Kabocha Mascarpone Pie

For our Thanksgiving pie this year I used kabocha squash instead of pumpkin and mascarpone cheese instead of evaporated milk. The pie is delicious and creamy and I love its flavor specially with a tablespoon of creme fraiche and a sprinkling of superfine sugar. It's the perfect ending to a satisfying dinner of turducken roll, gravy, bread stuffing, candied sweet potatoes, roasted Brussels sprouts and orange cauliflower, baked green beans casserole, and mini brioche rolls.

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Arroz Caldo

arroz caldo topped with crispy flaked chicken, chicken chicharrones,
crispy fried scallions and shaved garlic

Arroz Caldo, a favorite comforting and restorative Filipino rice dish was chosen by our host, the indefatigable super Mom Joy for November 2011 Kulinarya Cooking Club. Arroz Caldo comes from the Spanish arroz for rice and caldo for broth. I have featured Arroz Caldo once before and am reprinting 2 paragraphs from that post.

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Root Beer Float Fudge

On September of this year, I received a cookbook gift from The Daring Bakers; thank you Lis, Lisa, and Mandy for choosing my Chocolate-coated Brown Sugar Meringue and Caramel Candy as one of the top three candies. The book is CHOCOLATES AND CONFECTIONS from the Culinary Institute of America by Peter P. Greweling. 

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Cooking with Tea

lapsang souchong tea-smoked duck ham 

Sarah from Simply Cooked was our November Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to create something truly unique in both taste and technique! We learned how to cook using tea with recipes from Tea Cookbook by Tonia George and The New Tea Book by Sara Perry.

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