A Christmas Lunch Tablescape and Cookie Exchange

Holidays are so much fun, and a great excuse to ask a few friends over for a little holiday lunch and cookie exchange.  Keeping these small and simple are my preference, and I only have to make 4 dozen cookies. The table is set in the informal area on the game table.  I like a …

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Rustic Egg Bread

I love the aroma of baking bread and there is nothing like fresh bread without preservatives.  I used to have a bread machine, but when we moved to the NC mountains, the altitude didn't allow it to work well.  Rising times take a little longer here.  Some years ago I found a recipe for a …

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Leftover Turkey – A Cornucopia of Ideas

So, how many of us will have turkey left over?  Quite a few I would guess, so I thought it was time to share some of my leftover ideas.  One thing I have done in the past was freeze cooked, leftover turkey meat in quart size zipper bags so I don't get too tired of …

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Peak Autumn Color and Thanksgiving 101 Winner

Fall color peaked this week in the NC mountains.  I took several new pictures at sunrise. The fog in the valley shows some of the layers of mountains and valley, lovely!  If you read the posts on email, pop by the blog and see the fall header, it is full of autumn color. A storm …

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Thanksgiving 101

Ah, Thanksgiving, a day devoted to a great meal shared with family and friends.   It is by far my favorite holiday, with the gorgeous color leaves outside, crisp autumn air, parades and football, a wonderful meal shared with people I love and the anticipation of the holiday season ahead.  Well, that is what it is …

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Baked Black and Great Northern Beans

Wow, it is finally fall and a perfect time for stick to the ribs comfort food.  How about a different take on baked beans?  I had black beans and Great Northern beans in the cupboard and I thought a mixture would be interesting.  And it goes great with the Butterflied Baked Chicken from the last …

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Butterflied Baked Chicken

I like baked chicken a lot, and I fix chicken in a lot of different ways.  One thing I don't like about baking a whole chicken is the juices that collect inside the chicken that take so long to be cooked.  At times most of the chicken is done, but there are still just barely …

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Apple Cake Donuts

Other than pumpkin, it is apples that have the taste of autumn.  So, here are apple donuts on a pumpkin plate.  These apple cake donuts are lightly spiced with cinnamon, and have a fresh apple flavor in a really moist donut, perfect for a weekend treat. I have been trying to get this recipe right …

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Fresh Strawberry Bread

With the harvest season in full swing, and summer winding down, the strawberries are abundant. I wanted to preserve this last taste of summer in a breakfast bread, but the only recipes I could find used frozen strawberries. I wanted to use the fresh ones, so I had to develop my own recipe. This one …

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Cranberry Cinnamon Scones

These cream scones are wonderful plain, but I wanted to make them a little more special for He Who Loves Cinnamon.  With autumn on the way, a little more spice and flavor is in order and cranberries fit the mood.   I've made the plain cream scones from a Southern Living recipe many times, so  …

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