Jessica Juliennes

Hooray for the holidays, so many great reasons to try new recipes!  Or, break out some tried and true favorites and traditional treats.  I love to cook and bake, and I have an obsession with food blogs…OBSESSED!  Thank goodness for Google Reader, which helps me keep up with all the latest and greatest posts…Gingerbread Bagels, What’s Megan Making, Kayln’s Kitchen, Becky Bakes, Smitten Kitchen, the list goes on and on.  I don’t think I could have a cooking blog though, as the only thing that rhymes with my name is julienne, and “Jessica Juliennes” has far too many syllables and is quite possibly not even grammatically correct, eek!  Anyway, Thanksgiving is my favorite, and it’s practically the gateway drug to all things holiday.  Here are few things that kept me busy this weekend, kicking off the holiday season:

Pumpkin Dip – Delish and super easy, great for kiddos!  The recipe calls for 6 oz. of cream cheese, which seems silly since cream cheese comes in blocks that are 8 oz. in size.  So, I just opted to increase the ingredients slightly to use the whole block.  This meant that I had to increase the rest of the ingredients by a third, and increasing ½ cup by 1/3 is like 0.16 which is muy complicato to measure, so I just eyeballed it, did some taste testing, and it turned out great. 

Bacon-Wrapped Blue Cheese Dates – Aside from the fact that dates look like gigantic, disgusting bugs, these are amazing.  Thankfully, blue cheese and bacon transform this treat into something sweet, salty, and altogether delicious.  The date has been redeemed and is GOOD.  Notes on this recipe – I used my kitchen shears to cut these lil' suckers open rather than trying to cut them with a knife, a much faster method and overall brilliant time saver.  The recipe instructs you to cut all the bacon slices into half, which is not a good idea.  Instead just wrap until the date is covered and then use your kitchen shears to cut.  I also ran out of bacon before I ran out of dates, I probably had 14 or so leftover.

White Bean Turkey Chili – This soup was introduced to me by one of my very best friends, who is an amazing cook and fellow foodie.  It is so easy, and full of flavor.  I love cumin so I increased that slightly.  Also, you might be inclined to skip the cinnamon, don’t!  It makes the dish.  I also reduced the amount of chicken broth to just 3 cups to keep it thick, and then added more stock the next day to the leftovers to thin it out a bit.  Super easy and smells amazing!  One of my new faves.


 



Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies – Okay, well it was *supposed* to be made with chocolate chips but I had already committed to the idea of making these cookies…committed as in had the sugar and eggs already blended, whoops!  Turns out that the chips in the freezer were cinnamon, so this recipe turned into pumpkin cinnamon chip cookies.  YUM!  Cinnamon chips aren’t easily sourced, so don’t delay, run to your local grocer to find them and toss them into the freezer so you can summon their cinnamon-y goodness at any time.  They would be a great addition to a coffee cake, cinnamon rolls, oatmeal cookies…ooh, that is a really good idea, must go buy oatmeal, ASAP.  

My home is full of all sorts of delicious smells and leftovers and I am excited for all the wonderful moments of celebration that December brings with it. What’s on deck next?  Decorating the house for Christmas, planning the menu for December's book club taking place at my little chateau, and of course my sweet and beautiful grandma’s pumpkin bread.  It wouldn’t be the holidays without it.

Yes, I was a brunette...briefly.  Gram, in her wisdom, was not a fan.