HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I just wanted to take a few minutes to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.  It has been a trying year for many of us, but no matter the hardships or troubles, I always realize that I have so very much to be thankful for.  Foremost of course, are family and friends.  You are why I am who I am. It's kind of like Tom Cruise said, "You complete me".  You have all been so kind, generous and supportive over the past year and for that I am eternally grateful.  I am thankful for my job, and the wonderful class I was blessed with this year.  I am thankful for Dr. Nasar.  He gave me a new knee and my life back.  I am most thankful for my eight wonderful grandchildren, who are always there with something funny to say, or a kiss or hug, whether in person or on the phone.  I love you all!

One thing the recent storms have taught me is that while I am grateful for all my material possessions, I need to share what I have.  I need to simplify my life.  I have more "things" than I will ever need and intend to share them with those less fortunate.  I will also share more of my time and talents.  Sharing time and talent is probably the most significant way I can show how thankful and truly blessed I am. 

May God bless you all and have a wonderful day!

Carol

A Few Appetizers

When I was growing up, appetizers before a holiday meal meant a fancy cut glass dish with celery and carrot sticks and green and black olives.  Now, there have been holidays where we eat a meal's worth of appetizers before anyone sits down to the actual meal!  Yes, there are the usual chips, dip, salsa and veggie trays, but here are a few favorites I'd like to share with you.

SAUSAGE CHEESE BALLS



This is one I got from an Officer's Wives Cookbook, back when I was first married.  Cocktail parties were all the rage and so were the finger foods that went with them.  When I came back to NJ, I introduced these to my family and they are a hit. This is one of those recipes that I always make sure I have the ingredients for on hand.  It makes up so fast.  Great for unexpected guests, or to take along to a gathering.

1 pound package bulk breakfast sausage - like Jimmy Dean

10 oz chedder shredded.

3 1/4 cups Bisquick

 

Note:  Sausage comes in one pound or 12 ounce packages.  If you can't find the pound, and use the 12 ounce size instead, decrease the amount of bisquick to 2 3/4 cups. 

 

 

Let the sausage come to room temperature.  Put raw sausage, shredded cheese and bisquick into a bowl and mix. You can use your hands, but I have learned over the years that my kitchen aid mixer works really well to get it all blended.  Form into small balls about the size of a walnut.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 15 minutes.  These freeze really well.  Make ahead, freeze and you will always have them on hand!  Enjoy!

 

 

STUFFED MUSHROOMS

 

We actually eat these as a side dish with our Thanksgiving dinner, but they make a great appetizer. 

 

15 large white mushrooms

1/2 small onion-finely chopped

2 cloves garlic - finely chopped

2 T fresh parsley - finely chopped

1 cup bread crumbs

1/2 to 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Olive oil

 

Clean mushrooms and remove stems.  Chop stems finely.  Add 2 T olive oil to a skillet.  Saute mushroom stems, onion and garlic for about 15 minutes.  Make sure any liquid from the mushrooms has cooked away.  Add mushroom mixture to a bowl with bread crumbs, cheese and parsley.  Add 2 T olive oil to the mixture and mix well.  Spoon the stuffing into each mushroom packing it well and mounding it high.  Put mushrooms in shallow baking pan or sided cookie sheet that has been coated with olive oil or cooking spray.  Drizzle mushrooms  with olive oil.  Cook at 350 for about 25 minutes.  These can be prepared the day before and cooked the next day, or cooked ahead and reheated.

 

 

SUPER EASY TEX-MEX HOT DIP

 

This is another one that always impressed everyone, yet it is sooooo easy.  The only drawback is that its best if kept warm while serving.  I have one of those electric hot trays (I think it was a shower gift and I got married in 1968) that still works and is perfect.  Or serve in an oven proof dish that you can put a candle under.

 

1 8oz pkg cream cheese

1 small jar salsa

1 can black beans drained and rinsed

1 can corn, drained

8 oz shreeded cheddar or chedder/jack mix

 

Put the cream cheese into an oven proof pan (I use good old corning wear)  and soften in the microwave for about 30 to 40 seconds.  Spread over the bottom of the pan.  Mix the salsa, beans, and corn in a bowl and pour over the cream cheese.  Top with shredded cheddar.  Bake at 350 for about 30  minutes or until the cheese is melted.  Serve with tortilla chips or crackers.  Yum!!!!

 

 

Back to Normal? Turkey Stuffing at Last!

I said in my last post, I wanted to get my life back to normal.  Silly me.  I forgot.  There is no NORMAL!  I apologize for being away for so long.  After returning from Colorado and getting caught up on cooking, shopping (there was NO food, all perishables were ruined in the storm) and school work, I was attacked by a recurring health problem.  Not too serious, just very annoying.  Since then, my mom has been hospitalized for a fall.  Nothing broken, but now breathing problems have started.  Never a dull moment. 

I need to take a little time just to be me,  and part of me is writing this blog.  So I am back!  Since Thanksgiving is just days away, I thought I would give you some family recipes for Thanksgiving favorites.  Starting with my grandmother's turkey stuffing.  This of course comes with a story, so here goes.

There are probably as many recipes for turkey stuffing (or do you call it dressing?) as there are people who eat turkey.  I have a friend who tries a different recipe every year, and I envy her.  Sometimes I would like to try cornbread, oyster or chestnut stuffing.  But in my family we only eat Grandma's stuffing.  It's almost against the law to eat anything else! Everyone in my family makes the same stuffing, aunts, cousins, nieces.  It is so delicious, I often eat it as a meal in the days that follow Thanksgiving.  And we ALWAYS make extra so we can do this!  Years like this one, where I am not eating at home, I will still make stuffing so I can have leftovers. 

My grandmother came to this country as a child in the late 1800's.  She wanted very much to assimilate into the culture here.  She wanted to be American.  But old traditions die hard, and when she cooked Thanksgiving dinner there was a definite Italian flare to it.  We always had soup, pasta, roasted white and sweet potatoes,  stuffed artichokes, stuffed mushrooms and a variety of vegetables including carrots cooked with mushrooms and a little tomato sauce.  We still make this every year, but only on Thanksgiving.  Now for the stuffing.  She made her stuffing with what she knew best--Italian sausage and Parmesan cheese.  This is one of the recipes I found in my daughter's recipe book last week, complete with measurements.  I still have the original recipe my mother wrote down for me over 45 years ago, on a tattered piece of paper, but alas, no measurements!  Here goes!

GRANDMA CRUDELE'S TURKEY STUFFING

1 lb. Italian Sausage

1 T olive oil

1 large onion chopped

1/2 lb. mushrooms sliced

9 slices of day old bread

5 eggs-beaten

2/3 cup of Parmesan cheese

1/8 cup minced fresh parsley or 2 T dried

salt and pepper

Remove sausage from casing, crumble and sauté with mushrooms and onion until the meat is thoroughly cooked-about 20 minutes.  While the meat and vegetables are cooking, soak the bread in water until thoroughly soaked through.  Squeeze all the water from the bread and add the eggs, cheese and parsley.  Cool the meat and vegetables slightly and add to egg, bread and cheese mixture.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.  This is an important step as all the flavors develop.  DO NOT STUFF THE TURKEY THE NIGHT BEFORE.  This breeds bacteria.  I cook my stuffing in a pan in the oven along with the turkey, but you can stuff the turkey just before you put it into the oven.  If you cook separately in the oven it will take about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes, depending on how dry you like it.  If it starts to get too brown, cover with foil for the last part of the cooking.  Another hint:  Some years we have been very short of oven space and we have cooked the  stuffing in the crock pot.  It works well.  Cook for about six hours on low.  Cook on high if you would like a drier stuffing.  Enjoy. 

I will try to get a few more recipes posted before the holiday.  I just want to take the opportunity to wish you all a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving.  We all have so very much to be thankful for
this year in spite of all the tragedy around us.  Take time to be thankful for your loved ones, they are what life is really all about.  God Bless!



After the Storms

For those of you who don't know me personally, I need to reveal that I live in central New Jersey about twenty minutes from the beach.  Fortunately, my house did not sustain damage from Hurricane Sandy.  However the devastation has been unbelievable.  While we only lost power and cable, for about a week, many have lost everything.  I am currently in Aurora, Colorado visiting my daughter and four wonderful grandchildren, but before I left, I did what I could to help the relief effort.  I gathered clothing, blankets, water, and toiletries and donated them to several local shelters.  When I get home, I plan to start making quilts to donate.  This is what we quilters do.    It is my intention to get back to as normal a life as I can when I return on Saturday while continuing to help with the relief efforts in any way I can.

Since this is a cooking blog, I won't leave you without some mention of food.  Yesterday, I went through my daughter's recipe collection for a recipe for high altitude snicker doodles.  I came across many family recipes that I have given her over the years, and guess what?  They had measurements!  I have copied several and will pass them on to you during the week.

I know many of you in New Jersey are now buried in snow and are without power again, so I wish you all the best.  Keep safe and warm. And keep cooking!

Carol

Quick, Inexpensive, Instant Hot Cocoa

Hi all,

It is nearly time for hot drinks.  I was discussing this with a friend the other day, and I have a bunch of these kind of recipes to post, but I have to dig them out.  I made this every year  for my family of four and we always used it all by the end of the winter.

This is SOOO easy and so much cheaper than buying the individual boxes of individual envelopes of hot cocoa.  There's that packaging thing again.  That makes this an environmentally friendly thing also!  I have been making this since my son was a baby and I had a part time job selling Tupperware-but that was my other life.  So here goes...

 

Quick Hot Instant Hot Cocoa

 

 

An 8 quart box of powdered milk

 

A large box of Nestle's Quick

 

1 small jar plain coffee creamer

 

1 C powdered sugar.

 

Mix all very well in a very large bowl.  Keep in an airtight container.  I use a huge Tupperware canister, but an old pretzle jar from Sam's works well.  I never throw these out.  It makes about 15 cups and that works out to about 60 servings.  Figure out how much you save!

 

To serve:  Pour 1/4 cup of mix into a mug, add boiling water. If you keep a 2 tablespoon coffee measure in the canister, use two of these per serving. Just stick a label on the canister, so older kids can make thier own.  If you heat the water in the microwave, put the mix in after you heat the water or it will boil over.  You can also make this with hot milk and it's even healthier.  Add milk, marshmallows, peppermint sticks or anything else your heart desires. 

 

Enjoy!

 

Carol

 



A quick note about paninis.

This has been a really crazy week.  I taught a class at the quilt shop on Sunday, stayed late at school on Monday, taught a class at the quilt shop on Tuesday,  went to visit my mother today.  So I made quick paninis for dinner.  Lesson #1 about paninis:  you do not need an expensive panini maker.  I see them in catalogues for over $100!  I use my George Forman grill, so it's slanted, so what?  Never lost a sandwich yet!  If you don't have a George Forman, use a skillet and put another heavy pot on top of the panini, and do the same when you flip it.  We have even made them on the outdoor grill this way.

So what is a panini?  I think it is a fancy name for a toasted sandwich.  My favorite is pesto, tomato and mozzarella.  Smear the pesto on the bread-both slices-add cheese, tomato, put it on the grill and wait till it's done.  Now I usually make my own pesto, but this isn't the time of year for that-no more basil in the garden and way to expensive in the store. I make big batches in the summer and freeze it. You can also by jarred pesto at Sam's and it's actually pretty good, just a little pricey, but worth it.  Pesto is one of my all time favorite foods. 

What else can you put in a panini?  Just about anything.  Use flavored mayonnaise or olive oil on the bread.  You can by flavored mayonnaise, or make your own, add some dijon, or a little thyme or rosemary, or balsamic vinegar. You only spread it on the inside, but if you are using a skillet, you might want to put some olive oil on the outside too.  Ham,  Swiss cheese and maybe some cooked asparagus with some dijon mayo on the bread.  Chicken, artichokes, mozzarella and roasted red pepper.  How about just veggies?  Roasted eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, a slice of provolone cheese?  The combinations are endless. Just remember that what ever goes in the panini needs to be already cooked, unless it's something like tomatoes. The sandwich doesn't cook long enough or get hot enough to actually cook the ingredients.  This is a great way to use up leftovers.  You can use French bread, cut like you would for subs, you can use Italian bread sliced on the diagonal, you can use foccaccia, or any kind of artisan bread.  So try this, it's quick and easy.  You can do it with soup and a salad. 

Now you have an assignment.  If you make paninis, I want to know the combination of ingredients you used. I am always looking for new ideas. I will post them here on a special panini page.  So get cooking! 

Happy cooking!

Carol

Butternut Squash Soup!

Now don't turn up your nose because I said squash.  Most butternut squash soup I have eaten is made with apple and is a bit sweet.  Many people don't like sweet in thier soup.  This recipe is not made with apples and is more savory.  It will serve six to eight.

The recipe comes from Cook's Illustrated.  Must give credit where credit is due, though I did change it a tiny bit.  The hardest part is peeling and cutting the squash, but you can buy it already peeled and cut at the grocer.  I just have something against paying someone to do prepwork that I could do.  Call me cheap.

2 1/2 lbs butternut squash, cut into large chunks
2 T butter
1 t salt
1 leek, white and light green parts.  Rinse thouroughly, they often have sand in them.  Cut in half lengthwise and thinly slice crosswise (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 - 2 cups water
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth (one box)
2 sprigs fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp. dried.
1 bay leaf
8 oz. container of sour cream

Place squash in a glass bowl, cover and microwave on high about 14 - 18 minutes or until a knife goes easily into the flesh.  Stir the squash halfway through the cooking.

Drain the squash and reserve the liquid.  Melt butter in a Dutch oven oven.  Add squash, leek and salt.  Cook over medium high heat until squash begins to break down and form a slightly brown coating on the bottom of the pot - about ten minutes. 

Add 2 cups of the broth and scrape the brown coating off the bottom of the pot, mixing thoroughly.  Add the remaining two cups of broth, the reserved liquid from the cooked squash, and 1 cup of water.  Add the thyme and bay leaf.  Raise heat to high, as soon as it gets to a simmer, lower the heat to medium and cook until leeks are tender-about six minutes. 

Remove bay leaf and thyme sprigs.  In small batches, blend in blender or food processor, or use an immersion blender (my choice) to puree the soup. If soup seems to thick add remainder of the water and heat through.  Pour a few ladlefuls of soup into a bowl, add sour cream and mix well with whisk.  Add this mixture back to the pot, mix and add salt and pepper to taste.  Enjoy!