What Ya' Got Cookin' Thanksgiving 2015 edition

missingrosiw- many of us will wave hello as you cruise on by!' OOh Radar Love just came on the radio, what a great driving (speeding- oops) song.

I hate food waste also. And don't believe in 'force feeding' either. When the kids were little, we were happy when we developed a sense for how to order and share and not waste pounds of fries.

good day for making turkey soup

My mom took the turkey bones home with her after Thanksgiving and Dad brought back a container of soup she had made with it yesterday. I put it in the freezer to save for a day when I really need some comfort food, anticipating eating it on a cold snowy snowed in stay home kind of day.

I read to make a great soup..take those bones and brown well in oven.

I have not done that ( my soup comes out pretty good if I do say so myself ) but I am always up for trying something new.




This message was edited Nov 29, 2015 2:55 PM

BTW, I skipped brining and just salted/seasoned my 20 pounder. Started breast side down, and was able to flip after one hour. Turned out really good all around.

I used one of those Reynolds turkey roasting bags this year - kept it really moist.

My son in law has these 'claws' that he uses to pull pork....he used them to flip that turkey...

I am going to get me a pair.

I did not know the cooking bags came that big. Does the bag allow for crispy skin?

Yes, the skin was crispy. I rubbed the turkey with cooking oil and then seasoned with salt, pepper, rosemary, and thyme before putting in the bag. Cut a few 1/2" slits in the bag to allow some steam to escape, and over all was really happy with the way it turned out.

I'm glad everyone had a good thanksgiving with plenty of family and good food. I had dinner at my daughter's in-laws house. I made a chocolate Guinness cake and a Kailua apple pie to take. The cake was really good and the pie turned out well too. Made too much filling for the pie, need some vanilla ice cream now.

Glad you had a lovely dinner, Catbird. It's a shame when there are extra desserts to finish, eh? Both of yours sound divine.

Rosie, I'm glad stuffing under the skin of the breast and roasting the turkey on its side worked out well for you!

I saw those "bear claws" in a catalog recently (Lee Valley, I think) and thought they would work to flip turkey, but I'm going to try Ric's method with the silicone sling on the next one I do... Ric, the ones I ordered came without the bonus thermometers; I need to take that up with Amazon.

We got back late last night from Pittsburgh, and I'm down with a bug, between that and the traffic not a pleasant trip back, but I'm sure today was much worse. Good to be home!

That veggie tray is a stitch! Joyanna says we are DEFINITELY doing that next year. Love the pumpkin-shaped deviled eggs, too!

I make turkey stock in the oven now, a trick my brother taught me. Browning the bones first (just pile them in the roaster, along with any skin or other odd bits, put into the oven, and turn heat to 400') adds both flavor and color, although the turkey we did here before we left had so much well-browned skin that I didn't bother.

Add enough water to cover, toss in a couple quartered onions, carrot chunks, leftover thanksgiving veggies... splash of vinegar or a glass of wine... and "simmer" in the oven at 350 for a few hours. I like to cook stock extra-long to get the goodness out of the bones, which I usually crack with sturdy kitchen shears after they've softened a bit.

Agree about finding a happy medium between wasting food and forcing kids at home -- I give Joyanna a really small serving of anything she isn't sure about and expect her to try it, although I don't insist she eat every scrap - then she can either ask for more or not. Also agree people should at least try to avoid waste at buffets. We're less likely to leave food on our plates at a buffet than ordering off a menu, 'cause you can take only what you want at a buffet. I saw a sign at a BBQ buffet last summer that said people seen leaving excessive heaps of uneaten food at their table would be charged. Not a bad idea, although sad to think that's the only way to curb that type of behavior.

Jill, our lifter came without the thermometer too. Apparently this was common, trying to get them to send a new unit (even though it's a stock item) was a bust. They promptly made a refund, but I still wanted it. I selected order another and the price jumped to something like $26. Grrrrr.
In the meantime I'm still eating turkey and pie. I just love cold turkey sandwiches, for a week or so. I had made 3 pies, but Holly fed everyone so much they never got touched. I sent 1 and 1/2 home to Jamie's and cut the others in 6 pieces each leaving only 9 pieces to eat. I didn't like the idea of eating 12 pieces of pie.LOL

So much of Thanksgiving dinner is so super as left overs. Love pumpkin pie for breakfast and cranberry relish on sandwiches. Dressing gets better as flavors meld and that big pot of soup is excellent as the weather gets colder. We just added the leftover left over mashed potatoes as they just thicken it up a bit.

I am a fan of the Brown in Bag for most meat roasting. They come in a Turkey size. My 'seasoning' is a packet of Lipton Onion Soup mix. Only mishap I ever had was when the bag ballooned up so much that it touched the upper element in my oven. Now I always pull it tight and use only one rack in the lower position.

Belated Happy Thanksgiving to all!

And Happy Birthday to you sweet Jan!

Looking for some ideas for using Baby Bok Choy....??

Thx for letting me know they're at least willing to refund, Ric. Takes the sting out. :-)

I have half a batch of dough in the fridge from "cocoa snowflake" cookies; I think we'll roll, sugar, and bake them off this afternoon. Great Penzey's recipe; we won a 2nd place ribbon at the fair with them a few years back. The original recipe makes just 1 sheet of cookies, not nearly enough LOL, so I usually triple it.

I harvested my meager crop of chigga beets. For some reason I had a very poor germination from new seed. :-{ The skins were so rough so I had to peel them, not recommended for beets, I cut them in 1/2" chunks and am now cooking them. They smell great and as soon as they get tender, I'll taste them. I usually don't cook thoroughly if I want to can them.
I added what I usually do: 1c of sugar, 1c of vinegar, a Tbs Penzey's pickling spice, and enough water to cover. I really want some pickled eggs.

coleup- I've only cooked baby bok choy once or twice. I'd suggest sautee/steaming it just til tender, with garlic and salt. DS liked it better with the stems left al dente or crisp tender whichever you want to call it The stems can get very soft when fully cooked. ( In my limited experience)
Lots of mustard greens and of some sort of brassica greens out there. I just need some daylight time to cut them.

Never thought to thicken soup with mashed potatoes. What a great idea.

Hm. I just watched a video making potato soup from mashed potatoes.
saute a good amount of onion, add the potatoes, (one large onion to 6 cups potato), thin with broth, finish with some milk or cream, season....I don't see why not.

My quick version of grandma's green bean soup involves instant potato flakes... nobody has ever complained. :-)

I made it a couple of times this fall and *really* cheated, using the prepped green beans in the product department... sure tasted good!

I have made potato soup with onions and mushrooms.
A dollop sour cream served in the piping hot bowl is perfect ending.

sounds really good, missingrosie!
we had pizza and salad. I'm kind of burned out on pizza, but one slice does taste good. And hardly any cleanup or prep.

I went out in the dark after dinner to cut mustard greens. I didn't want them to get tough. Big pot of greens cooking now. Kale is looking good though I am still finding green caterpillars!

Sally--

Flavor-wise-how would you compare kale, Collards, Mustard greens etc.
Are there any more "greens"?

So far--I have just eaten kale. G.

Oh boy! There are lots of other "greens" such as beet, spinach, Swiss chard, and links to a "bunch" more:

http://www.territorialseed.com/category/gourmet_greens_seed

http://www.territorialseed.com/category/gourmet_greens_seed/2

http://www.territorialseed.com/category/gourmet_greens_seed/3

http://www.territorialseed.com/category/gourmet_greens_seed/4

http://www.territorialseed.com/category/mustard_seed

http://www.territorialseed.com/category/pac_choi_seed

and there are many more. I have grown and eaten a type of chrysanthemum, and lettuce can be used as a cooked green, good with cooked grains, a bit of bacon grease and a touch of vinegar.

The flavor varies. You'd just have to cook the same way as other greens and try them. I've been using some fat for flavor, and some garlic. I know these are loaded with antioxidants, as they are organic, fresh, and have dark green and purple pigments.
I love swiss chard and beet greens but can't seem to grow them here.

I love beet greens.
One of the reasons I love the weekend farmers markets

I don't know about nighttime harvesting......snakes.......mate and are edgy night creepers

Hey Sally, remember my TMI chard. I think it was 3' tall by frost. I just threw my beet greens away in the compost. I've never tried them. I'll have to see if I can salvage a couple tomorrow to try them. Is David's way best? With bacon drippin's and vinegar. I think I like chard raw as well as cooked. I've even tried the leaf stem like celery with peanut butter. Not bad at all.

Ric, I've only used the bacon dripping and vinegar with lettuce, but suppose it would work with other greens. If you like cooked greens, don't throw away your beet greens. Excellent with a bit of butter. One of our favorites.

I love swiss chard sauteed with mushrooms and butter. It's also great in soups.

One of my favorite snacks is kale chips. Yum!

RIc, your giant chard blew me away!

ssg do you make kale chips? I haven't tried it yet.

I haave tasted beet greens (someone at work had made them) and they
were delicious! I LOVE beets anyway--especially pickled beets.

I also love the taste of Arugula in salads--but i am not a big salad maker....
It has a nick "kick". They don't last long in the fridge, though.

If you have ever bought that "cube" of living Artisan Salad--there are 4 varieties in there.
Because their bottoms are still attached--it even grows more while in there.

AND--These "cubes" would make perfect seed starting containers--as do
many berry and produce containers. Especially the high ones--like 2lbs of grapes come in.
Venting on top and bottom....

http://www.theproducemom.com/2014/01/21/do-you-know-your-artisan-lettuce/

G.

I like those cubes of artisan lettuce... if I'm making salad for more than myself, I'll add a head of romaine to the greens in the cube. Costco/Sam's has 6-packs of artisan lettuce. It's a good keeper, as Gita said, and if it starts to get a bit wilted at the tips just take a thin slice off the bottom of the heads and put 1/4 inch of water in the bottom of the cube.

Ric
Saute those beet greens fast with a little garlic and a little oil...I use an alderwood salt but plain old salt works great too.

Or cook 'em slow with a chunk of ham or a little bacon grease. Definitely get them off your compost pile and have them for dinner tonight!! Beet greens are my favorite southern-style green, although I love mustard & collard greens too... Beet greens are a good choice for introducing somebody to southern-style cooked greens... the stems especially have a tender sweetness when cooked, so be sure to chop up the whole leaf, even the "tough" stem!

I use bouillon pastes that come in a jar (the better quality ones have the meat as the first ingredient, salt as the second, rather than the other way around)... chicken, beef, and there's also a smoky ham one that is really wonderful with greens or in bean soups. I pretty much stopped fussing with leftover ham bones once I discovered it.

Might try that smoky ham paste with pea soup.

yep, it makes great pea soup! I like to make southern-style lima beans (the big dried butter beans) and add some split peas to them... the peas break down, while the limas stay whole.

I'm hard boiling my eggs now to make "cackle berries", pickled red beet eggs. The beets themselves came out sooooo sweet and tender, I had trouble staying out of them. I'm hoping that they are well received, since the juice is not as dark as regular beets like Detroit Reds. I will definitely grow them again, but buy my seed elsewhere. These Chigga beets are so sweet I will trying reducing the sugar in the pickle mixture. I'm going out to scrounge some greens if I can, I'll report on those later, I hope.
I just ordered pizza for this afternoon, I guess Holly's tired of turkey and stuffing since she ran out of stuffing and cranberry sauce. She finally got some of her aunt's from her grandmother's cranberry salad recipe. LOL

This message was edited Dec 2, 2015 2:57 PM

I had a (for me) culinary triumph this evening... me, the cook who cannot flip pancakes without disaster, the breakfast chef who gave up on omelets long ago (going straight to a dish I call "scrambled omelet"), I successfully flipped two large cheese & chicken filled quesadillas!! I'll be trying those again. :-)

The chicken was already done, so assembly was easy... I had a pack of chicken breasts I'd bought before Thanksgiving and neglected, so suddenly they needed fuss-free cooking. I mixed some ranch dressing mix with yogurt, slathered them with it, and baked them in the oven. They turned out nice & moist, and what I didn't eat for lunch I froze. I pulled them out yesterday and put them in the fridge... this afternoon I looked at them and thought "tex mex!" and the rest is quesadilla making history LOL.

I threw a little diced red bell pepper, onion, and garlic into the pan -- all dried, actually, since bell peppers were way too $$ at the store this week... the diced dried stuff from Penzey's reconstitutes nicely in a little chicken broth. Diced the chicken and added it, just to get it warmed up. Got out my round flat skillet and heated it up enough to melt a pat of butter, then assembled my layers: tortilla, cheese, chicken, more cheese, tortilla. Browned one side, flipped, browned the other size. I used my biggest round pancake turner -- a new pink one with a smiley face on it -- and I think that was the key. They came out crunchy enough to cut easily with the pizza rocker. Yum.

Yum!!
We do quesadillas, we take a single tortilla, and fill and fold. So there's only a half circle to flip, and i kind of roll it over its folded edge. I don't get them good and crispy though. Maybe the butter is a help there. I've been using a dry skillet.
Last night baked one of the pork tenderloins with garlic-herb seasoning preassembled things. Reheated the mashed potatos in hot milk. Sauerkraut that I forgot on TG day, and broccoli.

Co-worker had green soup yesterday, I thought split pea but it was potato and kale- must have blenderized it.

In the cafeteria at work, they use a Panini press for the quesadillas. Works great.

hm. We might enjoy a panini press in our house.