Good Afternoon Loyal Readers! I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long, January has been a long month for me. Everyone has been sick and we've been passing it back and forth as families do. Then my daughter tried to do a push up, lost her balance and fell on her face. That bruise was a fun day. And as new parents do I sat up and watched her breath for a few days afterwords.

So now I'm back to cooking!! WOO-HOO!! It's funny the things you miss when you arn't feeling well enough to do them...like clean laundry hot from the dryer and food that doesn't come out of an oil dripping bag. Oh well. The company my husband, Brian, works for is doing a "Biggest Loser" challenge to help with New Years Resolutions and to promote the healthiness of the employees. My husband at 6' 5" is not a small man by any means. My mom told him when we got engaged, that if he ever hurt me there was no Asian country that he could hide in. He would stick out like a sore thumb. In order to help him with the challenge, I have instigated Meat-Less Monday!! It lasted all of one day, then we decided that going vegan was something we needed to ease into. Taking a bacon-loving, steak-devouring, American male and turning him into a veggie-loving, bean-devouring American male is a whole lot harder then it sounds. In order to at least attempt to introduce Brian to vegetables that Subway doesn't carry and you can't find at a McDonald's drive-thru, I've started putting veggies in everything. My husband has never had eggplant and doesn't know what Camembert or Gorgonzola are. {they are cheese by the way} If they don't offer it at Subway, Brian doesn't eat it. I want my daughter to not be picky and to try new things and to eat whatever I make for dinner. I remember my mom making 3 or 4 different dishes for each meal simply because my sister refused to eat cheese or my youngest sister wouldn't eat corn tortillas. I don't want that to be me, other then allergies of course. In order to facilitate this I did a lot of reading when I was pregnant on other countries food introduction techniques and their recipes for children. The conclusion is that in order for children to like different foods, they need to be taught that different foods are good and that you have to try something before you decide you dislike it. When Lorelai starts eating solid foods I'm going to use a system similar to the French Method outlined in "French Kids eat Everything" by Karen Le Billon. The only issue is, as you can guess, that my husband doesn't eat everything or even close to everything. That gives me about a month before Lorelai hits the "6-month start solid food" mark to introduce Brian to at least the stuff I want to give to Lor in the early months like avocado and pumpkin. My only conclusion was that I would start putting these "funky" and "strange" foods into our everyday diet and then cook similar foods for Lorelai and for us adults. so if she is having smooched avocados we could have tacos with guacamole. Little things like that to add variety. The French believe that you have to try a food four times before you can truly claim to dislike something. Your taste buds haven't been properly introduced. That's a theory I can get behind. I know that I used to not like beets, but they are very available in this area. When we started going to the farmer's market, we started eating more beets. Now I like them. They have this sweet taste with a kind of bitter aftertaste that you can't find anywhere else. So my mission is to get both Brian, who doesn't like anything, and Lorelai, who hasn't eaten anything, to like or at least try everything. Yesterday I started this mission with "Bean-Balls and Spaghetti" which quickly became "Bean-and-Turkey-Balls and Spaghetti". The first step in making our diet healthier and adding in more vegetables, is to take some of the red meat out. Just some not all and there is no way removing beef completely would be tolerated in my household. If you ever hear of me going thru a divorce it's because I thought I'd cut beef and bacon out completely. Anyway I'm not saying it is the best way to go about it, if you have any better ideas let me know. What I'm saying is that this, I hope, will work best for my family. 

Okay so I've gotten off track a little from what I started out this post to be. Last night I made Bean-Ball & Spaghetti. So here's what I did. I decided to mix up my spaghetti sauce by making it Caramelized Onion Tomato Sauce. In a stock pot I put 1 tablespoon (eyeball it) of oil and added 2 sweet yellow onions diced. I find the Sweet onions caramelize better but you could use any onions you like. To caramelize the onions, put them over a low heat and cover for about 15 minutes be sure to stir every 2-3 minutes. The onions should be translucent but not brown at all. Uncover and turn the heat up to medium-high and brown for another 15 minutes. When you start the second 15 minute section, add 4 cloves of garlic, minced. In a fry pan I put in my ground turkey. I used one flat, that turned out to be mostly meat but you could adjust the meat vs. bean ratio. 

While the onions are caramelizing and the turkey is cooking, I started the rest of the Bean-Ball recipe. Take one 20-oz can of kidney beans, rinsed and drained and mash them. I know people often use a potato masher to do this and them move to a fork for the stubborn couple, but I've never been able to get a potato masher to mash beans so I start with a fork and just push the beans against the side of a bowl to smoosh them. You want them mostly mashed, especially if you are going to roll them into balls. (see picture to the left) Once they are all good and smashed add the following (see the picture to the right): 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons steak sauce (use one you would eat, if you wont eat it on a steak don't put it in here), 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 gloved minced garlic, 1/4 teaspoon graded lemon zest, 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs, 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, and 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme. Them make sure you mix it all well. No one wants a pocket of steak sauce in the middle of their ball. :-) If you were just doing beanballs this would be the point where you would simply roll and cook them, but I added turkey for my carnivore husband. By this point your turkey should be all cooked, mix it all into the bean mixture. Depending on what you want to do with this mixture, at this point you could roll them into balls and start cooking them off or just set it aside like I did. You could cook them in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes or you could pan fry them. Since we cooked the turkey off first you don't have to worry about anything being raw.

So you should have caramelized onion and garlic in the stock pot. Saute this until it is fragrant. Onion and garlic have a specific smell, you'll recognize it. There is nothing better then the smell of onion and garlic cooking. Add 28-oz crushed tomatoes, 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and a few pinches of black pepper. 

Bring this up to a simmer and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. While its simmering, start cooking whatever pasta shape you want. If you cooked the bean-balls into balls, this is when you would start plating. My daughter was being fussy when I made this so I tossed the mixture into the sauce and let it all simmer for another 15-20 minutes. Then mix the sauce with the pasta. If you use a small pasta with holes like macaroni or fussille, the pasta can trap the sauce and meat/beans so you get a little of everything in every bite. 

All in all it turned out very good :) and even better Brian was accepting of it. I couldn't get him to say he liked it but he did take leftovers in his lunch. Lorelai tried to help and ended up just chewing on a cup in her high chair while I cooked. Till next time world!

If life is a highway, then that cop just caught me doing 90 in a 55

EEEKKK!! being a stay at home mom, I only have about 90 minutes to myself each day. The rest of the time, I'm waiting on Lorelai's every whim or making dinner or "patiently" (yeah right) waiting for the dryer to finish. Ever notice how it takes 20 minutes to wash clothes but it takes 3 hours to dry them!? but that's a rant for another post. That 90 minutes is the best time of my day! I don't have to acknowledged anyone else exists I can drift into my own quiet little world and pretend that no one relies on me to provide food or a clean environment. I can ignore the beeping dryer for just a little bit longer. I could get up earlier while Lorelai is still asleep but then I'd be tireder earlier and lose time in the evening with Brian, my husband. It's a give and take. I usually get up abut half an hour before Lorelai wakes up. Just enough time to make coffee and take a shower before she needs breakfast. This morning I was up dumduhduhduh about 45 minutes before Lorelai. That means I was able to get some stuff done. That also means I was going way faster then I should have so that I could get more stuff done. That usually leads to hurting myself. This time it lead to a quick shower, a quick batch of scones, a quick chapter read, a quick start of laundry and a very quick moment to drink my coffee...a a quick burning of skin when I spilled my coffee. Well it wouldn't be a day in my life without some kind of injury. It's more difficult to make scones with a baby in one arm. {shruggs} I had a bag of premade scone mix from my working days. you know the kind "add water and mix" kind of a cop out when I actually had time to make scones from scratch. ahhh it's the little things that make my day. I managed to have the scones out of the oven before I heard Lor on the baby monitor.

 Yes that cup is as big as it looks. I know I shouldn't drink that much coffee but I've never been able to give it up. I have started making my own creams. A few weeks ago we got a Soda Stream soda maker and instead of getting a bunch of the special made soda flavorings we got a bunch of those cream soda flavorings. You guys know the ones lots of glass bottles at the local coffee shop or cafe. Today I took some of the white chocolate raspberry coffee creme and mixed it with some of the blackberry syrup. It turned out good. very berry it went well with the cherry scones I made.

Ahh this is the life...and that's the baby crying...I'm on the move again!! Somebody stop me before this ends in a high speed chase...or a streatcher...
~K

Using Turkey Leftovers

So I've started cooking a turkey every few weeks. I've found having the meat all cooked and ready in the fridge makes meals easy to put together on a tired day after work...or easy to cop out in a quesadilla cause I'm feeling lazy. {which by the way is my favorite way of using leftovers, stick it all in a tortilla with cheese and fry it up! so good!} Anyway when I was deciding what to make for dinner, I knew I had some cooked turkey and some carrots that I need to use at some point this week. The ONLY thing that you can make with that is Turkey Pot Pie. :) Well maybe not the only thing but its a darn good thing. ** just a note this is bits and pieces of a bunch of different recipes that I've smoosched together to make my recipe **

So I started by making the crust because it needs to sit in the fridge for at least an hour. This recipe is from Martha Steward & Ina Garten its called "Basic Pastry Crust". easy to find pretty much any where if your looking for a basic recipe. The recipe is easy so easy even I couldn't screw it up. Recipes that easy are just begging to be tweeked and turned upside down and improved on, right? That's what I thought! Martha's website says "In a food processor, pulse 2-1/2 cups all purpose flour and 1 teaspoon course salt to combine. Add 2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few pea-sized pieces of butter remaining. Sprinkle with ice water. Pulse until dough is crumbly but holds together when squeezed (if necessary, add up to 3 tablespoons more water, 1 tablespoon at a time). Do not overmix. Form dough into a 1-inch-thick disk, wrap tightly in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour (or up to 3 days)." The first problem hit when I decided my sisters stand mixer would do just fine in place of the fancy food processor that I don't own.

I started by sifting my flour and my salt to break up the bigger clumps. I've found that skipping this step just turns into large chunks of flour pockets in the finished product. which never tastes good. Next the recipe says to cut the butter into 1/2 inch cubes. the easiest way I've found to do this is to cut your cube into 3 long slices hot dog style if you will, then turn them on their sides and cut it again so now you've got 9 long matchsticks of butter. then just cut into small cubes.

You can't just dump the butter in willy-nilly you need to add it slowly and let it combine so it doesn't all just clump back together.

 Since this is a stand mixer not a food processor, the butter didn't break up as small as it would have. This should have been my first indication that it wouldn't turn out like it did last time I made it, but I'm stubborn and just kept plowing on forward.

I've found the easiest way to wrap this in plastic is to put the plastic in a bowl and then wrap it around the dough and put the whole kit-n-caboodle in the fridge.

With the "hard" part done, it was time to chop the onion... I'm an onion crier. Every time I cut an onion I bawl like a baby. I've tried it all-cut next to an open flame, don't cut down the center. It doesn't matter I cry any way. Soooo I made my husband chop for me since he was home! teehee

Before I get too far into that here's what you'll need for this turkey pot pie:
1/2 stick butter
1-1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped butternut squash
4 cups chopped leftover turkey, mix of light and dark {you could totally use chicken if you wanted}
1/2 cup flour
3-4 cups low-sodium chicken or turkey broth or water
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups frozen corn {you could do peas instead of or also}
1 cups dried cranberries
Thyme to taste
Nutmeg to taste
Sage to taste
Salt & Pepper to taste

Now back to the good stuff. I recommend chopping all your veggies first it makes it so much easier to not burn the butter. Any squash would work really, you could even leave it out if you wanted, but I think the addition of the squash and the cranberries makes this taste like thanksgiving drenched in heavy cream.

 In a large stock pot or dutch oven {if you happen to have one of those, I don't} melt the butter. You could of course use margarine if you wanted, but for me using margarine is like using tofu bacon. Wrong Wrong Wrong. Its probably illegal. In fact I'm absolutely sure it is illegal.

 Once your butter is melted before it has a chance to brown or burn, toss your veggies into the pot. If you are only doing a half batch or if your pan is wide enough for the veggies to just cover the bottom not stack up like mine do you can get away with a quick stir and be fine. If they stack up like mine you will need to stir it semi-regularly to avoid burning the bottom and not cooking the top.

 While your veggies are cooking, this is a good time to break down your turkey or chicken or combination of the two. You could probably even do duck if you wanted. I used some leg and some breast to make up my meat. Make sure you cut it into bigger pieces then the veggies did because the meat will kinda shread in the hot pot if you cut them too small you'll just end up with hint of meat with the occasional piece floating thru.

Mommy's little helper trying to figure out why we don't just eat it. why go to all the trouble of chopping and mixing and heating and stirring? :) with her adorable blanket handmade by Carrie's Creations {probably going to be the only plug I ever do}

 When your veggies look about like this mostly cooked down but the celery and the carrots still have a crunch to them, its time to add the turkey. You don't want to over cook your veggies at this point because they will keep cooking and could very easily get way over done.

Wait a minute before heading to the next step and let the turkey come up to the temperature of the veggies and work some of the wonderful butter and onion flavor off the bottom of the pan. You could toss some white wine in to deglaze the pan if you wanted. Remember to only use a wine you would drink. Make sure the wine is all evaporated out before adding the flour.

 Make sure to sift this flour too so it doesn't have lumps in it. Stir in the flour continuously for a few minutes to cook off that raw flour taste. You'll be able to tell when its ready because you'll start to smell turkey again. When you first put in the flour all you can smell is flour, but after a few minutes on the heat they turkey smell will begin to break thru. Don't be tempted to walk away at this point and think it'll be okay--it won't. you have to watch it like a hawk.

 Once the flour is all cooked in, add in the stock or water. The water will start to turn a kind of yellow-y color when you mix it in, that's just the flour totally normal. And then mix in the heavy creme. If you wanted to cut calories you could substitute the heavy creme for half-n-half or low fat milk, but the taste that comes from the heavy creme is irreplaceable.

 At this point you want to add your frozen veggies, I used corn, and your cranberries. Make sure to use dried cranberries. They will plump back up in the mixture and will start to take on taste of the heavy creme. They will add a sweetness to the pot pie, so if you want it more savory add less or leave them out all together. For a sweeter pie, add more.

 Now is a good time to add the herbs. I used nutmeg, sage, thyme, salt and pepper. Remember that we used unsalted butter so this is the only time we are getting salt depending on how the turkey was cooked. Make sure you taste after each addition. you might need a little more of one or find that your don't need anything else all together. If you are using dried herbs, put them into the palm of your hand and smoosch them up before adding them to your pot. This will release some of the oils and the flavor that would otherwise have been trapped inside.

 Now is a good time to start preheating our oven to 400 F. At this point your mixture should look something like this:

Put the heat on medium and let it come to a boil. Don't put the heat up to high it will come to a boil too quickly. This time that it is heating up your flavors are mixing together and creating a wonderful pie. Some of the liquid will evaporation, that's okay. 

While our mixture is cooking away, get the dough out of the fridge and roll it out. If you wanted you could line the bottom of your baking dish with it so the crust is on the bottom or cut out shapes like stars to place on top. Or yours could have ended up like mine and be really crumbly, because my butter wasn't properly incorporated. Totally my fault, don't trust a stand mixer to do something that your own two hands can do better. 

It should end something like this:  

 Transfer it to a casserole dish that is oven safe. Add the crust in whatever configuration you want and put it into the oven. The oven is basically making sure the crust is cooked and the inside stays warm. All the rest of the components are all cooked.

 It will take about 30-40 minutes depending on how thick your crust is. Cook it until the crust turns golden brown and the inside is bubbly. Like I said earlier my crust didn't come together as it should but it still tasted good! I crumpled it and put it on top of the pot pie. It almost tasted like shortbread. Very Yummy!!

 See that wasn't to hard was it? could have been worse right? It is so easy to reuse leftovers that you never need to have the same meal twice. Take what you've got left and reuse it in something else. Life lesson for today? When your gut says a stand mixer isn't good enough, listen to it and go to the store and get a premade pie crust. And don't let your husband add an extra cup of cranberries /-_-/ oh boy just when you think its all going okay, Monstro shows up to swallow Pinocchio...or your pie crust...

~K