We've Moved!

This blog has been a lot of fun, but for the time being, we are moving on to our new project: http://www.foodandbrews.com/.

Food and Brews contains much of the same content, and will be regularly updated with new recipes, food thoughts, beer reviews, and homebrew experiences. Please visit, and let us know what you think!

Cheers,

Elizabeth & Alan

Reviewing Jamie Oliver's 20 Minute Meals, Day 5: Grilled Pork Chops with Broccoli and Beans

by Elizabeth

Grilled Pork Chops with Broccoli and Beans

When we're feeling rich and fancy, we throw in a hearty meat dish into our dinner rotation. At first glance, this meal sounds a bit boring, but it's actually very tastey. I was not able to locate the Purple Sprouting Broccoli that the recipe calls for, so I just used regular 'ol broccoli.

Once again, I wasn't able to get my meal on the table in 20 minutes. It was more on the side of 40 minutes. My pork chops were really thick, and they took significantly longer to cook that the recipe stated. Again, I don't think 40 minutes is bad for a great dinner, but the advertised 20 would have been nice too!

This meal was the second most expensive, $12.35—$8.00 of that was the pork chops. We could have gone cheaper with them, but like I said earlier, we were feeling rich and fancy. Still, the price isn't too bad, we made 3 pork chops, so my husband has a good hearty lunch to take to work today.

I'm not a big meat-eater, but this was very good. I think my favorite part was the Cannellini Beans sauteed in oil, garlic, and chile. They were so creamy and rich - the perfect side for a gnarly pork chop! The broccoli is finished with a squeeze of lemon juice, which keeps it bright so it can hold its own with the rich beans and grilled meat. Time aside, I'll be making this one again.

Reviewing Jamie Oliver's 20 Minute Meals, Day 4: Gorgeous Greek Salad

by Elizabeth

Gorgeous Greek Salad

Once a week we usually throw a "big salad" in the mix for our weekday dinners. It's a great way to keep things light, fresh, and fast. Jamie's Gorgeous Greek Salad is full of flavor, colors, and just plain yumminess.

Even considering this meal was a salad, it took me about 40 minutes to get it on the table. Again, I'm mostly being slowed down by prep. There are a lot of items to chop, but this meal is well worth it. The dressing is made bright with lemon juice, and red onions marinated in red wine vinegar give an additional burst of flavor to the salad.

So far, this has been the most expensive meal coming in at $14.65. The pricey items were the avocados, tomatoes, feta cheese, and ciabatta bread. The ciabatta was $3.50, but it was a delicious grilled treat within the salad.

This salad has lots of fun ingredients, loads of flavor, and can stand alone as an actual meal. I did make one little change—I know, already making changes to a recipe—I added sliced cucumber. Cucumber is one of my favorite salad ingredients, and I couldn't stand to have a Greek Salad without it!

Reviewing Jamie Oliver's 20 Minute Meals, Day 3: Szechuan Stir-Fry with Jasmine Rice

by Elizabeth

Szechuan Stir-Fry with Jasmine Rice

Stir -fries are one of my favorite meals—they're healthy, relatively fast to make, and are a fun way to change up the weekly dinner menu. Jamie's Szechuan Stir-Fry makes use of chicken thighs, which is the perfect meat for this dish! The dark meat has more flavor, and really holds up the the spices and herbs in this dish.

This meal didn't make it to the table in 20 minutes, it was a bit more like 45. I'm just not as fast at the food prep as Jamie Oliver! Once all of the food was chopped and ready, the stir-frying was really fast. Jamie once again busts out the use of chopped herb stalks—I gotta say, I'm a fan. It adds so much flavor to the food—try it next time you're working with fresh herbs.

The price of this meal was $9.50, which only came out to two dinners. No leftovers this time, but still, where can you get a fresh and healthy dinner for $5 per person?

Taste-wise, this meal was superb! The use of dried red chile, Szechuan pepper corns, and sweet chile sauce compliment the chicken and red bell pepper wonderfully without overpowering your taste buds. Then you get the background flavor of garlic, ginger, and scallions, oh my...a great thing. Not to mention the lovely aroma of Jasmine Rice as it all comes together.

I'm pretty sure I'll be revisiting this meal in the not-so-distant future—I think it has also taught me some other tricks to try on my standard broccoli, carrot, and tofu stir-fry.

Reviewing Jamie Oliver's 20 Minute Meals, Day 2: Spicy Cod with Lemon Zucchini Couscous

by Elizabeth

Spicy Swai with Lemon Zucchini Couscous

When it comes to fish, I tend to get stuck in a rut where I limit myself to baking it in a dish with some lemon and butter or pan-frying it for tacos. I've never cooked fish fillets like this before, and I'm so glad I did!

Time-wise, it took me about 50 minutes to prepare. I set a timer for 20 minutes, and it was half-way through, and I was still fiddling with my cilantro stalks. I found that the prep for this one took longer than I expected. Also, the step where you fry up the onion and zucchini took longer than it alluded to in the recipe.

The recipe was also incredibly inexpensive to make, coming in at $7.75, it made enough food for two dinners and muchos leftovers. Jamie notes that you don't have to use cod, any white fish will do. Our grocery store was having a special on Swai, and it worked out just great. In this recipe, Jamie once again makes use of the stalks from the herbs. This is something I've never done, but by adding chopped herb stalks to you sauteing veggies is a great thing!

Time aside, I will definitely be using this recipe again. The fish was so delicious in the tomato-based sauce, and lemony zucchini couscous was a great base to catch all of the goodness.

NOTE: If you are viewing this recipe from your Android, I noticed an error in step 10 (for 4 people). It says to add 3/4 cup of boiling water to your 14 oz. of couscous - it should be 1 /1/2 cups of boiling water.

Reviewing Jamie Oliver's 20 Minute Meals, Day 1: Tuna and Tomato Rigatoni

by Elizabeth

Jamie Oliver's Tuna and Tomato Rigatoni

Being a pasta-loving Italian-American, it's of no surprise that my first recipe from Jamie Oliver's 20 Minute Meals app is a pasta dish: Tuna and Tomato Rigatoni.

This dish was so simple to make, yet the use of red onion, red chile, and chopped basil stalks made it complex and delightful. That's right—chopped basil stalks! The best part is, it was very much done and on the table in 20 minutes—5 minutes of prep time, 12 minutes of cook time, and about 3 minutes to get it plated and in front of a hungry husband.

Price wise, this meal cost $9.75—not counting items usually in the average pantry, such as olive oil, spices, etc. Not bad for a dinner and leftovers for lunches too! All of the ingredients were easy-to-find items that you can get at your grocery store. Jamie's recipe calls for a jar of tuna in olive oil, but I was able to locate tins of tuna in olive oil at Trader Joe's. I'm sure regular tinned tuna at the grocery store would work just fine in a pinch.

The pasta looked beautiful and appetizing—I was proud to put it on my table. It was even better to eat, we tucked into it like nobody's business!

Food, Meet Technology

by Elizabeth

Last week while I was browsing my Twitter feed, I saw that Jamie Oliver (@Jamie_Oliver) posted that his "20 Minute Meals" app was on sale for Android. Being a proud owner of an Android phone, I thought - "what the hell, let's give it a try." This is actually the first app that I've ever paid for on my phone. I'm a cheap S.O.B, so this is kind of a big deal to me.

Image from www.jamieoliver.com

After spending some time browsing the recipes 'n such, I decided it would be fun to test these out during the week. My husband and I both work full time and go to school, so 20-minute meals are sort of our thing. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to test a dinner recipe each day for five days. The recipes will be reviewed based on:

• Price of ingredients
• Ability to locate ingredients
• Time to cook- was it really done in 20 minutes?
• Loveliness of the food
• Yumminess of the food

I'm very excited about this experiment. From the looks of the recipes, I think it's going to be great. I love Jamie Oliver and his passion for cooking with quality ingredients. And if it's done in 20 minutes, even better - cheers!

Penne with Burrata

This recipe was an experiment, but how can you go wrong with garlic, tomatoes, basil, and cheese? The light sauce sticks to the penne, and makes every bite a very special treat!

Like most of my pasta recipes, this starts out by sauteing garlic in a bit of butter and olive oil, but in the end, you mix in chopped Burrata Mozzarella in with the warm pasta and sauce!

Ingredients:

• 3-4 Garlic Cloves - sliced thin
• 2 Tbsp Butter
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 5-6 Tomatoes, chopped
• Splash of White Wine
• 8 oz. Burrata Mozzarella, roughly chopped
• 1 lb. Penne Pasta
• 10 Basil Leaves, sliced

Saute the garlic in the butter and olive oil while the pasta water is heating up. Saute the garlic for about 10 minutes - don't get it get brown or crispy. Add in the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Let they tomatoes saute and simmer for about 5 minutes before putting the penne in the water - which usually cooks for about 12 minutes.

Once the penne goes in the water, pour a decent splash of white wine in the tomatoes. Bring them to a boil, and continue their simmer until the penne is done.

Toss the sauce with the pasta, then add the Burrata - miss it all up until combined. Stir in the basil leaves before serving.

Enjoy!

Ain't Nothin' Like Homemade Chicken Soup

This has been a pretty challenging week for me. I just started a new job, my classes are ramping up, and to top it all of, I'm getting sick. It was during my new-hire orientation on Tuesday that I started to get that familiar tickle in my throat. The following day I had sinus headaches and a sore throat. I've been battling it with loads of tea, juice, and all the Vitamin C I can handle. So far it hasn't gone "full cold," so I'm determined to get rid of this thing before I go back to work next week!

My awesome husband offered to make me some chicken soup - it's one of my favorite things, so how could I refuse? Over the years we've worked hard at perfecting our soup. Back in the day, we'd just throw a whole chicken in a pot of water with vegetables and spices, and let it boil for a few hours; but in recent years, the process has gotten more sophisticated. If you have a day where you're just at home doing "house things," this is the best dinner to make! And it makes your house smell amazing!

Ingredients:

• Chicken*
• 2 Onions, quartered
• 4-5 Garlic Cloves, whole
• Fresh Herbs**
• Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper
• Water
• Chicken Hearts and Gizzards (if not using a whole chicken)
• 3-4 Carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 3-4 Celery Stalks, roughly chopped
• 1 Bunch of Parsley, roughly chopped
• 8 oz. Tomato Sauce***
• 1/2 lb Small Pasta****
• Grated Pecorino Romano*****

Rinse off your chicken, and place it in a baking dish. We found a super good price on a big pack of drumsticks, so that's what we used. Arrange the quarters of one onion, all of the garlic cloves, and the herbs around the chicken. If you're doing a whole chicken, put the onion, garlic, and herbs inside the cavity. Spray or drizzle everything with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put the baking dish in a 450° oven and roast for an hour.

After the hour, remove your baking dish from the oven. Place all of the goodness from the dish into a large stock pot. If you have one of those stock pots that has a strainer you can put inside, use that! Throw in your chicken hearts/gizzards, second onion, carrots, celery, parsley, tomato sauce, and some more salt and pepper. Cover it with water until everything is swimming. You don't need to fill it to the tippy-top of the pot, but make sure everything is covered. Turn that bad-boy on, and get it to a boil. Once it boils, give it a stir, cover it, and turn it to a low simmer.

After an hour or so, taste your soup - does it need more salt? Pepper? You can always add more spice to your bowl of soup, but it's really not as good as getting it spot-on when you're cooking it.

It might be good after an hour or two, but you really want to let it go for a long time. I find that when you give it 4-5 hours of simmering it really pays off. When I do turkey soup after Thanksgiving, I'll let it go for a super long-ass time.

Once your soup is done, remove the strainer that is full of the soup makings. We usually put it in a bowl because some people enjoy picking at the pieces of chicken and veg and adding it to their bowl of soup. Now that you have a pretty strained soup, you can add some cooked pasta if you like and start serving, or you can strain it again through something finer. I like to have a really clean broth with just pasta and some cheese on top. Some folks like it chunky and don't mind a broth with some herbs and bits in it. It's all up to you and how you dig your soup.

SPECIAL NOTE: As you let your soup cool down, you'll notice oil surface at the top. I do urge you to do your best and spoon off as much oil as you can. If you eat a bunch of oil, you can end up with the trots like nobody's business. Sometimes I make the soup a day or so ahead of time, so when I take the soup out of the fridge the oil has solidified and is really easy to remove.

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*Get your chicken in any form you like. We often buy whole chickens when they are on sale, but they can be expensive. You can also buy a bunch of drumsticks, thighs, breasts, etc. I recommend something with bones, but again, whatever is on sale.

**Any fresh herbs that you enjoy will be good with this. I tend to use Rosemary, but I'll use the "Poultry Herbs" package if it's available and also on the cheap.

***This is optional - my dad always put a can of tomato sauce in his soups, so it tastes like home to me. I recommend it, but it's not necessary.

****Pasta is optional, but I enjoy my soup as a broth with just pasta in it. Again, it's what taste like home to me. Not to be a total advertisement here, but Barilla has recently come out with all sorts of "mini" pastas that are perfect for soups. My favorite are the tiny stars!

*****In my family, we top pretty much ever dish with cheese. Yep, even our soups.

Special Day: Clam Dip

Word on the street is that it's Super Bowl Sunday. My family has never been much into sports, but I recall Super Bowl Sunday as a time for bunches of snack food and hilarious commercials. Both of which I still look forward to. In addition, I'm super excited for the 7th annual Puppy Bowl. If you haven't heard of it and you love dogs, you must check it out.

Back to bunches of snack food. In my family, a holiday is not complete without Auntie Vera's clam dip. It's at every Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthday, you name it! I know it sounds weird - "clam dip." I remember the first Christmas I had with my husband in which he first encountered the famous bowl of clumpy, creamy goodness. He respectfully declined, and the rest of us were all too happy to have more for ourselves. The following year, he gave it a try, and now he's hooked. Drat!

Auntie Vera's Clam Dip

Ingredients:

• 1 tub of whipped cream cheese*
• Miracle Whip**
• 1 or 2 cans of chopped clams***
• Reserved clam juice from the cans
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Paprika
• Ridged potato chips****

Start by combining the cream cheese with 2 scoops of Miracle Whip in a large bowl with a spatula. You need to mix it well so the two ingredients combine into a smooth consistency. Then pour in a couple splashes of the clam juice, and mix till combined. Then add a couple splashes of Worcestershire, and mix well. Now you need to taste it - the rest is completely up to you. It's usually at this point where I add significantly more clam juice and another scoop of Miracle Whip. Mix it well and taste it again. Again, I'm probably going to add another splash or two of clam juice. Once you have the taste that you want, fold in the clams.

Put your dip in a pretty bowl and sprinkle with Paprika. I don't use a fancy type of Paprika, as it's just for a bit of color.

Enjoy! If you try this, please let me know what you think!

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* My genius Auntie Vicki let me in on a secret in which she uses the "whipped" version of cream cheese. You can use a block of cream cheese, but it needs to be at room temperature and you'll need a hand-mixer. That's just too much darn work if you ask me.

** I loves me some Miracle Whip. For you haters out there, I really wouldn't recommend mayo for this recipe since you need the sweet tang (heh, tang...) of the Miracle Whip as opposed to whatever mayo tastes like.

*** Completely depends on how much you love clams. Some people don't like the chewiness of clams and opt for the minced versions

**** Now you must have chips with ridges to hold up to this badass dip. If you go cheap, you're going to end up with broken chips and people stickin' their fingers in your lovely dip. It will be like the Christmas of 1997 all over again!

Adios, Thanksgiving

I know I said I was at the end of my Thanksgiving-leftover adventure with the turkey pot-pie, but there wait, there’s more! The other day I decided to make risotto, and I needed some sort of stock. Low and behold, there in my freezer was a half-quart of turkey stock made from our Thanksgiving turkey! It made a delicious risotto – I’m sure this would work with any stock, but I’d like to think that my special turkey stock made it extra good.
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Portobello Risotto

Ingredients:

• ¼ Cup Butter
• 1 Onion, chopped
• 1 Portobello Mushroom, chopped
• 1 Cup Risotto
• ½ Cup White Wine
• 2 Cups Stock (or water)
• ¼ Cup Parmesan Cheese, grated

Put your stock or water in a saucepan, and start it to a boil. Meanwhile, in another saucepan, melt half of the butter, then sauté the onion until translucent and soft. Add in the mushrooms, and sauté until soft.

Add the risotto into the onions and mushrooms, stir it up so the rice doesn’t stick, then add the white wine. Constantly stir until the liquid is gone, and then add a ladle of stock. Continue to stir until the liquid is gone. Repeat this until the rice is cooked to your liking. It took me until all 2 cups of stock were gone before this happened. The recipe can vary depending on the amount of onion/mushroom, so taste it as you go.

Once the risotto tastes done to you, take it off of the heat and stir in the remaining butter and the Parmesan cheese.

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I guess this isn’t the complete end of Thanksgiving as I still have some of the turkey pot-pie filling in the freezer for to make another pie down the road, but it’s the end of creating fun dishes. Adios Thanksgiving, catch ya on the flip side!

Frank's Pepper Bread

This Italian family-favorite comes to you from my late grandfather, Frank Marotta. My grandfather was strong, tough – yet loving, and one of the best bakers I ever met. An Italian-American born in New York City in 1925, he learned to be both street and book-smart while growing up during the Depression. He served in the Navy during World War II, and shortly after the war, he started a family. He learned the art of baking from his mother, Antonetta. Though he worked long hours as both a city and school bus driver, he always found time to bake – he was best known for his pepper bread. I still remember going over to my grandparents’ house and knowing right away that pepper bread was in the oven. He would bring it to every family gathering, and the guests could not wait to get their hands on it.

It wasn’t until I was much older, in my mid-twenties, that I began an interest in these family recipes. My boyfriend at the time, now husband, was particularly interested in learning more about baking. Unfortunately, at that time, my grandfather was very ill and no longer baking. My grandmother passed the recipe to me, but in her old-world fashion, it consisted of a list of ingredients with no measurements. Instructions such as, “make it like you’re making pizza dough” filled the page. For someone who doesn’t know how to make pizza dough, this was not very helpful. I spoke to her over the phone to get more details, but I could tell she’d never measured anything out, and it was all in her head as it was for my grandfather. Relying on my notes from my conversations with her on her hand-written recipe, my husband and I began recreating it.

Through trial and error, we figured out how to recreate this family favorite. Most of the credit needs to go to my husband who knows the chemistry of bread-baking – I was just the taste-tester and pepper sauté-er. I think that if this isn’t spot-on to what my grandfather made, it’s pretty darn close. Just a single bite of this delicious savory bread transports me right back to backyard barbeques with my family, weekends with my grandparents, and basically my entire childhood. I hope you enjoy Frank’s Pepper Bread as much as we do.

Bread:

4 ½ Cups King Arthur All-Purpose Flour

2 Tsp Salt

2 Tsp Sugar

3 Tsp Fleischmann's Active Dry Yeast

1 ½ Cup Warm Water

Filling:

2 Green Bell Peppers

¼ Tsp Salt

¼ Tsp Pepper

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

¾ Cup Grated Cheddar Cheese

2 Tbsp Grated Pecorino Romano Cheese

For the Bread:

1.)   Wisk together the flour, salt sugar, and yeast in a large bowl – create a well in the middle.

2.)   Warm your water to 110° and pour it into the well. Mix the ingredients until combined. Let it stand for 5 minutes to let the water absorb.

3.)   Knead for about 10 minutes it until it’s a smooth ball – you can also knead it with a stand mixer using the dough hook attachment for about 7 minutes until it forms a ball.

4.)   Place the dough back in a lightly oiled large bowl, and cover it with plastic wrap – let it rise for 90 minutes.

5.)   Punch down the bread and let it rise again for 45 minutes.

While your dough is in the long rising stages, you can start on the filling for the bread – see Step 6.

6.)   Wash the bell peppers, cut them in half, remove the seeds and membranes, cut them into ¼ inch slices, and toss them with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil over medium heat and sauté the peppers until soft – about 10-15 minutes. Allow them to cool to room temperature before proceeding to the next steps.

7.)   When your dough is ready, divide it in half. Take one of the two sections of dough, and roll it out in a rectangle like you’re making a pizza.

8.)   Place half of the peppers evenly over the dough. Sprinkle it with half of the cheddar cheese, and then sprinkle half of the pecorino on top.

9.)   Roll the dough up long-ways – tuck and fold the ends of both sides in. NOTE: Leave a couple of inches at the end of the dough to avoid the filling bursting out.

10.)   Follow the process above for the second loaf of bread.

11.)  Let the loaves rise on parchment lined cookie sheets for 20 minutes, brush them with olive oil, then slice the loaves with razor blade three times.

12.)  Bake the loaves for 30 minutes in a 400° oven – the bread should be a golden brown color when done.

NOTE: If you’re not going to serve the bread right away, store in the fridge or freezer. Heat it up in a 300° oven for 15-20 minutes to toast up the crust and melt the filling before serving.

 

Ringing in 2011 with Butternut Squash Ravioli

I know that I already mentioned this amazing meal in my last blog post, but I just had to share it again. I cook a lot, and I think this is the most amazing thing I've ever made!

Yesterday my husband and I were making our weekly grocery list, and I sat looking at this butternut squash that my mother-in-law gave us at Thanksgiving. I recalled having amazing ravioli made with the squash at a friend's wedding over the summer, so I asked my husband if he was up for making some pasta. Since getting the pasta attachments for our mixer a few years ago, he pretty much jumps at the chance to make pasta, so it was no surprise that he was down for it.

Since I'd never made it before, we both started searching online for recipes. It was funny that we both came back with the same one! Here it is - Roasted Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter Sauce, courtesy of Emeril Lagasse via www.foodnetwork.com.

Ingredients
    •    9 tablespoons butter
    •    3 tablespoons minced shallots
    •    1 cup roasted butternut squash puree
    •    Salt
    •    Freshly ground white pepper
    •    3 tablespoons heavy cream
    •    3 tablespoons grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus 2 ounces
    •    Pinch nutmeg
    •    1 recipe pasta dough, rolled out into wide ribbons, about 1/4-inch thick
    •    12 fresh sage leaves
    •    1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley leaves

To make the butternut squash puree - start by cutting your squash in quarters and scooping out the seeds and sticky stuff. Drizzle the quarters with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place squash on a baking dish and put it in a 400 degree oven for about  50 minutes. When it's cool enough to handle, scoop out the squash, run it through a food processor to puree it, and voila!

In a large saute pan, over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter. Add the shallots and saute for 1 minute. Add the squash puree and cook until the mixture is slightly dry, about 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the cream and continue to cook for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in 3 tablespoons cheese and nutmeg, to taste. Season with salt and pepper. I went back and forth tasting at this point adding a bit more nutmeg, and salt before it was where I wanted it. Be sure to taste your food! Let it cool completely before making your ravioli.

Make a normal batch of pasta dough, and roll it into sheets - I think my husband used the 5 setting on our roller.

Place 1-2 teaspoons of filling for each ravioli - size depending on how big your cutters are. Either fold them by hand, cut them with cutters, or just do whatever you do to make ravioli!

When all of your ravioli are made, add them to salted boiling water - cook them for about 3 minutes or until they float and look done.

Remove the pasta from the water and drain well. Season the pasta with salt and pepper.

In a large saute pan, melt the remaining 8 tablespoons of butter. Add the sage to the butter and continue to cook until the butter starts to brown. Remove from the heat.

Place some of the pasta in the center of each serving plate. Spoon the butter sauce over the pasta. Sprinkle the 2 ounces of cheese over each plate and garnish with parsley.

I can't even tell you how amazing this dish is! The recipe made so much ravioli that we froze 1/2 of them and even had leftovers of the cooked ones that we ate for lunch today. Seriously good stuff here.

Leftover Christmas Ham = Split Pea Soup!

This Christmas, we had a spectacular meal at my uncle's house which included scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, apricot yams, and ham. It was so delicious, and following dinner I asked my uncle what he was planning to do with the ham bone. Apparently my mom and dad already had "dibs" on the ham bone—can you believe it? After playing the "Oh, come on! We need it more than you!" game with my parents, I finally won out and got the ham bone. Seriously, what kind of family fights over a darn ham bone? Oh, I'll tell ya—one that LOVES pea soup! The scary part is, I think I'm going to owe my parents a favor sometime in the future, I can already see it coming..."Remember, last Christmas when you got the ham bone..."

I made the pea soup on Monday and we've been enjoying it for our lunch every day since. Seriously, it's the best!

Ingredients:
3 Slices of Bacon - diced
1-2 Onions - diced
3 Carrots - diced
2-3 Stalks of Celery - diced
3 Garlic Cloves - diced
1/2 Tsp Salt (sometimes I eliminate the salt due to the pork intake)
1/4 Tsp Pepper
1 Tsp Oregano
1 Bay Leaf
1 Package Split Peas
2 Quarts Water
Diced Ham - (if I have some leftover I add it, sometimes I just cut what I can off the bone or just use the bone)
Ham Bone

Render the bacon until it's crispy, then add the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic—sauté 5-10 minutes. Add the salt, pepper, oregano, and bay leaf—sauté for another minute. Add your peas, water, ham, and ham bone. Give it a good stir and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to a low simmer, cover it, and let it go for 3 hours. Stir it every half-hour or so to make sure all is well. Be sure to top the individual servings with more black pepper!

Because I'm Italian and put pasta in everything, I usually boil small pasta shells and add them in when it's time to serve it. Little shells are good because they fill with soup!
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Do you have a favorite use for Christmas ham leftovers? Please share! Also, if you try this recipe, let me know how it comes out.

Thanks for the world's greatest ham bone, Uncle Bob!

Turkey Leftovers: Turkey Pot Pie

Here I am, at the end of my turkey leftover adventure. To end it on a high note, we decided to make a pot pie with the rest of the turkey. I say "we," when I should say "my husband." He's did everything, and I sat on the couch and read my book. He basically followed Cook's Illustrated's Chicken Pot Pie recipe, but substituted the chicken for turkey. Instead of using a can of chicken stock, he used my turkey broth that I froze after making the big soup. Oh, and he used a pre-made pie crust dough - yeah, sometimes you gotta take shortcuts! It was a delicious dinner, and he even got creative with the crust - check out the photo!

As if the pie wasn't calorie-loaded enough, we decided to enjoy it with a side of tots. I mean, seriously, when are tots a bad idea? The photo to the right isn't that great - it's so hard to get the pieces of pie out nicely. I suppose we could do individual pies, but that usually lends to me overeating...as if I really need to finish the whole thing!

As usual, we had a great time being inventive with our turkey leftovers. For as much money as we spend on the big Thanksgiving dinner each year, it's good to know that we're getting the most out of the leftovers. It sure makes the next few week's trips to the grocery store less expensive! So long turkey, we'll see you next year! I'm already envisioning Turkey Tamales...

Turkey Leftovers: Turkey Salad

We are almost done with our turkey leftovers. I absolutely hate food waste, so I'm trying to be as creative as possible with this leftover meat. On Thanksgiving day, once the carved turkey cooled and no one else was interested in any more, my husband took one whole breast, sealed it in a food-saver bag, and froze it. This week we thought was as good a time as ever to break it out. I took a quarter of the meat and decided turkey salad sounded like a good idea. The weather has been oddly warm lately, and a cold sandwich just sounded really good the other day.

Ingredients:

• Turkey, chopped or shredded (as much as you want for your sandwiches)
• Celery, a couple finely diced ribs
• Onion, finely diced (I usually use green onions, but all I had was red and it was great!)
• Mayo
• Salt
• Pepper

Just mix all that stuff up. Use as much of each ingredient as you like. Taste it as you mix it up so you get the flavors that you prefer. Spread it on your favorite bread, and you've got a Turkey Salad Sandwich going!

Sometimes when I'm feeling sassy, I'll dice up a dill pickle and throw that in too!

Turkey Leftovers: Tacos

We still have turkey...so much turkey! We decided to take tonight's leftovers south of the border with tacos! Turkey tacos are kind of rad, so I suggest you try them if you have any more turkey leftover. Here's an easy method that I like to do - great for after work when you don't have a lot of time:

Shred up your turkey - however much you think you'll need. Then toss it in a saucepan with a can of Herdez Salsa Verde. I'm sure you can use any salsa verde that you like, I just prefer Herdez. If once you stir it up, it looks like you don't have much salsa, you can pour in some soup stock. Tonight we improvised with chicken bullion and water - whatever works. Get that pot a'simmerin' on the stove for a while - until the turkey is thoroughly warmed through. Scoop that goodness onto a tortilla with your favorite fixins, and you're ready to rock. Throw in some rice* and beans, and you've got a hell of a party going!

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*Check out my rice recipe here.

Turkey Leftovers: Sandwiches

When talking about leftover Thanksgiving turkey, you can't help but mention sandwiches. It's the easy-peasy thing to do with your leftovers. Especially a day or two after when you haven't had a chance to go to the grocery store (not that it would matter because you're broke from buying all the food for Thanksgiving) and you just want something fast and easy to eat.

I'm pretty particular with my turkey sandwich. Now this only goes for Thanksgiving leftovers, not regular deli meat - that can be any 'ol way. I start off by spreading a Miracle Whip on each slice of bread. Yes, Miracle Whip. Then I grind black pepper on each slice of bread so it sticks to the Miracle Whip. Next I lay out chunks of leftover turkey on one of the slices of bread. I prefer to use the dark meat, but I won't be picky if there's only white meat left. Once the turkey is down, I spoon some of my homemade cranberry sauce on top. Finally, I place the second slice of bread on top, cut it in half, and go to town.

This is the way my mom did our leftover turkey sammies when we were little, and it's just so familiar and comforting to me. Even my husband likes it - although I could see the doubt in his eyes the first time I made it for him.

His turkey sandwich of choice is getting all the fixings - turkey, potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce - and putting it all on his sandwich. Drizzling it with gravy before placing the top piece of bread on, of course. The first time I saw him do this, I was a little horrified. It just seemed so gnarly, but I tried it - and yep, it was pretty good. It's like all of Thanksgiving put into a tiny package.

How do you do leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches? It's okay if it sounds weird - hell, I use Miracle Whip, so I won't judge!

Turkey Leftovers: The Soup

For anyone who has hosted a Thanksgiving dinner, knows about the leftover situation. I think the turkey leftover crowd consists of three main schools of thought:

• Leftovers rock, I will do so many things with them!
• Eh, turkey sandwiches are okay...
• F the leftovers, blah!

Personally, I fit into the first group. I love the leftovers more than the main Thanksgiving dinner! Since I host it every year, I find myself stressed out and tired of the sight of food by the time the dinner is on the table. I pick at it a bit, drink too much wine and then pretend to be interested in attempting to sort of help with dishes...then drink more wine.

My favorite leftover is the turkey soup. Every year my parents come over the day after Thanksgiving, and we enjoy the turkey soup and some leftover bread together. It's relaxing, warm, and delicious.

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Ingredients:

• Turkey Carcass
• Giblets and Neck
• Carrots
• Celery
• Parsley
• Onion
• Garlic
• 8 oz Tomato Juice
• Salt and Pepper
• Small Pasta (optional)
• Grated Pecorino Romano Cheese (optional)

As soon as dinner is over, my husband starts dismantling the turkey carcass.  Dark meat goes in one container, and white meat in another. Once it's thoroughly cleaned off, we plop the bones and carcass bits into the stockpot*. I fill the stockpot with water, cover it, and start the boil. You can season the water if you like. I didn't season the water this year as I did the bacon turkey, and it was plenty salty and good as-is. Once it is boiling, turn it down to a simmer. This will go for as long as you want. I did mine for about 4 hours. Once you're tired and thinking of going to bed, take the stockpot off the stove, let it rest a bit, dump the carcass in the trash, and put the pot into the fridge.

The next day (early afternoon), take out the huge stockpot and see if any oil has hardened on the top. If so, just scrape it off with a spoon.

Put that bad-boy back on the stove, and turn up the heat. Add your giblets and neck if you didn't use them for gravy the day before. Roughly cut up carrots, celery, onion, parsley, and some garlic cloves. Add those to the soup. Pour in an 8 oz can of tomato juice, and season the soup with some salt and pepper. Once it comes to a boil, lower the temp to a simmer, cover it, and let it go. I let mine go for about 2 1/2 hours.

After about an hour or so of simmering, taste the broth and make sure it's seasoned to your liking. Add more seasoning now if necessary.

When you're soup is done, take it off the heat. Now is also the time that you'll want to boil up some small pasta** if you like that in your soup. I always put pasta in my soup, and I highly recommend it.

Remove the vegetables from your soup. I put these in a bowl and cover with some foil to keep them warm. It is now that you're probably going to benefit from some help - you need to strain the soup through a fine strainer. This gets you a really nice broth. Once your pasta is done, strain it and run some cold water through it to keep it from sticking together. Put some pasta in your bowls and top it with a couple ladles of soup.

Personally - it is at this point where I just top my soup with some pecorino-romano, and call it a day. My parents on the other hand, enjoy adding the cooked vegetables to their broth as well as chunks of leftover turkey. To each his own, and that's why this meal rocks. I made enough broth this year for at least 5 dinners!

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* My stockpot has a removable strainer inside it - this makes all the difference when you're making soup. You can easily dump out the turkey carcass and strain out your vegetables after your second boil.

** I used tiny star pasta this year, and it was so good!

No Fail Turkey

My husband and I have been hosting Thanksgiving for seven years now! We've been doing this since long before we were married, so each year we seem to have figured a little more out about this whole hosting a giant meal thing. Sometimes we change up appetizers, sides, and desserts; but we NEVER mess with the turkey. I have found a no-fail turkey, and I think we'd be stupid not to do it every year.

The idea isn't my own, in fact, it was something my dad talked about when I was little. Every year my mom made an incredible turkey, and I recall once my dad mentioning this method. My mom had her own way of roasting the turkey, so she never took the suggestion. I can't blame her, because once you find "your way," there's really no going back. I mean, who wants to try something totally new and have it fail on them with a table full of hungry people?

For those of you who would like to try something new or have never cooked a turkey before, you're going to want to give this a go.

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No Fail Turkey

Ingredients:

• Turkey (any size)
• Thick-cut bacon
• Veg/Herbs or Stuffing

Pre-heat your oven to 325 degrees. First, rinse out your turkey - make sure to take the neck and bag of guts out before cooking. Pat the turkey down with a paper towel, and place it in your roasting pan. If you are doing stuffing, go ahead and stuff him now. If you're not, roughly chop up some veg or herbs, and put that in the cavity. An onion, some carrots, and celery work well. This keeps the turkey moist from the inside out.

Now the fun part. Lay your bacon on top of your turkey. As you can see, I don't use any particular type of pattern, I just lay it on there. I also don't season the skin of the turkey. I've found that the bacon provides enough saltiness that seasoning is not necessary.

Make a little tent-like structure out of foil and place that on top of your pan. You don't want the foil touching the turkey - it's just a loose tent, not a lock-down on the poor little guy.

Put that bad boy in the oven, the time will vary depending on the size of your bird. So Google that ahead of time so you give yourself adequate time to get everything done. About 20 minutes before the turkey is done, take off the foil. This will brown everything up really nice like.

When it's all done, take it out, and let it rest a bit because that mo-fo is going to be HOT! When the turkey has cooled down a little bit, start pulling off the bacon. I tend to put the bacon on a plate to the side. What doesn't get eaten by the vultures standing around the turkey gets crumbled and put on top of my mashed potatoes.

Carve up your bird, and enjoy!
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This recipe has NEVER failed me. The turkey comes out oh-so-moist and good - even the breast meat! Did you notice that part in the recipe about basting? Well, you shouldn't have because it's not in there. The bacon fat starts to render and bastes the turkey through the whole process, so you don't ever need to open the oven. The smell is incredible, and the bacon fat that mixes in with the turkey juices creates a great flavor in the stuffing and some amazing gravy. Yeah, you're going to want to make pan gravy from these drippings.

Yes, this isn't a very timely post since Thanksgiving is over, but you can always bookmark it for next year. Better yet, buy a turkey for cheap since the grocery stores are getting rid of them, throw it in your freezer, and give it a go when you're craving turkey again. Oh, and there's always Christmas...