Happy Thanksgiving!

In the excitement of hosting my first Thanksgiving, I completely neglected to take any pictures, oops!! I worked on my menu, grocery list, and day-of schedule for several weeks, and still managed to have a few bumps in the road, but in the end we had a wonderful, tasty Thanksgiving with my husband's family.

As for the bumps in the road, here are a few things I learned:
1) Reynolds cooking bags, while BIG enough for a turkey are certainly not STRONG enough for a turkey. After putting 2 gallons of brine and an 11 lb turkey into the bag, I attempted to pick it up. Before my husband could get the words out of his mouth to tell me what a bad idea that was, my entire body and my entire kitchen were covered in garlicy brine, not to mention salmonella poisoning, as the bag busted and the turkey splashed back into the sink. I just stood there and laughed, what else can you do?? On the second attempt, we put a large glass bowl under the bag.
2) You don't need a large house with an island kitchen and a dining table that seats 20 to have a home. I've been a little house crazy lately and looking around our small apartment filled with family I realized that for now, this is our home. We have an open door policy,we want our friends and family to feel welcome any time. Come over for lunch, come over for dinner, come over for coffee and pie. We're so blessed, and so thankful, for all the wonderful people we're surrounded with.




Anyway, sap aside, here is the menu!





Roasted Turkey
Sausage Dressing
Sweet Potato Casserole
Mashed Potatos
Macaroni and Cheese
Challah
Cranberry Applesauce
Apple Pie

Roasted Turkey Brine:
Adapted from allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS
2 gallons water
1 1/2 cups kosher salt
6-8 peeled whole garlic cloves
1/4 cup whole black peppercorns
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar



DIRECTIONS
In a saucepan, boil 2 quarts of water and salt, garlic, peppercorns, worcestershire sauce, and sugar until salt and sugar are dissolved. Add remaining cold water and cool brine, then add to turkey. I used a Reynolds cooking bag set inside a really big glass bowl to contain my 11 lb turkey. Soak turkey in brine for 12-24 hours.



Roasting Turkey
I used Kidd Kraddick's brown bag turkey instructions!

INGREDIENTS
1/2 large onion, cut in large chunks
Several stalks of celery (I use the leafy inside stalks that I usually throw away for veggie trays)
1 whole head of garlic, with the top cut off
Olive Oil
Turkey



DIRECTIONS
Rinse turkey after brining, both inside and out to remove any remaining salt. Place turkey in a roasting pan on a rack breast side up and put the vegetables inside the large neck cavity. Rub the entire outside of the turkey with olive oil, be sure to get inbetween the wings and legs and the breasts. Place a probe thermometer into the turkey breast, make sure it does not touch the bone. Slide the roasting pan with the turkey inside into a brown paper grocery sack. (If the sack has a logo on it, be sure the logo is on the bottom or the ink will bleed onto your turkey.) Sprinkle water over the top of the bag so the moisture can get out. Roast at 375 degrees for approximately 15 minutes per lb, or until the thermometer reads 170 degrees. At the end, I tore the top off of the bag and allowed to the top of the turkey to brown a little more for 15 minutes.





It turned out really great! Every single scrap of turkey was eaten. There was SO much flavor from the brine and the turkey was really moist.





I put the whole carcass, with the vegetables still inside, into the crockpot to make broth after dinner.



That's all for now, I may post more of the recipes later.

Pie Crust Success!

Along the road to becoming my own little Suzy Homemaker I've had a few things I count among my most proud moments. After tackling homemade bread, I decided I had to try a pie crust. I knew I could do better than what comes in the box from the store, but my first attempt was one of my biggest cooking disasters of all time. Picture a wet, gloppy mess shrunk down into the center of the pie pan. Not good!

So I called in the expert. My mom set up pie making class for me in her kitchen one Saturday and she put together the essentials I didn't have: a dough blender and a gorgeous wooden rolling pin (previous wet gloppy pie crust was rolled out with a coke can. Christmas cookies last year? A wine bottle.) She taught me how to blend the fat into the flour until I see small peas, how to roll it out without killing all the fat pockets, fold and transfer it to a plate, and flute or score the edges. After a few practices on my own, I had pretty good success last night. I decided to venture a little from my mom's recipe and use Martha Stewart's pate brisee recipe, but the technique--it's all from mom :)

Salmon Cakes

We had crab cakes Saturday night at a restaurant in Austin and to my surprise, James loved them! Maybe he's not nearly as picky of an eater as I think he is. Well I had been considering making them, then I logged on to the Whats For Dinner board on the nest and someone had posted this amazing salmon cake recipe. To my delight, farm raised salmon filets were also on sale at my grocery store--bonus! These turned out great. They're worth the little bit of work they take, and I followed the recipe exactly except I added a little salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to the flour before dredging. Definitely use the panko, so crunchy and yummy!

Pan-Fried Fresh Salmon Cakes

from Flymanswife's blog, adapted from Cooks Illustrated

1 1/4 lb salmon fillets, skinned, any bones removed

1 slice high-quality white sandwich bread, such as Pepperidge Farm, crusts removed & finely chopped

1/4 cup grated onion

2 Tbsp fresh parsley leaves

2 Tbsp mayonnaise

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 large eggs

3-4 Tbsp olive oil

3/4 cup panko, or plain dry bread crumbs

Chop salmon into 1/2-inch pieces and mix with chopped bread, onion, parsley, mayonnaise, salt & lemon juice in medium bowl. Scoop a generous 1/4 cup portion and use your hands to form into a patty measuring roughly 2 1/2 inches in diameter and 3/4 inch thick. Place on parchment-lined baking sheet and repeat with remaining mixture, making 6-8 patties. Freeze the patties until the surface moisture has evaporated, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, spread the flour in a shallow dish. Beat the eggs in a second shallow dish. Spread the bread crumbs in a third. Dip the chilled salmon patties in the flour to cover and shake off the excess. Transfer to the beaten egg and with a slotted spatula, turn to coat; let the excess drip off. Transfer to the panko, shaking the dish to coat the patties completely. Return breaded patties to baking sheet.

Heat olive oil in large heavy skillet over medium-high heat until simmering, about 3 minutes. Add salmon patties and cook until medium golden brown on the bottoms. Flip cakes and cook until medium golden brown on the other side.

Transfer to a paper towel lined plate and allow to drain for a minute. Serve hot.

Honey Wheat Bread

Well, I'm officially unemployed! :) For a few days anyway.
I quit my job yesterday, and my new one starts Tuesday, so I decided what's a stay-at-home-wife supposed to? Make bread! So I made a loaf of whole wheat (not 100% whole wheat, I wasn't brave enough yet!) I now have four kinds of flour in my house: whole wheat, all purpose, bread flour, and cake flour. I'm nuts!
It turned out pretty great!

Honey Wheat Bread
(Adapted from allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS
1/2 (.25 ounce) package rapid rise yeast (1 1/8 tsp)
1/2 teaspoon white sugar
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/2 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons melted shortening
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
1-1/2+ cups bread flour
1 tablespoon melted butter + 1 tsp honey
A few tbs of oats (optional)
DIRECTIONS
1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1/2 cup warm water.

2. Combine milk, 1/4 cup water, shortening, honey, salt and wheat flour in stand mixer bowl. Mix in yeast mixture, and let rest 15 minutes.

3. Add white flour, and process until dough forms a ball. (I had to add an extra 1/4 cup or so of flour because the dough was still really sticky at this point)

4. Knead dough with hook for 5-10 minutes. (by hand 10 minutes)

5. Place the dough in a greased bowl, and turn to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or towel. Let dough rise for 45 minutes, or until almost doubled.

6. Punch down and pound out the bubbles. Form into a loaf, and place in a greased 9x5 inch bread pans and cover loosely with plastic wrap or towel. Let rise in a warm area until doubled; second rise should take about 30 minutes.

7. Place a small pan of water on the bottom shelf of the oven. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

8. Right before placing it into the oven, brush the top with the honey butter and sprinkle with oats (the oats are just pretty, they're totally not necessary)

9. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until tops are dark golden brown. Brush a second coat of honey butter on top while still warm. Slice when cool.

Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin

I normally avoid anything with soy sauce in it, because James says he hates it. I've been wanting to try Giada De Laurentiis's Balsamic Chicken Drumettes, hoping the balsamic flavor would be strong enough to overpower the soy. Thanks to a recommendation from a friend (Thanks Sarah!) I decided to try it on the half of a pork loin I had in the back of the freezer. (Tip: Kroger has whole giant pork loins on really good sales all the time, so I buy them and cut them in half to freeze separately for two little roasts that are the perfect size for us!)

I brined the roast first, since I have a nagging fear of pork drying out. I always do this when I cook pork, and I've never had a dry pork chop or roast in my house! It makes the meat really juicy and flavorful.

Note: If brining, allow 12 hours or so for the meat to brine before putting in the marinade.

Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin

(adapted from foodtv.com)

3-4 lb whole pork loin

For Brine:

1/2 cup salt

1/2 gallon (8 cups) water

1/4 cup honey

For marinade:

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce (I used low sodium soy)

3 sprigs of rosemary

5 garlic cloves, halved

1. Dissolve salt in 1-2 cups of hot water. Add remaining cold water and honey.

2. Place pork roast in a gallon size ziploc bag, pour all of the brine over it. Seal the bag well, and place it in a shallow dish in the refrigerator for 12 hours. (2+ days is recommended for a whole pork loin).

3. Remove roast from brine, rinse (to get any remaining salt off the surface) and pat dry. Pour out brine.

4. In another gallon sized ziploc bag (I used the same one after I poured out the brine) ombine the balsamic, honey, brown sugar, soy sauce, rosemary sprigs, and garlic cloves. Shake and squeeze the contents of the bag to dissolve the honey and the brown sugar.

5. Add the roast to the bag and seal with as little air as possible.

6. Marinate for 2 hours.

7. Remove roast from marinade, do not discard the marinade.

8. Roast in a 325 degree oven for 55 minutes, or until roast reaches 160 degrees in the center.

9. Meanwhile, place the marinade in a small saucepan. Bring the marinade to a boil (in order to kill bacteria). Reduce the heat to simmer and cook over low heat until thick, about 15 minutes. Reserve.

10. In the last 10 or 15 minutes of roasting, brush reduced marinade onto pork loin. When you remove it from the oven, brush on one last coat of the glaze.

James absolutely loved this. I told him later there was soy in it and he was totally surprised! It was just as good in leftovers, and great on a cold sandwich the next day.

Baking Bonanza!

Basically all I did on Sunday was bake! And here is what I ended up with:



1. One of my proudest kitchen moments: you can call it challah, braided egg bread, or as we call it at my house-- "Judy Bread." Every Thanksgiving we are blessed to visit with a family whose mother makes the most amazing bread I've ever tasted. Now, don't worry, I certainly wouldn't presume to call mine "Judy Bread", since I pulled a challah recipe from the internet, and it didn't quite live up to the fabulous standard to which we're accustomed. It was slightly less dense and less sweet than Judy's version, but that did not stop my husband and I from eating almost the entire loaf in 24 hours! It really was a great loaf of bread, and I will not hesitate to make it again.

2. BBFCCC: translation: BEST BIG FAT CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES. I've been hearing for this recipe almost as long as I've been hanging out on thenest.com cooking boards, so I had to give it a try with the new stand mixer. They turned out great! They definitely live up to everything their name says they are. I think I may prefer a crispier cookie, so I'm not going to make this my always-and-forever chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I'll definitely keep it in the box and use it every now and then.

Now for the recipes!

Challah
(adapted from allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1 cup hot milk
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup water
• 2-1/2 eggs (crack the last egg in a bowl, beat, and use half. save the other half for the last step before baking)
  
• 5-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 egg
• 2 teaspoons honey

DIRECTIONS

1. Proof yeast and 1/4 cup warm water in a large mixing bowl.
2. Combine hot milk, honey, butter, salt, and 1/4 cup water in a medium bowl. Cool to 110 degrees (lukewarm).
3. In small bowl, slightly beat 2.5 eggs, then add to cooled milk mixture. Add milk mixture to yeast mixture. Add 1 cup flour and beat until smooth. Slowly add remaining flour until it forms a stiff dough. Knead on a floured board for 10 minutes (5 minutes with a bread hook). Place in a large glass or plastic bowl lightly greased. Turn dough over to grease both sides. Cover and let rise in a warm, dark place until doubled in volume, approximately 60 minutes.
4. Punch down, cover, and let rise again until double, approximately 30 minutes.
5. Punch again, and form into three parts. Form each part into a 20-inch roll. Braid rolls on a large, greased cookie sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled.
6. Lightly beat remaining egg with 2 tsp honey and brush loaf. Bake in preheated 350 degree F (175 degrees C) oven for about 40 minutes until nicely browned.

This made one very large loaf of bread. We were going to eat half and freeze the other half, but James was up all night playing games at had almost eaten the half loaf I left out before I got up for work!


Best Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
(from allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Sugar cookies

I've been baking up a storm thanks to my new mixer!




First night I made a Martha Stewart blueberry muffin recipe. Pictures and a recipe won't be posted, because I learned the hard way that cornmeal is NOT good in blueberry muffins even if martha says it is.

I also made soft pretzels (recipe here) and the mixer took all the work out of the kneading.

James requested frosted sugar cookies, so my sister Caryn came over and we made both the cookies and the frosting in the mixer, and they turned out great! We had a blast. I usually use a powdered sugar/water glaze on sugar cookies, but James wanted sickly sweet frosting like they use at the grocery store.

A few sugar cookie tips:

1. Wait until dough is VERY cold to roll it out. We put it in the fridge for one hour but the dough was still a nightmare to work with. We finally put it all back in the freezer for 20 minutes or so and then it was perfect and easy. Next time I will refrigerate overnight if possible.

2. This recipe can make both thick soft cookies (my preference!) or thin crispy cookies, it all depends on how thin you roll out the dough. Rolled out at about thicker, they tasted very similar to the cakey cookies you buy in bakeries or get in a cookie bouquet.

3. It doesn't hurt to borrow your mom's rolling pin that has been grown from years of seasoning!

Best Rolled Sugar Cookies
(from allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Makes about 30 cookies

Sugar Cookie Frosting
(adapted from allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup shortening
2-3 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
food coloring (optional)

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, cream together the confectioners' sugar and shortening until smooth. Gradually mix in the milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes. Color with food coloring if desired.

This made more than enough frosting for all the cookies. I ended up freezing the leftovers as a single glob of each color on a cookie sheet and then putting them in a ziploc in the freezer for later. You could probably cut it in half to frost all 30 cookies.