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!