Roasted Turkey

I made my first turkey! And it was scary & a bit intimidating but it turned out good. I wish I'd taken a picture. I got the recipe from Food Network. There are vidoes on their site that are helpful if you decide to take this on. It was super moist and flavorful.

Ingredients
1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
1 gallon heavily iced water

For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

Directions
2 to 3 days before roasting:
Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.
Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.
Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:
Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.
Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.
Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.
Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.

Chicken Salad with Sweet Red Onion Dressing

This is a recipe I got from my sister-in-law. I made it for Merisa's baby shower & it is SO good. There's a lot of ingredients but it is worth it. So yummy.

This recipe will feed a large group (30 or so people) but I'm sure you could figure out how to cut it down to a family size.

Salad

1 pkg Romain lettuce
1 pkg mixed lettuce
1 pkg ice burg lettuce with carrots & cabbage
1 fugi apple (sliced)
3/4 c. crasins
2 c. fresh Parmesan
2 c. mozzarella
1/2 c. roasted almonds (10 minutes on a flat cookie sheet @ 300 degrees)
6-8 chicken breasts- grilled with garlic & lemon pepper then cut into strips

Dressing
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. balsamic or red wine vinegar (I prefer the red wine vinegar)
1 tsp. dry mustard (regular mustard works too)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup chopped red onion

Blend these ingredients in the blender or food processor and slowly add 1 cup vegetable oil or olive oil while it blends.

Mix all the ingredients together. It really is yummy & filling.

Crock Pot Chicken Enchiladas

It's hard to cook while pregnant, especially when every other smell sends you running to the bathroom. I am liking meals I can make in the crock pot because I can just set it to go and then everything is done by dinner time. So here is one of my favorite crock pot meals. It's not a pretty recipe but it is pretty tasty.

I got this recipe from a great little crock pot site: click here. Let me know what you think.

Crock Pot Chicken Enchiladas

The Ingredients:

--leftover cooked chicken (about 2 cups)
--28 oz can of enchilada sauce
--1 orange pepper
--1 yellow pepper
--1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
--1 can olives

--6 corn tortillas (I used flour and it worked fine)

--2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
--sour cream (optional)

The Directions:

--combine chopped or shredded chicken with the enchilada sauce

--Starting with 2 corn tortillas, layer ingredients into stoneware insert. I happened to go in this order:

--tortillas

--chicken mixed with sauce

--chopped pepper

--black beans

--olives

--cheese

Repeat layers. Finish with a handful of cheese and 1 tablespoon of water that you swirl around in the bowl that had the enchilada sauce and chicken.

Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours. This is a no-peeking recipe. A lot of times it's okay to peek and to stir, but for this one it's best left alone for the flavors to meld properly and for the edges to get that yummy crispy cheese texture.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

Apple Crisp

Today I came home and my house stunk. Between 2 dogs and a 2 year old the place just seemed to have a stench. (Kind of embarrassing to admit. :} ) So I decided that nothing smells better than apples and cinnamon. My brother-in-law had dropped off 3 bags of apples and I had the brilliant idea of making apple crisp. All the joys of apple pie in minutes instead of hours. It was really good and would have been better with whipped cream or ice cream but this was a spur of the moment thing... Give it a shot and let me know what you think.

Ingredients:

APPLE FILLING:

4-5 medium apples peeled, cored & sliced (I used red delicious because that's what I had but any baking apple would do)

1-2 Tbs. lemon juice

1-2 tsp. cinnamon

1-2 tsp. nutmeg

1 Tbs. brown sugar

Mix this all together to coat the apples and put into the bottom of a 9x9 baking dish.

CRISP: (This is my favorite part)

2/3 c. flour

2/3 c. oats

2/3 c. brown sugar

a pinch of salt

1-2 tsp. cinnamon

1-2 tsp. nutmeg

2/3 c. softened butter

Mix this all together in a bowl until it becomes crumbly. You should be able to form little balls. Sprinkle it over the apples.

Bake at 350* for about 25 minutes until top is lightly golden and apples can be pierced easily with a fork. Served best warm.

So easy and my house smells so much better! :)

Teppanyaki Fake Out

Ok, Sorry this took so long to post. This is the Teppanyaki dinner I made for Valentine's Day. I just kind of made it up as I went so play with it a bit.

Filet Mignon (8 oz or so)

Filet of Salmon

Zucchini (Chopped)

Onion (your favorite kind) (Chopped)

Mushrooms (I don't do mushrooms so I left them out)

3-4 cloves garlic

3-4 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Glaze:

3-4 Tablespoons Soy Sauce (Low sodium would be best)

3-4 Tablespoons Sugar (depending on how sweet you like your glaze)

1 1/2 teaspoons ground Ginger

Starch for thickening

Mix all of the ingredients for the glaze in a sauce pan over low heat until it thickens up to a point where you can drizzle it. Be sure to test the flavor. You may want to add more sugar or ginger. Set it aside.

Cut the Garlic cloves into a few chunks and heat them in the olive oil so it infuses the oil with the flavor. When the garlic is a dark brown pull out the garlic. Don't let it burn though.

In a pan add a Tablespoon or so of the infused oil. Add your bite sized chopped veggies and cook your veggies until cooked but they still have a bite to them. Drizzle a little bit of the sauce over then and pull them off the heat.

Add another Tablespoon or so of the infused oil to the hot pan. Add your steak to the hot oil. You want it to sear. Leave it on that side for just a minute or so then flip it to sear the other side. Use a sharp knife and cut the meat into bite sized pieces and cook to the way you like it (rare, medium, etc.) Just before you get to your desired cook add some glaze and stir the meat to coat it in the glaze. The glaze will caramelize in the heat in a minute or so. Pull the meat from the heat.

Meanwhile, in another pan over low heat add the rest of the oil and add your salmon filet. Cover. You want this to cook slowly. Flip it after a few minutes and add a little bit of lemon juice over the cooked side. Cover it again and let it cook for another few minutes. Add the glaze and let it cook until the fish gets flaky and the glaze has caramelized around the edges of the fish and starts to turn a caramel brown color.

Pull it off the heat. And serve.

You could serve it with Japanese noodles or fried rice like they do at the restaurant but I didn't get that far and there was still plenty of food. You could also use the glaze and the same process with chicken or other sea foods. Yummy! Hope this all makes sense. Good luck and let me know what you think.

Pizza Calzones

So I will finally put a recipe on this blog. I am a bad cook! I try things but don't ever like the way things turn out.

Last Friday Aaron and I went and hung out with our friends Camille and Ben. We mad dinner together to save money. I got this recipe off of the Internet. It turned out good, but don't cook it for to long, ours were a little crispy and we cooked it for the recommend time, so watch them as they cook.

Ingredient
-1 package yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)
-1 cup warm water
-2 Tablespoon oil
-1 Tablespoon sugar
-1 tsp. salt
-2 3/4 cups flour (to 3 1/4 cup)
-1 jar spaghetti sauce
-1 cup mushroom
-1 lb cooked sausage
-1 cup pepperoni sausage
-1 tsp. Italian seasoning
-2 cups mozzarella cheese (finely shredded)

For dough, dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl. Stir in oil, sugar, salt, and 1 cup flour. Can add Essence spice, garlic powder, cracked black pepper, sill weed or grated Parmesan as desired to taste. Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle (can do in food processor). Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and gently roll in flour to coat. Knead about 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Cover with bowl and let rest for 5 minutes.

Roll into four 10" circles. Place sauce and topping mix over half of dough. Add 1/2 cup cheese. Fold over and crimp edges shut. Place on foiled and greased cookie sheet. Brush with melted butter after 15 min. of cooking. Cook for a total of 25-30 minutes in a 375* F oven or until golden brown. Makes 4.

It was a fun and easy meal to cook. We didn't do the sausage. And you could add anything that you want inside. Camille did just cheese and pepperoni and she still liked it. Next time I do it I think I am going to try adding some olives. It could be fun with kids to, you can make the dough for them and they can choose the stuff they want inside and build it them self.

Copy Cat PF Chang Lettuce Wraps

I decided to try a wanna-be PF Chang lettuce wrap recipe. I figured if I could duplicate it at home it would cost a whole lot less. This was pretty dang close and super tasty! It is husband and brother-in-law approved (I'm still working on the 2 year old approval.) Give it a whirl and let me know what you think...

Chicken Stir-fry

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons sesame oil

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed to 1/2"

1 - 8 oz. can of sliced water chestnuts, minced to size of corn kernels

1/2 cup mushrooms, minced to size of corn kernels

1/2 cup onion, chopped fine (I used red but I think green is what PF Chang uses)

3 cloves garlic, minced fine

large iceberg lettuce leaves

Stir-fry Sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon ginger powder

This recipe works best if you have everything prepped and chopped from the start. After that it is simple.

Prep the stir fry sauce by mixing soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar in a small bowl. Set it aside.

Combine oils and add to wok or large frying pan. Heat oil over high heat about one minute. Add chicken and saute until cooked through. Turn heat to medium-high. Add another tablespoon or so of olive oil to the pan, wait one minute for it to heat up, and then add garlic, onions, water chestnuts, mushrooms, and the stir-fry sauce you prepared earlier. Stir-fry everything until the mushrooms have cooked, about four minutes. Serve it in lettuce cups.

I thought the sauce was a little thin so I added a bit of corn starch to thicken it up. I served it along side white rice but if you think about it before hand you can pick up the Styrofoam noodles at the grocery store.