Gobble gobble crunch crunch gobble November 3, 2008

I ordered my fresh Thanksgiving turkey today-it’s going to be a 12-16 lb free ranger. It’s my first year to use a fresh turkey as opposed to the rock solid frozen ones you pick up at Wally World and have to defrost for 6784 days before discovering that on Thanksgiving day it still hasn’t thawed and you have to run cool water through it until your arms ache from holding it up before you can cook it. I’m interested to see the difference in taste and appearance between this lovely free range supposedly “happy” turkey and what I’ve used for the past few years. Will it be knock your nose off different, or more of a subtle nuance? I also finalized my menu this evening. I’m going to have 9 people attending, including myself and Mr. Rogers. This year’s menu consists of:

Roasted Dry-Brined Turkey (new recipe to try from Martha Stewart Living’s Nov 08 issue)

Some sort of store-bought bread picked out by my husband (his contribution)

Kicked Up Deviled Eggs

Ginger Cranberry Sauce (again, new from MSL Nov 2008), and 1 can of the canned stuff for my mom who can’t handle the seeds right now that are in the fresh made

Green Bean Casserole (same recipe as last year,not my favorite, but well liked by others)

Twice Baked Potato Casserole (same as last year)

Sweet Potato Pie

Pea Salad (brought by my mom)

Pumpkin Pie

All of the recipes except for the new ones should be here on my blog if you’re interested in checking them out for your meal this year. Have a happy one!

Turkey Lurkey July 6, 2008

Yes, another recipe for turkey burgers. I believe that brings our grand total to 2. I like recipes like this, where I can sneak a little bit of vegetables in without J complaining about there not being enough meat. I think I’ll be doing more like this though, as we’re trying to cut down on our meat/poultry consumption a bit.

Turkey Burgers with Grated Zucchini and Carrot

-3/4 lb ground turkey
-1 med zucchini, grated and patted dry
-1 med carrot, grated
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-3/4 tsp dried thyme
-3/4 tsp kosher salt
-1/4 tsp black pepper
-1 large egg
-3 Tbs olive oil
-4 slices crusty bread (or hamburger bunsif you prefer-I used buns because I had some left over)
-4 leaves lettuce of your choice (recipe called for Boston but I used Romaine as it fit my budget a bit better)

1. Preheat broiler. In a large bowl, combine the turkey, zucchini, carrot, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, and egg. Form the mixture into 4 patties.
2. Heat 1 Tbs of the oil in a large skillet over meidum heat. Cook the patties, turning once, until no trace of pink remains, 4 to 5 minutes per side (pink in poultry burgers=BAD!).
3. Meanwhile, place the bread on a baking sheet and brush with the remaining oil. Broil until golden brown and crisp, about 1 1/2 minutes (If using hamburger buns, you may just toast them. That’s what I did!). Transfer the bread to individual plates. Top with the lettuce leaves and burgers, and garnish with your preferred condiments . I find a little bit of mayo-ness goes best with turkey burgers.

This recipe is adapted from Real Simple magazine.

I would definately recommend patting the zucchini dry, as I had a problem with the burgers falling apart a bit. I attribute it to the excess wetness of the mixture. I ended up making 5 patties instead of 4 with this and had a plain one for J and I lunch the next day. If you’re looking for something other than the boring old beef burger, this is definately one to try out. The spice mixture made it just as good as a naked patty as it did in the burger setting, if you’re one of those crazy people that is avoiding bread. Weirdo.

Hold the whole wheat, please. June 16, 2008

I suppose you can classify whole wheat pasta along side with eggplant-one of those things that I pretty much hated upon encountering it, but may give it a chance again if it gives me a really really good reason to. However, J doesn’t like the stuff, so it may be a while. That being said, I made this dish without whole wheat pasta. Sorry-the last time I tried it it was grainy and weird and corrugated cardboard would have tasted better.

Whole Wheat Penne with Broccoli & Sausage
Total time 25 minutes 4 servings

-12 oz penne pasta (whole wheat if you so choose)
-1 lg bunch broccoli, cut into florets
-12 oz hot Italian turkey sausage
-1 pt grape tomatoes, each cut in half
-1/2 c loosely packed fresh basil, chopped
-1/4 c freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese (or Italian Blend containing Romano)

1. Heat stockpot of salted water to boiling on high. Add pasta and cook as label directs, adding broccoli when 3 minutes of cooking time remain. Reserve 1/2 c cooking water; drain pasta and broccoli (feel free to allow the remaining pasta water to cool and then pour on your lawn or plants).

2. Meanwhile, thinly slice sausage on the diagonal. In a large nonstick skillet, cook sausage on medium 7 to 8 minutes or until it begins to brown, stirring occasionally. Add tomatoes and cook 5 minutes longer, stirring.

3. Stir pasta, broccoli, and 1/4 c pasta cooking water into sausage mixture in skillet; heat through, adding additional cooking water if needed. Remove from heat; stir in basil and cheese.
This recipe was adapted from a Family Circle magazine recipe.

This past week was “use what’s in the freezer/pantry because we’re broke” week, so there were various substitutions. That’s also another reason for not using whole wheat pasta-didn’t have it. In the place of the hot Italian turkey sausage, we had some turkey brats. I really liked this dish-even J liked it (which surprised me-sometimes he gets weird about pastas without outright sauces). I didn’t feel like a fatass after eating it, either.

As I’ve said before, my skillet is very small. At the point where it tells you to stir everything into the skillet, I stirred it into the stock pot I had used for cooking the pasta. Also, every time that I use just the florets of the broccoli, I trim the stalks/stems and slice them thinly for a marvelous and interesting looking addition to stir fry-the cross sections of the large part of the stem have the most interesting shape.