Shopping Main Street Grinnell & an Iowa gift idea

I decided to skip the craziness known as Black Friday this year (I'm not a fan of the Black Friday sales starting on Thanksgiving night), so I asked my sister to join me on a Small Business Saturday trip to a place I've never been to before but always wanted to visit -- Grinnell, Iowa.

My family knows that I have to take pictures whenever we do anything together.  You can tell my sister (who is expecting a little girl in March!) is thrilled about taking photos. In the 20 degree temps.  I look like Rudulph, with my nose so bright!

We're not used to the cold temps yet (it was 80 degrees early in the week), so I didn't take my gloves off to take more pictures outside.  But we found several neat little shops in downtown Grinnell, including a shoe store, a Hallmark store with lots of fun holiday gifts, a flower/gift shop with beautiful home decor items (I'm already planning to go back when I have a little more cash after the holidays) and a kids clothing store that had the most delicious kids clothing (my sister wants to go back there after the holidays).

There were also several restaurants downtown.  We ended up at a Mexican restaurant (I didn't catch the name), but the food was excellent and a perfect warm up on a cold day.  My sister orders Cherry Cokes whenever we eat out together.

I ordered the "Speedy Gonzalez" lunch special: one enchileda, one taco, refried beans and Spanish rice.

And even though I had pumpkin pie for breakfast (I love Thanksgiving leftovers), I had to order the churros.  Don't they look festively arranged in a star shape?

We made a good dent in our Christmas gift list. And while I'm talking about Christmas gifts, I wanted to share with you a little present I bought myself from one of my favorite Iowa artists.  I order a calendar from the Steel Cow Gallery in Waukon, Iowa, every year for my office.  I love the colorful cow paintings. One day, I'm going to buy a big cow print, if I can only figure out where to put it in my house.

You can order a cow calendar, or other fun items like cow magnets and Christmas ornaments, on the Steel Cow Gallery website.

Did you shop on Small Business Saturday?  Or are you a die-hard Black Friday fan? I understand why people like to shop on Black Friday -- the awesome deals and festive atmosphere -- but I just didn't want to get up early this year.

Blue-ribbon pumpkin & pecan pies

Happy belated Thanksgiving, everyone!  I'm still full after our Thanksgiving feasting yesterday.  My husband and I stayed home again this year, and we made Thanksgiving dinner for ourselves.  Pretty much everything turned out really well this year, except for a new sweet potato recipe I tried in the slow cooker, so I won't be sharing that recipe with you all.

Our Thanksgiving meal, clockwise from bottom left: glazed sweet potatoes, homemade stuffing, turkey & gravy, and green bean casserole (my favorite!).

I also tried out a couple new pie recipes I found in one of my old Iowa State Fair cookbooks.  They both turned out pretty good. However, once again, I didn't bake the pecan pie long enough, and it didn't set and ended up runny.  I don't blame the recipe, however.  I just didn't give it enough time in the oven, but I needed the precious oven space for all the other side dishes I was making at the time.

Here are the two blue-ribbon pie recipes I tried this Thanksgiving.  Both were super-easy and delicious.  Enjoy!

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Harvest pumpkin pie

3 eggs, beaten
16-oz. can solid pack pumpkin
3/4 C. packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
12-oz. can evaporated milk
Pastry for single-crust 9-inch pie

Beat eggs lightly. Add pumpkin, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg and evaporated milk. Pour into pie shell. Bake in 425 degree oven 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Bake 40 to 50 minutes more. Cook on wire rack.

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Pecan pie

• 3 eggs
• 3/4 C. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 C. dark corn syrup
• 1/2 C. butter or margarine, melted
• 1 C. pecan halves
• Pastry for single-crust 9-inch pie

Beat egg slightly. Add sugar and salt; stir until dissolved. Stir in corn syrup and melted butter; mix well. Fold in pecans. Pour into pastry-lined pie pan. Cover edge of pie with foil. Bake in 350 degree oven 25 minutes. Remove foil; bake 25 minutes more or until knife inserted off center comes out clean. Cool on rack.

BH&G's Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

I like to visit the local bookstore on my lunch break, and I always tell myself not to buy another cooking magazine, but then I always end up buying one anyway.  I discovered the new Better Homes and Garden's Chocolate special interest publication, and there were so many fun recipes that I couldn't resist buying yet another magazine.

A few days later, I found these fancy chocolate chips at World Market, which I thought was a good excuse to try the BH&G's chocolate chip cookie recipe in the magazine.

It turns out that these chocolate chips were "super" because of their gigantic size.  I wasn't sure how many of these huge chips I could squeeze into each cookie. It turned out, quite a few.

This recipe makes a lot of cookies, which is great because I love to give away cookies to my friends and family.  How cute are these?

And I like how the recipe uses both butter (for flavor) and shortening (for texture).  Here's the recipe if you want to try them at home. Or better yet, pick up a copy of the BH&G's Chocolate magazine while it's still on the shelves for more great recipes.

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BH&G's chocolate chip cookies

• 1/2 C. butter, softened
• 1/3 C. shortening or vegetable oil
• 1 C. packed brown sugar
• 1/2 C. granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2-3/4 C. all purpose flour
• 1, 12-ounce package semisweet chocolate pieces
• 1-1/2 C. chopped walnuts, pecans or hazelnuts, toasted if desired (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and shortening with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking soda and salt. Beat until mixture is combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Stir in chocolate pieces and, if desired, nuts.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 9 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes. Transfer to wire racks and let cool.