Monthly Archives: November 2011
More Thanksgiving leftovers
Well, sorta leftover from thanksgiving. I bought a package of Italian sausage with the thought in the back of my head that I would make sausage dressing out of it but I didn’t. So it was still in the fridge when I rummaged around today for something “not turkey”.
Meatballs! I mixed Parmesan and bread crumbs with an egg and the sausage, added half an onion and fresh parsley and oregano that survived the frost last night along with some thyme that didn’t. Browned golf ball sized meatballs in olive oil and then simmered them in tomato sauce. Made a most excellent sandwich.
Added fresh mozzarella and a few of those roasted red peppers and chowed down. Delicious!
Yet More Turkey
We were digging around in a drawer that holds a very unsorted accumulation of recipes and like items on paper of various sorts – newspaper clippings, mimeograph sheets, typewritten, hand printed, scrawled remnants of various descriptions. I found this the other day:
I’m pretty sure I wrote that out myself in the early 1970s. Mrs J vaguely recalls it as being “Buck’s BBQ sauce”. As best as I can piece together the history Buck was an instructor/VIP in a program I was enrolled in during that period. I decided to make it.
I didn’t want a half gallon of the stuff so I divided the ingredients by four and ended with just over two cups, including some additional vinegar I decided to add to the original recipe.
There were no directions with the ingredient list, but the flour and the “oleo” shouted roux to me. A roux is usually equal parts of butter and flour but the math didn’t work that way so right off the bat I had to make a call. I went with 3 T each of butter and flour. The roux cooked for a minute, then the 1 cup each of vinegar and water went in. I used cider vinegar but no reason another vinegar couldn’t substitute. Splenda subbed for the sugar, and I added a good pinch of kosher salt.
This was simmering merrily away when I tried to sort what one quarter of “1 oz.” of cayenne came to. Finally just went by taste. I think one tablespoon was close to what wound up in there. On a whim I added several teaspoons of sweet paprika for the additional color, and I poured in another half cup or so of sweetened rice vinegar just because I like rice vinegar and the potion seemed a tad thick.
I gave it a taste test tonight:
I liked it.
Hearty Turkey Soup
I get it, you’re over turkey. But you still have leftovers. What to do? How about freezing those leftovers and making Hearty Turkey Soup on a cold day in a week or so when turkey sounds like a wonderful idea?
When I roast a turkey, I always save the wings and legs, freezing them for soup later on. You can also save the carcass, which I do sometimes, but really most times it seems like too much trouble. You can also freeze leftovers, but I find dark meat works best because the white meat tends to get tough once it’s frozen, even when simmered for hours in soup.
Here is the Hearty Turkey Soup I made this weekend for my family, since we didn’t want to waste any of that delicious deep friend Cajun turkey my brother made for us:
Hearty Turkey Soup
- Wings and Legs of turkey, cooked
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 4 cups water
- 4 carrots, julienned (frozen ok)
- 2 stalk of celery and celery leaves, julienned
1 cup green beans, frozen or canned- 6 green onions, chopped
- 1 large potato, peeled and diced
- 1 15 oz can Cannellini beans*
- 2 tsp crushed garlic
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp celery seed
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- salt & pepper to taste
In a large saucepan, add turkey, broth and water. Bring to a boil and let boil 10 minutes. Reduce heat and add remaining ingredients. Let simmer for 20 minutes, remove legs and wings, let cool enough to remove remaining meat (most will have fallen off). Add meat back to soup and let simmer another 10 minutes. Remove bay leaf and serve with Buttermilk Biscuits and Cranberry Sauce.
*Cannellini beans are large and have that traditional kidney shape. With a slightly nutty taste and mild earthiness, they have a relatively thin skin and tender, creamy flesh. They hold their shape well and are one of the best white beans for salads and ragouts.
Cedar Waxwings
A flock of these flew through yesterday and a few peeled off long enough to snack on some crab apples.
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Bacon Jam
Someone mentioned bacon jam. I had to go look up some recipes. There are plenty, some involve more effort than others, this one seemed just right.
We had an uh-oh moment this morning, the door on the big freezer stood ajar all night. We didn’t lose any thing other than some phyllo dough and a wee bit of ice cream. Some baggies of homemade smoked bacon a friend gave us were pretty much thawed so the bacon jam sounded like a good plan this afternoon.
We used a store brand sugar substitute in lieu of the brown sugar, and Mrs Butterworth’s lite syrup rather than the maple the recipe called for. Mmm… maple syrup. Sigh. I fixed Mrs J a turkey sandwich midway through the bacon jam project and topped it with the candied bacon/onion mixture that was nearly ready for the processor. It was good with the leftover sweet potato slices and the dab of cranberry relish.
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Thanksgiving Files: Cranberry Upside-Down Cake
This is by far the most requested dessert I make. This time of year every dinner I attend, this is what I am asked to bring. I’ll be making two tonight to take to various get-togethers this week. Easy, easy, easy and foolproof, but always a beautiful presentation. If you’re looking to wow, try this one. From 2009:
Cranberries are on sale! Buy them now, because I’ve got some great cranberry recipes coming up. I’m starting with this one, because if you’re going to be a guest at someone else’s Thanksgiving dinner, this is the dish to take. It’s pretty to look at and it’s both sweet and tangy, perfect after a big dinner. You’ll wow everyone with it and it’s foolproof to make.
Cranberry Upside Down Cake
- ½ cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 cups cranberries, chopped*
- ½ cup walnuts, finely chopped
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp orange zest (rind)
- 1 ¼ cups flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup milk
Topping
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1-1/2 tbsp orange juice (more as needed)
- 2 tsp butter, softened
8×8 glass baking dish & mixing bowl
Preheat oven to 350°
Melt 3 tbsp of butter and pour into baking dish, spread to cover bottom and up the sides. Add ½ cup sugar, mix with butter on bottom of pan. Add cranberries & walnuts, spread over bottom of pan. Cream remaining butter & sugar, add vanilla, egg, orange zest, mix well. Add flour, baking powder & milk, mix until well blended, don’t over mix. Pour batter over cranberry mixture. Bake for 1 hour, or until golden brown and center bounces back at the touch. Invert on plate. Let cool.
Topping: Mix together butter, orange juice & powdered sugar, pour over cake and serve.
* if you don’t have a food processor, you can leave cranberries whole.
Thanksgiving Files: Cranberries Everywhere
There is one item I cannot be without at Thanksgiving and that is cranberries. A few years ago I started making my own relish and that has only made my dedication to the little red berry more intense. And it must have been a good year for cranberries because they are inexpensive right now. I have 5 bags in my freezer and two more to cook with this week. A little bit of cranberry heaven.
As a general rule, I like them pretty basic – berries, eyeball some orange juice and add sugar until I think it’s sweet enough, simmer until it’s reduced by 1/2 or more. I have found, and I don’t think it is my imagination, that the mixture gets more tart as it sits, so by the next day I’m adding more sugar. Eventually I’ll remember this and add enough sugar so it is just beyond the sweetness I like and then it should be perfect.
This year, in addition to my basic recipe, I tried two different recipes, to shake things up. The first is upping the orange flavor considerably:
Cranberry-Orange Sauce
- 16 oz bag of fresh cranberries, washed
- 1 orange, juice only
- 1 orange, peeled and cut into small pieces
- Orange zest from 1 orange, cut into thin strips
- 1/2 cup sugar
Put all the ingredients into a saucepan over medium heat and simmer until the cranberries burst and the sauce thickens, about 15 to 20 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes or more in the refrigerator.
The next one was interesting. The apple really becomes the dominate flavor in this, so if you’re a die-hard cranberry fan, make this one in addition to a regular cranberry relish. It’s definitely tasty, but I would miss my true cranberry relish if I served only it.
Cinnamon Apple Cranberry Sauce
- 16 oz bag fresh cranberries, washed
- 1/2 cup apple juice or water
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 Gala apples, peeled, cored and diced
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add ingredients. Bring to a light boil, as soon as cranberries start popping, reduce heat to medium and let simmer until reduced by half or more to a thick sauce and apples are very tender, about 20 to 30 minutes. Cool in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or more.
Cranberry Palooza isn’t over yet. Later I’ll repost my favorite dessert, the one I’ll be bringing this year, Cranberry Upside Down Cake. And those frozen cranberries are going to be turned into some Cranberry Apple Cobbler and maybe added to some chicken. It’s only the beginning. Until then…
TaMara
jeffreyww
LFern7
indylib
