Monthly Archives: November 2010

Thanksgiving, Turkey

Roasted Herb Turkey

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Roasted Herb Turkey
Originally uploaded by jamileslie

Ingredients

1 16- to 18-pound turkey, neck and giblets reserved for gravy
Fresh rosemary sprigs (optional)
Fresh sage sprigs (optional)
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter
3 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
3 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
1 1/2 tablespoons grated orange peel
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
4 teaspoons salt

Make turkey:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Rinse turkey inside and out; pat dry. Place on rack in roasting pan. Sprinkle cavities with salt and pepper. If not stuffing turkey, place rosemary and sage sprigs in main cavity. If stuffing turkey, spoon stuffing loosely into main cavity.

Melt butter in saucepan. Mix in chopped rosemary, sage, orange peel, pepper and salt. Brush herb butter over turkey. Tuck wing tips under turkey; tie legs together to hold shape. Roast turkey 1 hour. Baste with pan juices. Continue roasting turkey until thermometer inserted into thigh registers 180°F, basting every 20 minutes, about 2 3/4 hours longer if unstuffed or about 3 1/4 hours longer if stuffed.

Ref: Epicurious

Third year running using this recipe. Great flavor, meat was moist and tender (although I personally really hate both those words, they do describe this accurately) I don’t use stuffing in my turkey, I thinking it soaks out all the flavor. And while you’ll getting awesome stuffing that way, why take away from the main course? :) So I stuff the cavity with sprigs of rosemary and sage and a tad of the butter herb mixture. Side note, when basting a turkey, don’t leave the baster tip too long on the bottom of the hot pan trying to suck up the turkey drippings… or it might melt together and close off the tip of the baster… lol, Not that I would know from personal experience or anything………… 😀

Thanksgiving

Carmelized Onion Balsalmic Rosemary Gravy

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Ingredients

5 1/2 cups (or more) canned low-salt chicken broth
1 onion, quartered
1 bay leaf
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter
2 large onions, halved, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

Directions

Combine turkey neck and giblets, 5 1/2 cups broth, quartered onion and bay leaf in saucepan. Simmer until reduced to 3 cups liquid, skimming occasionally, about 1 hour.
Strain turkey stock.

Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sliced onions; sauté 10 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon rosemary and 1 tablespoon sage and sauté until onions are golden, about 10 minutes. Add flour; stir 1 minute. Gradually whisk in turkey stock. Boil until gravy thickens, stirring often, about 3 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon each rosemary and
sage.

Transfer turkey to platter. Tent with foil. Pour juices from pan into large glass measuring cup; spoon off fat. Add juices to gravy. Add vinegar to roasting pan. Bring vinegar to simmer over medium heat, scraping up browned bits. Pour mixture into heavy small saucepan. Boil until reduced to 1/4 cup, about 3 minutes; add to gravy. Rewarm gravy;
thin with more chicken broth, if desired. Season with salt and pepper.

Ref: Epicurious

Try it. Nuff said. 😀

Sides, Vegetable

Candied Yams

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Ingredients

Yams or sweet potatoes
1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Peel, cube and boil yams to slightly soften. Place yams in a medium baking dish. Distribute butter pieces evenly over the yams. Sprinkle with brown sugar, dash of vanilla & Cinnamon. Layer yams with miniature marshmallows. Cover and bake in the preheated oven 25 minutes, or until yams are tender and marshmallows have melted. Then cover the top with additional
marshmallows and place back in the oven till they are lightly toasted and brown.

Ref: AllRecipes

So I suck and was WAY too excited to eat and didn’t take separate pictures of the yams and potatoes, but you get the gist. They came out perfect, golden, sweet, and delicious. I just kept telling myself it’s a vegetable to make myself feel better about indulging. 😀 Recipe said you can use canned yams/sweet potatoes (drained of course), but it doesn’t take much effort to use fresh ones and I’ll bet its a better flavor!

Sides, Vegetable

Scalloped Potatoes

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Awlow
Originally uploaded by jamileslie

Scalloped Potatoes

potatoes
sharp cheddar cheese
Parmesan cheese
red onion
flour
salt
pepper
paprika
garlic powder
parsley (dried or dice fresh)
butter/margarine
small container… 1-cup of heavy cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
5 – good size potatoes (usually 1 potato per person)
wash and peel…slice about 1/2 inch thick or a little thinner….not thicker!
Peel red onion and slice as thin as you can

Layer in casserole pan
dot butter first…melt in microwave
layer potatoes
dot with more butter
sprinkle flour (this keeps the butter from being too oily and thickens the cream)
garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, parsley
spread red onion, sparsely
sprinkle cheddar cheese and parmesean cheese
dot again with butter and make second layer, same as the first. Should of used up the potatoes, if not…then just continue to layer….Dot top of layer with more butter

Before putting in the oven pour the heavy cream over the top and bake for about 45 mins.
check with a fork for tenderness. Should be golden brown from the cream and cheeses

Ref: My mom :)

Mom’s famous scalloped potatoes! World class awesomeness, and I still screwed it up. LOL Well not entirely, but there was just obviously A LOT going on in the kitchen and I forgot to add the heavy cream before popping it in the oven. Which turned out to not be a HUGE deal, which shows you can omit it if you want, but if you do, use less flour. LOL I think only one bite I had might of had a smidge of a floury taste. The cream does make it richer…thus the awesomeness, but they were still yummy. :) Thanks mom!

And no, my potatoes don’t look like a cat, but I forgot to take separate photos in the excitement of eating, so you can see them in the background of the candied yams post. Awlow was just cracking me up laying sprawled on her back like that on my lap. She was full from turkey too thanks to her dad. hahaha

Dessert

Pumpkin Cheesecake

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Pumpkin Cheesecake
Originally uploaded by jamileslie

Ingredients

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese,
softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 (16 ounce) can pumpkin
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs

TOPPING:
2 cups sour cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

For filling, beat cream cheese and sugar in a large mixing bowl until well blended. Beat in pumpkin, spices and salt. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Pour into crust. Bake at 350 degrees
F for 50 minutes. Meanwhile, for topping, combine sour cream, sugar and vanilla.

Spread over filling; return to the oven for 5 minutes. Cool on rack; chill overnight.

Ref: AllRecipes

Picture is not the prettiest, but was the best I could do before Mike finished it, haha. Not going to lie, I’m totally proud of myself and my first cheesecake attempt. 😀 The above is what the recipe said. I made some minor modifications. I used pumpkin allspice instead of all the spices separately and added a dash more cinnamon. I also threw in a dash of vanilla extract to the cream cheese mixture just because it’s awesome. 😀 Didn’t realize how much the main batter would rise so I will definitely leave a little more room for the sour cream topping next time. (I filled it to the brim) I’d like to say I was truly ambitious and made the graham cracker crust too, but lets not kid ourselves. Baby steps, baaaaaby steps. hahaha Bottom line, DELICIOUS!

Decorations, Thanksgiving

Turkey Pumpkins

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Turkey Pumpkins
Originally uploaded by jamileslie

Saw a version of this on one of my favorite blogs and was immediately excited to turn my Halloween decorations into Thanksgiving decorations! Talk about recycling! 😀 Went to Micheal’s and picked up a few pieces of .29 cent felt in red, brown, and tan and also picked up a pack of paper in fall colors which was about $2 after my 40% off coupon.

I then winged cutting out feather shapes by hand, partially because I didn’t want them all to be the exact same like a stencil would give me, but mainly because I was too lazy to make a stencil. 😀

I then arranged the “feathers” together in a fan position and tacky glued them together. In order to get them to effectively stick to the butt of the pumpkin, I cut out a circle in the brown felt and glued half the circle to the bottom of feather fan and that helped attach the feather fan to the pumpkin itself since the felt mold to the shape of the pumpkin.

For the head i just cut out two identical pieces in felt and glued them together about 3/4 of the way down. I left the bottom open to fit better over the stem of the pumpkin so it would sit up properly. Then used the red felt for that thingie that hangs off the beak. Yup, I have no idea what it’s called, so I’m referring to it as the “thingie”. Super technical term. 😀

The eyes i just cut out of of the leftover brown paper from the feathers and tacky glued them on.

Ta-da! A super fun Thanksgiving decoration and yet another reason for my boyfriend to make fun of me endearingly. 😀

Ref: www.bedifferentactnormal.com