Another fabulous giveaway sponsored by La Wooden Spoon is the Romertopf Clay Baker, 3 1/2 quart.

I love baking in clay because it roasts meats and vegetables to juicy deliciousness. If you’ve never tried baking in a clay pot, this is your chance to win a Romertopf Baker valued at $ 59.95.

Enter to win one of these classic German baking pots simply by leaving a comment on this post and telling me what is your favorite way to season a roast chicken. Is it lemon and pepper? Or rosemary and garlic? Or any other number of great seasonings.

That’s all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. Deadline to enter is 10 am Central Time on Wednesday, December 14, 2011. I will use Random Number Generator to choose a winner and post it here around 11 am that day.

This giveaway is sponsored and paid for by La Wooden Spoon and is not affiliated or paid for by Williams Sonoma or Romertopf.

We have a winner:

The winner is comment #1 Molly Jo! Congratulations you have won yet another item on my blog! I will have this shipped to you right away.

Note: when I entered the number of comments into Random Number Generator, I only entered a number for original comments, not replies or comments by the same person more than once.

My mom and I cooked the family Thanksgiving meal for our family yesterday. And quite frankly, we cooked far too much food.

We seem to have an ingrained fear of running out of food at any gathering we are hosting. So we tend to cook way more than we need. I mean a ridiculous amount of food.

We don’t let the extra food go to waste though. We freeze leftovers. And share plates of food with less fortunate people in our community. We find creative ways to use leftovers on the days following a gathering.

I was reminded of the Thanksgivings of my childhood. Most Thanksgiving meals were spent at my parent’s house where my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all gathered to eat with us. My grandmother carried along the family tradition of cooking ridiculous amounts of food.

I remember my grandmother and grandfather coming slowly down the long driveway to our house on Thanksgiving day in their pale green 1963 Ford truck. They would get out of the truck and go around to open the tailgate. There in the bed of the truck was boxes and boxes of food that my grandmother had spent days cooking. Every kind of pie imaginable. Vegetables. Dressing. Biscuits. Cornbread. Pickles.

But that wasn’t all of the food. My mom cooked vast quantities of food as did my other relatives. The food table at our house would be simply groaning with good Southern cooking. I think my favorites were always my grandmother’s sweet potato pie with marshmallows baked on top and my mom’s homemade cranberry sauce.

When I was a child my Thanksgivings were always held in the same place with pretty much the same people. But now, we celebrate Thanksgiving with Danny’s family sometimes and my family sometimes. And a couple of times we’ve just celebrated with our friends instead of family because we were too far away from family. But no matter where we celebrate this holiday, I always try to include my mom’s homemade cranberry sauce.

We must have some traditions each and every year!

Since I am such a salad fan, I use lots of vinegar. I keep on hand no less than five different kinds of vinegar at any one time: red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and my favorite: champagne vinegar. I first picked up a bottle of champagne vinegar in the gourmet food aisle at a Marshall’s. It turned out to be the brand I have stuck with.

The brand is made by a California company called O Olive Oils. And I could swear that I visited their store in San Francisco a couple of years ago but when I looked on their website, I did not see any locations listed. Ah well.

Back to the vinegar. It is light and refreshing. Exactly like champagne should be. You can add it to any salad without overwhelming the entire salad. My sister-in-law uses this vinegar to top a simple cut avocado. She just cuts up an avocado, adds salt and pepper, and a good dash of this vinegar. And there you have it, a great little afternoon snack. Because carrot sticks and hummus get a little boring sometimes so switch off to avocados prepared with this vinegar. And avocados are so good for your skin and health!

If you like to grill chicken breasts, once the chicken comes hot off the grill, drizzle it with a few dashes of this vinegar and the flavors will be fantastic. Oh, and it really wakes up a French Potato Salad without being too heavy.

Now, a note: this vinegar is not cheap. It comes in at $12 per bottle on-line although I managed to buy a few bottles recently at Marshall’s for $5.99. But since you use small-ish quantities of this vinegar, it should last a good while.

November 5, 2011: I’ve decided to do a giveaway this week on my food blog, La Wooden Spoon. I will be giving away a KitchenAid Artisan Bar Blender.

This is the blender description from Cooking.com where I will be purchasing this from and shipping it to the winner:

KitchenAid Empire Red Bar Blender:

You’ve never met a blender that can mix like this, turning ice cubes to snow in a matter of seconds. Plus, you can experience all this power in a color that’s as expressive as your cooking. Blend-up milkshakes, smoothies and everything in between.

Features:

• 56-oz. Blend & Serve pitcher
• 5 speeds
• Exceptional blending system
• Patented stainless steel blade is positioned on four different planes for fast, thorough blending
• Stay-Put Lid, with ingredient cup
• Steel-reinforced coupler
• Valued at $124.99

In order to enter this giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me which holiday recipe you would use this blender to create. I will use random number drawing to select the winner on Thursday, November 10, 2011 around 10 am Central Time.

So please have your comments posted by 9 am Central Time on November 10, 2011.

Another note about the comments: I will only count original comments, not replies to comments, when I am determining the winner of this drawing. Make sure you leave your email address so I am able to contact you for shipping ( your email address will not be made public or given out for any purpose.)

Update November 10, 2011: The winner of this KitchenAid Blender is comment #8 Molly Jo!

Thanks to everyone who entered this drawing. I loved reading what you would use this blender to create. I personally own one of these KitchenAid blenders and I love it. And Molly Jo, I will be contacting you today to get your shipping address and hopefully you will have your blender in time for Thanksgiving meal preparations!

FCC Note: This giveaway and the cost of shipping is sponsored and paid for by myself. It is not sponsored or paid for in any way by KitchenAid or Cooking.com

I’ve been trying to introduce more whole grains into our diet and quinoa is one of the ones I have had the hardest time working into the menu. I haven’t been a huge fan of quinoa in the past because I simply didn’t like the texture of it.  This evening though, I managed to create a dish that was delicious and incorporated some good grains. I found bulgar and red quinoa at Central Market here in Houston. It is the quick-cooking type of bulgar and of course, quinoa cooks fairly fast on its own.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Bulgar & Red Quinoa
1 cup water

15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
1/8 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
2 dashes of garlic powder
ground pepper to taste

In a small saucepan combine bulgar and red quinoa with 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes.

While the bulgar and quinoa is cooking, combine all of the other ingredients in a skillet over medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the liquid runs out, add a bit more water. When the bulgar and quinoa is done, combine with the bean mixture and stir. Serve while warm.

Serves about 4.

What can be more autumn-ish than caramel apples?

Well, maybe pumpkins.

But at any rate, I decided to make an Apple Caramel Coffeecake. The caramel is not a strong note in the flavor but it does add a wonderful ribbon of extra flavor and moistness through the center of this coffeecake. And my secret ingredient: apple butter!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom of the 9 inch springform pan and set aside.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup apple butter
2 whole Granny Smith apples, peeled and cut into tiny pieces
3/4 cup prepared caramel sauce (from the ice cream toppings section of your grocery store)

Streusel topping:
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons butter, melted

In a mixing bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Set aside.

In another mixing bowl combine the butter, eggs, and buttermilk. Then add the apple butter. Stir well.

Add the butter mixture to the flour mixture and stir to combine. Then add the apples. Mix well.

Pour half of this batter into the springform pan and spread to cover the bottom of the pan completely. Spread the caramel sauce completely over this batter. Then spoon the remaining batter over the caramel and carefully spread to cover the caramel completely.

In a small bowl combine all ingredients for the streusel toppings and stir to combine well. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the batter in the springform pan.

Place in the oven and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for about 20 minutes. Remove the springform pan ring and carefully slide the coffeecake onto a cake plate. Cool completely. Slice and serve! This cake can be stored at room temperature or in the refrigerator.

Serves about 10.

Huckleberries, October 2011

Our huckleberry bushes here on the farm have produced a large crop for us this year. I spent an hour or so yesterday picking huckleberries and eating them right off the bush. Since they are small berries, it takes a long time to pick enough to make a pie or some preserves.