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...

Its that time of year again....

Salad time! Well, I eat salad almost every day, but now its time for the unhealthy, wonderfully delicious kind. The kind that I only let myself make a few times a year, preferably when I have a number of people fighting me for some, because otherwise I will eat the entire thing on my own. My family-famous 7 layer salad. I have turned on a few of my friends to it as well, but its a holiday staple for my family. I've fully explained the makeup here before.
For Thanksgiving #1 this year, the one I didn't have to cook for, my only assignment was to bring the salad. As my aunt put it, "nobody makes it as well as you". And by you, she meant me. Duh. I have tried to make it slightly better for everybody, by using organic lettuce mix, uncured bacon, and mayo that is made with olive oil, but there is not really any getting around the fact that this is a total treat. I was only able to escape with about 2 bowls worth of leftovers. They may be gone already at the time of me writing this. Exactly 24 hours after the actual meal. I won't be making the salad for Thanksgiving #2, the one I do cook for, but I think it will make another appearance at Christmas time, before going away again until the next holiday season.

beer

The people who know me know that I hate beer. Its is gross and makes me want to gag if I drink more than the tiniest sip. And I hate that I hate it because I feel like I am totally the sort of girl who would fit in well in a pub with a pint of something dark. But now I have found the (sort of) middle ground. Its called Lambic. And its delicious. It is real, actual beer. With hops and yeast and everything. But it is fermented with fruit so its girly. If it is made with something dark, like cherries or currants, it winds up a lovely red color, like the result of wine and beer's late night out. Now, like pokemon, I have to collect them all. The only one I am missing in this picture is apple, and that is because I drank it last weekend. Tonight, I am testing out the raspberry. I still have peach and cherry to go. Of the flavors I've had so far, black currant is my fave.

Asian Chicken Meatballs

This recipe really surprised me. I thought it sounded good, but decided to cook it one night just because I already had the stuff in the house and it was quick. Holy crap though, it is super freaking delicious. The recipe (thanks Martha!) calls for turkey, but I had chicken, so that's what I used. All that is in it is breadcrumbs, cilantro, scallions, garlic, fish sauce and sriracha. You mash it all together, easiest with your hands of course, and roll the balls. It makes 12 regular sized meatballs for 1 lb of meat. Then you brown them on all sides in a pan, for about 10 minutes, then toss them in the oven for 10 more minutes to bake through. Including cooking time, it only took maybe 30 minutes. Great for during the week. Serve the meatballs over rice with steamed, shredded carrots- cook the rice in the microwave, and when it's done, before you fluff, toss in the shredded carrots on top and cover with plastic. The heat from the rice will steam the carrots and then you just mix it all together. Do this while you are making the meatballs, and it will be done all at the same time. This one gets an A+ for sure. I ate all of the meatballs by the time lunch the next day was over, and was ready to make it again! This one is totally a new staple for me.

Homemade hot pockets

I got this recipe for hot pockets (the magazine called them handpies, but I don't like the sound of that for some reason) out of my favorite Martha magazine. Since I was going to the trouble, I made a double batch, one vegetarian and the other not.

First, you have to make the dough and let it sit for at least an hour in the fridge. It has cheese built right in! While that is sitting, you make the filling. My vegetarian version had sauteed mushrooms and spinach, and the carnivorous ones were chicken and spinach. I made one big batch of the spinach, and did both the chicken and mushrooms separately. You put broth in with the spinach and it turns into a gravyish substance.
Next, you have to cut the dough into discs, I just used a bowl that seemed to be about the right size, put your filling on the bottom disc, and attach the top with egg around the edges for glue. All that is left is to bake! These took me about 40 minutes, although the recipe said they would be done in 30. They held together pretty well, but the dough was a little bit crumbly. The pies were a hit in the house though.