Do you like to cook or bake?

[#1]

I love to cook and bake. Do you? Mysisters and brother do some cooking but they do not enjoy it. They do it because they have to and they eat out a lot. My husband and I rarely eat out. My grandmother, who I adored, taught me. It almost seems therapeutic to me.

[philosophiacreations]

We just had Canadian Thanksgiving, which I missed due to illness. It is what it is, but I had been really looking forward to this weekend for a lot of reasons. It's my partner's last long weekend of the year, before Christmas. Guess that isn't too far away, but there's still a lot I'd wanted to do this weekend and that included some cooking and baking.
My partner and I are going to go ahead and do a smaller Thanksgiving meal mid-week, when I'll be hopefully feeling a lot better. I'm looking forward to that. It'll be our usual -- lots of fresh, steamed local veggies, my homemade vegan-friendly gravy and also probably a seitan roast. We might just buy that, since a new-to-us brand is selling locally (they're called Gusta and their products are wonderful).

Anyway, I hope everyone's had a positive weekend + a good start to their week. To anyone else celebrating Thanksgiving right now, I hope it was a wonderful time!

[Artbesico]

@philosophiacreations  Hope you are feeling better. Sounds like a feast to look forward to, yum =]  Happy Thanksgiving 

[psych62]

Made oatmeal cookies today with raisins and walnuts. Hard to keep my hands off of them, they are so delicious! Yum yum!

[Artbesico]

Home baked and cooked food are the best.

[psych62]

Brought a few to work today, they disappeared, fast! I think my next baking project will be a pumpkin pie...……………….

[Artbesico]

Oh I've heard so much about pumpkin pie, how good it is. I've never tried it, would love to.

[psych62]

Made molasses cookies today. There is going to be a holiday party at my work on 12/3, the management is buying/bringing all the main dishes (ham, turkey, roast chicken, vegetarian pizza for vegetarians) and everyone else is going to bring the sides/desserts. Of course I made a dessert. My cookies were a hit at the last shindig, I was told. The molasses cookies came out perfect, chewy, just the way I wanted them to, moderately spiced, not overly sweet. I could keep on eating them. It's going to be hard, keeping my hands away from the container! 

[Artbesico]

Chewy sounds great, good with a cuppa =]

[psych62]

Exactly. There is some English Breakfast Tea at my work, I might just brew me some.

How do you take your tea? I like mine with a little sugar and cream.

[Artbesico]

Same here, I like my tea with cream and a little sugar but I've quit drinking tea and coffee now. 

Which brand of English Breakfast Tea do you have at work? 

[psych62]

@ArtbesicoSorry I've taken so long to reply to you. Been so busy at work haven't even had the time to brew up any tea. Even though the tea at work is not that great quality, slapping it together is even worse. Maybe next week, Christmas week is always a slow week at my workplace. A friend of mine told me he bought some Christmas crackers and plans on breaking them out the afternoon of the 24th at work so we can have some fun. Re: the tea, it's called Something of London, can't remember the full name.

I used to really be into fine tea, bought it loose and had one of those special spoons where you can put the loose leaves in them and use it to soak the tea. My favorite was Yuan Golden Tip. Extremely expensive. Has a wonderful honey aftertaste and so smooth, no bitterness at all. Too pricey to be nothing but a special tea. Otherwise, I like Assam tea, a nice robust tea (probably because I'm normally a coffee drinker).

Have you ever been to a high tea? I went to one once, when I was in England, that was 40 years ago! It was fun. Very elegant. I don't recall the place at all. I just remember the little cucumber and watercress sandwiches, things like that, it was all very fancy.  

[Artbesico]

@psych62 sorry I've been away for awhile. 

I haven't tried Yuan Golden Tip, sounds good though, would like to try it. I've recently started drinking Rooibos tea, used to drink that with milk some years ago. I'm now drinking it plain, not with milk. It's caffeine free too so I drink it in the evening now. 

Yes I've been to a high tea, cakes and sandwiches on a cake stand =]  

[psych62]

@ArtbesicoI'm making an apple pie.....Just putting together the crust tonight and I will finish it off tomorrow morning, before the turkey goes in.

Hubs and I like to have our own holiday meal (outside of visiting his family on Christmas). 

[Artbesico]

@psych62 Hope you had a lovely Christmas =]

[psych62]

The pie took a tremendous amount of effort but I believe it is the best pie I ever made. The apple filling is a perfect mixture of sweet/tart with just a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg, and the crust is nice and flaky. 

[Artbesico]

@psych62 I do crave for a piece of home baked apple pie, lovely with custard, cream or ice cream =P

[psych62]

@Artbesicoit is so good to "see" you again! :-) I was worried about you. Yes, apple pie with custard, cream, or ice cream is yum-yummy!

This pie has been disappearing faster than any other pie I've ever baked. I've saved two last slices now for tonight's New Year's Eve meal, which will be lamb chops, baked potato, asparagus, and of course, champagne. 

[Artbesico]

@psych62 aww thank you ^^ 

Lamb chops... my eyes went BIG, I do like grilled lamb chops with mint sauce =] 

Have you made gravy too? =]

[psych62]

Yes, gravy, of course, for the potatoes and chops! It all came out perfectly.

Just finished dinner, I'm stuffed! I topped it all off with a piece of chocolate from the box hubs got me for Christmas. I was bummed to see that the last chocolate-covered toffee piece was inhaled by sneaky hubs, I love toffee! But a chocolate covered caramel satisfied just as well. 

[Artbesico]

OOOOh he ate the last chocolate-covered toffee... hmm he needs to buy you another box now HA ^^