Turkey Tips from the Expert, Alton Brown

Preparing and Cooking your turkey:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/cooking-perfect-turkey/video/index.html

Carving your bird
http://www.foodnetwork.com/how-to-carve-a-turkey/video/index.html

ENJOY!

THANKSGIVING IS COMING!!!

My apologies for my long drought of postings. I have been reading lots and lots of books in my spare time - or sleeping - in preparation for our second child. But I could not miss an opportunity to talk about my favorite holiday - THANKSGIVING. I consider myself a pretty relaxed person when it comes to most things. However, with Thanksgiving, I am as annal as they get. I even have a "Thanksgiving Plan" that is currently 8-9 pages of who is coming, what they are bringing, the menu, all the recipes (so they are in one location), the shopping list (and when to purchase what items), and lastly a play-by-play of Thanksgiving Eve and Day to make sure all the food hits the table hot and ready, the linens are pressed, and the Macy's Day Parade is on the TV. Crazy, I know; what can I say. So I thought I would share with you some of my "Thanksgiving Plan." I like traditional and I like fattening. We only (in theory) eat like this once a year; there won't be any plan string beans on my table - sorry. Nothing against string beans, I like them very much, but Thanksgiving is special and string beans are ordinary. :^) So here it goes....

THE MENU

Main
Turkey (12-16 LBS)

Sides
Green bean casserole (13X9)
Sweet potato bake mallow and Grandma’s Harris'(13X9)
Strawberry Jell-o Pudding Salad
Stuffing
Mashed white potatoes
Dinner rolls

Dressings
Gravy
Cranberry sauce 1 can jelly 1 home made

Desert (I would die for a pecan pie... or a chocolate-pecan pie but Eric hates pecans and I don't want to eat the whole leftover pie myself)
Pumpkin pie
Apple pie
Whipped cream

Drinks
Punch/soda
Juice

Pre-dinner Munchies
Cheese
Crackers
Fruit (oranges)
Spiced nuts




THE Turkey

Good Eats Roast Turkey



1 (14 to 16 pound) young turkey (make sure it isn't already brined; i.e. not already injected with saline solution)
For the brine:

1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 TBS allspice berries (may omit)
1/2 TBS candied ginger (may omit)
1 gallon iced water


For the aromatics: (that is what goes in the cavity of the bird)

1 red apple sliced
1/2 onion sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage

Canola oil

Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.
A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.
Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage (tongs). Tuck back wings under the bird and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil. Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes (Put the legs in first). Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil (make a triangle and do a pre-fitting before you put it in the oven to avoid burning yourself), insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.

So you may ask, why brine? I will tell you. What happens when meat sits in a brine is that the cell walls begin to defuse their liquid in a desire to come to an equilibrium with the more dense, salted water. Well, as liquid is exchanged, salt is brought evenly into the meat of the turkey. This makes for a very moist and very tasty bird.

Green Bean Casserole
compliments of Campbell's

1 can (10 3/4 oz.) Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup OR Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup 1/2 cup milk 1 tsp. soy sauce Dash ground black pepper 4 cups cooked cut green beans 1 1/3 cups French's® French Fried Onions

Directions:

MIX soup, milk, soy, black pepper, beans and 2/3 cup onions in 1 1/2-qt. casserole.
BAKE at 350°F. for 25 min. or until hot.
STIR . Sprinkle with remaining onions. Bake 5 min.


TIP: Use 1 bag (16 to 20 oz.) frozen green beans, 2 pkg. (9 oz. each) frozen green beans, 2 cans (about 16 oz. each) green beans or about 1 1/2 lb. fresh green beans for this recipe.



Jello Pudding Salad (should double for a large party)
Compliments of Martin Davis and Jell-o Brand

1 (4oz) package jello strawberry
1 (4 oz) package jello tapioca pudding
1 (4 oz) package cook-n-serve vanilla pudding
1 – 2 cups strawberries, cut up
3 cups water
½ 8oz container of cool whip

Put water, jello, and puddings into medium sauce pan. Mix with sire whisk, stirring constantly over high heat until boiling. Continue boiling for 5+ minutes. Take off heat and pour into a bowl. Add fruit. Let chill over night. When ready to serve, fold in ½ 8oz container of cool whip.



Whipped Sweet Potato Bake (Eric's Favorite)
Compliments of Kraftfoods.com

3 cans (15 oz. each) sweet potatoes, drained
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, melted
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
24 JET-PUFFED Marshmallows (about 3 cups)

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Beat sweet potatoes, butter, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg in medium bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended.

SPOON into lightly greased 1-1/2-qt. baking dish; top with the marshmallows.

BAKE 15 to 20 min. or until sweet potato mixture is heated through and marshmallows are lightly browned.


Grandma Harris' Sweet Potato Bake (Rachael's favorite)

3 cups (24oz) sweet potatoes, drained
1 cup sugar
½ tsp salt
2 lightly beaten eggs
1/3 stick butter, melted
½ cup sweet milk
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together and pour into a greased baking dish.

Prepare topping by mixing:
1/3 stick bitter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 cup chopped pecans

Cover potato mixture in topping.
Bake 35 minutes at 350


I will leave the stuffing and mashed white potatoes up to you. Sarah Gagnon is bringing the stuffing this year and I hear it is going to be fantastic! If I can get her secret from her, I will post at a later date. For mashed potatoes, peel and cube your potatoes. Boil them until they are just tender, about 20 minutes. Then I like to throw mine in my mixer and mix butter, cream, salt and pepper in. Yum yum.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies/Muffins/Bread

There is nothing that says autumn like pumpkin. These cookies - or you can make them into muffins or bread - are moist, but not too moist like a lot of recipes I have tried. This weekend my sister-in-law and I made them in Wilton's Halloween muffin tins and then frosted the outline of the design on the top - pumpkins, leaves, spiders, webs. They were SOO cute!




2 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup shortening
2 eggs, well beaten
1 large can (30oz I think) Libby's Pumpkin PIE mix (not just pumpkin)
1/4 tsp baking soda
4 cups flour
2 TBS baking powder
1 12oz bag chocolate chips
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt

Heat oven to 375

Cream shortening and sugar together with a mixer. Add eggs; mix until combined. Mix pumpkin until combined. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, soda, powder, salt and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients slowly to wet mixture. Mix until incorporated. Add vanilla, mix. Add chocolate chips, and mix with a spoon or slowly in a mixer.

On an ungreased cookie sheet, drop 1-ish TBS size balls of dough, leaving space for expansion. Bake 10-12 minutes, checking to make sure they are done. You don't want to under cook these.

MUFFINS: Grease muffin tin. Fill 3/4 full with filling. Baking time will increase, but I am not sure how long exactly. Try 15-20 minutes, checking to make sure they are done. Go longer if necessary.

BREAD: Grease bread pan. Pour batter into pan and bake for about an hour (would be my guess). Check for doneness with toothpick.

You could also admit the chocolate chips and have a very yummy pumpkin mixture to which the possibilities are endless (think cream cheese frosting - YUM)

Mexican Lasagna - NOT a taco in a pan

I don't generally care for lasagna that goes below the border, however, this one is pretty tasty. I have added some additions noted below in bold that I haven't tried yet, but I think would be yummy. Give it a try and let me know.

1 (15oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (14oz) can dice crushed tomatoes
1 (16oz) can refried beans
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 clove finely minced garlic
1 (4oz) can chopped green chilies
2 cup corn, canned or frozen
2 scallions, minced
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. oregano
8 corn tortillas
1 1/2 - 2 cups Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 - 1 cup cheddar cheese
sour cream, optional

options to mix it up - Enchilada Sauce and shredded chicken

Oven 400

In a large bowl, mix together beans, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, chilies, corn, scallions, cumin and oregano.

Spray with non-stick cooking spray a square 2 quart baking dish. Place two tortillas down (or however many will fit to cover the bottom). Spread with a thin layer of refried beans. Spread 1/3 of the bean mixture over tortillas. Sprinkle with 1/3 of Monterey Jack cheese. Repeat layering twice more - it helps to put the refried beans on the tortillas before you put them on the casserole. For the last layer, put tortillas to top, sprinkle with cheddar cheese.

Option to mix things up - add in shredded chicken to bean mixture and cover prepared casserole in enchilada sauce - probably only 1/2 a 15 oz can.

Bake 30-40 minutes until hot through-out.

Product Review: Great Value Brand Premium, All Natural Ice Cream

So I had a hankering for Cookies and Cream ice cream lately. After finding only lite - no thank you - locally, I ventured to Walmart to see what they had. The only brand that carried Cookies and Cream was Walmart brand. I am not a fan of their cheap-cheap ice cream, but they had a new brand of Premium, all natural ice creams out. So we tried it and the results are in: 5 Stars. Very yummy - did not taste like imitation flavoring like their cheaper variety, and although a little bit more expensive, still cheaper than name brand. Very good Walmart.

Canning Your Crop

Since I am right in the middle of doing so, I thought I would write a little something about canning. There is really nothing to be afraid of when it comes to canning. I am going to talk about what I am currently canning and that is spaghetti sauce and apple sauce. We had a plethora of tomatoes this year, and access to Dave and Chrissy's apple trees. So we have been slicing, dicing, boiling, and pouring over the last week. It is labor intensive, but very rewarding. The best book I have is BALL BLUE BOOK OF PRESERVING. I bought it for $5 at the Utah Agricultural Extension Office in Provo. They have LOTS of great information there. Your city might too - you can always check your city building. If you are in Provo, the Mending Shed in Orem (state st on the way to Walmart) is FABULOUS. Oh and apples are nice because if you live in apple country, you can usually get "drops" for very inexpensive (think .40 a LB) which makes it affordable even if you don't have an apple tree.

What you need to can
jars that are clean and sanitary
lids, the rings can be used again, but the top part that actually seals the can must be new
High Acid foods use a method called hot water bath. The pot is large and there is a rack that fits inside to hold the cans.
funnel with a wide mouth
blender, food processor, or food mill
food thermometer
stock pot
produce and ingredients


Applesauce

2 1/2 - 3 1/2 LBS apples per quart; a mix of types of apples is best but whatever you have works
sugar
Cinnamon stick (optional)
Nutmeg (optional)

Scrub apples in soapy water. Peel, core, and chop your apples and put them in the stock pot (may I say an apple peeler, corer, slicer makes this so easy). If you want pink apple sauce, you can leave on the skins of clean, mildly blemished, red apples. But for me, my apples are pretty wild so I removed the skin to remove the blemishes. Turn on the heat to low. Add sugar to taste (2-4 TBS should be fine, but it depends on the apples too. I like brown sugar, but it doesn't matter). If making cinnamon applesauce, add 1-2 cinnamon sticks and some nutmeg (go easy on the nutmeg - it is strong and you can always add more but you can't take it away). Place the lid on and stir occasionally, making sure the apples don't burn on the bottom. It will eventually turn to mush. At this point, let it cool a little bit as to not burn yourself. Then place in a blender, food processor, or food mill and blend until smooth. Follow canning directions at the bottom of this post.


Spaghetti Sauce
So the specific recipe for this uses 45 pounds of tomatoes! So I will tell you what I did since, well, if you have that many tomatoes you probably know how to can.

10 LBS tomatoes (this was 1.5 plastic shopping bags of tomatoes for me)
1 onion chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
seasoning - basil, oregano, bay leaves, whatever you like, to taste.
a little sugar - 1 tsp
salt pepper

Basically you are just making a yummy homemade spaghetti sauce. Don't get too caught up in what should go in - make it so you like it.

Wash tomatoes (hope this is a no brainer). Cut off both ends (stock and bloom) and cut into quarters. Saute onions and garlic in olive oil in a large stock pot on medium-high heat. Add tomatoes, and everything else. Cover and let simmer about 20-30minutes, stirring occasionally. Let cool enough to put into a blender, food processor, or food mill. If the tomato seeds bother you, strain to remove. They don't bother me enough to bother with straining, but to each his own. Place back in the stock pot and simmer until it is reduced by half. Follow canning directions to follow EXCEPT place 1 Tbs for pints and 2 Tbs for quarts of lemon juice in the jars before you fill them.

Canning your product
You want your jars to be warm/hot. I usually dunk mine in hot water and let them dry next to my work station on a clean cloth. The lids (the part that seals) needs to be SIMMERED NOT BOILED (low heat) for 10 minutes - then keep them in the warm water until ready for use. This helps the seal do it's thing. The rings that hold on the top need to also be clean.

Fill your hot water bath half way and set on the stove as high as your heat can go (you want them to be at least 180 by the time you put your jars in, and 212 to process). For me with my low BTU stove, I used two burners.

Remember - hot liquid into hot jars. We don't want anything growing in there. So use your funnel to fill the jar to the 1 inch mark, which is right where the ring part of the lid ends when it is on (the jars usually have a ring around the neck) or you can just measure down from the top before you pour.

Put the two piece top on the jar, making sure the ring of the jar is clear of food particles.

When you have all your jars filled, place them in the hot water bath (they have a utensil that works great for this to keep you far from the hot water). The water needs to cover by 1-2 inches. If needed, pour more boiling water in to cover. The water needs to come to a boil (specifically 212 degrees) to process. Don't start counting until it hits this mark! When they are done, let them cook 5 minutes in the pot. Then take them out and let them rest for 12-14 hours. The lids should seal down so that they don't bubble on the top when pressed down.

Processing times: tomato sauce 35 minutes for pints, 40 minutes for quarts (don't forget your lemon juice!). Applesauce is 20 minutes for both size jars.

Now go take a nap, you deserve it.

BBQ Chicken Pizza... on the Grill?

So I decided to do this post because Tuesday night Eric came home and I wanted to make a nice dinner. Well, one problem I faced was that our oven was (is) broken. It broils, it boils, but it doesn't bake. So until we decide to either fix the dinosaur or find a new one, creative cooking is on the loose!

BBQ Chicken Pizza on the Grill

1 breast chicken, cut into small strips
1/2 red onion, coarsely chopped
1 clove of garlic
1-2 cups shredded Colbt & Monterey Jack cheese
Bulls Eye (or your favorite) Hickory BBQ sauce
1 pre-made pizza dough ball (you can find these is the supper market - they are wonderful to have on hand!)
olive oil
tin foil

On your stove top (we'll get to the grill in a minute, be patient!) heat 1-2 TBS olive oil in a skillet. Add chicken strips. Cook until start to brown - 3-4 minutes depending on their size - and flip. Add in red onion and garlic. Cook until they begin to caramelize (that is, turn a little brown). This can take a little bit, maybe 10 minutes, depending on how much liquid came out of the onions and chicken. When the mixture is done, turn it out onto a plate and cover with plastic, or a lid of whatever (to keep the bug off when you are outside).

Take out your pizza dough. Dust it with flour on both sides. Take into account how big your grill is. You might want to shape the dough into more of a rectangle, or two small circles. Keep in mind you are going to have to flip the dough on the grill. A tip on shaping your dough - warm or room temp is better than cold. An easy way I have learned to stretch the dough is to put your fists together and in front of you (like put up your dukes!) with the dough resting on top (where your rings sit). Rock and pull your fists outward to stretch the dough, rotating as you go. The dough should not be sticky. Add more flour if it is. Place your dough on a cookie sheet to bring outside.

Take to the grill the dough, chicken/onion mixture, BBQ sauce, olive oil, tin foil, large spatula, and brushes or spoons to spread sauce & oil. Heat the grill to medium or medium high heat (depending on the SHEER POWER of your grill :^) Brush the dough with olive oil. Place that side down on the grill. Close the grill for a few minutes. Open, brush top with oil, and flip. Acting quickly, spread a layer of BBQ sauce, chicken/onion mixture, and cheese. FYI if your crust is thin it will cook VERY quickly.

Close grill for a few minutes. Open again and check on the bottom. For me and my little grill, the dough cooks very quickly, so I will often slip some foil under the dough to prevent burning while the cheese continues to melt. Grill marks are good, charred is bad.

Yum yum. You could do this with any kind of pizza you want really. Once you get the hang of it, you'll love it (I burned my first crust, don't get discouraged - it can scrape off ;^)

I will also post a link to my friend's blog where she did a Cooking 101 on Grilled Pizza with pictures that might help too.
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/07/cooking-class-bbq-grilled-pizza.html