Giving Thanks With Roommates

The tests have temporarily subsided and the work load has been paused as we enter into fall break. To celebrate this much needed relief from academic insanity i will be returning home to New York to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with my family. Before parting Boulder my roommates and I wanted to jump start the holiday by cooking thanksgiving dinner together. My roommates consist of three other girls plus myself , we also share our triplex with two other units consisting of four boys in each unit who we also invited to dinner. So here we are my roommates and I who had never cooked an entire thanksgiving dinner on own before cooking dinner for fourteen people, let the games begin. ( I will only be featuring a few of the recipes the others will be posted after making thanksgiving dinner i make with my family).

Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

  

what you will need:

I doubled the recipe to make two pies, but the original calls for:

2 ( 8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 cup homemade whipped cream

Directions:

1. preheat the oven to 325 degrees

2. in a large bowl combine the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. beat until smooth. blend in one eggs at a time. remove one cup of batter and spread into bottom of crust; set aside. ( before adding to the pie i recommend taking a little egg and brushing it over the pie crust and putting it in the oven for 5 minutes it makes the crust crunchy).

3. add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter in the crust.

4. bake in preheated oven for 30- 40 minutes or until center is almost set. don't worry if there are cracks when you refrigerate it they will close up. allow to cool, then refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight, i recommend over night but if your in a crunch 3 hours should do the trick. garnish with whipped cream when serving. Enjoy! remove from fridge about an hour prior to serving, this was one of the biggest hits at our gathering! recipe adapted from http://thegirlwhoateeverything.blogspot.com

Baked Artichokes with Mushroom Stuffing

This is an all time classic, I cook it every year at home for thanksgiving so i had to share it with the roommates. I wish i got a better pic of the finished product. 

What you will need:

4 artichokes

juice of  1 lemon

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic chopped

2 shallots chopped

1/2 cup chopped fresh mushrooms

3 tablespoons chopped parsley

1 table spoon chopped fresh mint 

salt and pepper 

1/3 cup fine dried bread crumbs

4 slices bacon

2 cups chicken stock

directions:

1. preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. steam artichokes, cut off the entire steams of the artichokes so they will sit upright cut 1 inch off the top of each artichokes and the remove the touch outer leaves. place the articokes upright in the saucepan and add lemon juice. reduce heat to medium, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

2. remove the artichokes and invert to drain well. when cool enough to handle, gently separate the leaves of each artichokes to expose the prickly choke. using a spoon, scoop out the choke. set the artichokes aside.

3. heat 2 table spoons of the oil in a frying pan over medium heat, add the garlic, shallots and mushrooms and saute until soft, about 2 minutes. add 2 tablespoons of the parsley, the mint and salt and pepper to taste. mix in the bread crumbs.

fill each artichoke with an equal amount of the mixture. warp a pice of bacon around the waist of the artichokes and secure with a toothpick. place upright  in a baking dish and pout the remaining 1 tablespoon oil around them. pour in in the stock. bake until the artichokes are tender about 30 minutes. Enjoy! ps. you can prepare this recipe ahead of time and bake the artichokes prior to serving.

there will be much more to come, as the holiday progresses and I am finally home and have all the time in the world!

-Snacks

Food for thought:

 Don't cook a turkey upside-down, a given right? well somehow our turkey ended up in the oven upside-down don't ask... and to top it off someone who still remains unknown accidentally shut the oven off for 2 hours. So once we realized the oven had been off for two hours we also realized the turkey was upside down and it was 7:3o and the guests were supposed to arrive in 3o minutes. To say the least our turkey was quite rare and provided each person with very little meat. regardless it was a learning experience and a good time, you always have to start somewhere and learn from you mistakes.