It's a Beautiful Fall Day!

A treat for the kids when they get home from school. Chocolate cupcakes, with Maple butter cream and autumn coloured sprinkles. This better make them happy:-)

This recipe I found on the internet and it is delicious. The mayonnaise in the batter, make a tender and moist crumb in the cupcakes.

I found the sprinkles at Home Sense/Winners, this is a great place to find unique food items for a good price.

Chocolate Cupcakes

1/4 cup chocolate chips

2/3 cup cocoa (preferably Epicure Selections Cocoa, it is the best)

1-3/4 cup boiling water

2-3/4 flour

1-1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1-1/3 cup mayonnaise

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 lg. eggs beaten

2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease well 2 dozen muffin cups.

Combine chocolate chips, cocoa, and boiling water, stir until chocolate melts.

Combine flour, baking soda and baking powder in a small bowl.

With an electric mixer, beat mayo and both sugars until well combined, add eggs and then vanilla.

Add flour alternately with chocolate mixture in mayo and sugar mixture, beating well after each addition, starting and ending with flour (flour, choc, flour, choc, flour).

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and bake for about 20 minutes.

Frost with your favourite white icing flavoured with Maple extract and tinted with Orange food colouring paste.

What to do with the leftovers...

So you had some family over and you made the Turkey with all the side dishes to go with it, now your fridge is full with leftovers. Here are a few ideas to use up those leftovers. Our ultimate favorite way to use most of the leftovers is to make Turkey Pot Pie. This is just as much of a tradition for us as the Turkey Dinner itself. We make sure we buy a big enough bird to make both meals and then some. In the Pot Pie I use up any turkey, gravy, veggies, bread stuffing and mashed potatoes. Left over Turkey: Mexican Turkey Salad: combine lettuce greens, diced peppers, sliced green onions, peeled, julienned jicama, (a nice crunchy, refreshing Mexican vegetable, it looks a little like a potato) diced tomatoes, chopped cilantro and cubed cooked turkey. Make a dressing of sour cream and salsa and a little BBQ sauce. Add cheese, guacamole and some tortilla chips to go with it and you have a great refreshing meal after your big Turkey Dinner. Pulled Turkey Sandwiches: pull apart all the leftover turkey meat, combine with your favorite BBQ sauce and heat gently in a pan, serve on a nice toasted bun, with a little garlic butter. Turkey pizza or flat breads: purchase ready made pizza dough or flat breads and make BBQ turkey pizza, add your favorite BBQ sauce, toppings and cheese. Turkey and Coconut Soup: Saute some onions, garlic, celery, carrots and red peppers in a little butter or oil, add a little curry powder or red curry paste. Add some turkey or chicken stock, either homemade or store bought, bring to a simmer, add your leftover cubed turkey meat. Slowly add a can of unsweetened coconut milk, juice of a lime and season with salt and pepper. Just before serving add some chopped cilantro. And of course Turkey Pot Pie! Mashed Potatoes Potato and corn pancakes: mix gently together mashed potatoes with cooked, cold corn, a little cayenne powder and salt and pepper if needed. Flour your hands and make 3 inch patties about 1/2 inch thick. Bread patties in corn meal and fry in hot oil in a frying pan. These are great served with breakfast with a fried or poached egg. Mashed potatoes are a great way to thicken soups. Use in turkey, corn or clam chowder or any cream of veggie soup. Just whisk them in when the soup is warm. Potato croquettes: Form cold mashed potatoes in a 3 inch log shape, dredge with flour seasoned with salt and pepper or seasoned salt, then dip in beaten eggs and then dredge them in bread crumbs or Panko crumbs. Fry in deep fryer or in oil in a fry pan. Use your leftover mashed potatoes to make your favorite Shepard's Pie. Cranberry Sauce If you made the cranberry sauce yourself and didn't add any savory ingredients like onions to your sauce or used a canned variety you can be creative and use leftovers in muffins, coffee cakes, pancakes, smoothies mixed with vanilla yogurt. You can mix it with a some Chili sauce and serve it with meatballs over rice, we even used it to make cranberry daiquiris. If you have any great ideas for leftover Turkey Dinner that you have created share them by posting a comment.

Our Favorite Lasagna

Seafood lasagna is a favorite in this house. I have made this quite a few times and by the end of the meal everyone is fighting for the last piece. I usually serve a salad with a vinaigrette on the side.

I do make my own pasta dough and it really does make a difference in the lasagna, put you can purchase fresh sheets of pasta dough in the refrigerator isle in the super market.

Here is the recipe:

For Poaching Liquid

1lb. fish such as cod, salmon or halibut

1 1/2 cups large shrimp

4 cups water

3/4 cup white wine

1/2 onion finely diced

3 Tbsp Epicure Selections Crab Dip Mix (or use Old Bay seasoning or your favorite seafood seasoning)

For Seafood Sauce

3 tbsp. butter

3/4 cup onion finely diced

1 glove garlic, minced

3 tbsp flour

3 1/2 cups poaching liquid

1/4-1/2 cup cream cheese, room temperature

salt and pepper to taste

6 - 8 (depending on the the size) fresh pasta sheets

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

For poaching liquid; in a large sauce pan combine water, wine, onion and crab dip mix. Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium heat. Meanwhile cut fish into 1/2 inch cubes. Shell shrimp if necessary. Add seafood to poaching liquid and simmer for about 5 minutes or until seafood is just slightly under done. Remove seafood from liquid and cool on a plate.

To make seafood sauce, melt butter over medium-high heat in another large saucepan, add onions and garlic and cook about 5 minutes, add flour, stir and cook for a minute or two without browning flour, to make a roux. Add 1 cup poaching liquid and whisk to prevent lumps, add remaining liquid. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Reduce heat to low and simmer sauce for about 5 minutes. Add cream cheese and melt into sauce. Add seafood. Season with salt and pepper and more Crab dip mix if needed.

In a 9x13 casserole dish spoon a little of the sauce on the bottom of the dish, cover evenly with noodles and layer again with sauce and noodles, do this so there are 3-4 layers, ending with sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and bake at 350 degrees in middle of oven for 35-40 minutes until bubbling and cheese is golden. Let sit 10 minutes before serving.