FFFF: Thanksgiving Aftermath

Hey everybuddy! How was your Thanksgiving? I thoroughly enjoyed mine. I did almost NOTHING! lol! It was quiet. All I had to do was prepare the turkey, and the kids helped with everything else. It was wonderful having all of us together, sharing the blessings and the chores, and just relaxing for a whole day.

Ah, but now comes the aftermath! I’m a day late with the Four Foods For Friday, as usual.

Here’s this week’s questions.

1. What do you do with turkey leftovers?
2. How do you make split pea soup?
3. What do you like on top of your pie?
4. What kind of turkey do you usually buy?

1. I *sometimes* save the turkey carcass for soup when I have time, but that hasn’t been in a while. After the turkey cools, I pick off the meat and skin. I save the meat for us, and give skin and scraps to the animals. We eat Thanksgiving dinner a few times over. I rarely make a soup or casserole for leftovers because, well, I don’t like soups or casseroles!

2. I DO NOT make split pea soup. *shudder* That stuff looks and smells like the experiments you get in medical assistant training school. YUK!! However, I do make Black Bean Soup– I’ll have to post a recipe of it. It’s so good, even the children eat it.

3. A little bit of ice cream is very nice. But I usually end up buying whipped topping, because the family likes it, and it’s easy to spray on. I never had the stuff as a kid; I remember always being fascinated with the curly stuff that sprayed out!

4. Anything on sale. I do get a free one every year, but I always try to scarf up sales because we love turkey, and I have a big freezer. I love turkey. I’m glad it’s not our national bird, as Benjamin Franklin suggested, because then we’d all be eating eagle for Thanksgiving….

I hope your weekend is a blessed one! Thanks for reading!

Food Pantries Needing Donations

For quite a number of years now, food pantries across the country have been needing more donations. This year has been especially trying for food pantries.

Demand at food pantries and soup kitchens continues to increase even as financial experts predict the economy is turning around. WNYC’s Cindy Rodriguez visited a food program in Brooklyn and has this report.

REPORTER: St. John’s Bread and Life serves mostly the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bed Stuy and Bushwick. Anthony Butler runs the programs and says demand at the soup kitchen, which serves many homeless adults, increased 19 percent while demand at the food pantry increased 50 percent:

BUTLER: With the downturn in the economy that’s what hit the food pantry folks, because those were people formerly working or their social security isn’t going as far as it did.

I have been involved with various pantries over the years (both as a donor and a recipient), and food pantries are one of the blessings of living in this country. Americans are so generous; our country is very prosperous– so prosperous that we feed a good portion of the world from our abundance, as well as provide everything from freedom of speech to online life insurance in this nation! America is a blessed country and I am so grateful to be an American.

While I am not against state-run government help programs, I think the best kind of program is that which is run by churches and small groups. So I ask you to please consider those who have needs, especially at this time of the year. Please donate food or goods out of your abundance; or if you have abundant time or energy, donate your skills or visit a senior citizen’s home or something. And God bless you for it!

Looking For Thanksgiving Day Recipes

I can’t say I’ve been very active with my search for new Thanksgiving recipes. :-p It’s been CRAZY busy here, and I guess I’m not terribly motivated (yet). I know, once Wednesday rolls around, I’ll suddenly get inspired, ha! If any of you have some stupendous, amazing recipe to share, please let me know!!

I did see a new turkey stuffing recipe on The Road Goes Ever On blog that looked sooo good that it made my mouth water. (I’m going to really have to get some appetite suppressants for Thursday, or I will look like a blimp by Saturday, I tell ya). It’s from the Food Network and looks soooo good. I copied it. I just may do it this year, if I can find Rosemary sprigs!

Turkey with Herbes de Provence and Citrus
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentis
Food Network

1 14-15 pound turkey, neck and giblets reserved
1 orange cut into wedges
1 lemon cut into wedges
1 onion cut into wedges
6 fresh rosemary sprigs
6 fresh sage sprigs
6 fresh oregano sprigs
7 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 Tablespoons herbs de provence
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
6 cups canned chicken broth
1/3 cup all purpose flour

To make the turkey: Position the rack in the lowest third of the oven and preheat to 400* F

Rinse the turkey and pat it dry with paper towels. Place the turkey on a rack set inside a large roasting pan. Place the orange and lemon wedges, onion, and 2 sprigs of each fresh herb in the main turkey cavity. Tie the legs together to hold the shape of the turkey. Stir 2 tablespoons of butter, the herbes de Provence, oil, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of each the salt and pepper in a small saucepan over medium heat just until the butter melts. Rub the butter mixture all over the turkey and between the turkey breast meat and skin. Place the turkey neck and giblets in roasting pan. (Recipe can be prepared up to this point 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before roasting.)

Cover the turkey breast with foil. Roast for 20 minutes. Pour 3 cups of broth into the pan and stir to scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the remaining sprigs of fresh herbs to the pan. Roast the turkey for 40 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Remove the foil from the turkey; pour 1 more cup of broth into the pan. Continue roasting the turkey until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh registers 165 degrees F to 175 degrees F or until the juices run clear when the thickest part of the thigh is pierced with a skewer, basting occasionally with pan juices, about 1 hour and 30 minutes longer. Transfer the turkey to a platter and tent with foil. Let stand 30 minutes while preparing the gravy.

To make the gravy: Strain the turkey pan juices from the roasting pan through a sieve and into a 4-cup glass measuring cup; discard the solids. Spoon off the fat from atop the pan juices. Add enough chicken broth, about 1 to 2 cups, to the pan juices to measure 4 cups total. Melt the remaining butter in a heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the flour and whisk for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the broth. Simmer until the gravy thickens slightly, whisking often, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve the turkey with the gravy.

I’m looking for simple and easy vegetable dishes, which are always difficult to find. I don’t want to plunk a dish of canned corn or beets down this year… it would be lovely to have something a little fancy for the veggies, but I am at a loss right now. Please let me know if you have any ideas.

A Great Chicken Strips Recipe

I’m horribly inept with chicken. I can bake it (which no one likes but me), I can roast it (all like that), or make Chicken Florentine. Other than that, I have NO IDEA what to do with the meat! It’s kind of how I feel about plasma tvs — what on earth do you DO with it?? (I have no TV reception). Thing is, I dislike casseroles and soups, it’s such a dry meat so it’s hard to do just right… so I’m always starving for chicken recipes.

Here’s one I spotted at a fellow blog— ooooo this looks so good, so easy, and so unique! I love the Rice Krispies idea!!

Oven Baked Chicken Strips
You will need:

2 boneless chicken breasts
½ cup oats
½ cup rice krispies
½ cup bread crumbs
½ inch piece of fresh ginger
1 cup flour
3 eggs (beaten)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp paprika
olive oil

You can go to her blog for the cooking directions (I didn’t want to steal the *entire* recipe). If you like it, be sure to leave a comment at her blog. It looks so good, I hope to try it this week.

Four Foods For Friday 95

I was on time for the FFFF, honest! It’s just that when I checked Friday morning, it hadn’t been posted yet! So I was actually on time, but by not posting until now.. it’s.. not… on… time. Technically.

Whatever. OK, so here it finally is!! Here are the Qs for this weekend. That I, uh, missed.

Here’s this week’s questions. We’re in the middle of a Noreaster and I have hot comfort foods on my mind.

1. Chicken soup. Regular or creamy?
2. Do you have a stew recipe?
3. What’s your favorite hot comfort food?
4. Do you like chicken fried steak?

One quick question of my own– I think Val lives in nearby New Jersey, no? I’m in Central New York.. I didn’t get that Noreaster. I feel SO LEFT OUT! Waaah! lol… I like Noreasters (when they are snow, not rain– cuz it floods here). I like snowy days and snowy nights, when the entire area is heavily blanketed in a cold, white blanket. Everyone seems to slow down, and we all come out of our caves to shovel the snow in communal silence. It’s a lovely time, actually. It’s so quiet, because the snow muffles sounds… traffic slows, people bake breads and the air smells like woodstoves burning wood… it’s so cozy!

Well, winter’s snows are still a few weeks away, I think. And Val’s Noreaster was probably a ton of rain, which I am glad I missed. So without further ado, here’s the FFFF:

1. Chicken soup: rather not. I’m not much of a soup person. But if I HAD to have it, I’d prefer it regular, like broth. Ick, I hate creamy stuff.
2. Yes I do! I make it a few times a month around here. I have quite a few stew recipes up my sleeve, but here’s my basic stew recipe:

Wow Chow Basic Stew
Serves 6

3 pounds beef or pork, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 potatoes, washed and unpeeled, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 turnips, washed and peeled, cut into bite-sized pieces
2-3 carrots, washed and peeled, bite-sized pieces
1 can beef broth
1 teaspoon Worchestershire sauce
3 garlic cloves, chopped coarsely
1 Red or White onion, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 teaspoon basil and oregano each
salt to taste

Some folks dredge their meat– I do or don’t depending on if I have enough time or feel too lazy.

Dump everything into the crockpot. Set on LOW for 8-9 hours or HIGH for 6 hours.

My kids like tomato soup in the stew sometimes, so you can dump a can of tomato soup in there if you like. I like it without, so it really depends on who wins the battle, heh heh.

Also, some folks say lamb meat in the stew gives it a sweet, meaty taste. I’m not fond of lamb, but since I’ve only tried it once I guess I’d be willing to try…. it’s a slightly greasy meat, if I recall…. the last thing I want to eat is something that tastes like lamb motor grease, lol. But you can mix meat, like beef and pork, which I often do. It makes the stew a little less “basic” and more savory. I also tend to prefer my pork meta dredged; beef I can just throw in the pot.

3. Favorite hot comfort food… ummmm wow there are SO many. Coffee! Coffee is always a favorite. I just love turkey, yum. Meatballs are good, too. But if it was a horribly cold day and we were stuck inside, I’d probably make a roasted turkey or chicken meal.

4. Never had chicken fried steak. I’m not a fan of fried foods, so I don’t have any propensity to try it or even be curious about it.

So there’s my FFFF! Another one accomplished, yay! I’m looking forward to next week.

Next Page »