We have a lot to be thankful for

Thanksgiving is probably one of my favorite holidays of the year: lots of good food and great friends, the excitement and anticipation of Christmas, and no requirements of buying or wrapping presents... I am very thankful to have such wonderful family and friends, and I'm excited to share with y'all our Thanksgiving feast:

Herb-roasted Turkey: (2 1/2 hours)
6 lb. turkey breast
1 stick softened unsalted butter
1 Tbsp. chopped parsley
1/2 Tbsp each dried sage and dried thyme
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. paprika

If the bird is frozen, leave wrapped and put on a rimmed baking sheet in the refrigerator, allowing 24 hours of thawing time for every five pounds. For a 6-lb bird, 24 hours in the refrigerator should thaw him out. For a quicker thaw, submerge the bird in a cooler of cold water for 30 minutes per pound, changing the water every 30 minutes.

When bird is thawed, rise off under cool water and pat completely dry using a towel. Separate the skin from the meat of the bird using your hands.

Make a complex butter by using one stick softened unsalted butter and all of the herbs. Rub half of the butter under the turkey skin on the breast (and legs/wings if using a whole bird). Rub two tablespoons of the butter on the skin. If you have extra butter, chill and save it for your gravy. After coating the bird, let the turkey stand for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Place turkey in roasting pan and pour one cup of dry white wine in the pan. Roast bird in the oven for two hours basting the bird with the white wine and dripping mixture that will accumulate in the bottom of the pan.

(little brother carves the turkey)

Baked Macaroni-and-Cheese: (1 hour)
4 cups cooked Radiatori pasta (ruffled, ridge shape)
2 1/2 cups cheddar cheese
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup milk
4 Tbsp. butter chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook noodles according to directions on box. Mix cooked noodles and 2 cups (reserving 1/2 cup) cheese in a large bowl. In a separate bowl combine eggs, sour cream, milk, salt and pepper. Add noodles and cheese to 8 1/2 x 11 casserole dish. press small cubes of butter throughout. Pour liquid mixture over top. Top with 1/2 cup cheese.

Bake for 30-40 min. Allow 5 minutes to cool.

Creamed Corn: (20 minutes)
4-5 ears of corn, cooked
1 Tbsp. bacon drippings
1 tsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper, to taste

Boil corn in large pot of water for 20 minutes. Cool corn and cut kernels off sides. In a small pan add bacon drippings, corn and butter. Mash corn with fork until about half of the kernels are broken down. Add cream and cook until thick on medium heat. Stir regularly so milk will not scorch. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Green beans and bacon: (20 minutes)
2 1/2 lbs green beans, trimmed
1/2 pound bacon, roughly chopped
1 cup yellow onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Blanch green beans into a large pot of boiling salted water and cook until bright green in color, about 5 minutes. Drain the beans and shock in a large bowl of ice water. Drain the beans again and pat dry.

Cook the bacon in a large saute pan until crisp, about 5 minutes. Remove the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Spoon off the excess bacon grease, leaving 2 tbsp. in the pan (the rest can be used for the creamed corn recipe above). Add the onion to the pan and saute until soft and translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Sprinkle in the garlic and red pepper flakes and saute about 1 minute. Add the green beans and cook until heated through, 5-6 minutes. Return the bacon to the pan and toss. Season with salt and pepper.

Pumpkin Cheesecake (24 hours)
12 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 1/2 cups crushed cinnamon graham cracker crumbs
2 lbs (32 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sour cream
1 15 oz. can pure pumpkin (in the canned fruit aisle)
6 large eggs (lightly beaten), at room temperature
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
pinch of salt
whipped cream to top

Brush springform pan with some of the melted butter; stir remaining melted butter with graham crackers and press into pan. Bake crust for 15-20 minutes then cool in the refrigerator.

Beat cream cheese with a mixer until smooth. Add sugar and continue to beat until smooth. Beat in sour cream, then add pumpkin, eggs, vanilla, and spices until well combined. Pour into springform pan.

Place roasting pan in oven with water until water is halfway up the sides of the pan. Place springform pan with cheese cake batter into the middle of the roasting pan. Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Turn off oven and open door to let some of the heat out. Keep cake in oven for another hour. Remove from oven and run a knife around the edges, cover and refrigerate overnight. Bring to room temperature 30 minutes before serving. Serve with whipped cream on top.

Homemade Whipped Cream: (8 minutes)
1 cup heavy or whipping cream
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. confectioners' sugar

Beat the cream and vanilla in a chilled bowl with a whisk or an electric mixer (I would highly suggest using an electric mixer because my little brother and I worked up quite a sweat beating up the mixture by hand, and it easily took 6-8 minutes.) The whipped cream is done when the cream mixture form loose peaks. Sift the sugar over the cream and continue to beat just until the mixture holds a soft peak. Serve or refrigerate covered up to 4 hours.

Bird is the word - Pesto Chicken Pizza

So for the past couple of days I have been absolutely craving pizza.... but for some reason, every time I thought about where I would go pick up pizza at I just became immediately turned off. I think that the more times you have the same pizza the less appealing that pizza becomes.

Today when I was driving home from school I was absolutely starved... what was I going to eat? Then the pizza creeped back into my mind. But I don't have any crust, I told myself... that's not very helpful. Sitting at the stoplight on Main Street I began to ponder what else I could put pizza on: a pita, a slice of bread? The alternatives were not sounding very attractive. Then when I thought that all hope was lost and started to scroll through my contacts for the all-too-familiar pizza delivery number I remembered: Publix. Publix sells pizza dough. I quickly swerved into the right hand lane cutting across traffic before I nearly missed the turn. The only thing on my mind was pizza, these other cars will understand.... but maybe not, because some guy definitely yelled something in an unpleasant tone while I was waiving to him with that crazy pizza desire in my eyes....

At Publix I was nervous, it's 6:15, I thought... everyone in Columbia, their brother, and their monkey's uncle are going to be here getting groceries for dinner. I spotted the fresh pizza dough from the moment I walked in the door. My heart started pounding as I realized that there was only one bag of dough left. Just one! I picked up my pace, I was practically jogging to grab the last bag of crust and I was not afraid to cut off old people and mothers with babies to get it. As I approached the dough I saw a guy staring me down from the other side of the aisle. I thought maybe he was going for the dough too and we both reached out at the same time. Luckily I had my hand on the dough bag first... I won! I was so giddy with excitement for winning the competition to the dough that I had barely the time to notice that the guy was reaching for the freshly baked italian loaf right next to my dough. Oh well... I won.

I was so excited about the thought of my delicious pizza that I didn't grab anything else in the store. On my way home I started thinking about all the things I could put on my pizza and how marvelous my pizza was going to be until I got home and realized that none of those things I wanted to put on my pizza were actually in my kitchen. As I rummaged around in the fridge and pantry for about 10 - 15 minutes I started to think that I had a pretty good selection of toppings. What I settled on was no less than fantastic and I hope you give it a try:

Pesto Chicken Pizza
1 perfect pizza crust
1/2 cup prepared pesto (store bough or homemade, see below)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup onions
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked and cubed
3 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
3/4 cup mozzarella cheese
freshly grated parmesan cheese

Homemade Pesto sauce:
1 or 2 garlic cloves
2 cups fresh basil leaves, tightly packed (2 ounces)
2 tablespoons Mediterranean pine nuts
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup (1 1/2 ounces) freshly grated Parmesan

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

First, cook/prepare the pesto (I used the Knorrs kind that comes in a package tonight, but typically I would make the pesto recipe above). Cut the chicken breast into small, bite-sized cubes. Sprinkle salt and pepper over chicken for taste. Marinate the chicken in some of the pesto for as long as possible, preferably more than 30 min. After marinating properly heat a large skillet to medium-high heat. Put the chicken (and some of the marinating pesto sauce) in the pan and make sure you move the chicken around often. You'll notice when the chicken starts to brown on all sides (literally like 4-6 min depending on the heat of your skillet) and then you need to take it off and put the chicken on a side dish to cool.

Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium-high heat until crisp. Cool bacon on paper towels to soak up grease. Rough chop the bacon when cool.

Chop approximately 1/4 of an onion in a fine mince and chop two cloves of garlic similarly.

Dough: Wow this is a tough one. Make sure you use a floured surface and have a rolling pin handy. It will take some work by hand but if you like a thick crust (as I do) you'll be okay. First things first though, don't expect your crust to be perfectly circular or you will just about drive yourself crazy trying to finagle the dough to your liking. If you do like I do, just roll the dough until it appears to the right consistency as you like (no matter what the shape) and slap it on a non-stick or lightly greased pizza pan. (My crust tonight turned out to be somewhere between an oval and a rectangle.... just do what you can and let it go. Dough is fickle thing and for some reason I think it knows what you're trying to do to it and will do everything it can to fight against you.)

Put some of the pesto sauce on the dough and put in oven for about 5 minutes to allow the dough to set.

After the dough has set in the oven for about 10 minutes,  sprinkle just a little bit more salt and pepper, cover with bacon, onions, garlic, chicken and top with the cheese (I find that putting the cheese on last helps the other toppings stick together better). Drizzle a little bit of extra virgin olive oil over the top.

Tada! The finished product:

Cut as you may wish (I prefer rectangles). ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!

Enjoy!

Girls Night In Dinner

So a couple of weeks ago I had a couple girls from the law school over for a relaxing dinner in the midst of all the crazy midterms, paper writing, and work-related activities we had going on. At first, I was a little intimidated because usually the kind of food I make isn't necessarily refined (i.e., I make a lot of Italian food which isn't very clean and isn't necessarily healthy) and so I was a little freaked out about making food for two health nuts who work out way more than I do (i.e., they work out or go run at least a handful of times a week whereas I'm lucky if I go for a long walk more than a handful of times a year).

So I scoured through old recipes, looked online and gathered some interesting ideas about things I could possibly make. I ended up settling on a salmon dish which is quite intimidating in itself. I mean, really, how many of you make salmon dishes for the fun of it when you're cooking at your house? I don't.

What I settled on was an incredibly easy, yet delicious dinner, which impressed my guests, and to be honest with you, blew my own mind at least a dozen times. How I managed to produce such a lovely meal is still quite beyond my comprehension.

If you are intimidated about making a fish dish at your own house, don't be. Take my word for it and make this one for your next dinner party or special date night:

Salmon with Spinach and Asparagus:

3/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 1/2 tsp. olive oil

4 boneless, skinless salmon filets (approx 5oz. each) (I bought 1 lb. and it was plenty for $10.00)

2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. freshly cracked black pepper

1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

3 cups baby spinach

1 bunch asparagus (about 20-25 small spears) 

1/2 lemon cut into circular slices (thinly sliced with rinds still on)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut 4 12-by-17 inch pieces of parchment paper. Fold each piece in half diagonally to form a crease, then open.

Pulse parsley, garlic and oil in a blender or food processor to form a paste (pesto) (you can skip this pesto marinade if you choose, it tastes just fine without it!) Season each salmon fillet with the salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes and rub the fish with the pesto paste.

Divide asparagus into three even groups and divide spinach into three even groups. Lay out the asparagus on the bottom in a line, lay spinach on top, and rest each fillet of fish on top of the spinach/asparagus stack. Lay lemons on top of each fish. Drizzle stack with olive oil.

Fold parchment over the ingredients making a rectangle so that all parts of the food stack are covered. Make overlapping pleats to seal.

Bake on baking sheet (the further spread the fish stack is the faster it will cook, but you can put all of the filets on one sheet. Just make sure you move them around to make sure they all evenly cook).

Bake on baking sheets for 9-15 minutes for medium rare or more for medium. Check the fish to make sure your oven is correctly heating the fish. If the outside looks raw, the inside is obviously raw. You are looking for a light pink and white-ish colored fish, not a pink and somewhat shiny fish.

Roasted Potatoes with Lemon and Rosemary:

6-9 small red skinned potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 Tbsp. rosemary, chopped

Juice of one lemon

1 tsp. olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and spread across a baking sheet. Roast on the top rack of an oven at 400 for approximately 25-30 minutes until the potatoes are crisp on the outside. Make sure you push around the potatoes half way through the cook time (the bottom of the potatoes which are the pan get crisp-ier than the up-side).

Mini-Apple Pies

Crusts:

Non-stick cooking spray

2 9-in. pie crusts

1 egg

1 tbsp. water

Filling:

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/8 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

nut meg, to taste

apple pie flavoring, to taste

3-4 medium apples, peeled and finely cubed

1 lemon, juiced

2 tbsp. butter, cubed

Pre-heat oven to 340 degrees. Roll out dough on a floured surface and smooth out with a rolling pin (the thiner the better to get enough crust for 12 mini pies). Use cookie cutter to cut out 4-inch. circles (I used the rim of a drinking glass as a cookie cutter). Roll leftover dough and cut long strips to use for lattice work on top of the mini-pies (a pizza cutter will work perfectly for this).

Put the peeled and chopped apple cubes into a bowl and add lemon juice to keep the apples from turning brown. In a separate bowl mix together the dry ingredients.. Stir in the sugar mixture to evenly coat the apples. Mix ingredients together thoroughly.

Cut 2 inch long strips of parchment paper to use to help get the pies out of the cupcake pan (optional, but I highly suggest for easy removal after the pies cook). Spray cupcake tin with the non-stick cooking spray. Place the dough circles into cupcake tin, pressing firmly but gently into the sides (make sure your circles do not rip). Scoop two tablespoons of the filling mixture into each mini-pie. Place a small cube of butter in each mini-pie at the very end.

Decorate the tops of the pies with lattice or a full circle top crust (but make sure you cut a slit to allow for ventilation).

Brush the tops of the pie with egg wash (egg and water) and sprinkle the top of the pies with cinnamon and sugar.

Trim the overhanging dough and crimp edges.

Bake approximately 5-8 minutes. The parchment paper strips will allow for easy lifting of the pies out of the cupcake tin. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

Zuppa del giorno - Italian Wedding Soup

I never realized how much I loved and appreciated my mother until I attempted her world famous Italian Wedding Soup. Whew! Let's just say that I am not an extraordinarily patient person. If you're anything like me, I would highly suggest opening a bottle of wine while you are making this soup. (At the very least, enjoy a glass while you are patiently rolling out the millions of tiny meatballs.) I guess it's no wonder my mom had only a tiny bit of patience for me and my three little brothers. I'm realizing how that most of her patience was used on making this soup for us multiple times a month.

But, before I get to the recipe portion of today's post, let me just explain a few things: When I had dinner with my boyfriend's family the other night, they said "What is Italian Wedding Soup?" I guess because my mom has made this soup since before I can remember I just assumed that everyone's family has homemade wedding soup every time the weather dropped below 60 degrees. Guess not. Okay so for those of you who aren't sure what Italian Wedding Soup is, let me explain in the simplest way possible: Chicken noodle soup, minus the noodles, plus meatballs, rice, and greens. I think that about sums it up. BUT it's so much more flavorful. And for me, it brings back so many more memories of home.

One more thing to explain: You don't have to be going to a wedding, be getting married, or even be married to enjoy this soup. In fact, the term "wedding soup" is a mistranslation of the Italian language, minestra maritata (or "married soup"). The dish was so named because it marries together green vegetables and meat. (Really, it was probably just a way for Italian mothers, like my own, to get their children to eat their vegetables.)

I'll admit that if I were making soup for my own personal benefit, I would probably just make something more simple and then just wait for my mom to deliver me some of her soup when she stops into town. But, the reason I am making Italian Wedding Soup today is because tomorrow, the law school is raising money and collecting food for the Harvest Hope Food Bank in Columbia, SC through a soup lunch. For, for some crazy reason, I volunteered to make, on behalf of my law journal, my mother's Italian Wedding Soup. Someone probably should have convinced me otherwise, because this soup has been keeping me busy for at least the last 12 hours with prep work, but I know that tomorrow it will be delicious and everyone at the law school will love it.

So, here goes, my zuppa del giorno (italian for "soup of the day"):

Italian Wedding Soup via my Italian mother:

Stock:

3.5 lbs chicken wings

10 cups water

4 carrots (peeled and halved crosswise, not longwise)

6 stalks celery and leaves

3-4 large yellow onions (outside layer removed and quartered)

2 cloves garlic peeled

10 whole black peppercorns (or black pepper to taste)

3 Tbsp. salt

2 Tbsp. dried parsley

3-4 dried bay leaves

2 Tbsp. basil

Meatballs:

1/2 lb. ground chuck

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs 

1 egg

Additions:

4 cups cooked rice

2 heads escarole or endive

Directions:

Cook the rice according to the directions on the package. I used 2 cups rice, 4 cups water, 1 tbsp. olive oil or vegetable oil (to keep rice from sticking). Simmer on low until all water is evaporated. Remove from heat and fluff with a fork. Allow steam to rise.

Wash and chop the escarole or endive, then boil in a small amount of water until tender. This will take approximately 5 minutes. (Don't worry if the leaves start to lose their beautiful green color. I think you can probably shock them in an ice bath after steaming but it really doesn't matter). Drain well.

Mix together the ground chuck, parmesan cheese, egg, and breadcrumbs in a bowl. Roll meat mixture into very tiny meatballs (about the size of a nickle). My mom says to microwave for 4 minutes and then drain, but I browned them in a large skillet (make sure when you push them around that they don't break up in your pot though).

Use a large pot (an extremely large one actually), I used what I thought was a big pot and realized that I had to make the soup twice because I couldn't fit everything in.

Wash wings under cold water. Add to pot the cleaned chicken wings, water, carrots, celery, onions, and garlic. (If 10 cups of water isn't enough to cover everything in the pot, add just about a cup more until covered. Don't fill the pot to the top though. Vegetables will eventually reduce, so you're probably fine.) Bring to a boil. Just as the water starts to boil, skim fat with large spoon. (For those of you who aren't sure what chicken fat looks like, it's kind of foamy.) After pot is boiling add peppercorns, parsley, bay leaves, basil, and salt. Cover, reduce to simmer, and simmer for 3-5 hours (the longer the better).

Drain entire pot through a fine screen / collander. Chop and add as desired from the stock any carrots and celery. Clean chicken and add to stock. Add escarole or endive, rice and meatballs.

Serve sprinkled with parmesan cheese.

ENJOY!

It really is Amazing what Soup can Do - Minestrone

You know how the Campbell's soup commercials always advertise: "It's amazing what soup can do." Well, I guess it's obvious that those commercials were always referring to the fact that soups can go "beyond the can," and I suppose they always try to prove this to you by showing you what a can of soup looks like if it's poured over rice, or eaten out of a coffee mug, or something silly like that. However, I never realized the import of those little words until today.

I guess by way of introduction, and some background, I am currently finishing my my last year of law school and my boyfriend is teaching English in Korea for a year (yes a year, and he only left a month ago... sigh). As part of my mission to do anything but sit and mope about, I've decided to create a food blog to show my delicious, and sometimes failed, attempts to make beautiful or heart-warming food to not only keep me busy, but also to let me relieve stress and learn some new skills.

As third year of law school seems to be showing me on a daily basis, stress comes and goes as it will, and there really isn't much I can do to predict when it will overwhelm me. That as it may be, I realized today that there is no ceiling on stress. In fact, just when you think you couldn't have more on your plate, burdens on your shoulders, things piling up, it hits you that... in fact, you can, and you will.

I happened to study this afternoon for a law school exam in one of the most boring and complicated subjects possible (Secured Transactions, yuck. What the heck is a secured transaction anyway?). It didn't necessarily help that I decided to study with one of the brightest students in my class (#2 in the class as a matter of fact). I suppose I always fancied myself to be somewhat of a competitor with this particular student; however, after only a few short hours with her, I realized that I am no where close to her level of intelligence. For so long I had tricked myself into somehow believing that the only thing separating the two of us was my inability to sit at a desk for as many hours on end as she did. BUT, I was wrong. In fact, she is tremendously brilliant and my inability to focus was not the issue.

I did make a single attempt to go back to studying after that challenging study session, but after about 45.2 seconds I realized that such an attempt was futile. Rather, I packed my bags and headed home. As I tried to convince myself not to cry on my way back to my apartment, I decided that food could calm me down. But not just any food, no, the only thing that would calm my nerves this particular afternoon was a hearty bowl of soup.

While I didn't put all the ingredients into the crockpot until about 4:00pm (meaning that I didn't get a taste of its deliciousness until about 10 minutes ago, at 1:30 am), the aroma throughout my apartment this evening was enough to calm my nerves, get me back on the right track, and refocus my brain into studying for finals again.

ENJOY! (And don't stress, as Scarlet O'Hara says: "I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow.")

Spicy Crock Pot Minestrone Soup:

1 (32 oz.) carton Swanson's chicken broth

1 (28 oz.) can petite diced tomatoes

1 (16 oz.) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 (15 oz.) can black beans

      [I'd like to point out here, that I never realized that different beans came in different sized cans... who knew?]

 5 small red-skinned potatoes, peeled and diced small

1/2 large yellow onion, diced

1 stalk celery (leaves and all) (make sure you clean it well, dirt loves nothing like the inside of a celery stalk)

3 medium-large carrots, peeled and chopped (quartered for the wider top half of the carrot)

1 tbsp. minced garlic (about 2-3 large cloves)

3 - 4 fresh basil leaves finely chopped

1/2 tbsp. dried minced onion

1 tbsp. dried parsley flakes

1 tbsp. dried Italian seasoning

1 tsp. cracked black pepper

1 tsp. salt (that's all I'll admit to using because my mom is probably going to read this, but in reality put in a lot... like 1 tbsp. +)

2 tsp. dried oregano

[optional] 1 tbsp. crushed red pepper flakes (but don't add these in until about 4 hours into cook time)

      Of course, you can put more or less depending on your spiciness level.

[optional] 8oz. (1/2 box) dried mini shell pasta (truthfully, the soup already has potatoes, but I can't get enough of pasta)

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours.

Cook the noodles according to the directions on the box (but for better taste cook in salted water). Add to soup when soup is finished cooking. The soup is especially delicious with additions at the end like freshly grated parmesan cheese or a piece of toasted garlic bread.