Friday, November 23, 2012

Thanksgiving Frenchie Style

Hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving!! Dave, Elvis and I have so much to be thankful for - a great year of travel and adventure together, meeting so many amazing new friends on the west coast, our wonderful families who support us from across the miles and the hope and excitement of all the great things yet to come.  We spent our Thanksgiving day just the three of us at home after Dave and I gave a few hours of our time volunteering at the Westside Thanksgiving Dinner - a truly amazing event that feeds over 3500 people in west LA who would otherwise not get to eat a hot Thanksgiving meal.  It was both humbling and inspiring and something we hope to make a Thanksgiving tradition in our family.

For Elvis, the highlight of the day was a long walk in the perfect LA weather and his special thanksgiving dinner. We normally only feed Elvis dry dog food but on Thanksgiving he gets to over indulge just like everyone else. We give him this Thanksgiving in a can and he goes totally crazy for it. He may have also snuck a few pieces of turkey and other scraps that fell while I was cooking too and he was sound asleep before we were finished with our dinner. Definitely a food coma!


As for our Thanksgiving meal, personally I think the best part, not surprisingly, is the sweets. Pumpkin bread is one of my favorite things to bake at this time of year. The stores are stocked with canned pumpkin and it doesn't come around much the rest if the year.  Plus the smell of pumpkin bread in the oven fills the whole apartment with spicy fall goodness which I just love!

I like this recipe from epicurious.com that makes two loaves so I can keep one for myself and bring another to share with friends. But because I know I'll be tempted by lots of other goodies at this time of year, I try to make a healthy(er) version. I replace the vegetable oil with unsweetened apple sauce to cut the fat and calories a bit. You can actually do this in a lot of baking.  Just replace in a 1 to 1 ratio, so 1 cup of oil to 1 cup of apple sauce.  Below is my modified recipe


  • 3 cups sugar (or sugar substitute)
  • 1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 16-ounce can pumpkin
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder


 Butter and flour two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans, or you can use Pam for baking to cut out the butter.  Beat sugar and oil in large bowl  with mixer to blend.  Mix in eggs and pumpkin.  Mix flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and baking powder in another large bowl.   Stir into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions.  Divide batter equally between pans. Bake at 350°F until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour. 

Another dish that's a Thanksgiving tradition in my family is this cranberry apple sauce.  My mom's friend gave her the recipe over 20 years ago and we have it at every Thanksgiving and Christmas meal. The combination of apples and cranberries make the sauce both sweet and tart and it goes really well with Turkey and other meats too.  Not to mention that it comes out a nice pink color and totally brightens up the table.  We've all made a few modifications over the years to the recipe.   I've gotten to the point where I don't even measure the ingredients but here's the recipe I generally follow - you don't have to be exact with the measurements and it will still come out great.

4-5 apples peeled, cored and cut into sections.  (granny smith or a less tart apple to make the sauce sweeter)
1/4 -1/2 cup of sugar, depending on how sweet you want the sauce
1 bag of fresh cranberries
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon of cloves
1/2 tablespoon of allspice
1 cup of water

Combine all ingredients in large saucepan, pour the water over the top and stir.  Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, then reduce to a simmer and cook until the apples are completely softened, stirring occasionally.  




We had a perfect Thanksgiving dinner for two.  

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Frenchiween

We've had a busy couple of weeks celebrating Halloween and my 30th birthday! But sadly while we were having fun here on the west coast, our beloved New York City, my hometown in Connecticut and the beautiful Rhode Island beaches we grew up playing on were being ravaged by Hurricane Sandy.  I am still at a loss for words when I see videos and photos of the places that Dave, Elvis and I used to call home.  I wish there was more we could to help do but from so far away doesn't feel like enough.  We've donated to the Red Cross and Elvis wants to help all of the lost and homeless pets of Sandy so we've given to the ASPCA as well.  And for now I will continue to pray for everyone who lost their homes and businesses in the storm. 

But on a lighter note the reason for this post is to share some ridiculous photos of dogs wearing Halloween costumes. The French Bulldog meetup club we belong to had a Halloween costume meetup last weekend, cleverly named Frenchiween and of course, since I love Halloween so much, Elvis had to attend.  

Elvis dressed up as Justin Bieber in this purple dog hoodie we found at American Apparel.  He didn't seem to mind wearing the hoodie as its pretty soft inside...the wrist bands not so much.  



Here are a few photos of some of the other Frenchies.  There was a costume contest and the pumpkin patch won.  Maybe next year for Elvis!