Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Mr. Fruit Turkey

I confess, I am addicted to Pinterest-where users post/bookmark ideas for future use.  When I get a chance, I'm on there, drooling over as many recipes as I can.

Of course, when I saw the countless fruit turkey arrangements on Pinterest, I wanted to make one for Thanksgiving.  I had to bring something healthy to compensate for all of that pie.

Fruity glory ;) disregard the birthday cake and chocolate in back lol...
next year, I'll hopefully have time to post steps.

Make sure that you have a nice big platter, skewers, and toothpicks.
Wash all of your fruit, drain, and cut into appropriate sizes for the skewers.

The fruit used here are:
berries (raspberry & blackberry)
cantaloupe
grapes
pear
pineapple
dried cranberry eyes

Skewer your fruit pieces and set aside.

To make your turkey, lop 1/4 off the bottom of the cantaloupe so it won't roll away.
Reserve the cantaloupe piece.

Attach the pear head with 3 toothpicks.  If you buy a pear with a long neck, turn it upside down so that the  narrow end will resemble a neck and the wide end will resemble a head. Break some toothpicks for the eyes (dried cranberries) and beak (pineapple).

Cut off the leafy crown of the pineapple, trim leaves if you want it to look neater, wash, dry, and cut it in half for each turkey wing.  Affix onto each side of body with 2 toothpicks.  To cover the ugly cut end of the pineapple wings, use the reserved cantaloupe piece, and make little shoulders.  It should blend nicely with the body.  Cut little toes with the leftover cantaloupe.

Stick your skewer tail-feathers in and try to space it as evenly as possible.  Also make sure that there's room between the bottom piece of fruit and body so that it can be grabbed easily.

Leftover fruit can be placed around Mr. Turkey along with some toothpicks for those that just want a small bite.





Monday, November 19, 2012

glimpses of fall...

getting these up before winter blasts its way in.


don't wanna wait too long to catch their colors,

they all fall off too soon!


Fall isn't legit without pie: apple pie,

chicken pot pie, any pie!


The perfect warm-me-up meal for fall, a big ol pot of chili.


It's my favorite time of year.


Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Pie apples


The dark and dreary days of fall are getting to me! It is so tempting to curl up in bed but I've been doing some baking to combat that laziness.  Baking is always something to look forward to....so we're starting off with an apple pie recipe, à la apple.


Carefully slice off the tops of apples, core, and scoop the insides leaving an outer wall.  Salvage what you can from the inside minus seeds and chop it small.  If you made a big mess carving out the inside, chop up an extra apple or two to make sure you have enough filling. Add brown sugar and cinnamon to the chopped pieces, refill your apples, and top with a pie crust.  Here, I did a lattice top so it would look pretty but the apple / crust ratio tasted off, so next time, I'm just covering the whole top in crust.  Bake until your crust looks golden!

I did a mixture of tart/sweet apples.  The granny smiths held up great after baking. I had a red delicious explode because it was so soft.  Make sure you have firm apples.