T-Day, 23:00

My mom (with her access to a super big refrigerator called
"Wisconsin in November") brines her turkey every year. The
bird is very, very moist, but the skin doesn't always brown like
you might be used to. WORTH IT.

Thanksgiving is a lot like pancakes for me.  At first, I'm all excited. "Oh! Delicious seasonal food and/or pancakes! What a rare and delicious treat!"  Soon after, I'm cursing the food gods for my food-crimes, and swearing off all things Thanksgiving/pancake.  If I ever see another turkey again, I will surely die (That is, before next year when I forget all of the lessons that I learned this year like a cast member of a sitcom).

On the upshot, I got to spend Thanksgiving at home this year for the first time since I moved to California.  My mom is an awesome cook, and that means I get to be in charge of the green been casserole and the sweet potatoes... and that's all.

Love.

Light White Berry (substitute berry
with cherry). The only sweet coffee
drink that I have ever enjoyed. I even
ask for my pumpkin spice at 1/4
strength.

I'm home in Green Bay, Wisconsin until next Wednesday.  This Monday, November 28 at 9:00 AM, I'm going to appear on Living with Amy on WLUK channel 11 (if you're in the area).  I'm making Chipotle Sweet Potatoes and French Onion Soup.  French Onion Soup was the ONE thing I said specifically on this blog that I never wanted to make on TV, because chopping onions turns me into a quivering pile of goo.  It's possible that someone I went to high school with is on the production team.  It should be pretty entertaining to watch.

The next few days should be full of some delicious regional noms which I'm cut off from most of the year.  For instance, I (finally!!)  made it back to Caribou Coffee in the Minneapolis airport, which filled my heart with joy.  I hate that California doesn't have this chain.  I love Caribou from it's sweet mascot to it's knitted sweater-design cups to the fact that it isn't Starbucks.  They still care about how they treat their coffee.  Do you see the brown lids?! It's all in the details. Le sigh (Coffee nerd).

Cheap Thrills

I used to have a $50 a week coffee habit.  I had no idea.

picture via Adventures in Midwestern Living.

I had some fraud occur on my bank account a few years back, and in order to clear the whole mess up I needed to stop in the bank and go over my account with them.  The entire transaction history aside from a few stops at ATM machines (and the fraud), were from coffee shops.  All the way down. And I'm not lying to you to make some humorous point about how much I love coffee.  That's the mother loving truth.

Coffee is expensive.  Annoyingly expensive, even though I generally consider myself a plain coffee/unsweetened latte kind of girl. I'm also not willing to go without it... which I don't feel is a sign I'm addicted, but a testament to my human right to have as many cups of coffee every day as I please (they tried to make me go to rehab, I said "no, no, no").  And during the fall, there is nothing more satisfying than a pumpkin spiced anything... caffeine +5 awesomeness.

I recently stumbled across this recipe for homemade pumpkin spice coffee syrup.  I keep it in a jar, pour it on everything, by Christmas I should be a full fledged diabetic. In all seriousness, it will tick you off how cheap and easy this stuff is to make. Really, all coffee syrup is is sugar and water and flavor.  Imagine the possibilities!  You'll never have to pay 80 cents a shot for this stuff again.  Make your favorite flavor, carry it around in your purse, single-handedly destroy Starbucks.

...no, but seriously. I really dislike Starbucks. It's like the McDonald's of coffee.

Here's a list of suggestions for your favorite syrups.  The pumpkin spice recipe I lifted from a lovely little blog called Miss Make.  Please give her all the credit.  The rest are just adapted simple syrups.  Use your imagination, though.  If you want your coffee to taste like grass and Play-Doh... I'm sure dropping a bit into a simple syrup would be the way to go.

Homemade Pumpkin Spice Syrup (from Miss Make, www.missmake.com)

Ingredients
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
(optional) 1/4 c bourbon
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp vanilla (or, a good vanilla bean)

Mix all ingredients in a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil. Make sure all the sugar is dissolved before you leave this alone.  Reduce mixture to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes.

Strain through a fine mesh sieve.  Cool, store in a glass jar or bottle in the refrigerator.

Vanilla Syrup

Ingredients
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
(for french vanilla, use 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon hazelnut flavor.  Yes, that's all French vanilla is.)


Mix all ingredients in a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil. Make sure all the sugar is dissolved before you leave this alone.  Reduce mixture to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Cool, store in a glass jar or bottle in the refrigerator.

Any type of Fruit Syrup (Apple, Cherry, Lycee, raspberry, etc... IMAGINATION.)

Ingredients
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup puree of fruit of choice (stick it in the blender with some water)

Mix all ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to boil. Make sure all the sugar is dissolved before you leave this alone. Reduce mixture to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Strain through a mesh sieve, cool, and store in a jar in the fridge.



...see where I'm going with this?