Skip to main content

Thanksgiving 2014 - A Delicious Recap

By

The Holiday season is officially upon us. As the manic 'shopping' season get underway, I just got over clearing out all the dishes from my food coma inducing Thanksgiving feast.
Thanksgiving must be the most festive non-denominational holiday in the US, irrespective of religion, social status, geographic location, Everyone gathers around as a family to celebrate and eat. and eat, and then fill up on dessert and coffee!
 For me, Its an opportunity to shift to high gear and get cracking on experimenting with the flavors of Fall ingredients - Pumpkins, cranberries, apples.

This year, I volunteered to test a 10 cup stack n'snap food processor from Hamilton Beach and I received a package last Monday. While my kids had a little spat over what the packaging carton would be converted into, (a cloning machine vs. a car), I took the opportunity to explore the new gadget.. 


My first food processor was a Hamilton Beach which was a perfect workhorse until a little piece of the jar snapped off. Turns out that piece was crucial in completing the safety circuit so the gadget would not work without it.

One of the first things that I noticed about the new machine was that there was no sliding  or any king of shearing action required  to lock the jar onto the part housing the motor. the jar slides down on the motor and the spindle on which the blade is fitted is airtight (other brands have a doughnut hole shaped design which can leak). The machine is simple and uncomplicated, One disc that is used for both shredding and slicing, and a large S blade that handles all crushing and pureeing jobs with ease. The best part ? the blade stays put & doesn't drop out when pouring the food out.

I ran the machine for almost every dish I made for thanksgiving and it executed the tasks smoothly. You know, the way it amazes you that you take the entire process for granted without going through the anxiety that comes with trying something for the first time. I definitely look forward to have this appliance by my side for my culinary adventures.
The Stack n' Snap food processor retails at $59.99 at retailers in the US of A and from the Hamilton Beach's site.

My thanksgiving table this year had more dishes than I have photographs for. That's what happens when mother Nature decides to literally 'rain on the parade'. Ambient natural light is practically non existent for taking good photographs, not to mention that the sun bids adieu by 5:00 pm. other than the sweet potato salad and the roasted brussels sprouts, the new food processor was indispensable in making them,

The dishes:

Cranberry Orange Zest Rasam (A clear soup for my 5 year old daughter)

A Roasted Pumpkin Biryani spiced with Vadouvan, a French spice blend that traces its origin to the Southern Indian state of Pondicherry.


Diced and baked sweet potatoes tossed into a salad with pomegranates, Vidalia onions and Pomegranates, a hint of jalapenos and a drizzle of lime.


Brussels Sprouts, roasted to perfection after being marinaded briefly with Annaparabrahma's Malvani Masala.


and not one but two pies, an egg-less, chai spiced pumpkin pie baked with a gingersnap crust, topped with home made spun sugar 'sculptures'.


And lastly, an Apple Pecan tart spiced with ginger, cinnamon & cloves.



It makes no sense to cram five recipes into one blog post, so I plan to share those in the next five post.

Bon Appetit!
Labels:

Comments

  1. shreyaDecember 1, 2014 at 3:59 AM

    I am not very fond of pomegranates and pumpkin but the dish seems to be yummy so its better I try once cooking the same...Once I am done I will surely share the feedback with you.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I'd love to hear feedback from you, your thoughts, ideas and suggestions.

Popular posts from this blog

Unusual Ingredients - Unripe Blueberry Achar

By
T'was just another Summer afternoon, The kids were home for the summer holidays, getting bored, there's only so much summer reading you can force them to do, and the Indian mommy in me could no longer caution them against going out in the afternoon  (I've solemnly refused to use that horrid excuse of 'You'll get a dark tan if you stay out in the mid day sun'), and so we decided to head out to Terhune orchards for the blueberry picking. The kids never say no to outings to the orchard, they LOVE the trip there, the cute yellow dogs and the cats,  the chocolate crinkle and Snickerdoodle cookies, and they positively trip over grabbing buckets and heading joyfully towards the berry bushes... ... And there it ends, the younger one loses herself in her delightful imaginary worlds where she probably thinks she's hacking her way through virgin Amazon jungle, sighing at every branch that brushes against her legs, picks 2 or 3 berries as if they were a new as
6 comments
Read more

Sputtering back....

By
I seriously feel like this scene from the movie 3 idiots .. remember this one? The way I kept racking up drafts and eventually stopped doing that as well. Lulled into complacence by the quick high from Instagram posts. Recipe measurements hastily scribbled into a Moleskine notebook faithfully depending upon my moods. The truth is that I keep over thinking the backstories needed to make the post more interesting while in reality the truth is that ideas and inspirations just occur spontaneously (like little itches , sneezes or twitches) whenever the opportunity happens to strike. Some really cool ideas that scare the beejeezus out of me and yet prove to be utterly delightful and simple in the end. Others, that seem so trivial that I feel it wouldn't be worth crowing about -- even if there are enough other recipes in that genre that get so much publicity simply because the author happens to have the right marketing knack. So in the past 4 years that I've been
3 comments
Read more

Product Review: Ninja Mega Kitchen system and a recipe for Masala Dosa

By
 One of the biggest reasons for attending conferences is the priceless experience of meeting fellow bloggers and get an invaluable exposure to all things  culinary. This includes vendors with new products to savor and get inspiration from. I had no complaints about whatever appliances I had for making traditional Dosa (Traditional South Indian rice & lentil crepes) batter, a sturdy tabletop stone grinder that you could add the Urad dal, turn the timer on , and 30  minutes later, come back to a container full of fluffy, batter with the consistency of whipped egg whites. The The cons of this is the cleaning up, of the various parts, the roller, the grinding bin, the multiple trays on which the rollers need to be placed while transferring the rice & lentil batter, the invariable drips of thick batter on the counter.... you get the point, It takes quite a bit of time. I was pleasantly surprised when the appliance company, Ninja asked me if I'd like to try any of their
14 comments
Read more