Thanksgiving Test Recipe: Rosemary Dates Wrapped in Bacon

Published by mel on November 26, 2008 in recipe.

Thanksgiving Test Recipe: Rosemary Dates Wrapped in Bacon

I thought all of my Thanksgiving Test Recipes were done, but I got inspired to make these little hors’ d’oeuvres this morning and decided to share, in case anyone was still looking for some appetizer ideas. I still have the dates that Oh! Nuts sent me awhile back and everyone loves a bacon-wrapped date, and especially one that’s been stuffed with rosemary.

I tested a couple of these out while I was baking pies (many, many pies), and they were as delicious as I’d thought they’d be. They’re really easy to make - just stuff the dates with rosemary leaves, wrap in bacon and bake for a half hour. An easy hors’ d’oeuvre that’s still impressive and addictive.

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Cheesy Sausage, Broccoli & Brown Rice Casserole

Published by mel on November 24, 2008 in entree, recipe and sides & bites.

Cheesy Sausage, Broccoli & Brown Rice Casserole

Thanksgiving is just days away! I’ve tested everything and finalized the menu. I’ve also given myself a little bit of a break from the kitchen over the weekend. The most complicated thing I made was tomato soup (from a carton) and hot dogs loaded with kraut, grainy mustard and pickled jalapenos! Lame, I know.

This recipe is left over from last week and I never got around to posting it. It’s a simple weeknight meal you can prep in the morning or on the weekend and pop in the oven when you get home from work. It doesn’t sound like much, but the cheese bakes and browns and bubbles in the oven, taking this casserole from plain to super delicious.

More casserole fun tomorrow, then I’m kind of on a break for the rest of the week, pigging out and eating leftovers!

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Our Thanksgiving Menu & Two Pie Recipes

Published by mel on November 18, 2008 in dessert, entree, recipe and sides & bites.

Carrot Pumpkin Soup
Pie recipes are from last year and I can’t seem to find any photos…will update the post with pie pictures next week!

Thanksgiving is 10 days away. Menus are finalized, grocery shopping is in full force. Thanksgiving recipe testing is complete! And so, here’s the final menu and recipes for Pupmkin Mascarpone Pie with a Gingersnap Crust and a Crunchy Apple Pie.

Carrot Pupmkin Soup with Crushed Hazelnuts
…flavored with smoked paprika, shallots and sherry vinegar.

Bacon-Wrapped Turkey Roulade
…filled with caramelized onions and figs, goat cheese, toasted pecans and fresh cranberries. Wrapped in peppered bacon and basted in pear jam.

Corn-bread and Chorizo Stuffing from Gourmet
…Olive oil instead of vegetable oil, fresh tarragon instead of dried oregano, chicken stock instead of broth, and probably some dried fruit (apricots?) soaked in brandy.

Potato Gratin with Roasted Garlic and Manchego from Food & Wine
…Probably remove the rosemary (my mom’s not a fan) and replace half and half with whole milk. Maybe add some caramelized shallots too.

Roasted Butternut Squash stuffed with Wild Mushrooms, Leeks and Chestnuts
…Halved and roasted butternut squash, stuffed with wild mushroom and leeks, sauteed in butter and tossed with chestnuts. Sprinkled with panko breadcrumbs and baked until slightly browned.

Pumpkin Walnut bread, Banana Pecan bread, Lemon Poppy bread

Pumpkin Mascarpone Pie with Gingersnap Crust (Recipe below)

Crunchy Caramel Apple Pie (Recipe below)

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Mom’s Chicken Chorizo Spanish Empanada

Published by mel on November 17, 2008 in entree and recipe.

Mom's Chicken Chorizo Spanish Empanada

Aside from devouring my dinner last night, I really had nothing to do with this recipe. It’s my mom’s famous Spanish-style Empanada that she makes once a year for my dad’s birthday. He has proclaimed his undying love for Spanish-style Empanada and ordered it in every city in Spain when we were visiting. But I digress…

Unlike the more common South American and Latin American Empanadas, Spanish empanadas are baked like a chicken pot pie in a casserole dish and cut into squares for serving. Wikipedia says they’re usually filled with tuna, beef or chicken. My mom’s is made with chicken stewed with piquillo peppers, ham, onions, tomatoes, olives and chorizo. (Can you say yum?)

The thing that makes this Empanada different, is its slightly sweet crust. Instead of a simple tart or pastry shell, my mom makes a sweet, crumbly dough that contrasts nicely with the savory chicken filling. If you like a sweet/savory contrast, this dish is for you. Like a casserole, it’s a perfect make-ahead meal. Just pop it in the oven when your guests arrive and you’ve got an impressive, bubbling Empanada to warm you up on a cool evening.

I’m glad my mom finally wrote out the recipe for me. It’s one of those dishes that gets a rave review every time she makes it, and it’s time to share the love.

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Thanksgiving Test Recipe: Bacon-Wrapped Turkey Roulade

Published by mel on November 14, 2008 in entree.

Bacon-Wrapped Turkey Roulade

Some people might say there’s something missing at our Thanksgiving table. They might say that the conspicuous absence of a large, roasted bird means that it’s not Thanksgiving at all. But my family would disagree. I don’t remember the last time my mom roasted a whole turkey. They’re difficult to carve, easily dry out and everyone fights for the white meat. My mom tried a Turkey Roulade one year, and we haven’t looked back since.

Usually, we make a prosciutto and sage-stuffed turkey breast, wrapped in peppered bacon and basted with pear jam. It’s absolutely delicious. The bacon and jam keep the turkey nice and juicy, and the pepper is a perfect contrast to the sweet jam. My mom’s been doing this turkey for years, and we decided to change it up a little this year. We picked our filling ingredients and I volunteered to make a test turkey.

Instead of prosciutto and sage, I stuffed it with caramelized onions and figs, goat cheese, cranberries and chopped toasted pecans. I still wrapped it in bacon — how could I not wrap it in bacon? — but I did skip the pear jam and I couldn’t find peppered bacon.

The new filling was a definite success. It was rich, tart and sweet without being overpowering. I had skipped the pear jam because I thought the filling would be too sweet, but the sweetness actually mellowed out while the turkey roasted and the bacon didn’t caramelize as well as I’d hoped, so the pear jam will be back on Thanksgiving day. I also missed the spicy kick from the peppered bacon to counteract the rich filling, so I’ll redouble my efforts to find before the big day.

It’s not a traditional turkey, but it’s delicious, easy to slice, easy to serve. I already can’t wait to hit up the leftovers in my fridge!

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Thanksgiving Test Recipe: Carrot Pumpkin Soup

Published by mel on November 12, 2008 in entree, recipe and sides & bites.

Thanksgiving Test Recipe: Carrot Pumpkin Soup

Some people are born to bake. They know how to follow instructions, can measure quantities with surprising accuracy and are patient enough to do things like let dough rise or bring ingredients to room temperature. Others are a bit more implusive, too impatient to wait for their ingredients (but I want cookies now!), too rebellious to follow a recipe’s instructions, tweaking and changing things as they see fit. These people may turn out some good cookies and cakes, but they’ll never be bakers at heart.

I think I fall into the latter category, and so my attempts and cookies and muffins are never as successful as attempts at soups, mains and sides. Whenever I’m baking, I feel like I’m throwing everything into a bowl and crossing my fingers. I can’t taste and adjust, add a little more of some ingredient, try different accompaniments. I’m coming to terms with it. I’ll never be a baker at heart.

Tangent over, now back to regularly scheduled programming…Thanksgiving. I mentioned on Monday that I’m using this week to test out some new Thanksgiving recipes. The first was a rousing, raging success: Carrot Pumpkin Soup with crushed hazelnuts. (Thanks again to Oh! Nuts for those hazelnuts! They’re so very delicious!)

I had some ground rules for this soup recipe. Since it’s just me and my mom cooking for a large crowd, it had to be somewhat simple. No simmering for hours, straining, simmering or making a roux. There will be enough of that with all of the other Thanksgiving dishes. This soup is super simple — a quick saute of shallots, carrots and garlic, then add some canned (or pureed) pumpkin and stock and simmer for awhile. Run it through with an immersion blender, then stir in some cream, smoked paprika and sherry vinegar. Top it all off with a good drizzle of olive oil and some crushed hazelnut and you’ve got a bright orange, smoky sweet soup that’s perfect for a Thanksgiving first course.

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Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies

Published by mel on November 10, 2008 in dessert, recipe and sides & bites.

Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies

Lately, I’ve been in a bit of a cooking funk. I rushed home from work last Thursday, brimming with excitement to finally use the hazelnuts that Oh! Nuts sent me in some banana chocolate hazelnut muffins. Sadly, those didn’t turn out they way I’d hoped and were promptly infested by ants because I left them too loosely covered on the counter top. It’s a sad moment indeed when you have to throw out tons of fancy dark chocolate and hazelnuts. I almost cried. But instead, I pulled myself together and made cookies. Because nothing makes you feel better than warm cookies straight from the oven.

That is, until you realize that you left an entire stick of butter out of your recipe. Sigh. They were still delicious. I mean, how bad can chocolate and hazelnuts be? But they were a little too crumbly and lacked some of the dense, chocolate-y-ness I was looking for. Had I made them the right way, they would have tasted like chewy, fudgy Nutella. And so, I’m posting the recipe below (with the correct amount of butter) because I think everyone needs a little chocolate hazelnut cookie now and again.

The rest of this week, I’m going to be trying out some Thanksgiving recipes. Everything from turkey stuffed and wrapped in goodness, to an all-vegetable side that we’re hoping will balance out the Manchego potato gratin, cornbread and chorizo stuffing, banana bread, pumpkin bread, and everything else that comes with Turkey day. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping this goes a little better than my chocolate hazelnut experiments. Wish me luck!

Related: Chunky Oatmeal Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Butternut Squash Tortilla Soup

Published by mel on November 5, 2008 in entree, recipe and sides & bites.

It seems as though the Fall ingredients and soup trend continues over here. It’s not that I want to overload you with squashes and harvest fruit, it’s that I just can’t help myself. This tortilla soup has become an instant favorite at my house. It’s got sweet, roasted butternut squash and shredded chicken simmered in a chili powder-spiked broth with crumbled, salty blue corn tortilla chips. I’m such a sucker for anything sweet, spicy and salty.

The star here really is the roasted butternut squash. While I’m all for shortcuts, canned and frozen squash won’t give you the same roasted flavor as fresh. Now, I know a whole, fresh butternut squash is an intimidating thing. Unless you’ve got a hacksaw or cleaver in the house, splitting this thing open may be a bit more than you’re willing to take on. My suggestion? Ask the supermarket to halve it for you. Most markets will willing do it for no charge, then all you have to do is roast the halves on a cookie sheet with olive oil and salt. Once it’s done, simply scoop the roasted squash out with a spoon and use it anyway you’d like. (Can anyone say roasted butternut squash pizza?)

I like my butternut squash in all forms, but this tortilla soup might emerge as the favorite. Healthy, hearty and satisfying, it makes a perfect lunch or weeknight dinner. A great, seasonal twist on a classically delicious soup.

Related: Chorizo and Blue Corn Tortilla Soup

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Stout-Braised Sausages with Apples, Pears & Cranberries

Published by mel on November 3, 2008 in entree and recipe.

Stout-Braised Sausages with Apples, Pears & Cranberries

Beer is fun. And so it goes without saying that cooking with beer is also fun. Since the brew brings the flavor, you can lay off the spice drawer for a night. You can also experiment with different varieties based on season — a Corona and lime marinated skirt steak in the summer, Pumpkin ale and short ribs for Autumn (this recipe coming soon). And of course there’s the sampling while you cook…

Since it’s Fall, I went with a nice, coffee-flavored Stout, whose name I cannot recall at the moment, but you can substitute your favorite Mocha Porter (Rogue makes a good one), brown ale or a time-tested Guiness. The recipe starts with sauteed onions and browned sausages in a rather large pot. Add some sliced apples, pears, whole cranberries and a bottle of stout and pop it in the oven for an hour and a half and you’ve got a delicious Sunday supper.

Make sure you’ve got some crusty bread to mop up the beer-y juices, or serve with roasted or mashed potatoes. Either way, you’ve got a hearty, healthy and really tasty meal.

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Butternut Squash Farro w/Pancetta and Cardamom Pecans

Published by mel on October 30, 2008 in entree, recipe and sides & bites.

Butternut Squash Farro w/Pancetta and Cardamom Pecans

I think I may have a problem. I’m completely and totally obsessed with Fall ingredients. Pumpkin, squash, sage, pecans, cranberries, cinnamon, cardamom and anything “smoky”, but especially smoked paprika. There’s just something about smoked paprika that brings out the pumpkness of pumpkin and the squashiness of squash. But I digress…

I had planned on making a fall-flavored farro risotto, which I’ve made before and love, but it turns out I was too lazy to stand and stir for 30 minutes (I opted for sitting on the couch sipping coffee instead). And honestly, the stirring just wasn’t necessary this time since pureed butternut squash gives the farro that creamy risotto-like consistency. It also didn’t hurt that I toasted the farro in rendered pancetta fat. Everything’s better toasted in rendered pancetta fat. Everything.

So, I cooked up my toasted farro in some white wine and chicken stock, then stirred in the butternut squash, smoked paprika and red pepper flakes. This farro goodness is topped with cardamom honey toasted pecans, sage and crumbled pancetta for a deliciously warm, smoky sweet bowl of comfort food.

I’d like to promise you a break from all of this fall food, but I don’t see an end in sight as I’m also slightly obsessed with planning our Thanksgiving menu with my mom, and I’ve got all of these autumnal recipes to test out. So, bear with me while I cook every squash and cranberry in sight.

Related:
Cornmeal & Cayenne Shrimp w/Cheddar Farro Risotto
Causage & Chard with Farro Risotto
Farro Salad w/Bacon & Cauliflower
Butternut Squash Beef Stroganoff
Autumn Turkey Pumpkin Lasagna
Homemade Cranberry Spice Granola Bars

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