A Thanksgiving Recap

Well, the Junior Chef will probably kill me for this, but as her mom I can’t resist saying how extremely proud I am of the work Dana did to make our Thanksgiving Dinner special.  It was wonderful! Here’s a recap of her menu:

• Cranberry Glazed Turkey
• Boiled Beef Dinner (Get in There and Cook)
• Masked Baked Potatoes (Paula Deen)
• Sweet Potato Casserole
• Steamed Green Beans
• Cranberry Salad (Paula Deen)
• Rolls
• Pumpkin Pie
• Stuffing (the only thing I fixed…it was Stovetop!)
• Gravy (ok, I made the gravy, too)

 

 

Boiled Beef Dinner

This is the other dish that I made for Thanksgiving. My mom can’t have poultry, so every year we make her some kind of beef or something that she can eat, and can enjoy too. I started with a big slab of brisket. Raw of course. I boiled 2 cans of vegetable broth, and a little water. Then I put the meat in that, lowered the heat, and cooked it for 1 hour. I also put a bay leaf, and some nutmeg in too. Then I refrigerated everything over night, then cooked it in a pan the next day. It was very easy! And I was fun… just not hard at all. It didn’t even take long. The preparation I mean… the cooking took longer, but everything else was really quick! It was really yummy too!

Thanksgiving!

So, a few days ago was one of my favorite holidays! Thanksgiving. And I bet you can’t guess why!!! Well, it’s kind of obvious… you get to cook a lot. And I mean, a LOT!! This was actually my first year cooking EVERYTHING. But, it was really fun! I’ll tell you what I did.

First I made Mashed baked. Oh, well that’s in another post, so if you’re interested… you’ll find it in a past post.

Next was sweet potato casserole. I started by baking 2 and half pounds of sweet potatoes. I washed, poked, then put them on a pan and cooked them for 40 minutes. Then they were nice and soft, and easy to work with, and get out of the skin.  So, I scooped all the sweetness out from the skin, then sort of started mashing them, just a little to get it ready for mixing in other things. Then I added milk, eggs, and other things that sorry to say, I can’t remember. But I mashed the rest of the ingredients, and then it turned out to be really good. I cooked them the next day (on Thanksgiving).
Next was… oh lets see;  Pumpkin Pie. That was really really easy! I mixed one can of pumpkin puree, and one can of evaporated milk, and then one egg. Yeah, I decided to go easy this year with the pie. But it was still good.
All those things I did the day before thanksgiving… but then I, on the next day. The next day, I made a 17 pound turkey. Which, yes, I am very proud of!!! It was a Cranberry Glazed Turkey. And it was VERY good! I started by washing my turkey, and getting all the giblets and neck out. Then I rubbed it in butter (That’s for you Paula Deen!),  turkey rub, and salt and pepper. Then my mom cut up different kinds of potatoes, and carrots, and yummy vegetables. I put those in the bottom of the roasting pan, then stuck my turkey in the pan, and roasted it for 2 and a half hours. While that was going, I made the glaze. That was super easy too. I sautéed one onion for 5 minutes, then added one can of cranberry sauce. I melted all that, and it made a DELICIOUS sauce. The turkey was done with its first round of roasting. Then when it came out I put the glaze on it, and cooked it for 1 more hour. Then it was done! And really really good! It was perfect!!!

I cooked both kinds of potatoes, and made some green beans, and rolls, and dinner was finished! And delicious I might add! It was amazing! And it was really nice to be able to share it with my family. I made something out of Get in There and Cook for thanksgiving, so I will do its own little post for that. I hope everyone had a good thanksgiving! I know I did!

Corn and Cheese Pudding

A few days ago, I made a REALLY yummy pudding. It’s not the usual chocolate, or vanilla pudding, but it was a sweet, corn pudding! It was really good. And easy too. Here’s how it’s done. First I started with 3 corn cobs (fresh) and cut all the corn off of it, into a bowl. Then after that they were all cut off, I mixed those with 3 eggs, milk, chicken broth, a little salt, and pepper, some nutmeg, cayenne, and Monterey Jack Cheese! YUM! Then I put that in a 9 inch round pan, then cooked it for 45 minutes. Then it came out nice and hot and delicious! I fell in LOVE with it! It’s the most amazing pudding I’ve ever had. Better than Chocolate… well… never mind. Nothing is better than chocolate, so I take that back! It was great though! So, I think it’s about time for those who don’t have this cookbook to get it. It’s amazing! So BUY it!!!! Haha.. no you don’t have to if you don’t want too, but it’s really great!

Potatoes Boulangere

Tonight I made a REALLY good potato dish! Called well look at the top, you’ll find out there!

I started by caramelizing an onion. I cut it into slices, then put that, and a bay leaf in some hot oil. While that was going on, I sliced three cloves of garlic. Then when they were nice and sliced, they went in with the onions. Then that just sat and did its thing, while I started cutting some potatoes up. I had four russet potatoes that had to be sliced into circles. (I think it’s funny that everything in this recipe is SLICED!) Then everything was read for assembling. First I got a casserole dish, that I rubbed olive oil in, then added some of the potatoes, then some of the onion mixture (of course removing the bay leaf), then potatoes, then the rest of the onions. Then I put some chicken broth in, until it almost got to the top. Then I put it into a 425 degree oven. That cooked for 45 minutes, then was ready to be eaten up! And I have to say, those were some down-right good potatoes! Interesting too. I never cooked potatoes in chicken broth. But it gave it a good flavor. Definitely a keeper! Something quick and easy… I like it!!!!

Cold Sesame Salad

A few days ago, I made a really weird, but cool recipe out of “Get in There and Cook”.  I don’t know what kind of food it was. I’m guessing sort of Chinese-ish, but you never know. I started by cooking up some spaghetti noodles. While those were cooking, I mixed together the cold sauce I would be putting on my noodles. I started by mixing up some peanut butter (weird, I know… but it gave it a really good flavor), soy sauce, hot sauce (just a little), and some salt and pepper in a blender. I got that all blended together, and then set that aside to let it get to room temperature. All I had to do at that time, was wait for my noodles to be done. When they were finished, I drained them, then put them in some cold water to chill out.  Haha! Get it? “chill” out!!!! Anyway, so when they were done, I put them in the sauce and tossed them together, and it as all finished! YAY! But I do have to admit, it wasn’t the most pretty dish you’ve seen. But it was okay. The taste I mean. I didn’t LOVE it, but it was good. I haven’t had one dish in this cookbook that I don’t like. That’s how cool this cookbook is. I recommend it to anyone and everyone. It’s super good! I hope you enjoy the post! Not a long one, but sort and sweet!!!!

Chicken and Vegetable Curry

Tonight, well, was an interesting night. I made a really interesting, and challenging dish. There were lots of ingredients. Here’s the scoop!

So I started with 1 cup of chicken broth and half a cup of water (COLD WATER!!!!) and then I poached the chicken in that, until it was mostly cooked through, but I was going to be doing more cooking later on, so it didn’t have to be perfectly cooked. So while was happening, I chopped up tons of veggies. I sliced onion, chopped carrot, and sliced some red pepper. Then I sautéed those in a little dab of oil, until they were nice and soft. While I was cooking the veggies, I cooled the chicken in the broth, so it got nice and moist (don’t you hate it when the chicken is dry? Yuck!) . After that I switched it over to a plate. Then I added 1 tablespoon of curry into the veggies, and the poaching liquid. Then cooked that longer. After some of the liquid evaporated,   I pureed some of the veggie mixture. Only so I could thicken the mixture. Then that went back in, and cooked LONGER! At some point I added garlic, but I did so much, I can’t really remember EVER single thing that I did!!! So when that was pretty much done, I put the chicken back in the pot, and cooked it. I also made rice to go with the curry, just to give it more flavor, and made it more of an entrée! It was really good though. It had a weird color, but the second I tasted a piece of the chicken, I was in heaven. It’s filling though, so I made a pretty big plate, and didn’t even eat all of it! But it was good, and really fun to make. It just took a while.

I’m so sorry I haven’t posted things regularly. I’m a stressed a busy girl, and so is my mom, so we don’t have very often to make trips to the grocery store, so that explains that.  But since I don’t have much more time to finish this project, I’ll be doing more. But I do apologize. Anyway, enjoy the post!!!!!!!