Thanksgiving Dessert

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you have had an excellent, restful and rejuvenating weekend with those you care about. We made the trip down to Swift Current on Friday to see my parents. It was some quality time, with much good food, a bit of park time for us and the dogs, a few hands of 31 and even a bit of planning for Christmas.

We gave mom her gifts (one hadn't arrived yet so we gave her a picture of it for now) and was I ever impressed with the metal prints from Don's. The colours and the way they gather light just makes them glow. I will be recommending them to customers for anything colourful. Even the brushed finish of the metal print used for a black and white portrait was arresting. I must say that it never ceases to amaze me of what a flora gallery of my work my parents' house has become. I may have to have a show there some day. :)

Angie prepared one of the desserts we enjoyed this weekend, a pumpkin cheesecake with candied pumpkin seeds topping the whipped cream. I was happy that there was a piece left over after the first servings for me to photograph the following morning.

Pumpkin Cheesecake by Jay Scott

She said next time that it could be a little bit sweeter and have more spices that the original recipe called for. You can find that recipe at the following link:

http://www.simplebites.net/simple-chilled-pumpkin-cheesecake-vlog/

It seems to work best for us to combine mom's birthday, Thanksgiving and my birthday into one weekend since they are fairly close together. I received my birthday gift which I intend to use toward a Pocket Wizard +III. Originally Angie had planned with my parents to get me a Go Pro Hero 2 to give me some better video and time lapse capability. Of course, knowing me, I changed my mind after they had already made this decision. However, I'm not certain that the Go Pro is the right tool to add to my kit at the moment. It only has a very wide angle lens and that might be great for action videos but certainly not ideal for all uses including time lapses of smaller things. The increased capability of this new radio trigger will serve me far better, and multiple times per week, than the Go Pro which would have been more of a toy than a regularly used tool.

It was a good trip home, with perfect weather, less wind that was forecast and quiet roads. A nice break and trip but also nice to get back to routine.

I hope your Thanksgiving weekend was super.

Mango Curried Chicken

Fresh Mangoes by Jay Scott

So, typically Angie is the one to post recipes but since I came up with tonight's supper using a few recipes I saw online as guidelines, it is my turn.

 

Ingredients:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 medium mangoes peeled, seeded and cut into small cubes
1 white onion coarsely chopped
1/2 red onion coarsely chopped
1 green bell pepper coarsely chopped
1 coloured bell pepper coarsely chopped
1 can of bamboo shoots
5 cloves of garlic
3-5 tablespoons of minced ginger
2 tablespoons of oil for browning chicken
1 can of coconut milk
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1-3 generous tablespoons of red curry paste
1 cup of chicken stock
1/2 cup of chopped cilantro

Method:

Start by browning the chicken breasts. Cook them so that they are just finished being pink in the middle, remove them from the heat and set aside. Cook the onion, peppers, garlic and ginger until they are just starting to become tender. While they are cooking prepare your sauce which consists of the coconut milk, soy sauce, curry paste and chicken stock.

Cut your cooked chicken into small pieces. Add the sauce, mango and bamboo shoots to the vegetables and simmer for 2-4 min. Add back in the cut up chicken. At this point the thickness is up to you. I prepared this with jasmine rice with the intention of making it a medium to soak up sauce so we left a little bit thinner. We did still need to remove some of the sauce, mix it with cornstarch and stir it back into thicken it up to our desired consistency. After that, stir in the cilantro and serve over rice.

It could've been a little bit spicier so you may want to add more curry or another form of heat if that is what you like. We tend to like things pretty spicy.

I was going for a dish that tastes very similar to a curry that I have had at Royal Thai in Saskatoon. I have been craving it for some time and I think I got it as close as I could ever hope to get it on the first try and am, to be perfectly honest, quite proud of it. My craving for that dish has been thoroughly satisfied with what I cooked this evening.