incorporated. Cover and chill the batter for about an hour, or until firm enough to handle.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. Pour the turbinado sugar into a small bowl.
Roll the batter into 1-inch round balls and roll each ball in the sugar until thoroughly coated in sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart.
Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned. Immediately upon removing the cookies from the oven, place an unwrapped Chocolate Kiss into the center of each cookie – pressing down gently until the cookie just starts to crack. Allow to cool completely on a wire wrack.

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