Hearty Sauce for a Chilly Week!

I've been very spoiled with some delicious garlic from the Mother Unit's garden. I'm already halfway through my stash! The rosemary is also from her garden and I grew the cayenne peppers in Syracuse. At this point the peppers are just decoration as they're a couple years old now.

 This week I sauteed up some garlic, onion, and a green pepper with some ground turkey and emptied out a couple cans of spaghetti sauce to make a very delicious meat sauce. It's been nice to have a huge pot of sauce in the fridge so I don't have to think about dinner. I whipped up the garlic-chive butter with the last of my fresh chive (I'm attempting to winter the plant) and it made very good garlic bread.

It's been perfect for this chilly weather!

I also made a batch of my Hootycreek cookies this weekend. They make an excellent breakfast when paired with a giant cup of coffee.

Leftover Turkey Chili

Our lovely $10 turkey has been feeding us all week. Sadly we ran out of yummy sides so I decided to use the leftover meat to make a chili. I based the recipe off my Crockpot Chicken Taco Chili and used my homemade seasoning. It was a hit! It was nice and chunky which is what Mr. Lawyer likes. It was a great way to use up the turkey meat that had been sitting in the fridge a few days and was getting a little on the dry side. I currently have the turkey carcass simmering away on the stove making some broth which is perfect for a nice snowy day!

Leftover Turkey Chili

(from my kitchen!)

Ingredients:

1 red onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans 

1 can chili beans
1 can tomato sauce
10 oz package frozen corn kernels
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 packet taco seasoning (I used two tablespoons homemade seasoning)
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 cups chopped or shredded turkey (or about 1 turkey breast)
Directions:
1. In a large pot saute the onion and pepper in a tablespoon or two of olive oil until soft.

2. Add in the seasoning, all the beans, corn, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and turkey. Stir well. Let simmer until hot. 

3. Top with yummy things like cheddar cheese, sour cream, or green onions! Serve with cornbread.

Thanksgiving, Part 4?!

I picked up a $30 turkey for 10 bucks this past weekend....because we hadn't had enough turkey with our three Thanksgivings. We had talked about brining a turkey but because we always go to our families for Thanksgiving dinner we never had the opportunity. This was our opportunity. A fifteen pound turkey all to ourselves, leftover galore, I wouldn't have to cook all week! So far it has worked our marvelously.

The turkey and all the fixings!

Gravy, Brussels Sprouts, Cranberry Sauce (from a can!), Brioche Rolls from Reading Terminal served up with a Garlic-Chive Butter, and Lillian's Secret Mashed Potatoes!

 We went with the Alton Brown recipe because he is Mr. Lawyer's food guru. It was a little tricky to brine the turkey in our apartment but we squeezed the turkey into my largest stock pot and rearranged the fridge to make it happen. The roasting went smoothly. We might have found our go to recipe for whenever we host a holiday in the far future!

I love that you can see the Christmas Tree in this picture.

 Now it's time to find some fun recipes for all the leftovers. Turkey soup? Chili? Salad? Plus making stock from the bones! I cannot wait.

Brined & Roasted Turkey

(From Good Eats by Alton Brown)

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:
1. 2 to 3 days before roasting: Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F. 

2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.

We kept all of the dishes Alton Brown inspired and went with gravy recipe as well. I didn't follow the proportions of this recipe exactly and used sherry instead of wine but it came out wonderfully!

Best Gravy Ever

(from Alton Brown)

Ingredients:
1 Good Eats Roast Turkey, recipe above
24 ounces reduced sodium chicken broth
8 ounces red wine (I subbed in sherry)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon fresh herbs such as oregano, thyme or rosemary
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
1. Remove the turkey from the roasting pan and set aside to rest. Leave the drippings from the turkey in the pan and place the roasting pan over medium heat. Add the broth and wine at the same time. Whisk to combine, scraping the bottom of the pan until all of the bits have come loose. Cook for another 2 to 3 minutes in order to reduce the mixture slightly. 

2. Transfer the liquid to a fat separator and let sit for 5 minutes to allow fat to separate. Return 2/3 to 3/4 cup of the fat to the roasting pan and place over medium-high heat. Discard any remaining fat. 

3. bAdd the flour and whisk to combine. Cook, whisking continuously, until the mixture starts to thicken and become smooth, approximately 2 to 3 minutes. Once this happens, gradually add the liquid back to the pan and whisk until smooth and you have reached your desired consistency, approximately 5 to 6 minutes. Remember, your gravy should be slightly thin in the pan as it will thicken once you serve it. Add the herbs and whisk to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Lentil Sloppy Joes

Confession: I've never actually had a real sloppy joe. This looked like a nice healthy version and I must say I was impressed. It was very filling and had a mild flavor. It would be easily customizable with a squirt of bbq or hot sauce. I loved all the veggies that the recipe sneaked in. Since I was a very picky eater as a small child I look at this as practice for future small children...karma sucks.

Notes: after the lentils cooked it was till very watery so I siphoned off a cup of water/broth. I did not have to add the additional cup of water at the end. I also couldn't find brown lentils so I used red. Supposedly brown lentils have a more "meaty" texture. I swapped out the beef for ground turkey and used almost double the meat on account of Mr. Lawyer. 

Lentil Sloppy Joes

(from the Food Network Magazine)

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1 small carrot, finely chopped
1/2 bell pepper (red or green), finely chopped
1/2 cup ketchup
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup dried brown lentils, picked over and rinsed
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
8 ounces ground beef (or turkey)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
6 whole-wheat hamburger buns, toasted
6 slices cheddar cheese
Sliced pickles and/or pickled jalapeno peppers, for topping (optional)
Directions:
1. Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrot, bell pepper and 2 tablespoons ketchup and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are slightly soft, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, 30 seconds. Add the lentils, oregano and 4 cups water; bring to a boil and cook 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to medium low and simmer until the lentils are tender and the water is absorbed, 35 to 40 minutes (add up to 1 more cup water if necessary). Season with salt and pepper.
2. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the beef and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until it begins to brown, about 2 minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce and the remaining 6 tablespoons ketchup and cook, stirring, until combined. Add the lentil mixture and 1 cup water (**I did not need to add the extra water**) and cook, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are soft and the mixture thickens, about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Fill the buns with the cheese and lentil mixture. Top with pickles and/or pickled jalapenos.

Turkey and Rice Soup

I think I'm getting the hang of this leftover refrigerator soup thing. Grandpa Norm would be proud. I actually wanted to try this fancy looking turkey and squash soup recipe but Mr. Lawyer wanted something more traditional. Enter the leftover turkey, leftover brown rice I had frozen, some random baby carrots, and an onion that I didn't use from last week. The only thing I had to run out and purchase was celery. The leftover celery was put to use on our hummus platter and a couple of sticks found the peanut butter. I managed to create a delicious (and basic) turkey and rice soup.

Turkey and Rice Soup

(from my kitchen!)

Ingredients:
2 cups leftover turkey, cut into small pieces
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced (or in my case, baby carrots)
4 cups chicken broth (low sodium!)
1 cup cooked rice (I used brown rice)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Directions:
1. Heat up olive oil in a large pot. Add celery, onion, and carrot. Saute for 5 minutes or until the veggies start to soften.
2. Add broth, rice, and turkey. Mix together and simmer until hot (and your house smells delicious!). Season to taste...my taste involved a good squirt of Sriracha sauce!

Happy Fourth!

 Happy Fourth of July! This is the first year that I can remember not spending with family so I've been a bit mopey today. The past couple of years we've been at the shore and before that I was on the lake with the Nelsons. I miss family and cookouts! So I tried to make a spicy firecracker of a burger to celebrate. However, it wasn't that spicy! I don't think my jalapeno was up to par. It still tasted delicious but it was definitely more of a savory flavor. I halved the recipe and added half a cup of panko bread crumbs.

Spicy Turkey Burgers

(adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:
2 pounds lean ground turkey
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
2 fresh green chile peppers, diced
1 medium red onion, diced
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon ground dry mustard
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
Directions:
1. Preheat the grill for high heat.
2. In a bowl, mix the ground turkey, garlic, ginger, chile peppers, red onion, cilantro, salt, soy sauce, black pepper, paprika, mustard, cumin, and Worcestershire sauce. Form the mixture into 8 burger patties.
3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Place turkey burgers on the grill, and cook 5 to 10 minutes per side, until well done.

Official Bun Toaster

My little brother has been in town for a few days so the Mother Unit decided to pop up this weekend to visit the two of us. It was the perfect excuse for a dinner party. Appetizers away! We went with the standard cheese and cracker set up (2 cheese, 1 meat): Cabot Cheddar, Cranberry Wensleydale, summer sausage, and various crackers. The Dork picked out some garlic hummus so I whipped up some of my delicious homemade pita chips. We had the Cranberry Wensleydale on New Years and it was delicious so when I saw it at the store I scooped some up. The boys decimated half of the dishes before I could get a (horrible) picture, there was a lot more to start with!

Chili Snow

And we've come full circle! Way back in December my first post after moving to Philly was on Turkey Chili and here it is again! We used my original chili recipe as a loose guide but Mr. Lawyer requested spicy so that's what we did! All served up with Cabot Cheddar (I found some Seriously Sharp out in the suburbs....it might last the weekend!) and cornbread. It was the perfect dish for the first snow of the year! It was all blustery, freezing and snowing outside and inside it was nice, toasty and a crockpot of chili was making the place smell heavenly. mmmmm. I love it.

Jenni's Turkey Chili

(from my kitchen!)

Ingredients:
1 pound ground turkey
½ cup chopped onion

3 cloves chopped garlic

2 jalapeno peppers, chopped
1 can kidney beans
2 cans of chili beans
1 can undrained diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon or so of chili powder

A few dashes of red pepper flakes

Cheddar cheese and cornbread for serving
Directions:
1. Saute up the onion, garlic, and peppers. Add in the turkey, sprinkle with chili pepper and pepper flakes and cook until browned.
2. Throw everything in the crockpot on low and go about your day smelling the deliciousness as you putter around your house.

3. Serve with cheese and bread

Leftovers freeze wonderfully for a chilly (chili!) day pick me up!

Macadamias, I love you

Yesterday we had Brad and Christine over for dinner. I promise I'll take a break from cooking my wonderful turkey burgers. It's just like my tortellini, I find something I like and then make it a bunch!

I saw these cookies in my magazine last month and had been wanting to try them but Mr. Lawyer banned me from baking yummy treats because "you're making me fat!" psh. Portion control baby. Don't eat 1/3 of the rum cake for breakfast. Yeah. That totally happened.
Not only did these cookies look good but I just wanted an excuse to have macadamia nuts in the apartment. I developed a love-hate relationship with these cookies. First off, Martha dipped half of each cookie in chocolate. I don't have a good track record with dipping cookies in chocolate (please reference my cookie massacre) so I took the Jackson Pollock approach and just splattered chocolate all over them and it looked pretty awesome. While I was chilling batter and cutting them I swore up and down that I would not be making these again. But then I ate one and I can't quite put my finger on it. And now I might make them again because I keep eating them. It's a weird lemony shortbread sorta macadamia cookie. If you didn't know it contained macadamias I'm not sure you would realize it right away.

Chocolate-Dipped Macadamia Cookies

(Martha Stewart, Everyday Food)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest and 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon course salt
1/2 macadamia nuts, toasted and finely ground
1 cup all-purpose flour
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
Directions:
1. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, 2 minutes.
2. Add egg yolk, lemon zest and juice, and salt and beat until combined. Beat in buts. Add flour and beat until combined.
3. Form dough into a 4.5 inch log, wrap in plastic, and freeze until firm, 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 350. Cut dough into 1/4 inch slices, bake until golden at edges about 14 minutes. Cool completely.
5. Melt chocolate (microwave at 30 second intervals), dip half of cookie into chocolate, set on parchment paper to set. Or drizzle all over the place.

Yummy Repeat

Tonight I made my fabulous turkey burgers again and once more they were delicious. I grilled up the rolls that Mr. Lawyer picked up from Reading Market and whipped up some Old Bay Mayo. This time I made regular sized burgers instead of sliders and actually had panko in my cupboard. I said it before and I will say it again: these are the only burgers I don't need to put ketchup on.

The Old Bay Mayo was delicious. Mr. Lawyer was skeptical about Old Bay and turkey but I thought it would be a good combination because turkey is a lighter meat. It did work very well and Mr. Lawyer did enjoy it. Of course, it would have been amazing on a fish sandwich or some kind of seafood dish.

Old Bay Mayo

(Food Network Magazine)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup mayo
1 lemon (for zest and juice)
1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning (I added a little bit more)
1 minced scallion (I didn't have one and it was fine)
Directions:
1. Mix it all together!

Holy Guinea Pig Kitchen Success!

Tonight’s meal was full of experiments and everything game out yummy! Three experimental recipes, three successes! Mr. Lawyer made a cumber dill pasta salad last night and we let it sit and marinate alllll night and allll day. I wasn’t sure it was going to be enough to fill us up so I began thinking this salad sounds like summer time….what else reminds me of summer? Why burgers of course! And I just happened to have some ground turkey in the freezer. But what about the buns? Well I could whip up some of those too! So I started my morning trying out this sweet dinner roll recipe.

Sweet Dinner Rolls 

(adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients: 
1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees)
1/2 cup warm milk
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
2 tablespoon melted butter for brushing
Directions:
1. Heat up the water, add one tablespoon of the sugar and the yeast. Let it sit for 10 minutes.
2. In the meantime, warm up the milk, mix in your egg and butter.
3. At this point I put my yeast mix and milk mix in my sweeeeet food processor and slowly mixed in the remaining sugar, salt and flour.
4. Cover and let rise one hour.
5. Roll out the dough in to whatever shape you wish. The original recipe made crescent rolls, I made round slider rolls and some clover leaf rolls. For the round rolls put 7 to 9 balls in a pie pan, barely touching. For the clover leaf cut the dough into little pieces and place three pieces into each muffin cup. Cover and let rise a second time.
6. Bake at 400 for 10 to 15 minutes.
7. Brush on melted butter.

Mine came out a little dense which was perfect for slider rolls but just okay if you were doing a dinner roll. The original recipe uses a bread machine to mix the dough and take care of the rising so that might be it. They were a big hit with the boy. The recipe says that you can freeze them and reheat them at 350 for 5 to 10 minutes.

Next up: Turkey Burgers! The original recipe called for goat cheese and sun dried tomatoes but since we are a poor young couple living in the city we did not have those ingredients in our kitchen. However since I stocked up on essentials at Wegmans (♥!) before coming back to Philly, I did have Cabot Hunter Sharp Cheddar Cheese and dried cranberries on hand. Yes, Cabot Cheese is an essential that must always be in my kitchen. Also, I had to switch out the Panko bread crumbs for normal Italian ones which is a shame because I love Panko crumbs. I was skeptical about this recipe (like cooking them in wine) but they were amazing! I did add the red pepper flakes and used cracked black pepper but they weren’t spicy at all (except one bite that I got). Mr. Lawyer nearly devoured the whole plate (“How many more are there?”) and described them as “Sweet and Savory”. The sweetness of the cranberries worked really well with the sweetness of the rolls. I’m not sure what the wine did but as the boy said “It’s delicious, just do everything the same again!” I will definitely be keeping this recipe especially since I didn’t have to add ketchup which I always do with burgers!

Turkey Burger Sliders 

(adapted from allrecipes.com) 

Ingredients:
1 pound ground turkey
1/3 cup sharp cheddar (Shredded)
1/4 cup cranberries
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
1/4 cup olive oil (I used much less)
1/2 cup white wine
Directions:
1. Mix together everything (Turkey through Red Pepper Flakes) except the Olive Oil and Wine. I like the “Claw” method of mixing and using my hand like a creepy raptor claw because all of my many food magazines inform me that over mixing the burger meat will make it tough and this method will avoid it. Really it’s just fun to pretend to be a raptor in the kitchen.
2. Make burgers 3 inches in diameters for sliders. The many food magazines also tell me to make a thumb print indentation in the middle of the patty to ensure even cooking time. Not as fun as the claw.
3. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat (I used much less than the suggested ¼ cup, just gave the pan a good coating). Once it’s hot throw in your burgers. Cook them 2-3 minutes on each side.
4. Pour the wine over the patties, cover, and cook for 5 more minutes.
5. Remove the sliders and place on a paper towel and then eat them!

Kevin’s Cucumber and Dill Pasta Salad 

(adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:
2 cups macaroni
2 cups cucumber - peeled, seeded and chopped
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 cup low-fat sour cream
1/2 cup skim milk
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill weed (We used dried)
1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
Chopped onion, to taste
Directions: 
1. Cook pasta in boiling salted water until al dente. Drain, and rinse in cold water. Transfer noodles to a large bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together sour cream, milk, dill, vinegar, and salt and pepper. Set dressing aside.
3. Mix cucumbers and tomatoes into the pasta. Pour in dressing, and mix thoroughly. Cover, and refrigerate at least 1 hour and preferably overnight. Stir just before serving.

I know Kevin added onion (which the original recipe did not call for) and he increased the amount of dill and pepper. We were using dried dill so we started with 1 teaspoon (in accordance to the 1:3 fresh/dried herb ratio, oh how I love my food magazines!) but ended up around 2 teaspoons.

Philly Chili

I do believe it’s finally time to start this blog up. New city, new start, new food! Our first official meal in our new place:

Turkey Chili!

The Turkey Chili is a crockpot recipe and therefore very simple. I got it out of a magazine left in the office a few years ago, not sure which one. It was aimed towards kids so it’s not too spicy.

Ingredients:

1 pound ground turkey

½ cup chopped onion

1 can pork and beans

1 to 2 cans of chili beans (depending on your preferences)

1 can undrained diced tomatoes (or equivalent in fresh tomatoes)

1 can condensed tomato soup

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon chili powder (plus more to taste)

Directions:

1. Brown onion and turkey. I like to add the chili powder here.

2. Throw everything in the crockpot on low and go about your day.

I have made this recipe several times and it always comes out wonderful. It’s a sweeter chili but that makes it flexible for everyone. Using fresh tomatoes makes it a touch sweeter but more yummy. You can add red pepper flakes, Tabasco, etc to each bowl depending on your tastes. It makes a large batch so I always end up freezing some for a chilly day when I don’t feel like cooking.