Thursday, November 17, 2011

This just in....

just added to the Thanksgiving lineup:  Chocolate Chip Cheesecake, Crunchy onion herb dip, and pineapple macadamia cheese log.     Also, Popeye's gravy is out simply for price considerations... I'll probably use the bottled stuff since I don't know what I'll have left when the turkey's done braising.   I'm also adding red peppers to the braising veggies.


Now back to your regularly scheduled program....

Monday, November 14, 2011

It's that time again....

baking season!  To start things off and to test a potential Thanksgiving recipe, I've done a twist on my grandmother's biscuit recipe...  This is super easy for even novice cooks!


Biscuits
2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
3/4 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup buttermilk (or regular milk)


Preheat oven to 450. Oil  a 9 inch cake or pie tin
very well.
Sift dry ingredients in bowl. Add wet ingredients and mix well with fork until blended. Knead gently in bowl 10 times. Pinch off large golf ball sized pieces and pat down just a bit.. Make sure top and bottom get some oil from the pan. Place biscuits touching in the pan. Bake for about 14 minutes.  Makes about 10.
 

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

I'm Baaaaack~!

Hey kids... I know..I know..  it's been too long...but hey, cut me some slack...had to get married and shit...  it was a lot of work and a lot of fun and now I have the world's most wonderful husband :)   When I get my pictures back, you will see all about it...especially all the yummy food!  I wanna thank everyone who was there and everyone who helped.. luv you all! 

Today, I want to talk about Thanksgiving, since its that time... of course I'll post pics later, when the meal is ready...  so far, here is my menu:

Braised turkey with onions and garlic
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
My mommy and gramma's traditional stuffing (cornbread and biscuit based)
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Biscuits w/butter and honey
Jellied cranberry sauce (yes, straight from the can, I love it that way, so sue me.)
Lemon wedding cake trifle (had a lot more wedding cake than I bargained for)

So let's start by talking turkey...   I've made many a turkey in my day, in every possible configuration imaginable; I've brined and bagged and basted and buttered and cheeseclothed, and injected and roasted...and while all those methods are fine...none were spectacular... so this year I'm parting it out and braising it to see how that works out... allegedly it produces a juicier, more tender specimen than usual.  I will be seasoning and browning the parts and veggies, throwing them into an oven worthy container with enough liquid (white wine and broth) to come up halfway, then covering and cooking at 300 for a few hours...

Next, Brussels sprouts.. I have it on good authority that the key to sweet, lovely sprouts is fast hot cooking, so while the turkey is resting, I pop them into the oven, doused with bacon fat/olive oil and kosher salt and a little sugar for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

The stuffing is a subject on which I cannot bend..I may add an ingredient occasionally, but this is the stuffing I want for my last meal, my fondest childhood memories are based around this stuffing, and now I pass it onto you.   You know me, I'm not much in the way of measurements, so this will have to do:
1 recipe of cornbread
1 recipe of biscuits (or 1 can, its ok to use the can)
1 can cream of celery soup (I like the flavor but don't like crunchy celery bits)
6 hard boiled eggs, diced.
1 can chopped black olives
green onions
garlic salt
onion powder
curry powder (not too much)
sage (lots)
poultry seasoning (lots) (I like my stuffing almost green)
chicken broth (enough to moisten well)
turkey giblets (mostly gizzards, cooked and chopped well)
I mix all this and put it in my crockpot on low, that way it stays warm and moist all day.

As for mashed potatoes, I've found this great little plastic bag o' taters at my 99cent store, that you just throw into the microwave for 9 minutes and you have perfectly steamed potatoes to use as you please.  Into these I like to throw butter and heavy cream and mayo (yes, mayo, thank you Rebecca Mendoza for that tip so many years ago), and salt and pepper to taste.   I'm probably going to cheat with the gravy and get my fave stuff from Popeye's.. full of bits of meat, I love this stuff!

Y'all can bite me on the cranberry sauce...I've never really cared for whole berry (the bits get stuck in my teeth), and I hate the whole orange/cranberry combo..too much tartness!  I've even made my own and it still didn't suit me.  I grew up with the can, I like the flavor, the convenience, the sliceability (just made that up) and how pretty it looks on the plate.  Plus its easier to put on sandwiches later!

The wedding cake trifle idea came to me as a way to prettily dispatch all that wedding cake I forgot to feed to my guests and have in my freezer.  So cut up cake cubes, lemon curd, lemon pudding, Limoncello, and whipped cream...what could be nicer?

I may or may not make the biscuits myself..       Since my beloved insists on sweet potatoes(or yams, whatever..and I lost my taste for them (they say your tastes change every 7 years)), I'm letting his mother bring them, in all their marshmallowy glory...   not my thing..more for them!

So there we are... more as it happens...   glad to be back....   MWAH!