Salmon ceaser

What is better than a ceaser salad? Almost nothing, right? For dinner last night, I was trying to think up a way to use some salmon that we don't normally do, and I decided on the salmon ceaser. Nothing original, I know, but its not anything I ever make. I would say this turned out pretty professional looking!

Lima Beans

I get more flack for this standpoint, but here I go. Lima beans are good. I would have never believed it myself if I were not forced to taste them, but it's true. Get frozen, not canned, put some in a little bowl with a little water, nuke it for a minute on high, pour the water down the sink and hit with salt. Tastes just like edemame! I like to use a salt seasoning mix my girlfriend got me years ago because it makes them a little garlic-y and a little spicy on top of the salt. Now go ahead and never, ever believe me.

Scallops and risotto

There was a good sale on scallops (pretty much the only time we are lucky enough to get them for dinner) so I made an old copycat favorite of bang bang scallops. You can see how I make them in this old blog. A wonderful treat! I was feeling ambitious so I also decided to make some risotto. Now I know everybody thinks it is sooooo scary to try and cook it, but srsly it couldn't be simpler. Can you stir? Then you can make risotto. All you do is add the cooking liquid a little at a time (not-chicken broth in my case) and keep stirring. When it's done, you add a pat of butter and a boatload of parmesean. This is not an every day food, but man is it good.

Pesto

Back a couple of months ago, as summer was winding down, I cleared my garden of basil. We had a pretty large crop this year, and the best way I have found to store it is to make pesto, and freeze it. I make big batches, and freeze portions in ice cube trays. That way, when it is the middle of winter (although today is technically the first day of winter) and you are being lazy, you can just boil up some noodles, pop in a few of the pesto cubes and you have dinner. Go me for thinking ahead! For this particular dinner, I added a little extra by sauteing some onions and mushrooms to add to the mix. It was good stuff, and the baby LOVED it.

Copycat

I enjoy trying to copy yummy food I have had other places, like a restaurant, out of a box, at somebody's house, etc. This copy is a tortilla version of my favorite Which Wich. I cooked up some chicken breast, cut into bites, put hot wing sauce on it, and served it in a tortilla with crispy bacon and cheddar cheese. Heart attack in a tortilla? Pretty much. But mighty tasty.

Thanksgiving! part two

Since I had done a bunch of preparation the day before, on the actual feast day, the main thing on the agenda was the turkey! And before I get into it let me tell you that I deserve a kick in the shins for FORGETTING to take a picture of it when it was whole and roasted and golden brown and delicious. Blergh.
Anyways, I don't like putting bread stuffing inside my bird, so I stuff the cavity with aromatics and veggies. I used carrots, onions, celery, lemons and some herbs. For the outside, I melted some butter, added a little olive oil, and just sage and thyme. I poured that all over the bird and stuck it in the oven. Oh, I also put most of a box of broth in the roasting pan, along with the rest of the veggies I cut up that didn't fit in the cavity. I basted it towards the end of cooking, but then came my ultimate Thanksgiving worry... was this thing cooked? I was getting wildly different temperature readings on either side of the bird. I decided to cook a little more but then decided that the average of all my measurements was a little more on the cooked side of where I wanted to be, so I took it out of the oven. When carving time came (luckily I was doing this by myself in the kitchen away from everybody!) it wasn't cooked through!! Eek! But I had a brilliant idea to carve the entire thing, shove it on a roasting sheet in a crazy hot oven, and it cooked it the rest of the way quicker than anybody even noticed! Phew.

Meanwhile, I needed to finish the rest of the dinner. Luckily for me the stuffing and mushroom and lentil pot pies cooked at the same oven temp, so that made it a lot easier. The morning of the feast, I had gotten the stuffing prepared. I used a mushroom and toasted walnut recipe I got from a Martha magazine, and it was fantastic! I will never use another recipe again. I have been trying for years to replace my family's recipe because I don't think it is very good, and this is the winner! To finish the pot pies, all I needed to do was to make the dough for the crust and put some cheese over the top. Simple.
The last things I took care of were the veggies. I had to make mashed potatoes, duh, and I decided to make green beans with a lemon cream sauce (mentioned here).

That is it! Dinner was done. Oh wait, also gravy. I made gravy using the drippings and broth from the turkey, along with wine and potato starch. It turned out really well.
Everybody ate 2 or 3 helpings, so I feel like my feast was a success! I am glad that amount of work is only once a year though. And I am glad that I have enough leftovers to last for a while :)

Thanksgiving! part one

MMMMMMMM. Thanksgiving is my favorite. This year, I attended 2 Thanksgivings, but only one of them required me to cook for two days. I decided that I didn't want to freak out and rush on the day of the feast, so I made what I could ahead of time. I got preparations for the stuffing done, all this included was toasting some walnuts and cutting up a loaf of bread so that it could dry overnight.

Next, I made the cranberry sauce. I never really liked cranberry sauce too much, until I tried this recipe a few years back. You simmer the cranberries for a half hour in sugar, water and oj, with some orange and lemon zest. Since I made it a day ahead, it set up really nicely by the time dinner rolled around.

Third, I made the dough for the crust of an apple pie. I ended up finding out that one of my guests was planning on bringing 2 desserts already, so I wound up making this pie later in the week. Still have half of it in my fridge, but it is killer. There are 3 lbs of apples in this sucker! And the top "crust" is actually an oat streusal. Yum!

Last, I made the filling for the vegetarian part of the feast, mushroom and lentil pot pies. There is a vegetarian in my midst and I feel bad when he always just gets stuck eating side dishes everywhere he goes. All that is in it is lentils, mushrooms (fresh and dried), carrot, potato, broth, and spices.

I spent a long time cooking, and this was just the preparation for the official day! Continue on to part two for the rest...