Fri_Feb_22_00:01:27_PST_2019

This is a new tradition on One Hot Stove- at the end of the month, I do a round up of the highlights of that month, and invite you to do the same in the comments
Here are the lists for September and October.

Eating

Pie!

A Thanksgiving meal, of course. We were invited to a small Thanksgiving dinner at the home of a senior colleague and her husband. They made a traditional meal but went out of their way to get a Trader Joe's vegan turkey-less stuffed roast for the vegetarians, so it was my very first Thanksgiving with a turkey stand-in! It was delicious, accompanied by the many sides like cranberry relish, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans and mushrooms and buttery rolls with honey. It was so nice to spend Thanksgiving day catching up on chores around the house/yard and then to just show up for a nice feast.

My contribution to the meal was a chocolate pecan pie. This time I used a frozen pie crust from Trader Joe's and I wasn't happy with this pie crust at all. I should have made my own like I usually do or perhaps bought another brand.

Cooking and Baking a few DIY experiments this month.

Naked apple pie with
salted caramel sauce

Salted caramel sauce: Our neighbors invited us for dinner, and I made dessert to take along, continuing the apple baking fest with a naked apple-vanilla pie. At the last minute, I decided to make a salted caramel sauce to drizzle on the pie. I used this recipe, and my only change was to double the amount of heavy cream to a cup. It was amazingly easy to make. I've made caramel many times before and I find it easy to rely on the color of the caramel rather than using a candy thermometer. The resulting sauce is rich and decadent with a distinctly grown-up and gourmet taste thanks to the salt. This sauce takes mere minutes to make, and a few inexpensive ingredients, and would be a lovely holiday gift (it can be enjoyed on ice cream, pancakes, fruit)- just remind the lucky recipient to store it in the fridge.


Chocolate syrup: We were visiting someone's home, and Lila wanted a cup of warm milk. On a whim, I stirred in a bit of chocolate syrup that I found in their fridge- you know, the ubiquitous brown plastic bottle of Hershey's chocolate syrup. Well, that was enough for the kiddo to fall in love with "chocolate duddu". A bit of searching revealed that chocolate syrup is nothing but cocoa powder, sugar and water.

DIY chocolate syrup

I made Lila her very own chocolate syrup: Mix 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1/3 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan (these proportions are flexible). Bring to a boil, whisking often to dissolve the cocoa powder. Simmer for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and add 1 tsp. vanilla extract. Let the syrup cool and store it in the fridge for a couple of weeks. This is a simple chocolate syrup that is great for stirring up a cup of chocolate milk, also nice for drizzling on waffles and pancakes.

Pumpkin and roasted pumpkin seeds

Pumpkins: We went pumpkin picking with Lila and got home a couple of small pie pumpkins. October turned to November and I knew I had to use up the pumpkins fast and not relegate them to the compost heap. Cutting up pumpkins and other winter squashes seems like such a bother, I always feel like I'm risking my fingers as I hack away at them. This fabulous tip was just what I needed: baking