thanksgiving turkey courtesy of mommy!

mmmm...turkey....

in fact, i am eating some of that yummy turkey right now for lunch. and secretly, i prefer the leftovers...tastier :)

i love fall desserts. i always look forward to the first cold front and thanksgiving so i can make my all time favorite cookies, ginger spice cookies. so this year for thanksgiving, i made a batch of the lovely cookies and decided to throw in a cake too. currently, my favorite blog for recipes is smittenkitchen.com. everything i've tried from deb's blog has been amazing. and this time it was no different. i made the gramercy tavern's gingerbread that i found on the blog for the family thanksgiving meal. ginger is a favorite among the family, so the cake sounded perfect. and the fact that the cake requires Guinness beer, made it even better. (Guinness is my pau pau's favorite beer...i learned to appreciate it from her!) i was nervous making the cake for such a big meal since i've never made it before, but as always the recipe was flawless! The house smelled of fall and the holidays as the cake baked. and the cake was a huge hit...it was spicy, chewy and yummy! i will admit, it did taste better the second day, not as sugary sweet. i cannot attest for how it taste the third day as the cake was completely devoured by then. This is one recipe i will be making over and over again. (also, the cake was cut into and eaten before i remembered to take a photo of it...so the below photo and recipe is courtesy of smittenkitchen.com. i will try to remember to take a photo of the next one before it is consumed.)

Gramercy Tavern's Gingerbread from Claudia Fleming

1 cup oatmeal stout or Guinness Stout

1 cup dark molasses (not blackstrap)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Pinch of ground cardamom

3 large eggs

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

Confectioners sugar for dusting

Accompaniment: Unsweetened whipped cream
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Generously butter bundt pan and dust with flour, knocking out excess. (She is not kidding about this. I used a nonstick pan with a butter/flour spray and still lost a chunk of cake. I will be more generous next time.)

Bring stout and molasses to a boil in a large saucepan and remove from heat. Whisk in baking soda, then cool to room temperature.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and spices in a large bowl. Whisk together eggs and sugars. Whisk in oil, then molasses mixture. Add to flour mixture and whisk until just combined.

Pour batter into bundt pan and rap pan sharply on counter to eliminate air bubbles. Bake in middle of oven until a tester comes out with just a few moist crumbs adhering, about 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 5 minutes. Turn out onto rack and cool completely.

Serve cake, dusted with confectioners sugar, with whipped cream.

Do ahead: This gingerbread is better if made a day ahead. It will keep 3 days, covered, at room temperature. I am sure it will keep well-wrapped in the freezer even longer.

so i hope you and yours had a wonderful, blessed and fulfilling thanksgiving holiday. may the rest of this year and the new year to come be full of hope, peace and joy.

happy earth day! over the years, b and i have become more aware of how my actions impact our environment. my parents have always good about recycling and using what we have (that was mainly because we were thrifty!) they are also big on growing their own food. my parent's backyard is like a jungle...fruits galore! my mommy also compost, she also does it b/c it is good for her garden. in our daily lives we know there are many more things i can do, but here's a couple things we try to do consistently.

• even when buying coffee, i bring my own travel mug. it decreases trash and keeps my coffee hot longer (my favorite is the contigo autoseal mug...coffee stays hot for 6+ hours!).
• polycarbonate/aluminum water bottles...especially at work since they only provide Styrofoam cups.
• packing lunch in reusable containers and using non-disposable utensils.
• reusable shopping bags when going to the grocery store.
• instead of buying trash bags, we use the supply of plastic bags we get when shopping at target. they are just big enough for our under sink trash can
• we shop in bulk
• this one belongs to b...he installed an reverse osmosis water filtration system so we could stop using our Britta filters.
• reuse file folders at work
• trade supplies in the company
• recycle junk mail, envelopes, magazines and packaging.
• b rides the bus to work - i'd love to but public transportation in austin is not so great.
• shop local. i like visiting the farmer's market when i can

so what do you do to help keep our earth green? are you taking part in any earth day activities?

chocolate and zucchini's blog is doing something awesome (and really easy) with flip & tumble for Ripple Africa. here's the deal: for every person who leaves a comment* at the bottom of today's post on the c&z blog, flip & tumble will fund the planting of a tree in one of the community nurseries that Ripple Africa is working to build, and c&z will match that donation! So just go to the comment box, type "Plant trees for me!" (and whatever you want to add) and two trees will be planted. there's also a give-a-way on that post so go check it out and help plant trees in africa!

Easter bunny bao (steamed buns), originally uploaded by maki.

must try and make these... (recipie can be found at justhungry.com)
would it be wrong to fill them with bbq pork?

128_2804_E, originally uploaded by mywong13.

have a spooktacular day!

happy mooncake festival day! The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar (usually around mid- or late-September, this year it is September 25), a date that parallels the Autumn Equinox of the solar calendar. This is the ideal time, when the moon is at its fullest and brightest, to celebrate the abundance of the summer's harvest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties. this, by far, is my favorite chinese holidays...and probably the tastiest. i can probably eat mooncake all year long, but they only sell them this time of year. so my family stocks up.

Of course my favorite is the traditional cantonese version...lotus paste with the egg yoke inside. we stock up on those and freeze them and eat them year round...yummm! i *should* only eat at most 1/4 of a whole cake in one sitting, but that never ever happens :)

and in the recent years, my mommy has been buying us these mini mooncakes in assorted flavors such as, green tea, pomelo, red bean, date, and other assorted tea flavors. these are b's favorites...he smoked a box of 12 last year all by himself. i like these for 2 reasons...they are single serving sizes and the variety of flavors.

And now, the newest incarnation of the mooncake is ice cream mooncakes. Haagen-Dazs created the latest ice cream attraction and it comes in 4 delicious flavors - vanilla, strawberry, chocolate and macadamia nuts coated with white or milk chocolate and stuffed with mango sorbet (for the egg yoke) for a perfect treat. unfortunately, they are only selling them at certain and limited asian supermarkets in the states, but all over asia. There are a couple other companies, Swensens and Gelare, who also have ventured into the mooncake business.

i hope everyone gets to eat some mooncake, enjoy the beautiful harvest moon and the company of family and good friends.