Holiday Foods

I just noticed these photos are not showing from Flickr, so I'll dig deep into my files and add what I can find.


I was the lucky host this year for our Thanksgiving dinner. It was my 2nd time ever in 14 years. I was stressing out like crazy, hoping everything would turn out. I had one disaster and 3 broken dishes. Do you know why you never pour a cold liquid into a hot glass pan? Yeah, I blew up my 9x13 pan when I realized I forgot to add the liquid to the roaster. The turkey was fine, thankfully. Now I have quite the mess in my oven.

Do you know that almost every recipe I used, came from the Internet. Just click a recipe for the link. These recipes would also be great to carry on through Christmas or any other event through out the year.
Here is the menu that kept me busy in the kitchen all week and 14 hours at those counters the day before. The most raved about items were, the onion tartlets, the dressing (Mr. LOVES dressing), dinner rolls (you HAVE to try these!), turkey roulade (looked beautiful!) and pecan pie.

Appetizers
Sweet Onion Tartlets with homemade crust (see below)
Deviled Eggs (see below)
Cheese Ball with Crackers & Veggies
Chocolate chip cream cheese dip (family brought this)
savory tortilla pinwheels (family brought this)

Entrees
Sliced Ham (family brought this)
Turkey Roulade with Sage & Thyme Dressing

Sides
Green Beans with Bacon & Shallots
Sweet Potatoes & Marshmallows
Mashed Potatoes
Corn
Roasted Veggies (family brought this)
Sage & Thyme Dressing
Herb Gravy
Dinner Rolls
Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry jello salad (family brought this)

Desserts
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Honey Crunch Pecan Pie with homemade crust
Sweetened Whipped Cream
Apple & Pumpkin pie (family brought these)


Brine for turkey breast:
1/3 cup salt
6 cups water
2 Tbl sugar

Combine all in large container, stir to dissolve, add turkey breast, soak for 1 hour. Remove turkey and prepare as directed.

Turkey Roulade:1 (2 1/2-3 pound) skinless boneless turkey breast, butterflied (@ 5.30 mins into vid)
salt
pepper
prepared dressing/stuffing
kitchen twine

Place turkey breast in brine for 1 hour. Remove, pat dry. Place the butterflied (see another video how-to) turkey breast between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and pound lightly with a meat mallet or heavy duty sauce pan or heavy rolling pin to an even thickness of about 3/4-inch. Salt and pepper the inside and outside of the turkey breast. Spread the stuffing on the turkey, leaving about 1 1/2 to 2-inches uncovered on all sides. Roll up and secure tightly with kitchen twine (about 1 1/2" apart), trying to keep all stuffing intact.
Heat 1 tablespoon of canola oil in a large Dutch oven or medium-sized roasting pan until hot. Sear stuffed turkey breast on all sides until lightly browned, 3 to 4 minutes per side.
Add 1 1/2 cups chicken stock, cover tightly and roast in the oven until turkey reaches 160 degrees F when an instant-read thermometer is inserted into inner layer of meat, about 60 to 65 minutes. Remove the turkey breast from oven and transfer to a cutting board to rest.


Sage & Thyme Dressing or Stuffing (I double this recipe):
1 box Mrs. Cubbison's Herb Seasoned Cube Stuffin' (note: 1 pkg= 8 C. -perfect for a 9-12 lb turkey)
1/2 C. melted butter
1 C. each of diced: celery, onion, leeks
salt, pepper season to taste
chopped fresh sage and thyme, to taste (maybe 2-3 TBL each)
2 C. low sodium chicken broth (may need more for desired texture)

Saute veggies in a little butter until transparent. Combine stuffing with melted butter and veggies. Stir in seasonings and herbs and broth gently toss until well combined. Place desired amount into bird or place in a baking dish, cover and bake 350' F. for 30 minutes (you can uncover it the last 10 minutes to give it a crusty top).


The BEST dinner rolls:
Buttermilk Refrigerator Rolls by Melanie -The Sister's Cafe

3 cups Buttermilk (room temperature)
3 cups flour
1 T. yeast dissolved in ¼ cup warm water (first let rise a few minutes)
½ cup sugar
3 eggs, beaten with a fork
2 tsp salt
5 cups flour (sometimes you need a cup more--it should not be too sticky)
½ cup oil
1 tsp baking soda

Dissolve yeast in ¼ c. warm water and let proof a few minutes. Mix the buttermilk, flour and yeast together thoroughly in a large mixing bowl. Let this stand at room temperature until double in size, about 2 hours.
Add sugar, eggs, salt, flour, oil, and baking soda. Mix well and kneed for 7-10 minutes. Roll out what you want and place the rest in the refrigerator, covered. The next time you want some fresh baked rolls, take from the bowl what you want and again put the rest back in the refrigerator. It will keep for 7 days.
Let rolls rise on baking sheets until double in size. Time depends on the room temperature, usually 1½ - 2 hours. Dough from the refrigerator will take longer because the dough is cold. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes. Brush with melted butter if you like.

*Recipe makes between 36-48 rolls depending how you divide the dough. To make the crescent shape... divide the dough into 3 balls (you could do it in 4 for smaller rolls), then roll each ball into a circle and cut it with a pizza cutter into 12 triangles. Then take each triangle and roll it from the wide side to the tip. Put on a sheet for rising.
So when you roll out the ball, you roll it out into a circle and cut it like a pizza -- cut it in half, then half again. So now you have the circle cut into 4 sections. Each of those sections I cut into 3.


Good for everything pie dough -Dorie Greenspan
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 T sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 T)very cold (frozen is fine)unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces
2 1/2 T very cold (frozen is even better) vegetable shortening, cut into 2 pieces
About 1/4 cup ice water

Put the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor fitted with a metal blade; pulse just to combine the ingredients. Drop in the butter and shortening and pulse only until the butter and shortening care cut into the flour. Don’t overdo the mixing — what you’re aiming for is to have some pieces the size of fat green peas and others the size of barley. Pulsing the machine on and off, gradually add about 3 tablespoons of the water — add a little water and pulse once, add some more water, pulse again and keep going that way. then use a few long pulses to get the water into the flour. If, after a dozen or so pulses, the dough doesn’t look evenly moistened or form soft curds, pulse in as much of the remaining water as necessary, or even a few drops more, to get a dough that will stick together when pinched. Big pieces of butter are fine. Scrape the dough out of the work bowl and onto a work surface.

Shape the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour before rolling. (If your ingredients were very cold and you worked quickly, though, you might be able to roll the dough immediately: the dough should be as cold as if it had just come out of the fridge.)
To roll out the dough: Have a buttered 9-inch pie plate at hand.You can roll the dough out on a floured surface or between sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap or in a rolling slipcover. If you’re working on a counter, turn the dough over frequently and keep the counter floured. If you are rolling between paper, plastic or in a slipcover, make sure to turn the dough over often and to life the paper, plastic or cover frequently so that it doesn’t roll into the dough and form creases.
If you’ve got time, slide the rolled-out dough into the fridge for about 20 mins to rest and firm up.

Fit the dough into the pie plate and, using a pair of scissors, cut the excess dough to a 1/4- to 1/2-inch overhang. Fold the dough under itself, so that it hangs over the edge just a tad, and flute or pinch the crust to make a decorative edge. Alternatively, you can finish the crust by pressing it with the tines of a fork.

To partially or fully bake: Refrigerate the crust while you preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Better the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil, fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust and fill with dried beans or rice or pie weights. Put the pie plate on a baking sheet and bake for 25 mins. Carefully remove the foil and weights and, if the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon.

For a partially baked crust, return the pie plate to the oven and bake for about 8 minutes more, or until the crust is very lightly colored. To fully bake the crust, bake until golden brown, about another 10 minutes. Transfer the pie plate to a rack and cool to room temperature before filling.

Green beans:
I used shallots instead, and added in the precooked bacon right before they were done cooking. I omitted the onion, red pepper flakes and forgot about the vinegar and garlic. Oh well, they were still good.

Yams/sweet potatoes:
I use 4+ big yams, cut up and boil (like regular potatoes), mash them, and whip them in my mixer with brown sugar, butter, pinch of salt, little milk sometimes a little cinnamon and nutmeg (all to desired taste). Place in a casserole baking dish, cover with marshmallows and pecans and bake until marshmallows golden.

Deviled eggs:
I used regular spicy brown mustard instead of ground, added in a shake of cayenne pepper, black pepper, parsley and a dollop of sour cream and a little milk to it.

Cheese ball:
I also add in red bell pepper and green onions. I use a cheddar and jack cheese blend also.

Sweet onion tartlets:
I made my own crust, used garlic, and pepper instead of Spice Island's and added in some diced green onions. Be sure to layer it: onions, egg mixture then cheese. *Note: bake 350' for about 20 min. 1 pie crust gave me 46 mini tarts.

Herb gravy:
I added in fresh chopped sage and thyme to the stock. I browned off 1/2 of the gizzards and heart (I bought a seperate package since we didn't do a whole bird), I used the brown bit in the gravy and omitted chopping them into it. After draining the stock, I added in some broth and made a slury (of flour & water) to thicken it.

Cranberry sauce:
I used canned whole berry, added juice of 1 orange and a pinch of cloves. Let it simmer away.

From Mommy? I'm Hungry!

Homemade (store bought in center)

The best part of Thanksgiving to me are the leftovers:  turkey & cranberry dinner roll sandwiches!