Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I consider myself to be richly blessed and thank God for my blessings regularly. Having a nationally recognized holiday to do so is wonderful. In my family, I have taken over Thanksgiving responsibilities in the last few years and relish the opportunity to cook up a feast. And a feast it truly is.
This year our menu was as follows:
Appetizers:
Baked Salmon
Roasted Shrimp Cocktail
Pickled tomatoes (store-bought)
Hummus (store-bought)
Smoked fish (store-bought)
Goat cheese bruschetta
Seafood Salad
Roasted Red Pepper Salad
Roasted Asparagus

Main course:
Vegetable Soup
Mashed potatoes
Turkey

Dessert:
Spice cake
Puff Pastry “strips”
Meringue cake (store-bought)

The turkey I’ve made in the last 5-7 years has always been moist as a result of both brining and baking it in a bag. However, this year it was absolutely superb. Please don’t think that I’m boasting. I did absolutely nothing differently from years past. The difference is in the turkey itself. I ordered a turkey at a farmers market earlier this year through Rueggseger Farms. The turkey was never frozen, it was “harvested” on Tuesday morning and we took delivery in the evening. It was astonishingly fresh and well-cleaned and absolutely lip-smacking when cooked.

Additional Recipes will be coming soon.

Roasted Salad

Roasted Salad

I am so thrilled that it’s finally summer, but it seems I can’t give up my oven. Though I do have a grill, it’s an electric one. 😦 My local fire department does not allow grilling on balconies. But I still love summer veggies and have a tendency to buy too much. So, today, I decided to put some of those veggies to good use and make a salad. Since roasting is so easy and brings out the flavor so much, I decided to sacrifice personal comfort in my caricature-worthy tiny kitchen for the benefit of the salad.

Ingredients:
3 bell peppers (I used red, orange, and yellow)
1 bunch of asparagus
1/2 red onion diced
1 tb basil
Salt, pepper, olive oil, balsamic vinegar to taste

Steps:
1. Cut up the peppers in large chunks and clean the asparagus
2. Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
3. Roast to your desired doneness at 425 degrees; I roasted the asparagus for about 5-6 minutes and peppers for about 15-20.
4. When the veggies cool, dress with a little bit of balsamic vinegar.
5. Add the diced onion.
6. Sprinkle with a little bit of basil

Roasted Salad Detail

Voila! Ready to serve.

Steak and Potatoes

I love steak.  And potatoes.  But I’m trying to take a healthier approach to these foods and I know that cooking this at home would not only be healthier, but also much more cost effective.  Even in these economic times a steak and potatoes dinner is affordable, if you make it yourself.  And honestly, why pay $30 per meal and spend hours in a restaurant where you don’t know what you’ll get if this costs about $7 or $8, takes no time at all to prepare,  is really easy to prepare, and you know exactly what you’re eating.  So, without further ado, here is what I did.

Ingredients:
Steak
Sweet potatoes (I used 2)
Worcestershire sauce
Tamari or Soy sauce
Olive oil
Salt, pepper

Marinating steak

Grilling Steak

Steps:
For the steak:
1. Marinate the steak in olive oil, tamari/soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, and some freshly ground pepper, in a ziplock baggie. Let the steak marinate for at least an hour.
2. Grill the steak. I don’t have that option, so I used a grill pan. Oil the pan slightly and place the steak. You can flip it for grill marks on both sides. Grill until it reaches the desired level of “done”.
3. After the steak is done, transfer it to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm. Let stand for about 5-10 minutes so the juices redistribute back and don’t leak out when you cut into it.

Sweet Potato in Oven

Sweet Potato

For the potatoes:
1. Clean thoroughly with a brush, or peel the skin.
2. Cut into wedges.
3. Place the potatoes into a baggie and pour oil. This helps keep clean-up to a minimum.
4. Spread the potatoes on a baking sheet. Salt, pepper.
5. Place into a preheated oven (375 degrees) and bake for about 25 minutes or until done.

Steak and Potatoes

Roasted Chicken – Updated version

Roasted Chicken

[I originally started this post in January. Just saw that it was still sitting unpublished and decided to publish it, just how I wrote it in January.]
It’s been a long time since I posted anything here. That’s not to say that I haven’t cooked. Just nothing “new”. But being stuck in a rut of sorts can be helpful in getting me out of that same rut. I’ve been craving a roasted chicken lately. It’s been a long time since I’ve made it, and I’ve been making it the same way for a while. So, I figured this would be a perfect opportunity to try something different. I finally decided to make my own spice rub. I’ve seen it enough on TV and decided to give it a shot.

I mixed cumin, salt, pepper, and coriander with some olive oil until I liked how it tasted. Then, I rubbed it on the chicken and placed the covered chicken into the oven.

Follow the original recipe here. The only thing I did differently is the spice rub.

The day I made this chicken, a friend was visiting and she seemed to enjoy it. 🙂

Birthday Celebration

Birthday Celebration

I know that it looks like I haven’t cooked anything in months.  And it’s almost true.  I have cooked things I already wrote about and have a few more recipes I haven’t posted.  But let me start with the birthday celebration which was in early March.

I made two roasted chickens, just to be sure I had enough. But one was enough. Everyone seemed to love it. I hope they weren’t just polite but actually liked it.

I also made:

• Seafood salad
• Salmon “pizza” that was inspired by Emeril’s Smoked Salmon and Goat Cheese Pizza Bites. Mine had regular cream cheese instead of goat cheese and using store-bought dough made it extra quick.
• Baked potatoes
• Marinated mushrooms, and these really did seem to be a hit

Additionally, I bought a lot of marinated things such as marinated tomatoes, mushrooms, and pattisons (baby squash of some kind).

Meat filled flat-bread (lepeshka) – лепешка

Lepeshka

We made this flat bread (лепешка) the same day as when we made manti. See, we had some leftover dough as well as a little bit of the meat mixture. We can’t let anything so good go to waste, so we combined them together into a most delicious bread (with meat).

For the ingredients and steps to create the dough and meat mixture, see the Manti recipe.

The dough was rolled out and slightly stabbed with a fork. This is done so it doesn’t puff up (we’re not making puff pastry after-all). So, after stabbing the dough with the fork to make some holes, place the meat evenly throughout (see the first image).

Then, roll the dough into a rope shape.
Once you have a length of this meat filled dough rope, start rolling into a circle (see the second picture).

Brush with an egg wash and place into an oven at 350 degrees for about an hour. Since ovens vary wildly, just make sure it’s done and the dough is flaky and golden brown on top (and that the meat is cooked through).

Thanks Nora for yet another delicious recipe.

Dough with meat

Dough roll

Lepeshka Done!

Turkey – Thanksgiving and any other day

Turkey - Extra moist and delicious

I was completely new to baking a turkey a few years ago.  In fact, the first time I tried to make a turkey (for Thanksgiving) I almost burned down my kitchen.  You see, I was following 2 different turkey recipes at once and made a pie earlier.  When the pie filling oozed out ever so bubble-ishesly right between the heating coils, I didn’t give it much thought.  Until I needed to crank the oven to 500 degrees.  That was the day I found out that burned sugar and high temperatures don’t mix, for when I went to put the turkey in the oven, I saw flames! shooting up inside the oven.  You have to image this: me standing in front of the oven, barely holding pan with a very heavy turkey at eye level, in complete shock.

In the end, it all worked out.  We had a really moist and tasty turkey.  So moist that people with dentures were able to enjoy it as well.  You can see in the picture that it’s so moist it’s practically falling apart.

Here is the recipe that I adapted from Alton Brown’s on the Food Network.

Brine:

• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 gallon vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
• 1 gallon heavily iced water

Baking the Turkey:
For this, I use Reynolds Oven Bags. Here are the instructions from Reynolds (which are also found inside the packagin):

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Shake flour in Reynolds Oven Bag; place in large roasting pan at least 2 inches deep. Spray inside of bag with nonstick spray to reduce sticking, if desired.

3. Add vegetables to oven bag. Remove neck and giblets from turkey. Rinse turkey; pat dry. Brush turkey with oil. Combine sage, thyme, rosemary and seasoned salt. Sprinkle and rub herb mixture over turkey, turning to coat evenly.
4. Place turkey in oven bag on top of vegetables.

5. Close oven bag with nylon tie; cut six 1/2-inch slits in top. Insert meat thermometer through slit in bag into thickest part of inner thigh. Tuck ends of bag in pan.

6. Bake 2 to 2 1/2 hours for a 12 to 16 lb. turkey, 2 1/2 to 3 hours for a 16 to 20 lb. turkey, and 3 to 3 1/2 hours for a 20 to 24 lb. turkey, or until meat thermometer reads 180°F. For easy slicing, let stand in oven bag 15 minutes before opening.

Thanksgiving Part 2

The day is finally here and I’m giddy with excitement. I started cooking late last night and continued today. One of my big realizations was that everything except that was cooked, except the boiled potatoes, was baked. My oven fulfilled its baking duties fully. I love my stove/oven but as my mental list of my dream kitchen grows longer, I’m adding double ovens to that list. Or maybe it should be triple ovens.

Today, we got together around 2:30 and people left after 8. We laughed and toasted and chatted and reminisced and remembered. And ate. And ate. And ate. That’s the “Russian” way.
This year, as we toasted to the things we were thankful for such as family, health, friends, and other such things, we also added “having jobs”. Face it, it’s a blessing to have a job currently.

But as much as I love this day and as much as I look forward to it all year, I am also not sorry that this day is drawing to a close. Finally sitting down in my comfy PJs and running a load of dishes in the dishwasher, I am truly thankful for all that I have, but especially for being here and being able to celebrate this wonderful holiday.

But without further delay, here are the pictures to accompany the menu in this post.

Oven “Fries” / Steak Fries / Baked Potatoes

In the last few years I have developed a real appreciation for the potato.  I never liked it when I was growing up, but I think it’s because it was mainly found in soups, all mushy and in various states of disintegration; or it was pan fried.  Turns out I don’t really like the greasy texture of the fried potato, all crunchy on the outside and mealy on the inside.

But I started experimenting with a few varieties and a few recipes.  Here is an easy, quick, and healthy alternative to fries.

Ingredients:
1 lb of Yukon Gold potatoes
1 bottle of your favorite steak seasoning (I use McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning)
1 TB of olive oil
1 Gallon plastic bag

Steps:
1. Peal the potatoes.
2. Cut into wedges of roughly equal size, so they cook evenly.
3. Place potatoes into the plastic bag with the olive oil. Shake the potatoes to coat with the oil.
4. Place the oiled potatoes on a baking sheet and sprinkle with the steak seasoning to taste.
5. Place into a preheated oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes or until they’re done.

Golden delisiousness

Baked Salmon

I found this recipe on FoodNetwork.com, but it had a few too many extra things, so I paired it down.  Here is my version.

Ingredients:

1 LB of Salmon
Tamari (or low-sodium soy sauce if you can’t find Tamari)
freshly ground black pepper (to taste)

Steps:

1. Rinse the fish and pat it dry.
2. Put fish into oven-safe dish.
3. Pour as much Tamri as you like. I like it quite liberally on the fish. It keeps it moist during cooking, as well as makes a nice sauce for spooning over your side dish (like rice).
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
5. Cover the dish with aluminum foil.
6. Cook for about 15-18 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish.
7. Take it out of the oven. If the fish is still too rare for your liking, keep it covered with the foil. It will keep cooking, but won’t dry out.

That’s it. A main dish in 15 minutes. It’s healthy and easy and quick. What could be better?

Salmon with tamari

Baked Salmon

Finished Salmon and Asparagus