Christmas Eve!

Well, it's been a crazy few weeks but we've made it to the end. First we had a quick four day vacation, then my mom came to visit (which was fantastic!), then we got to host Chris and Anna. We've had about 4 Christmas parties and are still expecting a nice big meal with church on the day after Christmas.
Today we're going to a "Christingle" service at the local methodist church. I've never been to one so I'm pretty excited and it makes for something nice to do on Christmas Eve. Later tonight we've been invited to go for a curry with one of the families from church. I can already taste it... Tomorrow we will probably all have a nice lie in and head for the O'Donovan's house in the afternoon for some games and Pizza. Oh! and I can't forget some skype dates with our family in the states. All in all Jed and I are really excited to spend this Christmas in Morley.

Thanksgiving in Morley

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year on Saturday because in the UK school and work continue through the week. I got to cook a turkey for the first time this year and needless to say I was a little nervous knowing that we had company coming. Like any good girl my age I headed straight for Google and Youtube to learn the art of turkey cooking. After much debate I decided to make a "spatchcocked" turkey. This is done by removing the backbone of your turkey so that you can cook it flat on a roasting tray and it worked fantastically!!!! I don't know why more people don't do it that way but I highly recommend trying it. I was able to cook my entire turkey in under an hour! Of course you don't get to carve a full bird at the table, but since we always slice it in the kitchen anyway I don't really see that as a problem. My husband said it was the juiciest turkey he'd ever had. :) If you're interested in trying it I'll try to post a link showing you how to cut the bird. Then I tucked some rosemary under the skin and rubbed it with butter and salt before baking.

I was also able to make pumpkin pie thanks to one of the American families at church finding me some "Libbys" pie filling. They brought us a large can that was supposed to make 2 deep dish pies but because I don't have deep dish pie pans it made two regular sized pies and three little ones. The little one's were great to give as gifts to people who couldn't make it to our meal. We gave one to our neighbors who are originally from Iraq and they said it was "strange at first, but very nice and very addicting". I couldn't have put it better myself.
Jed's Grandmother gave me a great recipe for pie crustthat made all of those pies a little easier to make. It's made with oil instead of shortening so you can actually mix it in the pie pan and then just press it out with your fingers. No rolling involved at all! It turned out really flakey so it's worth try if you're planning on baking anytime soon. I'll copy the recipe at the bottom of this blog.
I feel like this picture can not be left out. In a brief moment of brilliance Jed and I decided to borrow one of the kids tables from church so that we could cover it with brown packing paper for our littler guests to enjoy coloring on before and after the meal. Here's what we ended up with:



Double Pie Crust Recipe

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup oil

6 tablespoons water, cold

1. Mix flour, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly with fork until sugar and salt are blended with flour.

2. In a separate small bowl, mix oil and water and beat with a fork or whisk until the oil is mixed completely with the water and the combination looks 'milky'.

3. Immediately add the oil/water mixture to the flour mixture and mix vigorously with a fork and your hands until the dough is uniform.

4. Divide the dough into two equal lumps, press one of the two lumps of dough out over the surface of a pie pan by applying hand pressure until the pie pan is completely covered. With a fork, punch tiny holes through the bottom surface of the dough in the pie pan.

Single pie crust for cream pies: with a fork punch tiny holes through the bottom surface of the dough in the pie pan. This may be used immediately or refrigerated for 25 hours. Bake crust in a preheated oven at 450 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until the desired color of browness is achieved.

5. Press out the other lump of pie dough onto an 11 x 11 inch piece of paper towel (trust me it works) until it is slightly larger than the surface of the pie it is to cover.

Just got back from vacation and I'm promising to write about it so I don't forget!