November 28, 2010 Leftover Turkey

After Thanksgiving, what happens to all that leftover turkey?  Do you have turkey sandwiches for weeks?  Do you have to incorporate turkey into every meal until it's gone?  Do you feed it to the dog? Do you make soup?


Well, I have found a better way.  Rather than get absolutely sick of that leftover turkey, I took my mom's advice.

I finished taking all the meat off the bones.  Then one at a time I took a square piece of foil, topped it with a square piece of wax paper, then placed a heap of the turkey meat on top. 

 

I folded both layers to wrap around the turkey and folded the edges.

Then I placed the pack into a Ziploc bag.  I did this until the turkey was all wrapped up and put the bag in the freezer.

Just to test it, today for lunch I took one pack out, removed the foil and heated up the turkey to see how it had fared in the freezer.  It was just as delicious as it had been before freezing.  Now I have individual serving sizes of turkey whenever I want it.  All I have to do is take it out of the freezer and heat it up.

Today my job is boiling the rest of the carcass for soup.  I haven't decided yet whether it will be gumbo or plain old turkey soup.  And since I don't believe in wasting, all the cartilage and skin left over after boiling will be much appreciated by my dogs (NO bones; they're dangerous for dogs).

November 22, 2010 Blueberry Muffins

I love to bake.  Going gluten free hasn't changed that.  As a matter of fact, it only made me more determined to bake the most delicious stuff in the healthiest way possible.  I had an envie for blueberry muffins over the weekend, so I made some.  Lucky for me, I had every ingredient I needed in the fridge/freezer/pantry.

*Hint for Bakers:  My oven runs too hot.  I learned this by trial and error (lots of burnt cookies).  So when I bake, I know I have to adjust the baking temperature for my oven.  If the recipe says 400, I set mine at 350.

Blueberry Muffins (gluten free)

2 cups brown rice flour
1/3 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon xantham gum
1 egg
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup rice milk (or almond, or soy, or even real milk if you prefer)
1 teaspoon orange zest (finely grated orange skin--gives it a great tangy flavor)
1 cup blueberries (either fresh OR thawed and rinsed frozen blueberries)
*Large granule sugar (such as Sugar in the Raw or decorating sugar) 

Preheat oven to 400.  Mix dry ingredients together.  Mix wet ingredients together.  Mix dry ingredients with wet ingredients.  Stir in blueberries and orange zest.  Pour into muffin cups full, very close to the top edge.  *Top with large-granule sugar. Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes.  If you use mini-muffins, bake them for less time, regular size or large muffin tins, bake longer.  If you stick a toothpick in the middle and it comes out dry, they're done.  Remove and let cool.  Enjoy.

November 7, 2010 - Perfect Soup Weather

Yesterday while driving around running errands, I was listening to one of NPR's food programs.  They were talking about the first cold snap being the best time to make soup, and a suggestion was made that when making your soup, you should brown your vegetables first, to extract the most flavor from them.  I took that advice.

WHTBITF Vegetable Soup
Ingredients on hand:
1 fresh onion and about 1/4 cup dried onions
1 cup frozen chopped broccoli
3/4 cup frozen green beans (that's all I had left)
1 cup green onions
1/4 cup minced garlic
4 whole carrots, chopped
about 2 cups frozen cabbage stock
2 cups stewed cabbage
12-oz pack of white (navy) beans
7 small red potatoes peeled
1.5 cups cooked brown rice
1 pound smoked turkey sausage
2 frozen chicken breast fillets
Salt, dried parsley cumin and sage

First, I put the frozen stock and cabbage in the pot to get it boiling, then threw in the white beans.  While that was going on, I made sure all the veggies were chopped and put them in a large pan to brown in olive oil.  Once they were all nicely browned, they went into the pot.  I added the potatoes and brown rice after that, and had to add about a quart of water because it was getting very thick at that point.  I sliced up the sausage and threw it in.  I thawed and then seasoned and browned the chicken breasts in the large pan.  When they were cooked, I chopped them up and put them in the pot.  Once everything was in the pot, I just had to stir every now and then and wait for the beans to be thoroughly cooked.  While it was all at a rolling boil, I added salt (I didn't measure, just took the salt canister and waved it 3 or 4 times), cumin (again, about 4 or 5 shakes right into the pot), sage (the equivalent of maybe 3 pinches), and a handful of dried parsley flakes.  The big pot was full up to the rim.

The smell was heavenly once it was all boiling, and once the beans were tender, it was ready to eat.  It was WAY better than I expected it to be, so flavorful!  Come on over and have a bowl.  There's too much for me to finish by myself.

September 10, 2010 Oh, RUM BALLS!!

My new favorite expletive.  It's fun to say now, especially since a new series of men's soap commercials made me laugh out loud.

I looked all over my cookbooks and the internet to find a rum ball recipe, ANY rum ball recipe.  My cookbooks failed me, but I was lucky enough to find several different recipes online, even some that were gluten free.  Unfortunately, every one of them was different, and I couldn't decide which one to use, so I used all of them.  Some of them called for corn syrup, something I didn't have in the fridge (or cupboard), so I went with the ones that didn't.  Then I whittled the recipes down to how much actual work I wanted to do, which was very little.  Here is what I finally came up with, and it was delicious:

I used Betty Crocker Gluten Free Devil's Food Cake Mix, and prepared it the way the box said to.  I added about 1/2 cup of gluten-free, dairy free chocolate chips made by Enjoy Life (an allergy-friendly company) after it had baked a little bit so they sort of melted into the cake as it baked.  (I REALLY enjoyed taste testing this after it was cooked.)

After the cake was done and cooled a little bit, it was time for the rum.  One recipe called for 1/4 cup of rum.  That just didn't feel right to me, so I put more.  Don't ask me how much, because it was Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum and it tasted pretty good, so I stopped measuring.  You just have to make sure that you don't over-wet the cake.  I could have used a mixer to beat this together, but I did it by hand with a wire masher, which worked just as well, made less noise and was easier to clean up. 

Once it was all nice and squishy, I scooped it out into balls, rolled the balls in minced walnuts (my first batch didn't have walnuts) and then powdered sugar, and placed them on wax paper on a plate.  This went into the fridge for a while (I'm sure half an hour would be sufficient).  Et voila!  Rum Balls!  Quite satisfactory!

August 26, 2010 Ooooooo, Frankenstein!

There's not much lead up to today's post.  I was hungry.  It was lunchtime.  There was salad.  There was chicken.  I didn't feel like ranch dressing.  Time to perform a quick experiment.  I loved it. 

Today's find:  Quarter-full bottle of Dijon mustard. 

I had a bottle of Dijon mustard in the fridge had about a quarter left.  I poured in enough balsamic vinegar to fill it halfway (so one part to one part each), and then I shook it up vigorously.  This is extremely tangy and wonderful!

Happy lunching.

July 30, 2010 You Can't Be Serious!

People who know me well have heard me ramble on about how many dishes I've broken lately. I joke about it. I say I'm just making room for all my Annedivorcery registry gifts I have coming, but the truth is...I'm clumsy. Other theories include a poltergeist in my house who revels in causing things to fall off counters, tables and even walls, for heaven's sake. It's become rather maddening. If my cabinets were becoming crowded, they won't be that way for long.

I have broken supposedly shatterproof Corningware into millions of tiny shards, glass stemware, tumblers, plates, bowls...even a spoon.  I know, I know, it sounds ridiculous, but it's true.  I actually broke...a...spoon.  In my defense, it was an old spoon, and I was smoothing rice crispy candy down into a pan, but still.

Lucky for me, my mother recently was "forced" to replace all her pots and pans, which meant I got to inherit a lovely set of stainless steel cookware, perfect for replacing all the "Visions" I've destroyed over the years, and especially recently.  I think every cook should rotate his/her cookware every several years.  I just haven't done it in a while.  Now seems as good a time as any.

Today's Find:  Half bag of Marshmallows

Rice Krispies treats (You can get the "recipe" off of any box of Rice Krispies or even marshmallow bags, but it's pretty easy)
10 oz. Marshmallows
3 Tbs Butter or Margarine
6 cups Rice Krispies

Melt butter with marshmallows in the microwave in a large glass bowl (never melt butter in a plastic bowl or you'll end up with fried plastic) about 2 minutes, stir, then nuke 1 more minute.  Stir it up until it becomes fluffy white and creamy.  Add Rice Krispies, stir until all mixed together and then mash down into a cake pan with an oiled spatula.  Once cooled, slice into squares and enjoy.
(Use a plastic knife especially if you used a nonstick pan, because a metal knife would scratch it)

Update

A trip to the grocery store confirms that Rouses did, indeed, stock my dairy-free frozen treats in the ice cream section.  Huzzah to Rouses, and thank you.