Thanksgiving Sliders

 

FriendsGiving and Halloween

We live on a four-house private lane so the odds of trick or treaters is virtually zero.  Instead, we drive a few miles down the road to our friend Uncle Lou’s.  He and his crew from the Norwaldo group set up a tent and chairs and a fire pit and have LOADS of candy for the neighborhood kids.  And, all the kids who come in from other neighborhoods.  

In the past we’ve done the trick or treat thing and then had a lovely Friendsgiving.  Well, that’s getting tougher and tougher for those of us still working.  Friendsgiving has been moved to a non-school night so Halloween is heavy appetizers. 

My mind immediately went to the yummy ham and cheese rolls using Kings Hawaiian rolls. But how could I turn them into a pre-Thanksgiving treat?  How about turkey, swiss and cranberry sauce? 

I’ve got to tell you these were a HIT!  Lou made chili.  Bill made one of his famous concoctions (bourbon and apple cider were the base,) Diane made chicken salad sliders, somebody brought some wonderful gruyere dip, Jillian bought cheesecakes at Costco and we had our sandwiches.  Despite the spitting snow we kept warm and well fed and enjoyed watching all the fun costumes.  Well, that and catching up!

Ingredients: 

Kings Hawaiian rolls – 24 pack is what we used

Deli sliced turkey breast – we used the majority of a 22 oz package

Jarlsberg or Swiss cheese – enough shredded on the large holes of a grater to cover well

14 oz can whole berry cranberry sauce

1 T Triple Sec or orange juice

Bell’s seasoning – I made my own

¼ c butter

 

Directions: 

Either buy Bell’s seasoning or make your own.  I found a great recipe from Mary’s Nest.  (https://marysnest.com/wprm_print/4855)  Connie is the one from Boston so he’s the expert on Bell’s seasoning since it’s not a Midwest kind of thing.  He took one sniff of the finished product and said OH YES!   Mary’s recipe called for putting this thru a coffee grinder.  I wanted a more “chunky” topping so chose to keep is as is.  

Melt the butter. 

In another saucepan, mix the whole cranberry sauce and the Triple Sec or the orange juice.  Let it simmer just a bit. 

Put the rolls on a piece of lightly oiled foil on a half sheet.  Cut them in half and put the tops to the side.  

Brush the bottoms of the rolls with the cranberry sauce.  Use all of it. 

Top the rolls with the sliced turkey.  Then, top that with the shredded cheese.  It’ll need to be pretty thickly covered.  What you see in the photo is about half the amount of cheese we used. 

Top the rolls with the tops and brush with butter.  

Top with sprinkles of Bell’s seasoning. 

Put another piece of foil on top and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turkey and Cherry Sandwich Minis

Every once in a while I read a recipe and just can't get it out of my mind until I make it.  These sandwiches were one of those recipes.  I bought the cookbook a couple of months ago.  One of those cookbooks that I got home and wondered what in the world I'd been thinking.  The Big Book of Easy Baking.  That sounds like something that someone who LIKES to bake would buy.  Except most of my friends who bake do so from scratch.  They use the real stuff.  You know, like yeast.  Me on the other hand, I use stuff someone else has baked!  Much to my delight, the cookbook has some great recipes.  Most use Pillsbury products.  I've used a lot of their crescent rolls in my life and really love the things.  I just couldn't shake this one recipe.

Saturday we worked all day.  Then, Connie dropped me off at the house to start cooking while he went shopping.  I got tapenade, dill dip, mustard dip, cranberry syrup, clam dip, chipped beef dip, roasted walnuts and a deviled cheese ball done.  You see, the Girls Night Out Holiday party is at our house on Monday.  While Connie plays bridge, I'll be hosting.  It's a pitch-in but I still wanted to make sure there's plenty of food available. 

Sunday, I worked on menus for when Connie's boys visit a bit later this month.  And, for Christmas Eve when we host my whole family.  And for Christmas evening when we're here by ourselves for a quiet evening.  And, for New Years Eve when we have our annual seafood fest.  There's a lot of cooking that's going to be going on!!!!

Sunday afternoon was our last home regular season Colts game.  Yes, we won.  Clinched the division title for the 9th time in 13 years.  And, probably watched Reggie Wayne play his last regular season game.  He's a class act.  I'm going to miss him. 

I was already feeling bummed when I got home to find out that yet another friend has died from melanoma.  Rip was a class ahead of me in high school.  His sister, Leesy, was behind me.  Our great-grandparents were friends.  A lot of tears and yet I had a lot of work to do to get ready for GNO.  Connie had run back to the store for a few things we used up or that the other store didn't have the evening before.  I'd had him buy cherry preserves for the day I wanted to make the sandwiches.  We didn't have the right bread but I didn't care.  They'd be perfect.  Easy.  Flavorful.  And, I had all of the ingredients.

What did we think?  FABULOUS!!!  We tried the blue cheese/bacon/mayo mixture on spinach leaves with and without a spot of the preserves.  Equally wonderful.  Connie'd bought four pepper roasted deli turkey.  I usually buy the honey smoked.  I think his choice was perfect for these.  I've already made more of the bacon/blue cheese/mayo mixture so we can have them again for lunch!

Turkey and Cherry Sandwich Minis

Ingredients:

16 small rolls or party rye
2 slices bacon, finely chopped (ok, I cheated and used six...)
3 T mayonnaise
1/4 c crumbled blue cheese
1/4 c cherry preserves
8 oz thinly sliced smoked turkey breast
4 large red lettuce leaves cut into quarters (I used spinach)

Directions:

Now, the real recipe calls for turning a can of Pillsbury refrigerated crusty French loaf into 16 buns.  Ummm, buying them is much easier.  So, I started with a loaf of party rye.  I needed one for the GNO party.  Connie bought three.  Let's use up the excess!  Brown and drain the bacon.  Mash the mayo and blue cheese together.  Stir in the bacon.  Assemble the sandwiches by spreading some of the mayo/blue cheese mixture on one of the buns. 

Spread some of the cherry preserves on the other.  Layer on turkey and greens.

Enjoy! 

Curried Turkey Salad

There's bee a lot going on around our house.  Much of the chaos is due to one Wee Mac Connelly.  Much to Connie's chagrin he joined our family in August of this year.  He was a stray at the office and made it clear he'd like to go home with us when he beat me to the car!  Now, Wee Mac is in the process of learning good cat manners.  We have a bottle of NO water in about every room.  It's just a spray bottle full of regular tap water.  But a good squirt or two and a loud NO work wonders.  He's managed to learn that kittens do not come in the dining room while their humans are eating.  The one exception was the time he was lolling in the sunshine at the far end of the dining room.  He announced himself when we came in the room.  The meow was translated as, "Please don't make me move, this sunshine feels so good."  We let him stay and enjoy.  Then, there's the Mom, cat, bed game.  Who gets to sleep where?  George prefers my pillow.  Oh, I get a little bit of it but he gets the majority.  Gracie likes my feet.  And, Wee Mac loves the crook of my knees.  Makes turning over very interesting!  A couple of days ago he had his first experience with the oil from a can of tuna.  My but that was a wonderful cat treat!

George is pushing 18.  He's had kidney disease for eight years now.  And, for eight years I've made him his own food.  Here's a link to the recipe:  George food.  Over the years George has had his blood tested every year.  It's not fun and I don't blame him for yowling a bit.  This year, I took the old guy in for his checkup and found that he'd GAINED 1/10th of a pound.  Amazing.  Doc about danced.  I did too.  George just wanted to get in his carrier and go HOME.  He probably never noticed that Doc didn't check his blood.  I was glad that he didn't have to get stabbed once again.  But, first we had to check out. He was not amused when Trixie came up to say hi.

Ah, the life of a cat around our house!  Pretty cushy job, eh?

Well, now, on to cooking for a minute.  I know you'll be shocked to hear that we had leftover turkey.  I turned it into Curried Turkey Salad.   And, no, I didn't measure.  I was just happy to throw together something good that used up the turkey. 

Curried Turkey Salad

Ingredients:

turkey
apple
celery
toasted pecans
craisins
mayo
curry
lemon juice
mustard

Directions:

Mix the mayonnaise, curry powder, lemon juice and mustard to make the dressing.  Toss it with the rest of the ingredients.  I topped it with the toasted pecans so they'd not get soggy in the leftovers.

 

Turkey Time

Connie and I are absolutely in the minority on Black Friday.  We don't even attempt to go to the grocery store.  Neither of us has the shopping gene.  And, we particularly don't have the crowded shopping gene.  My favorite trips to the store involve a list and a plan and a no lines.  Well, unless there's a rack of cookbooks.  Then, you'll find me browsing.  But, you knew that :-)

On Thanksgiving, we were lucky to be able to go to my brother and sister-in-laws.  Talk about extended family.  My niece and nephew, my mom, my sister-in-law's sister and folks.  My niece's husband and stepdaughter and his grandparents. Plus, my sister-in-law's cousin and his wife and their daughter and her mom and brother.  Nineteen of us total.  We are indeed thankful to be part of such a wonderful family! 

While the turkeys were on sale, I bought one so we'd have leftovers.  The day after Thanksgiving is when we roast our own turkey.  Last year, I pretty much followed Alton Brown's recipe.  This year I combined his, what a friend told me about Pam Anderson's, my brother's and my own.  Actually, my intent wasn't to even blog about the turkey since I'd blogged about Alton's recipe last year.  But, this turkey was the best yet so more than anything I want to get the instructions written down before I forget a bit of them. 

Kate's Turkey with Thanks to Alton et al

Ingredients:

for the brine:
1 gallon vegetable stock (we just add Penzey's stock base to the other ingredients when we heat them)
1 c kosher salt
1/2 c packed brown sugar
1 T black peppercorns
1 T allspice berries
1 T candied ginger
1 lemon, thinly sliced


for the aromatics and base:
1 red apple, quartered
1 onion, quartered
2 large sprigs rosemary
2 large sprigs sage
8 ribs celery
8 whole carrots

for the baste:
16 oz can jellied cranberry sauce
4 oz can orange juice concentrate
1 c red wine
1 stick butter

Directions:

The night before you're going to roast the turkey, it's time to brine it.  Put the brine ingredients in a medium saucepan.  Cover with water. 

Simmer until the salt has pretty much dissolved.  I've found it never dissolves totally.  Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.  Add the brine ingredients to a large stockpot and fill it halfway with water.  Add the thawed turkey breast side down then add water to assure the turkey is fully submerged. 

Allow the turkey to soak in the brine for 8-16 hours.

Preheat your oven to 500.  Prepare the roasting pan.  Lay the carrots and celery in the bottom of the pan - two ribs of celery then two carrots... 

Remove the turkey from the brine and rinse it well with cool water.  Place the turkey breast side down on the carrots and celery.  Stuff the onion, apple, sage and rosemary in the cavity.  Rub the turkey with butter or canola oil.  Place the roasting pan in the oven.  Roast the turkey for 30 minutes then reduce the heat to 350.  If the skin gets too dark, you can cover it with foil.  Roast another two hours breast side down. 

When you put the turkey in the oven, start your basting sauce.  Put all of the ingredients in a heavy saucepan and stir to combine as the butter and cranberry sauce melt.  Baste the turkey once or twice while it's cooking skin-side down.

After two and a half hours, flip the turkey breast side up.  (nb:  we've found a pair of oven mitts works wonderfully for this.)  Baste it well.  Roast for another hour and a half to two hours, basting regularly.  Again, if the skin gets too dark, you can tent it with foil.

Alton's recipe calls for removing the turkey from the oven when it reaches 161 degrees.  Mine hit 175 at four hours - which is when I checked it... 

Allow the turkey to rest for 15-20 minutes while you make the gravy.  Use some of the drippings with the fat to start the gravy the skim the fat from more drippings to add to the gravy.  I also add about 1/2- 1 cup of water. 

We found that the carrots used as a base and the onions stuffed in the turkey made for some fantastic eating.  We didn't try the apple or celery. 

 adapted from Alton Brown, Pam Anderson and John Marvel

Sundried Tomato and Feta Turkey Meatloaf

One of the disadvantages of shopping at Sam's Club is the massive quantities of food you get.  Take the ground turkey, for example.  Two containers with over two pounds of turkey in each.  You're pretty much committed to eating ground turkey for the week.  Or freezing some of the turkey.  Now, if I can figure out dishes that are different enough, I'm happy to eat the same protein several times during a week.  Such was the case with the ground turkey.  The first dish we made was turkey pie.  That was scrumptious.  Second was the turkey burgers with brie, bacon and cranberry compote.  This was the third dish.  Now, what you need to realize is that we eat leftovers for lunch.  I almost always make enough for at least one lunch in addition to our dinner.  So, we had a LOT of ground turkey from that one package. 


This particular recipe was courtesy of Gina the Tooth.  Never heard of her?  It's Giada De Laurentis.  Connie thinks she is GORGEOUS - which she is - but he still calls her Gina the Tooth.  Whatever we call her, she's an incredibly talented cook.  I've never tried one of her recipes that was anything other than wonderful - at least that's my recollection.  I do try my best to block out the bad stuff! 


What did we think?  Very flavorful and moist and wonderful.  It was wonderful the first night and made great meatloaf sandwiches for lunch.  This recipe is a keeper!!


Sun-dried Tomato and Feta Turkey Meatloaf


Ingredients:

1/2 c plain bread crumbs
1/3 c chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1/4 c chopped oil packed sun dried tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 T milk
1/2 c crumbled feta cheese
1 1/2 t kosher salt
1 t freshly ground black pepper
1 lb ground turkey

Directions:

While you're putting the meat loaf together, preheat your oven to 375.  You'll want to use the middle rack for cooking.

Use a large bowl to combine the ingredients other than the turkey.

Gently fold in the turkey.  Make sure you combine the ingredients well but don't overwork the mixture.  Put it in a 9x5 loaf pan, coated with cooking spray.  Bake for 45 minutes or until the internal temperature measures 165.

Adapted from Food Network, Giada De Laurentiis

Turkey Tetrazzini

Yes, we have the mushroom lovers and the mushroom haters in our family.  You probably do too.  For some reason mushrooms elicit some pretty strong reactions from both sides.  Seems like folks tend to love them or hate them.  Very little middle ground.  The haters can scope out one of those little, teeny, tiny flecks of mushroom in Campbell's cream of mushroom soup.  ZAP!  It's banished to the edge of the plate.  My brother, John, is married to a mushroom hater.  He, however is a mushroom lover.  So, whenever he can, he gets a mushroom fix.  I helped him on Christmas.  You see, the family meal after the stockings and brunch and presents and naps is turkey tetrazzini.  He always has to make it with a cream sauce, turkey and spaghetti.  Even though John could probably make poop taste good, turkey tetrazzini without mushrooms is kinda boring in my book.  So, I volunteered to bring a pan of tetrazzini - the real deal with lots of mushrooms and some other goodies.  John made a pan of his.  About half the crew ate his and half ate mine.  It was fun to see a couple of mushroom deprived folks - John included - who thoroughly enjoyed having the kicked up version.  LOL - so as I was typing that last sentence I missed the k on kicked and ended up with icked - exactly what the other half probably thought of my tetrazzini!

I pulled out about a dozen recipes for our leftover turkey.   Guess what?  Connie asked for more tetrazzini.  Last night while I was fixing our Eggnog Monte Cristos for dinner and our Meridian Hills Special Salad for today's lunch, I fixed the sauce for tonight's tetrazzini.  Good thing too since we'll be lucky to get home from the office by 8:00.  How true.  The tetrazzini's in the oven as I type this at 8:43 pm...  Here's how we make it:

Turkey Tetrazzini

Ingredients:
1/2pound spaghetti, cooked until al dente and drained
2 c cooked and cubed turkey
1 4 oz jar pimento
1/2 c chopped black olives (ripe olives to some of you)
16 oz sliced baby bellas
1/4 c dry sherry
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c grated parmesan or romano cheese

Saute the mushrooms in a small amount of olive oil. 

When they're nice and brown, pour in the sherry.  Then, add the mushroom soup, black olives and pimento. 

If we're doing this just for us, we use the lowfat mushroom soup. If it's for company, it's the full fat version.  Mix the sauce and turkey. 

Put the cooked spaghetti in an oven proof baking dish,

MIx in the turkey and sauce mixture, then top with the grated cheese

and bake at 400 for about 20-30 minutes or until it's bubbling.

Brined Turkey Breast

Since my sister-in-law's family and mine joined forces for the holidays, we've had turkey sandwiches for Christmas Eve.  This year, I changed it up and had turkey manhattans as an option.  The non-baker actually made a couple of loaves of buttermilk bread for the base of the manhattans.  You'll get to read about the bread later.  It was fantastic!!  The mashed potatoes were simply russets - cut up and cooked then smashed with low-fat Philly and a bit of 2% milk. Because the peels have so much good stuff in them, I didn't even peel the potatoes.  The gravy, well, I totally cheated and bought some of the jars at the grocery.  The turkey, though, was a production.  And, what a successful production.

Last time I made a whole turkey and combined two recipes for the brine.  This time, I used Alton Brown's brine recipe (one of the two I used on Thanksgiving) but I totally made up my rubs.  This is the most moist turkey I've ever had.  I'd planned on slicing it then putting it into some broth to warm it up for the turkey manhattans.  It didn't need broth at all.  We actually cooked the turkey breasts on Thursday the 23rd.  Sunday the 26th we were still eating leftovers and the meat was still moist as all get out.  We're looking forward to a couple more days of leftovers!

Brined Turkey Breast

Ingredients:
For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 c dark brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 T black peppercorns
1 1/2 t allspice berries
1 1/2 t candied ginger

For the under skin paste:
1 large onion, sliced
2 t rosemary
1/2 c apple cider
1/2 c white wine

For the on the skin rub:
1/2 c olive oil
1 t crushed rosemary
2 T dark brown sugar
1 T finely chopped garlic

Directions:
To make the brine:
Because I brined the turkey at the office, I did it a bit differently.  I put a couple of cups of water in a saucepan, then added the other ingredients - including a couple of large dollops of vegetable base.  Once the salt and vegetable base had dissolved, I poured everything into a thermos and took the brine base, turkey breasts and big stockpot into the office.  Once there, I unwrapped the thawed turkeys (they take 2-3 days to thaw in the fridge) and rinsed them then plopped them into the stockpot.  I poured the brine base over them then filled the stockpot with cold water to cover.  I left the turkeys in the brine for almost 12 hours.  Then, I took them home and finished up.  I did not rinse them after pouring the brine off.

To make the under the skin paste:
Slice the onion and saute it until very soft in a small amount of olive oil.  Once it's started to soften, pour in the cider and the white wine.  Add the rosemary. 

When the liquid has almost totally evaporated, add the garlic.  When all you have is a bit of syrup, remove the pan from the heat. 

Allow the mixture to cool a bit then puree it in the blender or food processor. 

Rub it under the skin. 

It'll be lumpy as all get out.  That's ok!

To make the on the skin rub:
Mix all the ingredients

and rub thoroughly into the turkey skin. 

Put the turkey back in the stockpot and refrigerate it overnight.

To roast the turkey:
Preheat the oven to 500.  Remember it's easier to rearrange the racks while they're cool...the voice of experience speaking here!  Put the turkey on a roasting rack and roast it for 30 minutes at 500.  Then, if you have one, put a remote thermometer in the thickest part of the breast, tent the turkey with foil and put it back in the oven at 350.  For a 14-16 lb bird it should require another 90-120 minutes.  Once the turkey reaches 161, remove it from the oven and tent it with foil.  Allow it to rest for 30 minutes.  Before carving, remove the skin and toss it.   

adapted from Alton Brown's turkey recipe on FoodTV.

Turkey, Brined and Roasted

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!  I'm so thankful for all of my blessings.  The love of my life, Connie.  I'm so lucky to have met him.  An incredible family.  I only wish we could see everyone today.  Friends.  Amazing friends.  A career I love.  The best clients ever.  Living in this wonderful country and in a city where there is so much to do and the quality of life is great.  My furry critters.  Cooking and all the wonderful friends I've met through blogging. 

Raise your hand if your favorite part of Thanksgiving eats is the leftovers.  That's what I thought.  There are a lot of us out there.  Those who aren't going to be eating Thanksgiving dinner at our own homes but cook a turkey anyway.  For the leftovers.  Yes, for those scrumptious sandwiches with turkey, jellied cranberry sauce, mayo and lettuce.  For turkey tettrazini overflowing with mushrooms and pimento in a savory sherry cream sauce.  Yes, for leftovers. 

Somehow, I couldn't just cook a turkey and turn it into leftovers.  We had to have our own Thanksgiving dinner - albeit a bit early.  Connie remembered boiled turnips from his kidhood.  He's from 100% Irish stock and assures me that boiled vegetables were the norm for most of his grandparents.  I asked if he'd be ok with root vegetables roasted instead of boiled.  Sure, he said.  So, I tossed a rutabaga, a couple of parsnips, a turnip and a handful of baby carrots with some olive oil, cranberry vinegar and shagbark hickory syrup and roasted them at 500 for 20 minutes.  They were yummy!

And, since Connie's not particularly fond of cornbread, I made dressing with enriched white bread, celery, onion, butter, sage, rosemary, thyme and lots of parsley.  Mom'll bring her dressing to my brother John's today and I'll be a happy camper. 

Last but not least, I made his favorite cranberry compote.  You'll have to wait til tomorrow for that recipe :-)

Back to the star of the show.  If your goal is leftovers, you want the turkey to be extra juicy.  It's usually nice and juicy when you carve the bird.  But, for leftovers it's mucho critical.  Therefore, I tried brining the bird.  I clipped Alton Brown's recipe from the Food Network Magazine and another recipe from the Indianapolis Star.  Then, yup, I did it my way.

Food Network says that Alton Brown's recipe has been their most popular Thanksgiving recipe on the website for the past six years and has gotten more comments than any other recipe.  I can see why.  If you want to go see Alton's original recipe, it's on the Food Network site.  If you want to see the original recipe from the Indianapolis Star, hopefully they'll have it posted soon.  I tried to find the link but it's not there yet.  Or, I can scan the recipe in and e it to you if you'd like. 

Here's how I combined the two:

Brined Turkey

Ingredients:
1 12-14 pound frozen turkey

for the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
8 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 c packed dark brown sugar
1 T black peppercorns
1 T allspice berries
1 T chopped candied ginger
1 lemon, thinly sliced
cold water to cover

for the aromatics:
1 red apple, quartered
1 onion, quartered
1 cinnamon stick
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage

to coat the turkey:
canola oil

to baste the turkey:
1/2 c butter
1 c red wine
1 can jellied cranberry sauce
1 small frozen orange juice concentrate

Directions:
Thaw the turkey in the refrigerator for 2-3 days prior to brining it. You need to make the brine a day before you're going to use it. 

To make the brine, combine everything but the water in a large saucepan.  (Nota bene:  I was at the office and only had a microwave oven.)

Pour in water to cover plus a little and bring to a boil.  Stir well.  You want the salt to dissolve totally.  Refrigerate the slurry until you're ready to use it.  A day before you're going to roast the turkey, take it out of it's packaging and remove the giblets.  Rinse the turkey well - inside and out.  Put it in a large stockpot.  Add the brine slurry

then add cold water to cover.  Refrigerate overnight. 

To roast the turkey, you start by preheating the oven to 500.  Remove the turkey from the brine and rinse it well - again inside and out.  Place the turkey on a roasting rack inside a pan.  Steep the apple,onion and cinnamon stick by adding them to a cup of water and microwaving on high for five minutes.  Add them to the cavity with the sage and rosemary.  Tuck the wings under the turkey.  Coat the turkey with canola oil.  Roast the turkey on your lowest shelf setting for 30 minutes.  If you have a probe thermometer, insert it into the thickest part of the breast.  Reduce the heat to 350 and bake until the internal temperature reaches 161.  When I reduce the heat, I start basting.  To make the basting sauce melt the butter and the jellied cranberry sauce.  Add the wine and orange juice concentrate.  This baste makes a very rich gravy.  It doesn't taste anything like your normal turkey gravy.

Here's Connie carving the bird:

With a quick funny story about the compost bowl that on the counter next to the turkey.  During youngest stepson Matt's first visit to our home, he was asked to empty the compost bowl into the compost bin in the back yard.  He breezed back into the house tossing the bowl up and down.  I enlightened him to the fact that the bowl is an antique.  It was my grandmother's.  He says, "You put trash in an antique?"  I said, "It's out on my counter and I want the trash bowl to look as little like trash as possible."

Last but not least, here's our dinner: