Thankful for Thanksgiving!

OK y'all... here are my recipes from yesterday's Thanksgiving meal. Two of the recipes I made for the very first time and the other two I've been making for well over 20 years. They were so good!

Citrus and Herb Turkey (inspired by Lucinda Scala Quinn)

• 14 lb turkey
• 2 Tbsp coarse salt (guideline)
• 1 tsp black pepper (guideline)
• 1 onion, halved
• 2 oranges, halved
•  1 lemon, halved
• 1 Tbsp garlic in olive oil
•  6 sprigs thyme
•  6 sprigs sage
•  32 oz box chicken stock
•  olive oil (Athena is the best!)

Directions

1. Preheat conventional oven to 325. Make sure rack is positioned in the middle of the oven.
2. Season inside of turkey with half of the salt & pepper. Stuff turkey with onion, orange and lemons halves. Reserve 1/2 an orange for turkey stew that will be made the next day. Bunch herbs together, fold in half, and stuff into turkey as well. If turkey doesn't have plastic "trussing," take twine and tie up legs to keep turkey together.
3. Pat a good tablespoon or more of olive oil all over the top and sides of the turkey with your hand. Sprinkle with remaining salt & pepper. Cover turkey with foil, creating a tent so that the foil does not sit directly on top of the turkey.
4. Pour box of chicken stock (or homemade if you have it) into turkey pan. Place turkey on middle shelf in oven and cook for 2 hours. Check with meat thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh area as this is the last place that will finish cooking. Thermometer should read at least 145 degrees. Remove foil completely, turn oven up to 350 and brown skin for 30 minutes. Your thermometer will read 155 degrees in the thigh when the turkey is completely done. Remove to carving (cutting) board.
5. Let turkey rest for 20 minutes before carving as the juices need this time to redistribute throughout the meat. Carve and enjoy!

Fig & Pancetta Stuffing (inspired by Lucinda Scala Quinn)

• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, plus a bit to spread into the baking dish
• 1 onion, chopped
•  8 oz pancetta, diced into 1/4" pieces
•  2 cups chicken stock
•  4 oz figs, coarsely chopped
•  2 oranges, zest and juice
•  2 Tbsp sage, finely chopped
•  14 slices whole wheat bread, toasted
•  3 large eggs, lightly beaten

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter 2 1/2 qt baking dish.
2. In medium saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add pancetta, stirring occasionally, about 2 minutes. Add onions, continue stirring until pancetta begins to render fat and onions are translucent, about another 2 minutes.
3. Add chicken stock  and figs to mixture and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let stand for 15 minutes.
4. When slightly cooled, add orange zest, juice, and sage to saucepan stirring to combine all ingredients. Using a very large bowl, tear toasted whole wheat into large pieces. Pour pancetta-fig mixture over bread mixing lightly followed by eggs. Stir well until everything is completely combined.
5. Transfer bread mixture to your baking dish, cover with foil, and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and finish off baking for another 15-20 minutes or until the top is golden brown and crispy.

Sweet Potato Casserole

• 3 cups mashed sweet potatoes OR 1 large & small can yams
• 1/2 cup sugar or Splenda
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 stick butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup milk OR half and half (if you're out of milk or low)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract (no imitation!!)

Directions

1. Preheat conventional oven to 350.
2. Place all ingredients in mixing bowl. Beat until well blended.
3. Pour mixture into 1 1/2 qt baking dish.
4. Optional ingredients: 1 cup coconut or 1/2 cup raisins

Topping

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped in handy chopper
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/3 stick butter, melted

Directions

1. In small bowl, mix ingredients together with a fork until combined. Add melted butter and stir together until crumbly.
2. Spread mixture over sweet potatoes covering entire surface area.
3. Place in oven, uncovered, for 35-40 minutes. Top will be crispy even though inside is not fully cooked. To determine when dish is fully cooked, if contents are too jiggly, add another 5 minutes. The very center can be slightly jiggly, but overall the dish should be set.

Molded Cranberry-Apple Salad

• 12 oz pkg cranberries, rinsed and patted dry
• 2 granny smith apples
• 3/4 cup sugar OR Splenda
• 2 small boxes sugar-free lemon jello
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1 can crushed pineapple

Directions

1. In food processor, shred cranberries. Core and peel apples. Place in food processor and shred as well. Remove mixture to medium bowl and add sugar. Let sit for 20-30 minutes to macerate.
2. Add jello to boiling water very slowly as not to create large lumps of jello mixture that won't dissolve. Once fully dissolved, add cold water and place in refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
3. Strain pineapple juice from can and set aside. Stir cranberry-apple mixture before adding crushed pineapple. Remove cooled jello from refrigerator and pour into 2 qt container. Add in fruit mixture making sure everything is nicely combined. If needed, add a little bit of the pineapple juice. Not too much though because you don't want the jello mold to be runny.
4. Cover and chill in refrigerator until firm, about 2 hours.
5. Serve in container or remove to a nice serving dish.

OK, these are my recipes. I made some changes to the original recipes that were inspired by one of my favorite cooks, Lucinda Scala Quinn. I will make additional changes to the stuffing recipe because I used 8 oz figs and it was way too much. It could have also used 1/2 lb or so of mushrooms, preferably wild or portabellas (baby). YUM! A bosc pear would have been nice in there too. The recipe called for black mission figs, but I couldn't get to the organic grocers to pick it up so I went with regular figs out of the produce department. I don't know how much of a difference that made, but I will be finding out because I plan on making this again with my adjustments.

When we got home last night from Thanksgiving dinner at the kids' house, I put my turkey bones, as well as everything that was stuffed inside (sans the herbs) into a large stock pot and started cooking it on low all night. This morning the temp was turned up to medium and it's been cooking all morning. Right now I'm going to turn off the stove and let the pot cool before I remove everything and strain it. I'd use out chinois, but Ed has taken it to work. :-) Once I work out the details for what I'm making, I'll post it tomorrow.

Hope you enjoy these recipes. Let me know if you have any questions. I did take video of me cooking, but I want to do some editing and "pretty" it up, so once I get through that, I'll let you know and put it on YouTube.

Happy cooking!

Pad Thai

I have been fiddling with this recipe for the last month or so. Last night I made it for the third time and in my humble opinion, it's turned out the best!! I get so darned excited when a recipe does what I want it to do. :-)

So... here's my rendition of Pad Thai that has been adapted from Lucinda Scala Quinn's recipe on Mad Hungry:

• 1/2 pkg (8 oz) medium width rice noodles

Soak noodles in hot tap water for 20 minutes. Check to see if they are softening up and if not, heat up water for a few minutes to get the noodles softer. Noodles should be ready at the same time the stir frying is done.

Sauce:

• 12 oz can tamarind juice
• 1 oz tamarind (optional)
• 1/3 c soy sauce - low sodium is fine
• 1/3 + 1 T palm sugar
• 1/2 c fish sauce
• 1/2 c water
• 2 tsp Sriracha

In a small saucepan, combine sauce ingredients above and bring to a boil, stirring frequently until sugar is dissolved. If you have seedless tamarind, add a bit of that to bump up the flavor. I have seedless tamarind that has seeds in it. Remove the seeds the best you can. If any are left, you can always strain the sauce when it's done before you add it to the wok.

Stir Fry:

• 1/2 c peanut oil (or safflower if you have it)
• 2 lg scallions, cut into 1" pieces, separate bulbs from the rest
• 1 T garlic in olive oil
• 1 lb medium shrimp, peeled & deveined (and/or chicken, if using both get 1/2 of each)
• 1 block firm tofu, sliced thin (if your grocer has fresh tofu, it would be 1 piece, otherwise it's about 1/2 a container)
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten

Heat oil in wok over medium-high heat. When little bubbles form or the oil shimmers, add scallion bulbs and stir for about 1 minute. Add garlic in olive oil, stirring frequently until the garlic is brown. Remove and place on a large plate that is lined with a paper towel. This will soak up any excess oil.

Raise heat to high and add in remaining scallions and shrimp. Stir constantly until shrimp are opaque, about 2-3 minutes. Remove and place with other ingredients on plate.

Add tofu to wok, heating through about another 2 minutes. Remove and place on plate.

At this point, there should be very little oil left in the wok, if there is too much (even a small puddle), pour some out. Add the eggs to the wok and stir constantly to keep them light and fluffy. As soon as they are set, but not dry (they should be a little wet looking), remove them to the plate.

Add the sauce to the wok and bring to a boil. Strain the noodles and cook in the sauce until heated through, just a couple of minutes. Return the items from the plate into the wok and stir to combine about 3 minutes. You want everything nicely combined and hot. Place pad thai into a dish and serve immediately with your garnish items. YUM!

**Note: Add about 1/2 the cilantro, mung beans, and peanuts and combine well. Heating the garnish ingredients with the mixture gives it a bit more flavor. It sure makes your house smell yummy!

Garnish:

• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• 1 bunch cilantro, remove leaves from stems
•  mung bean sprouts
• 1/2 c peanuts, processed in chopper
• Sriracha sauce

I'm sure I will fuss with this a bit more even though I totally love it! Just to see if I can make it even better. I took a movie of me doing this, but I need to edit it out some to make it shorter and you don't need to see food frying, right? If it doesn't turn out well and if I can't do anything with it, pictures it will be! At least until I can figure out how to edit and whatever else needs to be done so you all can see this!

I just had to share out dessert tonight as well. My Mom and I were in Sam's Club this afternoon and they were taste-testing this pie. It was too good! So, I bought it. For $10, you can't make it that cheap! It has Granny Smith apples, cranberries, and pecans. All together now... big Y-U-M-M-O!!!

Berry Buckle Yummy-ness

Well, I've finally taken the plunge to a food blog. I've got a crafting blog, but didn't want to start adding all sorts of other "stuff" to it. So, here I am... Can't wait to share my cooking and baking adventures with you all. The fun starts here!

This morning was chilly and I hadn't been drinking coffee during the summer so I decided to make myself a small pot of pumpkin coffee. Oh my goodness!! It was awesomeness in a cup! I only perk my coffee... I mean, is there any other way to have it? I added the Torani syrup in with the water so it went through during brewing. If you don't perk, you can add the syrup to your coffee cup so you don't muck up the water reservoir with syrup. Once the coffee was made, this is what I did:

• 2/3 coffee
• 1/3 pumpkin spice soy milk
• big splash pumpkin spice creamer
• another splash 1/2 & 1/2 creamer

After sipping my totally scrumptious coffee, I thought it would be a wonderful day to make a buckle. Part of the wonderfulness is that we're going to the kids house for a chili dinner tonight... and the daughter (in-law) is pregnant... and she *loves* everything dessert right now... you get my meaning... :-) So. What to make, what to make... Buckle is so easy and I had frozen berries in the freezer. I almost there. My recipe is adapted from Ree Drummond's recipe in her cookbook. By the way, this cookbook **rocks**!! I love just about everything in it! But I digress... 

Berry Buckle

• 1 C self-rising flour
• 1 1/3 C sugars - mixture of erythritol, xylitol, regular sugar
• 1 stick butter (1/4 lb)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp almond
• 1 tsp Vietnamese cinnamon
• 2 cups fresh or frozen berries
• 4 T sugar (regular)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Butter your dish; melt remaining butter on very low in microwave or stove.
3. Mix together flour and sugar, add in melted butter and blend mixture well with whisk.
4. Add in vanilla, almond, and cinnamon; mix well.
5. Pour mixture into shallow baking dish.
6. Sprinkle berries over mixture. Take 2 T sugar and sprinkle on top of berries.
7. Dish now ready to go into oven for 1 hour.
8. Take out of oven and sprinkle remaining 2 T sugar on buckle and put back in over for another 10 minutes.
9. Check that buckle is not wiggly and if so, bake another 5 minutes. Keep doing this until it's done.
10. And voila! Enjoy this yummy recipe!

Hope you enjoyed my recipe. Don't know if I like the layout or not, but it'll be something I'll be playing with til I get it right!