giving thanks with leftovers and sweets

I can't believe it has been so long since my last post! I've been sooooooooo busy! I've had so many new opportunities lately with my art and I've been busy baking of course. I'll save this for another post, but I dooo have a show coming up next weekend. It's a big one! :) But for now, here are some late Thanksgiving sweet recipes (maybe you could use them for Christmas). Also a soup recipe to use for leftover turkey (which I am already so tired of). Enjoy!


Leftover Turkey Barley Soup
Ingredients
3-4 large chopped carrots
4-6 celery ribs (chopped)
1 medium yellow onion (chopped)
olive oil, S&P
1 quart chicken or turkey broth
1 cup quick cooking barley
1-2 cups chopped turkey
1 t. dried thyme or Italian herbs
1 box frozen spinach (thawed)
about 2 cups water


Directions
Saute carrots, celery and onion in olive oil until onions are soft. Season with S&P. Add broth and bring to a boil. Add barley. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 10-12 minutes until barley has soaked up most of the broth and is soft. Add turkey, herbs and spinach. Cook about 5 more minutes. Stir in water to thin out if needed. (The longer it sits the more broth the barley will soak up.)


Cheater Chocolate Toffee Pie

Ingredients
about 30 chocolate wafer cookies
3 T. sugar
pinch salt
5 T. melted butter


2 packages instant chocolate pudding
2 cups cold milk
2 cups whipped cream 
1/2 cup + 1 T. chopped Heath bar


Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Finely grind cookies to make 1 1/2 cups. Add sugar, salt and butter. Press into 9" pie pan halfway up sides. Bake 12 minutes. Let cool completely. Meanwhile beat milk and pudding mix for 2 minutes. Stir in 1 cup whipped cream and 1/2 cup candy. Pour into crust. Top with remaining whipped cream and candy pieces.


Notes
Original chocolate pudding calls for Cool Whip, but I do not believe in Cool Whip...gross! So I made whipped cream. It is super easy, especially if you have a mixer. Recipe below. Next time I will take the time to make chocolate pudding from scratch too!


Fresh Whipped Cream
Ingredients to make 2 cups
1 cup heavy cream
1 t. vanilla
1 T. sugar


Whip cream with balloon whisk on high until soft peaks form. Add vanilla and sugar and whip until stiff peaks form. That's it! Seriously, don't use Cool Whip. Do yourself a favor and research a little bit about what that stuff is.


Pumpkin Pie: completely from scratch!

Ingredients
1 savory pie crust
3 cups fresh pumpkin

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

1/2 t. ground ginger

1/4 t. fresh grated nutmeg + more for the top

1/4 t. ground cloves

1 1/2 t. cinnamon

1 cup heavy cream
3 eggs
2 T. spiced cider (if you don't have this on hand, just use apple juice)
3 T. greek yogurt
2 t. lemon juice


Directions
First to make your pumpkin puree cut pumpkin in half, scoop out seeds and place face down in a glass baking dish with 2 cups of water. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes until the outsides start to cave in and turn golden. Let cool enough to touch, then scoop out flesh into a blender. Puree until there are no more chunks or strings. Chill in fridge or freeze for later. You can do this the day before of even earlier if you want to freeze it (I froze some for next year). 
Now for the pie... Preheat oven to 450. Pre-bake your crust with pie weights about 10-15 min. If you need a crust recipe and can't find mine on here, message me and I'll send it to you. Combine pumpkin, sugars, spices and cream. Beat in eggs. Stir in lemon juice, yogurt, and cider. Pour into pie shell. Bake for 10 minutes at 450. Reduce oven temp to 350 and cover edges of crust with foil. Bake at 350 for 1 hour- 1.5 hours or until a butter knife comes out clean from the middle. 


Notes

This pie was seriously worth the effort! I made a few changes, but the original recipe is from Early Bird Acres. It said to bake at 350 for 40-55 minutes, but it was not done at all, so I ended up baking it for about an hour and a half. Just keep checking it every 20 minutes after it's been in an hour. Also if you have too much filling you can pour into souffle cups and bake in a glass casserole dish filled halfway with water. 350 for 35-45 minutes. I think I might do this next time with the whole thing and cut out crust cookies to go on top :)


Roasted Banana Bars
Ingredients
2 bananas
2 1/2 T. brown sugar
1/2 T. butter


1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 t. vanilla
1 egg
1 cup flour
2 T. cornstarch
1/4 t.+1/8 t. baking soda
1/4 t. baking powder
2 T. milk


Directions
Preheat oven to 400. Combine sliced bananas, brown sugar and 1/2 T. butter in a baking dish. Roast in oven 20-25 minutes, stirring halfway through. Meanwhile beat butter, sugar, vanilla and egg. Combine flour, cornstarch, soda and baking powder. Combine bananas and milk. Add both to butter mixture alternating until well combined. Grease a square pan and pour mixture in. Bake at 375 for 10-15 min. Let cool before icing. I made chocolate icing, but you could do cream cheese, vanilla, caramel, etc. Enjoy!