Make this for thanksgiving!

Ok sorry for starting off a little on the blunt side but seriously – you need to make this for your family and yourself.  As a special request post today I am bringing you the brussel sprout recipe from our thanksgiving feast that so many of you emailed about and are dying to try.

Not everyone loves brussel sprouts, not everyone is a big fan of plums but put these two together with the crunch of a pine nut and the sweetness of a maple glaze and I honestly think nothing else matters.  The texture and flavor profile in this dish is stunning.  Can you believe I said stunning?  Yeah I guess you are right…. I am a bit of a flake at times so it is not that uncommon.

Enough horsing around here, I am going to give you the recipe, show you a couple of pictures and almost twist your arm to try this recipe.  You will NOT be disappointed.  I Promise.

Ingredients

• Brussel sprouts – 1 1/2 pounds, similar sizes if able.
• Olive oil – 2 Tbsp.
• Salt – 1/2 Tsp.
• Fresh ground black pepper – 1 Tsp.
• Cayenne pepper, ground, 1/4 Tsp.
• Plums – 3/4 lb,
• 4 Tsp. pine nuts
• 1/3 Cup maple syrup

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400 F
2. Clean, prep and half brussel sprouts. Remove loose leaves, cut through stem to half larger sprouts, and cut a cross into the stem of the larger sprouts. This should allow the different part of the sprouts to cook at the same rate.
3. Coat well with olive oil then add salt as well as pepper and cayenne as desired.
4. Roast in preheated oven for about15 minutes. This will vary slightly with the average size of the sprouts.
5. During the initial roasting slice ripe plums into wedges and remove pits. Try to keep the wedges about the same size of the brussel sprouts.
6. Toast pine nuts in a dry pan till slightly brown and aromatic.
7. Reserve 1 tsp pine nuts and grind or mash the remaining into a paste. A mechanical girder will work, but avoid a used coffee grinder. A mortar and pestle will work best.
8. After 15 minutes add to the plums to the partially cooked brussel sprouts and mix before returning to the oven for a further 15 minutes.
9. Heat the maple syrup to a slow boils and add the paste of pine nuts and mix.
10. Pour syrup over roasted plums and sprouts and mix well.
11. Serve warm
12. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Proportions can be changed or altered with ease depending on what is available and if you do not have maple you could substitute honey and the same goes for the pine nuts.  Use what you have on hand.

So there you have it… a must try with brussel sprouts for your next holiday dinner, your next week night dinner, maybe a snack on Saturday night, or just something you make and let me know how it turned out.  I am excited for you guys to try this because I am confident you will love it.  Have a great weekend and a super Friday.  Talk to you on Monday.

Take care

zesty

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Happy Monday to you! Canadian Thanksgiving here at home, Columbus day in the US and what I think is a regular Monday in the rest of the world. I have a special post for you today. Not only do I have a thanksgiving recap from the zesty in laws on Saturday night I have a cheesecake that Sister in Law zesty made that will blow your mind. Do you get excited about food like I do? When I saw the spring form pan makes it way to the table at around 7:36pm Atlantic time on Saturday night, I may have gotten a few chills down my back with excitement. Spring form in my simple mind means cheesecake. Cheesecake means HOLY YUM.

This was know exception.  Pumpkin Marble Cheesecake! Yeah I know  – ridiculous.  I could not wait to sink my fork into this piece of work.  But give me a minute and I will tell you how she made it.  She altered the recipe slightly from all recipes and the details are below.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Cups crushed gingersnap cookies
• 1/2 Cup finely chopped pecans
• 1/3 Cup butter, melted
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 Cup white sugar, divided
• 1 Tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1 Cup canned pumpkin
• 3/4 Tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 Tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 Tsp. ground cloves
• 1/4 Tsp. allspice

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a medium bowl, mix together the crushed gingersnap cookies, pecans, and butter. Press into the bottom, and about 1 inch up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan. Bake crust 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Set aside to cool.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, and vanilla just until smooth. Mix in eggs one at a time, blending well after each. Set aside 1 cup of the mixture and place in the fridge.
3. Blend 1/4 cup sugar, pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg into the remaining mixture.
4. Spread the pumpkin flavored batter into the crust, and drop the plain batter by spoonfuls onto the top.
5. Swirl with a knife to create a marbled effect.
6. Bake 55 minutes in the preheated oven, or until filling is set. Run a knife around the edge of the pan.
7. Allow to cool before removing pan rim.
8. Chill for at least 4 hours before serving.
9. ENJOY!

This is my small portion.... do note the butter tart pie that was also amazing! Maybe I will share that later on this week for you to try.

Zesty Tip: Zesty in law did mention that putting the extra one cup of mixture aside in the fridge was something she would do again.  Also remember with spring form pans and cheesecake, always wait until the cake has cooled before removing.  makes life easier.

OK, so as you can see that was delicious… and I realize I started backwards with the dinner recap.  But that is OK.  I am going to do a picture recap of the entire meal right now so you can enjoy in all it’s beauty.  I will start off with a picture of the menu so you can related to the pictures.  If you want any recipes just let me know in the comments and I will get them for you.

As you can see, this is no ordinary turkey dinner that you would have on Thanksgiving. This is high end folks and I know that I am super lucky to be part of this so bear with me and get thru this masterpiece.

Brussels prior to plating. This could win an award for taste

Parsnips prior to hitting the wood oven

rumbling beets getting ready for the big dance

A little stuffing.... oh dear I can feel my pants getting tight again

Caramelized onions that you could add to whatever you wanted.

An action pea shot... before the bacon.

Honestly, these brussel sprouts! Unbelievable!

WOW, as I review these pictures, I am hungry again and think back to how amazing this dinner was.  I am actually going to make some chocolate chip pancakes for the kiddos here now and than maybe do some house work before heading to Momma Zesty’s for another turkey day.

Have a great day wherever you are in the world and I will come back on Wednesday for more excitement.

Take care

zesty

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Happy Friday!  With Thanksgiving fast approaching in the US (I forgot to do this post for the Canadian Thanksgiving), I thought this would be a great time to quickly go through my favorite eats at Thanksgiving.

First off I will start with saying that it was really hard to limit this post to 5 items because I truly love everything about thanksgiving.  But here goes:

1. Turkey

This really does have to be one of my favorite meats to eat. I love turkey with all the fixings and even in sandwiches, soups and casseroles.

2.  Fig and Maple Brussel Sprouts

Recently introduced to me this year, this dish was a knockout! I mean the combination of flavors and textures were over the moon.

3. Homemade Cranberry Sauce

A classic yet one of my favorite side dishes with turkey. You can find out how to make this easy delicious dish.

4. Turkey Dressing/Stuffing

A true family favorite for sure.  You have to be quick to this bowl to ensure you get some.  A little turkey, a little dressing and a touch of cranberry.  What a bite!  This is also great on a turkey sandwich.  Not the most healthy of choices but… can you really worry about that around this time of year?

5. Sticky Date Pudding

I great dessert after a big dinner. I love the combination of warm caramel sauce coupled with the cool ice cream sitting a top a super moist cake. I sometimes classify this as heaven! This sticky date pudding is delicious.

Now Tell Me Yours!

This is where I want everyone that reads this post to come out of the wood work and mention at least one of your favorite foods around Thanksgiving. I think it will be fun and I just realized that I left my favorite sweet potato dish out of the top 5. Very shocking but that just goes to show how much I like food! Ok I better run to the flooring store and pick out grout. I will talk to you on Monday. Have a great weekend.

I am doing a big food demonstration tomorrow morning for a large group of people so I will be sure to let you know how it goes. The topic I am focusing on is – Not so traditional Christmas foods and ways to prepare them.

Talk to you Monday.

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty

Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers out there.  This past weekend was action packed to say the least.  Saturday included some work at the house site, taking a load to the dump, and a super Thanksgiving Dinner.  It didn’t end there, to close out the night  Mrs. Zesty and I hit the dance floor during a wedding reception we were invited to.

That was only Saturday which I know is likely hard to imagine…. but Sunday was equally as exciting.  We were invited to a family picnic by our house builders.  It was really nice of them to do that and we had a great time.  The weather was very nice for a change and the kids had a great time running around and playing. The food looked amazing and I did have a sample of the seafood chowder.  I didn’t want to pig out too much because we had plans to have another turkey dinner with my Family.

I kind of have a hodge podge post for you today because I was unsure how to structure it (the whole week for that matter).  What I thought would be a great idea is to have a “Turkey Feast Week“.  This week will include fantastic turkey creations from kicked up vegetable dishes, homemade cranberry, mustard pickles, amazing dressing, melt in your mouth turkey and of course a couple of killer desserts.

With that said, I am going to start the week of with a glimpse at the full meal deal and some random shots throughout the cooking process.

As I mentioned on Friday, we were going to attempt to go apple picking on Saturday if the weather was fine – the weather was not fine!  Poured rain all day on Saturday so we are attempting to go today.  I will keep you posted and may intervene with an apple post.

Before I start off this fun post I need to announce the three lucky winners of the POM Tea Giveaway.

Winners

Comment 36: Tiffany

I have always want to try these…I told some co-workers about the giveaway.

Comment 16: Melissa
I just told 10 of my co-workers about the giveaway and your site! Will be linking back next…

Comment 30: Low
Hey Zesty! I just gave you a tweet out! Is that proper Twitter lingo? Something tells me it’s not, but you know what I mean.

For all the winners, contact me with your mailing address and I will get your coupon delivered.

Turkey Day

Without giving away some great recipes today, I am going to share with you some shots I took throughout the day on Saturday.  I will get into the details and recipe specifics later this week.  I am so excited about the line-up I am finding it hard not to post them all at once.

I hope you have a super Monday and if it is a holiday for you – please enjoy it.  I am heading out to the house today to hang with the builders and maybe help them if I can.

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty