Homemade Crackers!

I promised no more low-res phone pictures. I lied. Cooking with kids is challenging enough without bringing the expensive camera into the kitchen sometimes...

 We got stuck home last week...partly because of a sick kid, partly because I'm really tired of winter. It was coming up on lunch time and the thought of buttered noodles or PB&J's again was killing me. Sooo...I made a pot of broccoli cheese soup (post to come!) and then Monkey and I made some homemade crackers. It was pretty fun. You can roll them out and use cookie cutters which we did with half the dough, or you can roll out into long pieces and then break apart. Either way they're easy and good and pretty adaptable. Next time I'd add a TON more seasoning as I thought they were fairly bland, but the kids gobbled them up!

I found a couple recipes that required what I already had at home and just sort of winged it, but they were a fun project to do with the kids. The texture and taste sort of reminded me of a biscuit type cracker. Maybe because they weren't as thin as they could be, I don't know, but they're super easy and fun to try!

Crackers:

Ingredients:
4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup shortening or bacon fat (yes, I'm one of those people that saves it...)
1 cup milk
1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese (or whatever else you want)
salt or seasoning to taste (I actually used Tony Chachere Creole Seasoning)

Directions:
Mix flour, baking powder and shortening
Add milk and blend well
Form a ball of dough and divide so you can roll out and cut
Roll out dough very thin and cut with cookie cutters or else roll into planks
Poke all over with a fork and transfer to a baking sheet
Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes or until golden

That's it! Very easy :)

A Different Kind of Vampire Book...

Tandem by Tracey Bateman


Disclaimer: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Although not a huge fan of vampire type books, I thought this one looked interesting and I was right. Although it's a sequel, (I didn't realize this until I was finished with the book!), I don't feel like I was missing too much having not read the first book.

The book is about a woman running an auction house while dealing with Alzheimer's taking it's toll on her father. She's pulled into the vampire plot when a fire claims the life of a man and woman who were vampires (I'm not spoiling this since it was laid out in the first book). The woman who was killed had a sister (also a vampire), who comes to the small town to claim items found in the house. The story continues to follow these two story lines with twists and turns that were sometimes surprising but often predictable...

I really got into Anne Rice when I was younger but hated the Twilight series. I think that this series is a little more akin to the Rice books because the characters are more believable, the suspense builds and leaves you guessing (although honestly, it wasn't too hard to figure out who the "other" vampire was), and overall it was a decent read. Would I recommend this? Maybe, if you like vampires and want an easy read. I didn't have any problems getting through this and actually added the first of the series to my "easy books to read" list

Tortellini and Spinach Ribbons in Saffron-Romano Broth

The weather this week-end is bitterly cold. Driving home last night from my girlfriends house, I had to alternate hands on the steering wheel because they kept freezing! No fun...totally worth a fun night with the girls though :)

My original plan today was to roast a turkey but I forgot to take it out yesterday morning. So today I thought I'd make a huge pot of marinara, but I was short a couple ingredients and when my husband came home with them I was taking a nap, so....I was looking for something easy.

This soup is perfect for a cold night - it's basic yet filled with great flavor - not too many ingredients and easy enough for even the beginner cook. Try it. You'll like it! It made enough for all of us, (2 adults, a teen, a tween and 2 toddlers), to finish and a bit left over. Double it if you want to serve a crowd...

Ingredients:

• 5 oz piece Romano cheese with roughly 3"x3" rind, or enough area to cover approximately the same area
• 8 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 4 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 4 sprigs fresh parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon saffron threads, crushed
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 cups cheese tortellini
• 4 cups loosely packed baby spinach leaves, cut into 1/2" wide ribbons
• 1/2 lemon, juiced - about 2 Tbsp
• Homemade or good quality croutons

Directions:

1. Cut rind off cheese
2. Combine rind, stock, garlic, saffron, parsley and olive oil in a medium sized pot and simmer gently, partially covered, about 30 minutes.
3. Discard parsley and rind and season broth with salt if needed (probably not, depends on your broth)
4. Add tortellini and simmer, partially covered, until al dente, about 10 minutes
5. Add spinach and simmer, uncovered, 1 minute.
6. Remove from heat and add lemon juice.
7. Divide among serving bowls and shave remaining cheese on top to taste. 
8. Top with croutons.

Crazy Potato Squares! (Ham and Potato Gratin)

Monkey is my #1 fan in the kitchen. I don't mean that he loves everything that I make, but every time I'm in there, he really really wants to help. He's a natural and will actually eat anything he helps make, so it's a good motivator for me to try new things with him.

For Christmas, he made an apron at a playtime, and got these knives and this cookbook from his Nana. We haven't made anything with the cookbook yet, but I promise we will and post how it went!

Last night my plan was to make a quick potato gratin - I bought 20 lbs of the suckers on impulse at my grocer when they had organic bags on sale for $3.99. It's a lot of potatoes! I also had some ham in the freezer from Christmas that my Grandmother sent home so the gratin seemed like a good idea. I also almost always have cheese and cream in my fridge. What can I say, it's a good thing I'm not lactose intolerant!

Enter my little Monkey.

He tried to help cut up the ham with his trusty knife but it was a little tough going so I helped with that. We cut up the potatoes in my Cuisinart using the julienne attachment, or as he likes to call it, the crazy potato squares! (Side note, my Cuisinart is still semi-broken and while I can get it to make salsa without too much effort, putting things through the feed tube means an entirely different headache...I put this on my Valentines wishlist...)

Anyway, Monkey assembled the entire dish with very little help from me and loved doing it. It turned out wonderful and the entire dish was gone! No leftovers! I couldn't believe it...

Crazy Potato Squares aka Ham and Potato Gratin with Cheese!

Ingredients:

• Approximately 5 cups of potatos cut into 1/4" julienne, from about 2.5 lbs
• 2 cups leftover ham, diced
• 1 small yellow onion, minced
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 tsp Marjoram
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 6 oz Cheddar Cheese, shredded
• 2 oz Romano Cheese, shredded
• 2 Tbsp Butter

Instructions:


1. Preheat Oven to 375
2. Butter the inside of an 11 x 15 pan

3. In a large bowl, mix together potatoes, ham, onion, marjoram and salt and pepper. Stir to combine.

4. In another bowl, or food processor, combine the shredded cheeses

5. Place 1/3 of the Potato mixture in the pan

6. Sprinkle 1/3 of the cheese mixture on top

7. Repeat with the remaining potatoes and cheese, ending with a layer of cheese.

8. Press the mixture down flat with the back of a spatula and bake in the oven for 90 minutes or until golden and bubbly. Let it rest for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.





p.s. Because he ate all his dinner and because he's so dang cute, here are a couple pictures of him eating his pumpkin pie for dessert!

Turkey Tomatillo Tamales

Again, pictures from my phone. I'll never ever do it again, I promise...

Tamales! I've always wanted to make them and when Heavy Table posted this recipe last year, I knew that someday I'd have to do this myself...I've eaten La Loma's tamales and they're wonderful so it's been bookmarked forever and I finally made them yesterday with the leftover turkey from this post.


To be fair, this recipe is unusually vague and so I had to consult my Rick Bayliss cookbook, Mexico One Plate At A Time, for some pointers. If you don't own it, check it out. Every recipe I've tried from here has been a hit!


Also, the recipe says it makes 30 tamales and it made about 50 for us and I'm pretty sure we overfilled them since a few were leaking out the top...


The nice thing about tamales is that they're actually really easy to make and pretty adaptable. Every family, I'm told, has a different recipe and everyone thinks theirs is the best so have fun, experiment and make your own.


Also, get a friend to help you because the assembly is a lot more fun when you have a friend. Shellville, my trusty cooking cohort and author of The Road to Shellville helped me. I love her for it! (and many other reasons, of course...)


One other thing - if you like sauce on the side or on top afterwards, DOUBLE THE SAUCE RECIPE! I really wish I would've because I could have had some on the side or saved for enchiladas...

Turkey Tomatillo Tamales
Yield: 50 tamales

Approximately 3 lbs of  turkey left over from this recipe, shredded

(You can also just cook your own chicken or even use a rotisserie...)

2 ½ lbs tomatillos, skin removed and quartered

8 jalapeno peppers, stems removed, cut into chunks

1 medium white onion

4 cloves garlic

Chicken bouillon to taste - (This instruction left me wondering if they meant just the boullion cube or in liquid form or what...I chose to throw in a cube and then added enough water so that my total sauce was 40 oz.)

Instructions:

Boil the tomatillos, jalapeno peppers, onion, and garlic in water until cooked, about 5 mn. 

Discard the water and process the sauce ingredients in a blender with the chicken bouillon.

Add 12 oz of the sauce to the shredded chicken; set the remainder aside for use in the following dough preparation.

Tamale Dough

1 ½ lbs dried corn husks for tamales, picked clean of stringy fibers

6 cups of Maseca Brand Corn Masa

4- 5 cups chicken broth, to reach desired consistency

1.5 tsps baking powder

28 oz green sauce (from recipe above)

1 lb lard or crisco (we had crisco although I'm sure lard would make a much better flavor)

Instructions:

1. Soak the corn husks in hot water for 10-20 minutes, wash them and allow them to drain.

2.Mix the masa and baking powder together - add broth, green sauce and lard or crisco until the mixture resembles that of cake batter.

3. Into each tamale wrapper, spread 1/4 cup of the masa dough and on top of that, place 1-2 Tbsp of meat mixture and wrap with the corn husk, folding the bottom up or tying with a strip of wrapper. More detailed instructions can be found here.

4. After all tamales are assembled, place them upright (closed end down) in a 20-qt tamalera(tamale steamer) or a really large pot. I ended up using my Ball Canning Bath with the steamer handles flipped under and the top lined with leftover corn husks. Pour about a cup of water into the pot and Steam for two hours; making sure to check that the water doesn't evaporate. Keep a small pot with simmering water next to the steamer so that you can refill it if needed (I needed to twice).

5. After they're done steaming, let them sit at least 15 minutes and then warm up if you're eating them immediately. Otherwise, they can be refrigerated and re-steamed (or microwaved) within 3 days or frozen and saved for up to 3 months. 

Chile-Rubbed Roast Turkey aka Turkey Heaven!

I'm going to apologize in advance for the shoddy photos - I used my phone thinking it would be the same. It's obviously not.


I discovered this recipe when I was searching for a brine recipe for Thanksgiving and just knew that I had to bookmark it and save it for later. I don't know about you, but although I love holiday food, I really start craving SPICE right after Christmas. Too much starch and ham and sausage and meatballs and....well, you get the picture.


I got a little impulsive around Thanksgiving and bought 3 turkeys! They were such a great price and I had room in my freezer at the time...so I had that going for me. I adapted the recipe only slightly because I had forgotten my list when I got to the store and so bought guajillo peppers instead of the pasilla. They're close enough I guess, or maybe this is even better because I'm absent minded....either way, you should totally make this. It's SO SO good - and although I used all the leftovers to make a mad amount of tamales, (recipe to come), they could also be used to make some killer enchiladas! In fact, I froze the rest of the gravy to use as a base for enchiladas that I'll probably make with chicken next week - I'll let you know how that goes.


p.s. My husband had THIRDS of this - he was pretty leery at first, but everyone loved it, even picky little baby Moo who NEVER eats dinner unless we have pizza...


Chile-Rubbed Roast Turkey


6 guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded
30 cloves garlic (5 finely chopped) - (yes, this seems like way too much, but it mellows and is lovely, I promise)
1/3 cup orange juice - I used fresh squeezed from about 2 naval oranges
3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp. honey 
1 tbsp. kosher salt, plus more to taste
1 tbsp. whole black peppercorns
1  12 lb. turkey
1 large onion, quartered
1 orange, quartered
1/2 cup red wine
2 tbsp. butter
4 cups turkey or chicken broth - I used low sodium Pacific Natural - it's my favorite to buy when I don't have any of my own in the freezer.
1 1/2 tbsp. cornstarch mixed with 3 tbsp. water
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
2 tbsp. finely chopped cilantro

1. In a 10" cast-iron skillet over high heat, toast chiles, turning once, until fragrant, about 30 - 60 seconds per side. Transfer to a small bowl and cover with 1 cup boiling water; let soak until soft, 20 minutes. 

2. Transfer chiles and their liquid to a blender along with 25 cloves garlic, orange juice, oil, honey, 1 tbsp. salt, and peppercorns and purée until smooth, about 2 minutes. Set chile rub aside. 

3. Heat oven to 475° and place rack in bottom third of oven. Season inside of turkey with salt. Stuff the turkey with the oranges and onions and then pour the rub all over the turkey. 

Transfer the turkey breast side up to a roasting pan.  Roast for 30 minutes; lower heat to 325° and cook for 30 minutes more. Remove turkey from oven and, using kitchen towels to protect your hands, flip turkey breast side down. Roast, basting every 45 minutes, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into a thigh but not touching the bone registers 165°, about 3 hours total for a 12 lb turkey - mine was about 10.5 lbs and so only took 2.5 hours. Lower oven to 150°. Transfer turkey, breast side up, to a baking sheet; return to oven to keep warm. Remove turkey from oven 15 minutes before serving.

3. Meanwhile, add wine to roasting pan and heat over high heat. Scrape up any brown bits; cook, stirring, until mixture has reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Set a sieve over a bowl; strain liquid and discard solids. Put liquid into freezer and leave for 30 minutes. Skim and discard fat; set liquid aside. Melt butter in a 12" skillet over medium heat. Add remaining 5 cloves of minced garlic; cook until soft, about 2 minutes. Add broth and reserved liquid; turn up heat to medium high and boil to reduce by half, about 15 minutes. Whisk in cornstarch mixture; bring back to a boil and cook for 2 minutes; strain through a sieve into a 1-qt. saucepan. Stir in nutmeg and cilantro and season gravy with salt and pepper. Carve turkey and serve with the gravy.

Cran-Neño Jam!

I put out a feeler on my facebook a week or so ago about what my family would like better for a gift, a salted caramel pear butter or a cranberry jalapeno jam. While most of my friends voted for the butter, the family weighed in with a vote that was almost unanimous towards the jam.

So today I made it! And it's delicious!

A complex layer of flavors that hits your palate when you try it - the heat from the jalapeno, the sweet from the sugar, the tart from the lime and cranberry. Again, something that pairs wonderfully with cream cheese and crackers...seriously, do I can anything that DOESN'T pair well with cream cheese and crackers? Thank you Amy for introducing me...life hasn't been the same since.

This is a really simple, straightforward project and I encourage you to try it. I made 13 pints as well as having another 2 that I just stuck in the fridge for Christmas Day.

Ingredients:
6 cups water
6 cups sugar
3 lb bag of cranberries
6 jalapenos
2 limes, zested and juiced

Instructions:

Chop 1/2 of the cranberries and all of the jalapenos (you can deseed or remove the pith first if you don't want it too spicy) in your food processor. I pulsed mine maybe 12-15 times.

Bring water and sugar to a boil in a large stockpot. Cook until sugar dissolves and then boil hard for 5 minutes. 

Add all the cranberries, jalapenos and the zest of the lime

Bring back to a boil and cook hard for 15 minutes or longer, making sure that the cranberries pop and release their juices.

Take off the heat and stir in the lime juice. Fill pint or jelly jars 1/4" from top, release bubbles, and process for 15 mn. Let sit for a minimum of 24 hours before opening.

p.s. I'm finally publishing this now, after Christmas - a couple notes - I accidentally let this boil over after I had added the fruit and the peppers and all my seeds (a source of most of the heat) rose over or stuck to the sides of the pan. The batch that I stuck in my fridge had most of the seeds and so was really spicy and wonderful, but all the ones that I canned were really tame. However, the flavor was still really good. I served it at two different parties and it was  hit both times, so have fun with it and enjoy! Even mistakes turn out wonderful sometimes...