Rock Your Palate

Holiday cookie baking is especially fun with kids. This recipe is simple enough for preteens to make unsupervised. Or, if you have wee ones you can bake the cookies ahead, cool and then frost letting everyone design ever own cookies.
My friend Doreen has made these cookies for years with her kids when they were younger and now with her husband.

Thanksgiving Day is a celebration or gathering of family, friends and communities dating back to 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. This feast was held to show gratitude for a bountiful harvest and all the good things in the new Settlers lives. During the 18th century the date of this celebration varied throughout the colonies.
In the early 1880s Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor solicited many politicians to declare a formal date for Thanksgiving day; she believed this effort would unite the nation entering the civil war. In 1883 Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November Thanksgiving day. Football followed as did Parades in the 1920s.
The traditionally feast include a turkey, corn, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie and other traditional delights.

Its a great idea to brine your fresh turkey as there is a greater concentration of salt and sugar outside the bird or in the brine and this will flow towards the inside of the bird. As the turkey absorbs the brine solution over a period of hours again entering the cells of the meat, this adds flavor to the bird. I like to experiment, add herbs, garlic, sugar and other flavorings giving your bird full flavor from the inside out.

Recipe serves 2 – 3 12 Pitted dates 8 oz Mascarpone cheese 12 large pecan halves Spiced Sugar [vanilla sugar, cinnamon, cardamon] Open pitted dates and lay flat on cutting board. Add small dollop of mascarpone cheese and then top with one pecan half. Close date sealing cheese add pecan inside date. Sprinkle with spiced [...]

Chester County, Pennsylvania host a Mushroom Festival as Kennett Square State Street turns into Mushroom Boulevard with over 200 vendors. So it should not be a surprise that 60% of all mushrooms consumed in the United States are grown in Southern Chester County.

Well it’s Monday night and we’re ready to rock!
Time to get all the hits, the bangs and the blocks.
It’s the game of the week that’s comin’ your way.
The Patriots and the Panthers are ready to play.
We gotta get ready, we gotta get right
Cause Monday Night Football kicks off tonight!

So get ready. I mean, get ready.
Are you ready for some football?! A Monday night party!