Thanksgiving is Coming, and Maybe You Want Carrot, Not Pumpkin, Soup

Yesterday I posted a quick easy pumpkin soup recipe that would be perfect to kickstart your Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe you liked the idea, but not that particular soup. WELL, here I am to solve your dilemma. I give you.... Coconut Carrot Ginger Soup! A little more work, but still not that hard.

Check it out! http://yellowfishblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/coconut-carrot-curry-soup.html

Thanksgiving is Coming, and you need this Pumpkin Soup to Kick Things Off!

Cooking for Thanksgiving is stressful, and one of the big stressors is that oven space becomes a hot commodity, what with stuffing and sweet potatoes and turkeys all taking up space, that oven fills up fast. This soup goes together in a flash, just uses the stove, and could be a really good starter for your Thanksgiving feast!

Give it a shot! http://yellowfishblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/ten-minute-pumpkin-soup.html

Thanksgiving is Coming, and No One Wants Rolls- You Want Sage Apple Cornbread!

Amidst the awesome feast that is Thanksgiving are some slightly less awesome things, including the obligatory dinner rolls. You might not really want it, but you kind of have to have it. I actually had the great fortune to have a cousin marry someone with a delicious family roll recipe, so we are in good shape, but if you're just running past the grocery store at the last minute, this might improve things a bit.

(ignore the beans. cornbread is one thing, but cold bean salad for Thanksgiving is just crazy)

These rolls have all the flavors you're looking for in something for Thanksgiving- sage, corn, seasonal apples, it's perfect! 

Check it out! http://yellowfishblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/sage-apple-cornbread.html

Thanksgiving is Coming, and You Want THIS Awesome Fresh Cranberry Ginger Relish

When you think of cranberry sauce, do you think of a gelatinous mold, still shaped like the can? Do you think of something that you take a tiny obligatory amount of and then leave secretly on the plate?

Well, feast your eyes on this...

What's that? fresh, vibrant, tart, delicious cranberry lemon ginger relish.

I got the idea from my Mom, who sent me this recipe, which is actually a little bit similar to our traditional family recipe. The family recipe for cranberry salad is based on the same general idea but also involves raspberry jello. Yes. I said jello. It is a gloriously 1950's fandango of a recipe and I could eat it 365 days a year. This, however, is a little easier, does not involve a jello mold (or, cooking sherry!), so is a little less controversial, and tastes awesome. I modified it from the original version, in part out of a lack of candied ginger, which the original calls for.

Here is my version:
-1/2 package fresh cranberries (the other half went into pumpkin scones!)
-1 granny smith apple
-1/4c unsalted almonds
-a plug of fresh ginger, about 2 inches long
-zest of one lemon
-1/4 c sugar (let it sit a bit, add more if you like).

Basically, just chop up each big ingredient (apple, cranberries, almonds) in the food processor. Do NOT process too long- you want some texture, here. For the ginger, peel it, and first chop it up as well as you can- those fibers won't really get food processed that easily. Then throw it in while you chop the berries so it can get a bit finer.

After you combine it, let it sit for a few hours for all of the flavors to meld.

This stuff is really good- the combo of the ginger and the lemon and the tart fresh berries is so good. The apples add a little sweetness (which is why I cut the sugar in half) and some crunch. This gives all the cranberry goodness you could want, without any of the corn syrup or other bad stuff that comes in the prepackaged sauce. 

You could eat this with turkey, or just go hard core and eat it in a salad, which is what I've been doing all week!

Thanksgiving is Coming, and you need this Pumpkin Ginger Crumble Pie!

So, we all know how it goes when jobs are getting doled out for Thanksgiving-- the real experts get the  turkey, the person with the old family recipe that is the most full of marshmallows gets the sweet potatoes, the total rookie gets the green vegetable, the person who can't cook at all goes and buys some rolls, and somewhere in the middle is the pumpkin pie. You have to be able to bake reasonably well, but let's get real, there is a perfectly good recipe on the side of the pumpkin can, so it's not all that hard.

BUT. I am going to help all of you middle of the pack pumpkin pie makers, and show you how to make a seriously awesome pie that will blow them out of the water.

I give you.... Pumpkin Ginger Crumble Pie (originally posted in 2009, man alive, this thing is practically vintage.)

(see it lurking tantalizingly in the foreground?)

Check it out! http://yellowfishblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/pie-and-triumphant-return.html

DIY Cover-that-lamp-up Chandelier

Now, I mentioned a while ago that something was afoot and I'm not going to lie, since then I've been pretty busy what with conferences and such, so I only just now got it together.

Basically, ALL of the light fixtures in my apartment look like this:

And I hate them.

However, since I'm renting I'm a little limited in what I can do to about it. Once I had pimped my hallway with the new paintings  (which have gotten almost 900 pins on Pinterest!), I thought it could also use a new light. The side benefit of this is that if it looked really awful, it would be in the hall not the living room. I looked at a lot of options, and was particularly taken with these faux capiz shell chandeliers that you make with wax paper (http://freshly-picked.com/how-to-make-a-chandelier/). My only concern was, you know, burning down my apartment by essentially attaching a giant wick to one of my light fixtures. So, I continued to look for something less flammable.

I ended up deciding to go with a cluster of glass balls- sort of industrial but also sort of fun. Here are my supplies (except, twice as many ornaments).

Here is what I used (I'm pretty proud of hacking this together)

-- a metal plant hanger, from Home Depot (sometimes these have removable moss in them).

-- clear ornaments from Michaels. Now, I used plastic ones, which were on 30% off, and which were cheaper than the glass ones. I have one of those super eco friendly spiral lightbulbs so I don't believe heat will be an issue, plus the plant hanger prevents them from being too close to the bulb

-- monofilmament line, which I found in the beading area (again at Michaels) 

-- a glue gun

-- small white metal screw hooks

First, take off the chain the plant hanger hangs from, make a necklace, hang something else, do whatever- you won't use it here. Then, what you're going to do is tie the monofilament in double or triple knots (that stuff is slippery!) around parts of the plant hanger wire. Glue each knot onto the wire with a little blob of glue- this prevents all the balls from sliding to the middle, and lets you have ones that are hanging from the center of some of the wires. In order to attach the ball to the monofilament line, first pop off the little metal hanger on the bulb (it will look less clean with those on- you want all glass). Then, squirt a small blob of glue on the inside of the curve of the little neck sticking out of the ball. You'll have to take the end of the line you're dealing with (trimmed to the length you want), and stick it in the glue blob. This part takes patience, you will have to hold it still there, until the glue is hard. Sometimes you might have to add another little bit of glue if the line pops out.

Use variable length lines, then repeat, and repeat, and repeat.

Here are the first few:

And here is a much later stage:

You're going to want to periodically turn it over and hold it up so you can see where the balls fall, and where the gaps are. Be sure also that they don't only hang low, but that they go all the way up to the top edge or else you'll be able to see the lightbulb through the top. I fell into this trap and then had to hang the whole thing up while I took a break because I was sick of gluing. (I feel like with all this balls hanging low talk I'm just setting myself up for joke after joke, but I'm really trying to just breeze right on past it - could you tell?)

For the light fixture itself, you'll need to unscrew the brass knob and then take that and the glass off. To hang it, I came up with something I'm pretty convinced was a very clever solution. Basically, I held the plant hanger up, centered it, and marked with a pencil 4 spots on the perimeter. Then I screwed little hooks in at each spot:

You might have to twist them a bit in order to get the thing hung up, but once you do that, it's very stable and you really don't notice the hooks at all.

Now, the tough part is that this is REALLY HARD to take pictures of. In real life the hall is very bright, but the light is nicely refracted (more like the picture below, but in the picture below it's hard to see the light). You can definitely see where the lightbulb is, and some of the black wires, but I kind of like the sort of industrial-ish vibe that it creates. I wish you couldn't see the brass edge of the lamp, but since it is so close to the rim of the plant hanger, it might look like it belonged, if I didn't know that it had been there already.

Here you can see it in context:

So, I think if you have something you want to cover up, this is a good way to go- it definitely changed the whole look of the hall to have something more exciting up but when I move out I can just unscrew it and replace the old light like nothing happened. Magic!