Brunch Burger

Yesterday I made:
Brunch Burgers, Every Day with Rachael Ray March 2014

Rachael Ray always has a burger of the month, but I almost never make them. This one looked complicated but decadent, so we decided to go for it. It's a pork (and supposed to be 1/2 beef too, but ours went bad) patty seasoned with fennel, garlic, onion, and sage, topped with cheese, a fried egg, and some maple-sugar bacon. All on an English muffin bun. It was so tall it was hard to eat!
The bacon was really good-- it was smothered in brown sugar and maple syrup before baking. The pork patty was fine, but nothing too special. G observed that if you just bought normal sausage patties and used the maple-flavored bacon, you could do this really easily. So easily in fact, you could do it any time. Ha! Until you ODed on cholesterol and saturated fat. Anyway, this was really good, and it was so fun to have leftovers this morning to just heat up and assemble.

Speaking of breakfast sandwiches, I think this is a really cool contraption:

Make sure to watch the video on Amazon! 

Obviously, it's one of those things you would probably just use twice and then never look at again because it was too hard to clean or whatever, but isn't it such a good idea? I love it, along with those toasters with built in skillets and coffee makers. 

Eggplant-Parm sandwiches, Curry, Salad, Cajun chicken, and Blintz Hotcakes

This week I made:

• Eggplant-Parm Grilled Cheese, Every Day with Rachael Ray January/February 2014
• Thai Pork Chops, Every Day with Rachael Ray January/February 2014
• Butternut Squash & Arugula Salad, Every Day with Rachael Ray January/February 2014
• served with steak
• Blackened Chicken with Broccoli Slaw, Every Day with Rachael Ray January/February 2014
• served with black beans and rice from a package that was G's favorite when we made it a few months ago, but he didn't remember it :(
• Cheese Blintz Hotcakes, Every Day with Rachael Ray January/February 2014

We got to the end of Sunday and were suddenly really hungry! I had planned to make the butternut squash salad, but we didn't want to wait for the squash to bake, so we looked for a fast recipe instead. This one sounded like it would be good, and G always likes to put his George Foreman grill to use with hot sandwiches. In this recipe, the eggplant is broiled in the oven. You cook up some garlic until golden-crispy too. But other than that, it's just cutting up some cheese, tomatoes, and basil, so it's pretty simple. 

The only annoying thing is that it calls for pressing the buttered bread into 1.5 c grated Parmigiano-Reggiano before grilling. First, that's a waste of $, since that amount is uncalled for. Second, it basically all falls off anyway. Or maybe that's because I used no-name parmesan cheese and it knew it didn't fit in?? Anyway, I guess she had to put it so that it would really be eggplant-parm, but it didn't seem to work that well. The recipe was also funny because it calls for a whole eggplant, sliced very thin. And yet each sandwich (makes 4-6) only has a single slice?? It could use some more (and we did, for leftovers).

On Monday we have ceramics, so we always need to cook a quick recipe. (And even then, we are usually late! :-/) This curry was pretty fast, starting with jarred red curry paste. The recipe called for bell peppers, but we had some sweet peas so I put that in too. I guess there's not too much to say about this, because it really depends on the red curry that you choose-- ours was a little more spicy than I would have preferred!

 On Wednesday we had a bit more time, so we made the butternut squash salad. Actually, since I used frozen butternut squash (cut pretty small, too), it didn't take as long as it called for. I left it in for a while anyway though (and forgot about it until some of the smaller pieces burnt and the rest were nice and crispy #overlyhonestmethods). Meanwhile, we made some steak. When I asked G what he wanted to eat with the salad, he chose steak and talked as if he knew exactly how to make it, but then when it came time to cook it he said he didn't want to do it because he didn't know how! We sauteed it in the cast iron skillet and then stuck the pan in the oven for a while after, since we (I?) like steak to be cooked all the way through. It was pretty good-- I sometimes don't like beef that much, but every once in a while I'm hungry or iron-deficient or something and it tastes amazing. I think there was a lot of fat. Oh, and we put a pat of butter on top when we put it in the oven too.
The salad was good too. We didn't have any dijon, so the dressing was just vinegar, brown sugar, and EVOO. It was really thick!

This blackened chicken is super fast and easy, because it's just rubbed with Cajun seasoning and pan-fried. The slaw is just a bagged slaw tossed with lemon juice and mayo. We don't really like mayo that much, so I guess we should've done something else for the side. But the chicken was good! I think this was our first time using the Cajun seasoning that came with the set of spices G has had for an embarrassingly long amount of time. I know that spices aren't supposed to be as good after a while, but they all seem pretty fragrant still!

These pancakes were so good! They're really easy, because it's just mixed in a blender, and can then be poured straight into the pan (another #overlyhonestmethod-- I made big pancakes instead of small ones because the lid of the blender fell off while I was pouring and smushed my nice small batter puddles into a big pond). It's a mix of eggs, flour, milk, sugar, baking powder, and cottage cheese. It's moist and the cottage cheese gives it a good texture. We didn't have any jams except ones so old the caps are stuck on, so we topped them with fresh mango instead. Yum! This is such a simple and great breakfast recipe-- definitely keeping :)

Chocolate fest

Today I made three desserts from Rachael Ray's top 25 chocolate recipes list:
1. Hot Cocoa Cookies
19. Subtly Spicy Chocolate Brownies
23. Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Bars

I saw these cookies in the December 2011 issue, but didn't end up saving the recipe. But G picked them out from the top 25 list. It make sense, because his all-time favorite cookie recipe is for s'more cookies, which are basically this same thing except with graham cracker chocolate chip cookie instead of chocolate cookie. Like the s'more cookies, these cookies bake a few minutes before getting topped. They're topped with a piece of chocolate and half a marshmallow. The chocolate melts and stays melty and gooey for quite a while. I like the cookies best without the top, but G liked these. I think he liked them the best of these 3 desserts.

The brownies are called "subtly spicy" but they're neither subtle nor spicy. They have chili powder, which isn't spicy, but smokey. Maybe they meant spice-y? And it's a decently strong flavor. Chili and chocolate go together, I guess-- I know I've seen chili recipes that call for chocolate. But I think it's more common to have chocolate go with actual spicy things like red pepper or something. Anyway, these were interesting. People were eager to taste them, but not that eager to have seconds. I wouldn't make it again.

 This truffle bar is like a brownie, but I guess it's meant to be a little more moist and ganachey. I ended up baking this quite a bit longer than called for, because it kept seeming like it failed the toothpick test. I think it's supposed to be a little undercooked though, and so it ended up a bit dry. I really liked it though! It's a brownie covered in melted chocolate and topped with raspberries. I would definitely make this one again :)

Pasta, Orange buns, and Stoup

This week I made:

Chicken Ragu with Fennel, Every Day with Rachael Ray January/February 2014

Sweet Orange Buns, Saveur January/February 2012

Sausage, Zucchini & Potato Stoup, Every Day with Rachael Ray January/February 2014

Thursday I made this pasta with ground turkey, fennel, and half-and-half. It was ok, but nothing too special. Unfortunately I didn't give the flat fettuccini enough of a stir after first putting it in the pot, so some of the noodles clumped together, becoming super thick masses that were quite al dente, in a bad way :-(

But while that was being eaten, these babies were in the oven:

I made the dough, filling, and rolled these out the night before, and they sat in the fridge until tonight. I baked them for the final meeting of book club. They were pretty ridiculously sweet and buttery, definitely needing some straight tea to mellow it out. The filling is two sticks of butter plus 3 cups of powdered sugar along with some zest, extracts, and more sugar (brown this time). It's about a centimeter tall once it all gets smeared on top of the dough! Of course, during baking that basically all just melts, such that you end up with these rolls sitting in a bath of melted sugar-butter about halfway up the sides. They have you use a bit more of the filling mixed with a bit of orange juice to drizzle, but it just seemed so excessive and not even different (how does adding 1 Tbs juice to 1/4 cup frosting even make it more like icing? Seems like icing needs less liquid, not more, or else it just melted in instantly).

We enjoyed the leftovers for breakfasts and such :)

On Friday we warmed up after a cold day with this stoup:

I thought I had a lot of extra Italian sausage in the freezer, but didn't. Instead of just skimping, I used up some other sausage that was in our freezer-- a fully-cooked chicken sausage with apple and sweet maple syrup. Um, this did not fit in well. The rest was hearty and savory, but then you'd have these cloying bites of this sausage with a weird texture to boot. It would have been better without it, and on my second bowl I started fishing it out. The rest of it was great and used up the rest of the fennel from the earlier pasta. As a kid, we used to eat a similar soup basically every week as per my sister's demands. I named it "rainbow soup" because it had so many colorful ingredients, but I think I was the only one who called it that. I guess the only similarities are ground meat (but sausage instead of ground beef), potatoes, onion, garlic, and tomatoes. I'm not sure what makes this a "stoup"-- it's pretty much the definition of a soup.

Superbowl Spread

Today I made:
Meatball Sub Sliders, Every Day with Rachael Ray November 2013
Veggie Taco Bowls (made as a layered dip, not put into bowls), Family Circle September 2013
Tricolor Trio-- Kale, White Bean, what Chile Crostini, Every Day with Rachael Ray December 2013
Sweet Chile Hot Wings Drumsticks , Every Day with Rachael Ray January/February 2013
Guacamole

So I've never really watched football. I don't think G really does either, but anyway on Saturday he was bemoaning the fact that all of our friends were going to be watching the Super Bowl and we hadn't been invited to anyone's parties. (...maybe because we are homebodies who don't often go to parties even when we are invited...) I suggested that we throw our own party, because it would be fun to do the cooking thing, and we sent an email out to the dorm to see who else was "homeless" for the event. It turned out to be a party's worth! 

I've never been to a Super Bowl party, but the Internet told me that you've got to have some sort of wings, some sliders, chips and dips, and some veggie sticks (gotta pretend to be healthy, right?). We selected several recipes that seemed like they'd be pretty quick.

Although each dish was less than 15 minutes of hands on time, I started a few hours before the party to do whatever seemed like it could be done in advance. And at this leisurely pace, it took up basically the whole time until people arrived.

The sweet chile hot drumsticks were definitely the star food, and they got eaten up quickly. They're just slow cooked with soy sauce, honey, and sriracha (4:4:1 ratio, plus broth or water to cover) for a few hours, then broiled to get nicer looking. After slow cooking they looked pretty gross, but after baking they looked much nicer. We ended up baking them for longer than recommended, because the slow cooker took a while to get up to speed and we wanted to make sure it was cooked through.

The close second hit were the meatball subs. That was G's pick to make. They all got eaten too, and we made a second batch partway through the evening which also got devoured even though everyone was pretty full by that point. They're simply assemblies of purchased items, so they're very easy. It's jarred marinara, frozen meatballs, and slider buns. The buns are broiled with cheese (we used provolone), the meatballs are heated up in the marinara, and other than that it's just a bit of torn up basil.

The odd-one-out was the kale and white bean crostini. Too healthy? Not flavorful enough amongst all the other intensely spiced items? At the end of the evening we had several of these left, along with some dips. We repurposed the veggie taco bowl filling (beans, corn, spices) as quesadilla filling the next day for dinner.

Month 12 day 12: Quesadillas and cupcakes

Today I made:
Escarole, Sausage, and Fontina Mozzarella Quesadillas, Cooking Light January 2011
Take 5 Carrot Cupcakes, Food & Wine January 2011

(Cupcakes not pictured)

Tonight was book club again, so I wanted a fast dinner. I made these hearty quesadillas. They seem kind of fancy with their escarole and sausage, and it was pretty tasty. I'm not sure if the escarole added a whole lot of extra flavor, but I guess it's healthy? I could imagine using fennel or something would be yummy too. Instead of being cooked in the skillet, these are baked. I'd never considered making quesadillas that way before, but it would be a good way to make several at once instead of serially cooking them in the skillet and having the first one get cold and soggy by the time the last is made.

The cupcake recipe was from that same general store that made the chicken parmesan from this month. If all their recipes are like these two, then it's worth a stop if you're ever in Seattle! I'm normally not really into carrot cake, but these were delicious. They were surprisingly fast and easy too, once the carrot was all grated. That was by far the most time-consuming step. The cupcakes came out really moist (from using oil instead of butter?), lightly spiced, and didn't have any of the nuts or raisins which I normally don't like in carrot cake-- they were nice and smooth. Not too many people ate them at book club, but my lab enjoyed them the next day, and I felt like they were breakfast appropriate. Right? Anything with cream cheese frosting is a breakfast food, or something like that. And it's healthy, because vegetables. Yep...

Month 12 day 10: Chicken and cabbage with parm

Today I made:
Chicken Parmesan with Pepperoni, Food & Wine January 2011
Parmesan Cabbage, Every Day with Rachael Ray January/February 2012

Although it might seem like overkill to have two parmesan recipes at once, I decided to just go for it.
The main course was this chicken parm recipe from Food & Wine that includes pepperoni. Why has this never been done before? It's a great addition. This recipe came out of Food & Wine's special on "Food Trends of 2011" in the section about general stores. Huh?? Apparently there's a bodega-like general store (has this term even been used since the 1800s) in Seattle that also serves up hot dinner food (and carrot cake cupcakes, which I will make later this month).

Anyway, this follows the standard way of making chicken parm, but just has pepperoni on top. It comes out of the oven looking gorgeous like this:

And yes, I proceeded to eat all of that over the next few days.

There isn't a whole lot of seasoning, pointed out someone in the comments, but to me it was fine. The cheeses are plenty salty and the pepperoni has a bit of a kick to it. I guess if you wanted to use your favorite marinara instead of just plain tomato sauce it would be even better though.

The cabbage was simple but good. It's basically just braised cabbage and onion, with some parmesan grated over the top at the end. Since I was using Parmigiano-Reggiano I didn't want to use the full cup of cheese, but it was fine with less too.

Month 12 day 7: Tourtiere

Today I made:
Tourtiere, Cooking Light January/February 2010

Today I made this dish, which is essentially a chicken-pot-pie but pork instead, and with cinnamon and cloves. It's supposedly a dish that dates back to the Middle Ages.
I learned my lesson before and made sure to make my own crust instead of using store-bought dough like I did with the sausage turnovers last week. It was a really good dish! I was really happy with it. G came home to visit this weekend, so I was happy to have a dish that I was pretty sure he would enjoy in the oven waiting for him. It's got all the things you love about chicken-pot-pie (toasty crust, tender potatoes and vegetables, oozy gravy), but the cinnamon and cloves elevate it to something that seems fancy and special.

Month 12 day 1: A bunch of TexMex

Last month! This month there are 5 issues:

• Cooking Light, January/February 2010
• Cooking Light, April 2011 (this one was hidden somewhere until April was passed)
• Food & Wine, January 2011
• Every Day with Rachael Ray, January/February 2012
• Saveur, January/February 2012

Today I made a lot of things:

Chipotle Bean Burritos with Guacamole, Cooking Light January/February 2010

Three-Bean Vegetarian Chili, Cooking Light January/February 2010

Frito Pie, Saveur January/February 2012 (<-- the reviews on this one are kind of funny)

Upside-Down Fudge Almond Tart, Cooking Light January/February 2010

(burritos aren't that photographic from the outside)

First we had lunch, and one of G's friends came over to chat before he heads to NY for an internship. He's vegetarian, so I made these protein-packed burritos with a mix of black beans and kidney beans. I made the guac that goes along with them too, but we put it in with the burritos along with the chips on the side. We should make guacamole more often-- it's always so good.

Then later for dinner, we had friends over again! It was time to see G off. I made two chilis-- a vegetarian 3-bean chili and a Frito pie. G made cornbread. In this picture, the Frito pie is on the left and the bean chili is on the right. There is a ton left of each, so I'm not going to be cooking again for a while :-/ But it was good! Especially the Frito pie. The vegetarian chili was just meh, nothing too special.

For dessert I made this fudge-almond tart. It's supposed to be served upside down, but it kind of stuck to the springform pan, and so it didn't come out pretty at all. Instead of inverting onto a plate, it had to be just served right-side up, straight from the pan. But it tasted good! You can't see, but there are roasted almonds studding the bottom (supposed to be top) of the tart, and the rest is a fudgy brownie sort. There's a lot of this left over too! I will be eating well :)

Month 11 day 13: Curry breakfast and spaghetti dinner

Today I made:
Eggs Poached in Curried Tomato Sauce, Cooking Light December 2010
Spaghetti with Sunday Sauce, Food and Wine December 2010

I made this flavorful dish for brunch today. It's got garlic, ginger, jalapeño, curry powder, coconut milk, and cilantro and tastes really good. It reminded us of an Asian version of shakshuka, which I made a while back. I liked this one more, and so did G.

For dinner I made this slow-cooked meat sauce and pasta. I've heard a lot about Italian-American traditional Sunday sauces, but had never taken the time to make one before. It was different than I expected-- it's less a sauce than it is a bunch of shredded meat with a little bit of tomato puree. Not surprisingly, G really liked it, saying it reminded him of this hearty rigatoni from a couple months ago. This didn't have that much flavor, though. It was just seasoned with some rosemary and thyme. It seems overly long and time-intensive for what it is, but G liked it a lot so I guess we'll be keeping the recipe!

Month 11 day 11: Thai fish chowder

Today I made:
Thai Fish Chowder, Every Day with Rachael Ray December 2011

Mom saw this recipe on my list and thought it sounded really good. It was a really fast, one-pot recipe, so I think it had that appeal too after yesterday's multi-hour, multi-dirty-dish, pokey croquembouche adventure. It has very few ingredients (it's in the $12 dinner section of the magazine), with no prep since it uses coleslaw mix. We couldn't get green curry paste at Trader Joe's, so we used about a third of a bottle of their green curry simmer sauce. It did end up costing just about $12 and 10-20 minutes. It tasted great, too! Nice and fresh. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Today we also assembled a yule log (of sorts) from the extra cream filling from the croquembouche. Mom made a cake from one of her cookbooks, since the recipe I had in mind from Saveur had pretty poor reviews. Since we used filling and not normal frosting, it came out pretty terrible looking and the "branch" on top slipped off! Oh well, it tasted good. Luckily we had some plastic decorations that made it look more deliberate.

Nailed it!

Month 11 day 5: Salmon and Spuds

Today I made:
Arctic Char Salmon with Mushrooms, Food Network Magazine December 2009
Golden Butter-Crisped Spuds, Every Day with Rachael Ray December 2011

We haven't been at home much this month, since we took a long weekend trip to New York for an interview for G. And we'll both be going home for Christmas for a bit, so I think this month will be pretty sparse.

Anyway, today I finally got the chance to cook, but I had to go to the grocery store first so I opted for some quick recipes. The potatoes take about 35 minutes (boiling 15 minutes, baking 20), but for prep it's just a matter of quartering them, so it's pretty fast. The fish recipe is listed as 25 minutes, but really it's just cooking the fish  and the mushrooms for about 8 minutes each, which can be done in parallel. So pretty fast.

We both loveedddd these potatoes! It's really just potatoes with a good amount of butter, and some salt and pepper-- so how could you go wrong? They're boiled to the point of softness, and do start crumbling during the toss-with-butter step, but after being baked, they get so nice and crispy with a butter frond. It's really great, even though it's so simple.

The salmon is also cooked on the stovetop and then finished off in the oven. The mushrooms and shallots are sautéed separately, and then seasoned with mustard, red wine vinegar, chives (I just used green onion, close enough?) and parsley. In the magazine picture it looks like more of a sauce, but I didn't measure out 3 tablespoons of oil, so I think that is why mine was more of a solid relish.

Month 10 day 20: Coq au Vin

Today I made:
Easy Coq au Vin, Cooking Light November 2010
Served with a mix of jasmine and wild rice

This recipe took a whole bottle of wine! It is too bad because there was leftover red wine from a department event that no one wanted, but I forgot that this recipe was coming up, so I didn't take it either. We used cooking red wine, so I was worried that it might end up too salty, but it was fine. To my (happy) surprise, it didn't really end up tasting like wine, somehow. It just tasted really moist and tender.
This is pretty easy I guess, although it still took a long time (about 1.5 hours). We wanted to know what "hard" coq au vin is like, but the recipe in one of my other cookbooks seemed pretty similar. Julia Child might beg to differ. I'd never eaten this dish before, and G tasted some of his brother's when he was in Paris recently but couldn't recall what it was supposed to taste like. So, who knows! Naively though, it was good. I wondered though why the mushrooms and onions had to be sautéed separately though, if they're going to be added in later. And, why does the wine have to get reduced by half on two separate occasions? There were many mysteries with this recipe.
I forgot to make the squash along side, so that will have to be made tomorrow even though this is the LAST DAY IN NOVEMBER! Crazy! Without further ado, here are this month's top recipes:
My pick: Almost-Famous Cinnabuns
G's pick: Coq Au Vin

Month 10 day 18: Mushrooms on everything

Today I made:
Beef Pork Filets with Mushroom Sauce and Parmesan Popovers, Cooking Light November 2010
Green Bean Casserole with Madeira Mushrooms, Cooking Light November 2011

This was a bit of a labor-intensive meal! But amazingly, everything ended up getting finished right around the same time. First to start were the popovers, which are just milk, egg, and flour that starts by sitting for 30 minutes, and then the dried porcini, which rehydrate for 15 minutes. During that time I got started on the green bean casserole. The green beans are just parboiled, and then the onion, thyme, and mushrooms are sauteed in turn before adding Madeira wine, then some flour to thicken, then some chicken broth to turn it into a sauce. This joins the popovers (who were put in the oven at some point during the sauteeing) in the oven.

Then while that was all baking, I... did the exact same thing for the main dish's mushroom sauce. The shallots, thyme, garlic, and mushrooms are sauteed before adding red wine, then some flour to thicken, then the dried-mushroom-soaking broth to turn it into a sauce.

The magazine pictures the popovers and beef on a plate with some plain steamed green beans, and so I had those in my mind, but also had the recipe for the green bean casserole I wanted to try. Somehow I thought having mushrooms in both would be unifying or something, without reading the recipe details to see that really, it's the same sauce, just one is mixed with green beans and the other tops meat. But this let us compare and contrast. We did think that the main dish's sauce was a clear winner, probably because of the additional flavor of fresh sage that gets added in right at the end. And maybe it was just nicer in part because it was served with meat instead of green beans. For the meat, I used pork tenderloin instead of beef tenderloin when I realized that beef tenderloin = file mignon = $18/lb. We like pork tenderloin more than steak, and it's about $3/lb this month! We used a meat thermometer to check when it was cooked and it was so juicy and good. We didn't miss the beef.

The popovers were the biggest surprise. I was sure that the lack of a leavening agent was some oversight-- how are they supposed to pop if there isn't any yeast or baking powder? But sure enough, when I went to check on them, they were twice as tall! Turns out, it rises from the steam. I'm not sure how that relates (if it does) to the long sitting time. But I was quite impressed! They were quite eggy, like a crepe or the outside of an eclair. Other than needing to be started a while in advance, they were absurdly easy but tasted/looked like they required skill to make. That's my kind of recipe! The funny thing is that two of them turned out bifurcated, like with cat ears. I think those might have been the two right under the electric heating element in the stove! Very funny looking:

Month 10 day 12: Maple chicken and herbed biscuits

Today w made:
Maple-Glazed Chicken with Apple Brussels Sprout Slaw, Cooking Light November 2010
Herb-Scented Drop Biscuits, Cooking Light November 2010

Another 20-minute entree, paired with biscuits that don't take much longer. Mom made the biscuits while I made the chicken and slaw.

After cooking the chicken, it's glazed in a mix of red wine vinegar and maple syrup. It seems weird to add vinegar to the syrup, but its flavor didn't end up coming through much, so this was just nice and sweet. Everyone liked the chicken a lot.

I thought it would be weird to eat raw Brussels sprouts, so I decided to just cook the slaw through a bit. That ended up being pretty good, so I was glad that I did that. I think Brussels sprouts are best sautéed in olive oil with some cracked pepper.

These biscuits were great too. We didn't have any fresh thyme on hand, but we did have fresh rosemary, so Mom used that instead. It was really nice-- rosemary is so good! These had a nice texture--crunchy-toasty on the outside, but very soft and almost spongy on the inside (maybe from the yogurt in the dough?) I'd definitely want to make these biscuits again, and the chicken.

Month 10 day 8: Cinnabuns and turkey soup

Today I made:
Almost-Famous Cinnamon Buns, Food Network Magazine November 2009
Mexican Turkey Stew, Cooking Light November 2010

Since today was technically a holiday, we decided to go to lab a little late and have a nice breakfast. I made these cinnamon rolls the night before, so they puffed up in the fridge overnight and were pretty massive by the time they went into the oven-- there were only 6 in a 9x13 pan and they completely filled it!

 I've made cinnamon rolls once before, from my mom's recipe. She would always make it for Christmas morning breakfast, so last year I made it for our breakfast too. Those ones are not nearly as big, nor as chock-full of quite so much butter as is in these ones. But they are good! These come out very soft and delicious, but I think it's better to just eat half of one :-P

For dinner we had more turkey leftovers, in soup form.

Last night I let the turkey bones simmer for a few hours to make the broth for this soup. Since homemade broth tends to be less flavorful (or maybe just less salty?) than prefab, I used 7 cups of broth instead of half water as called for. This soup was pretty spicy! It has 3 Anaheim chiles in it, which I always think of as being pretty mild. I have a cold, so my nose was running anyway, but G's nose started running too. I think this is a pretty good soup for when you're sick! It probably has all of the benefits as chicken noodle, but it also has enough spice to clear out your sinuses. It's topped with pumpkin seeds, scallions, and cheese (supposed to be queso fresco; we used feta). It should have radishes too, but the grocery store was all out :-P

We still have ~1 gallon full of leftover turkey meat! We'll probably have to freeze it and use it later.

Month 10 day 6: Turkey, stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce

Today I made:
Roasted Turkey with Rosemary-Garlic Butter Rub and Pan Gravy, Cooking Light November 2011
Fennel, Sausage, and Caramelized Apple Stuffing, Cooking Light November 2011
Old-Fashioned Cranberry Sauce, Cooking Light November 2011

We expected that today, finally, the turkey would be defrosted. Unfortunately we didn't get home until ~7, so the turkey didn't go into the oven until ~8. And, it wasn't completely defrosted, despite being in the fridge for a week! But, I guess it's not too surprising since our fridge tends to freeze things, so of course it would stop things from unfreezing. I figured that once I bathed it in hot water and it relaxed from its tight, balled-up shape it wouldn't be that bad-- it was mostly defrosted after all.

I rubbed it underneath the skin with herbed/spiced butter and then it went in at 425 for 30 minutes, cooling down to 325 for the rest of the time. After about 2 hours or so the popup timer was up and our meat thermometer agreed that the leg and the breast were done. We cut off some leg to snack on, cut off the breasts to eat, and made the gravy and put the stuffing in the oven while the turkey relaxed and adjusted its juices (is this really a thing, or is it a wive's tale?)

After we ate though, we realized that the other parts of the turkey were most certainly not cooked through. The back, for example, was still squishy-soft. Other parts were a cooked texture, but were pretty pink. Back in the oven it went for another couple of hours until just before we went to sleep! The next day when I was picking off the meat for leftovers, some parts seemed pink still, although now that I take a second glance I think that turkey is just pinkish. Nevertheless, we decided to panfry the leftovers a bit or use them in things like soups just to make sure :-P

The gravy was tasty, and particularly important given that our turkey ended up baking for probably longer than intended when all was said and done, and some parts were quite dry by the end. It never got too thick, though-- I guess the ratios might be off because the recipe doesn't specify a total volume for drippings + broth, just the amount of broth to use. Anyway, it was thin in viscosity but not flavor.

The stuffing... I'll just go ahead and say that I grew up on boxed stuffing and I stand by it! Despite the time and effort, it tasted no better than boxed stuffing, and in my opinion was worse. Normally I'm a big believer in as-much-from-scratch-as-possible, but Stovetop stuffing is just my favorite, especially when you add in some sausage, apple, celery, etc. So we will not keep the stuffing recipe. Good to know though! The first time I ever tried to make stuffing was when I lived in Japan, before I had the internet at my apartment, so I just tried to derive it from first principles. I knew there were some spices, some stale bread, and some broth... but I really didn't know how much broth to add or anything. It turned out a mushy disaster! This was better (especially as leftovers when we let it bake a while longer)

I did get converted to home-made cranberry sauce though. It is so fast to make-- just about 10-15 minutes, and tastes so good. This recipe had orange zest in it. When I was a kid I could just eat cranberry sauce straight from the can I loved it so much! I could imagine just eating this too, or using it like jam or anything.

We made a ton of food, so we'll be needing to use turkey in the next few days' worth of recipes!

Month 9: day 18: Braised chicken and kale

Today I made:
Chard Kale with Red Sauce, Every Day with Rachael Ray October 2011
One-Pot Braised Chicken and Pear, Every Day with Rachael Ray October 2011

Today we rented a car and drove out to Walden Pond to get our fill of crisp autumn air and fall colors. We ate ice cream twice (once in Lexington and once at Shake Shack) and shared a burger and fries at Shake Shack too (G says it's overrated and said the burger was what he would expect to get at McDonalds), so cooking tonight was more for the purpose of having leftovers to carry us through a couple of busy evenings early this week. Both recipes had some initial chopping/browning, and then just cooked for 25 minutes. Since I put the chicken in before starting the kale, it stayed in the oven a while longer than 25 and the kale was deemed finished after more like 10-15, but the chicken was juicy and good and the kale seemed as tender as kale gets, so it seemed fine.

When I opened up the Dutch oven, I was greeted by this beauty:

There's just a bit of added fat (EVOO), but after browning the chicken there was considerably more in the pot, and after braising the broth was just full of fatty gold disks of. It tasted so rich and buttery that G drank some after eating and declared that he would drink it for dessert (it was a tad sweet from the pears). This was such a straightforward dish too, because I just used thighs instead of cutting up a whole chicken (since the whole chickens at our store are ridiculously large), making this a great weeknight dish that tastes like it took much longer to make. It would be good over egg noodles or rice or something to sop up the broth. 

The vegetable side was also very soupy and needed some bread or something. It could be used as a pasta sauce and become a complete meal. G said it seemed really healthy, but he didn't realize it was cooked in bacon grease. I think he found the tomatoes a bit too overpowering. I agree that it a 14-oz can would probably have been perfect. I liked it though. I used kale instead of chard because we had a lot left over from the stratas, but I am kind of curious how it would be with the intended chard.

Month 9 day 14: Manly rigatoni

Today I made:
Fire-Roasted Tomato and Hot Sausage 'n' Beef Rigatoni, Every Day with Rachael Ray October 2011

I got home late tonight, so I opted for one of the 30-minute Rachael Ray recipes. I think it took a bit longer, but was pretty close. This issue has a section of "guy food" that is very flavorful and hearty. No sexism intended, though-- Rachael is quoted that she doesn't run four miles a day to eat salads and pumpkin seeds!

Anyway, obviously there are faster pastas that could be made, but this was pretty good. The bell peppers are charred briefly under a broiler and then sit, covered, while other things are cooking until easy to peel. Sausage and ground beef are browned; seasoned with onion, garlic, and a FRESNO chili (holla!); and then doused in tomato paste, wine, fire-roasted diced tomatoes, and beef stock (but I just used water). The recipe says "gild the lilly with an extra drizzle of EVOO"-- I guess that's the manly touch?

Well, it turns out that Rachael does know what guys like, because G said it was delicious! I think it helped that it finished cooking just as he walked in the door. Who wouldn't love a hot meal waiting for you? It was tasty enough for seconds, but hearty enough that I regretted having a second bowl :-P I sometimes don't like roasted red peppers, but these were good-- maybe I just don't like the jarred ones. I expected this to be really spicy from the Fresno chili, but it wasn't at all... maybe it needs the seeds to be spicy. I have heard that these are spicier than some other peppers I'm more familiar with, but (despite my place of origin) have never used a Fresno chili before, so I was careful to deseed it lest it be too hot.

Month 9 day 9: Chana Masala with Roti and Pumpkin Hot Cocoa

Today I made:
Indian Chana Masala with Roti, Every Day with Rachael Ray October 2011
Pumpkin Pie Cocoa, Every Day with Rachael Ray October 2011

This was a good recipe! It seemed like something you might get at a restaurant, but it's very easy too. I made the garam masala from this recipe since it's not something we have on hand, but we do have all the components on hand. G had to hammer some cardamon seeds in a baggie though, because we didn't have ground. He did a good job though :) I used just one serrano and 1/2 of a leftover jalapeno, and that was a good amount of spice-- you could feel it, but it wasn't bad. The tomatoes we used weren't very juicy, so this ended up being much drier than what was pictured in the magazine. I think you could get away with using canned tomatoes though, and then this would qualify as a from-the-pantry recipe. I love it when I find a good recipe that can be made from the things I always have around! The curry itself is also a really fast recipe, just about 20 minutes. So serving this with store-bought frozen naan instead of making the roti would make this something you could make at any time in no time.

For dessert we made pumpkin pie hot cocoa. It's basically just hot chocolate with a bit of pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice mixed in, topped with whipped cream. Normally I think hot cocoa is too sweet, so I tend to put in less than is called for on the canister. But G said we should follow the proportions called for in the recipe: basically a 1:4 ratio of cocoa mix to milk. That was 3 cocoa packets! It was soooo sweet! The pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice was really good, but next time I will use less cocoa powder. Or just melt in chocolate and adjust the sugar myself.