To keep things simple this year, we combined homemade and store-bought dishes. We roasted a whole turkey, made some mashed potatoes, and candied yams. Everything else was purchased from Whole Foods Market.

Golden Roasted Turkey. Recipe adapted from Whole Foods Market
Wine: 2008 Dashwood Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough

Maple-Glazed Yams with Pecan Topping. Recipe adapted from Simply Recipes

Mulder enjoyed his dinner as well – plain versions of everthing including canned pumpkin, mashed potatoes, and boiled peas/carrots. It is not healthy for dogs to have too much salt, fat, or spices just like the humans, except we still do it anyway

This is a shameless plug for greencropcircles.com, a blog about green living. While waiting for our turkey to be done, I am re-printing this very popular article I wrote that might appeal to javafoto readers. Happy Thanksgiving!

Baking Soda

I “discovered” baking soda when I spilled something in the oven and made a huge burnt food mess. Sure, I’ve used baking soda forever but I never knew that it was more than just a baking agent. I tried to clean up the mess with a scraper but it seemed like it bonded with the bottom surface of the oven. Panic-stricken, I googled oven cleaning and found this wonderful tip of pouring baking soda paste (baking soda mixed with a little water) and leaving it for an hour then scraping it off. Well, I tried it and simply put, it worked. It didn’t just work but it made my oven shine, as in like brand new! I scraped the mess like I spilled it no more than a minute ago. Inspired by this “discovery”. I googled other uses for baking soda and found some interesting ones. I now use it for most cleaning tasks and it works like a charm.

Bathrooms: I threw out the COMET which is toxic anyway and now use baking soda for the whole bathroom. Sink, shower, toilet, floor, everything can be cleaned safely with baking soda.

Kitchen: Food stuck in pans? Baking soda paste is the answer. It makes our sink shine and stays cleaner longer.

Deodorizer: I keep a small partially open box in the refrigerator to keep it smelling fresh.

Shampoo Additive: About once a month, I mix a little bit of baking soda on a teaspoon of shampoo (sulfate-free) on my palm to remove product residues on my hair.

Laundry: Add ½ cup to a load for brighter whites and stain removal.

According to Wikipedia:

“Sodium bicarbonate or sodium hydrogen carbonate is the chemical compound with the formula NaHCO3. Sodium bicarbonate is a white solid that is crystalline but often appears as a fine powder. It has a slight alkaline taste resembling that of washing soda (sodium carbonate). It is a component of the mineral natron and is found dissolved in many mineral springs. The natural mineral form is known as nahcolite. It is also produced artificially.
Since it has long been known and is widely used, the salt has many related names such as baking soda, bread soda, cooking soda, bicarbonate of soda. Colloquially, its name is shortened to sodium bicarb, bicarb soda, or simply bicarb. The word saleratus, from Latin sal æratus meaning “aerated salt”, was widely used in the 19th century for both sodium bicarbonate and potassium bicarbonate. The term has now fallen out of common usage.”

It also cites many other uses:

Vegetables: Used to remove pesticides. Not that I want to eat food with pesticides but it is not easy to be 100% all-natural so this is a good way to clean vegetables.

Insect Bites: Apply paste to remove sting. The poison is absorbed and therefore lessens the sting.

Medical: Used as an antacid.

As with anything, you have to do your own research and proceed with caution. Baking soda can strip a layer of material such as when it reacts with aluminum and could be very abrasive when used as toothpaste.

Forget Comet, Windex, and Bleach. I ? baking soda.

For further reading, check out:

About.com lists more uses for baking soda.
Care2 has several articles about non-toxic cleaning.
Arm & Hammer, the most common brand has a good website with tips and FAQs.

How about you? What do you use baking soda for?

An army of wontons waiting for battle

These noodles will make you feel like you are in a Hong Kong eatery

Surprisingly filling wonton noodle soup with 9g of protein from the noodles and more from the pork

Cooking Notes:

As you know, we recently harvested the last batch of carrots from our garden. I have more carrots than I know what to do with, so I thought about making a cake. This recipe from smitten kitchen seems easier than making a big cake so I tried it. I made a few changes and they came out good (in my opinion, with a few substitutes which I will explain below).

Freshly baked. The kitchen was dark when I took this photo. All the light was provided by the speedlight (external flash)

Carrot walnut goodness. The orange pumpkin in the background is a jedi mind trick to make you want the carrots.

Frosted with plain whipped cream cheese. I saw this cool plate at City Liquidators and I just had to get one.

Recipe adapted from smitten kitchen

Substitutions/options include:
- I made a half portion of the full recipe
- Used 3/4c sugar instead of 1 cup
- Added 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
- Used whole wheat flour instead of APF
- I used less cinnamon because I do not like it that much
- Grated fresh ginger instead of powder
- I used plain cream cheese for frosting

Notes:
- Grating the carrots really made a difference. The batter came out smooth even with whole wheat flour.
- The amount of canola oil scared me a bit but I followed the recipe anyway. The paper cups were stained with grease but eating the cupcakes did not feel greasy. They were deliciously moist. I read somewhere you can substitute apple sauce but I have not tried it myself.
- The sweetness is just right for me but may not be sweet enough for others.

Makes 12 cupcakes

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups grated peeled carrots
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
A light dash of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Line 12 cupcake molds with papers, or butter and flour them. Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger in medium bowl to blend. Whisk sugar and oil in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time. Add flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in carrots and walnuts. Divide batter among cupcake molds, filling 3/4 of each. Bake cupcakes 14 to 18 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Let cool in pans for five minutes or so, then transfer cakes to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before frosting.

At around 130 calories per cupcake (no frosting), these could very well be the “healthiest” baked goods made in my kitchen. Consider the monounsaturated fats from the canola oil and walnuts, the natural goodness of organically grown carrots, organic sugar, whole grain flour, and most of all freshly-hatched eggs from a friend who has a chicken coop in their backyard. Another winner from smitten kitchen.

In our search for new furniture, we came across City Liquidators in Portland. The place is HUGE. You could get lost there for hours. They have everything from toys to housewares, furniture, and even neon signs. The quality of stuff they sell varies and the prices are lower than most retails stores but you still have do your research. I think we might have narrowed down our choices for a new couch but like everything else, we need to overanalyze everything we buy. For every piece we looked at we thought about Mulder. Would he chew it up? Is it easy to clean? Because of these considerations, our selections were limited to low-mid price ranges. We did not buy a couch today but instead brought home some nice dishes ranging from $0.25 to $2.90 each. Not a bad deal at all.

Simple white dishes in cool shapes

smitten kitchen is one of my favorite food blogs not only because of the tasty recipes and creative writing but also the fabulous pictures. I’ve always wondered how I can take pictures as good as Deb’s. I’ve taken classes but it seems too much work for me to lug a DLSR around with all the accessories. One day, as I was reading the latest entry, I stumbled upon the FAQ page where they described their approach to food photos. Then it slowly came back to me – I already  have most of the equipment listed here. A few years ago when I decided I was going to be a “photographer” and started javafoto, I bought all kinds of camera accessories. I quickly lost interest since then. 

Today, I wiped the dust off and took my SB-600 speedlight and Nikkor 50mm lens combination for a test run with our recently purchased Nikon D90. It is another overcast day here but I angled the speedlight towards the ceiling and I was pleasantly surprised! Now all I need is a good tripod

Note: These photos were not edited – which explains why the tomatoes look orange or I just need more practice…

The most beautiful bunch of carrots I have ever seen and it is from our garden!

Lunch today was seafood combination from Jin Wah (Beaverton)

We are still harvesting tomatoes. Some of our campari plants are sheltered by the patio roof so I think they will survive a couple more weeks of cold air.

Home-made avocado gelato - best when it is just starting to melt

Ingredients: