Posts Tagged ‘Recipes’

If you have a rosemary plant, this is something you can do with the leaves. If you don’t, you can buy the leaves in the herbs section of the grocery. 

We use only home grown here.

Make a brining solution by combining 1/2 cup salt, 10 garlic cloves, chopped, 3 rosemary sprigs, leaves stripped off, and 8 cups water.  Submerge the chicken in the brine and let “brine” for one hour.

While you’re doing that, make the rub for the chicken. Use 2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary leaves, 2 garlic cloves, minced, 1/8 teaspoon salt, a few grindings of black pepper, and 1 tablespoon olive oil.  Have this in a small bowl. Pull the bird out of the brine, pat dry and place on a roasting rack over a baking dish (ideal) or platter.

Now lift the skin of the bird and push some of the rub under the skin. Put some under the breast skin and some under the back skin. Try to get some of the rub in all the places you can reach under the skin, though I’ve never figured out how to get any into the drumsticks.

Now truss the chicken. Use only cotton cooking twine or (my own favorite) peaches and cream cotton yarn, the type you use for making dishclothes. First, tie the drumsticks together. Then, the wings. Now is the two person part. With one person holding the bird up, make a loop around the breast and the wings, pull tight and tie. Now make another loop around the legs and the back of the bird. Pull tight.

You can still roast the bird untrussed but it won’t be as moist and evenly cooked. 

Now roast the bird at 450 degrees for 30 minutes, turn over, and roast at 375 degrees about 30 to 40 minutes until interior temperature reaches 160 degrees for the breast, and 175 for the thigh. If you don’t have a thermometer, you can try the old “till juices run clear” test but I find it unreliable. If your remove the bird, cut it up, and there are pieces that aren’t all the way done (oh horror) don’t dispair, put them in the microwave for a minute or two.

Serve with rice and a nice green salad or whatever vegetable you have in the ‘fridge.

This is a favorite of my oldest daughter. It takes some attention, but is probably the most perfect coffee cake I’ve ever eaten.

You’ll need a tube pan like you use for angel food cake.  If the bottom is removable, wrap the pan in aluminum foil before you start or the batter will leak out.  Butter the pan well with 2 tablespoons of butter. Set up the oven by taking out all but one rack and putting that one rack near the bottom of the oven so the pan will fit.  Preheat to 350 degrees.

Streusel Topping

Mix together 3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour, 1/4  cup granulated sugar, 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar, and 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon.

Put 1 1/4 cups of this mixture aside into a small bowl and stir 1/4 cups of brown sugar into this set aside mixture.  This will be the streusel for the inside the cake. Mix the rest of the topping with 2 tablespoons cold butter (some would add nuts, but we never do) and set aside. This will be streusel for the top of the cake. 

Cake:

Combine 4 large eggs, 1 tablespoon vanilla and 1 cup sour cream in a bowl. Sift 2 1/4 cup flour, 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon baking powder,1/4 tablespoon baking soda and 1/4 tablespoon salt  into another bowl and add 1/2 cup sour cream and 3/4 cup softened butter, mix until dry ingredients are moistened. Then beat well, scraping sides of bowl. Add the egg mixture in three steps, beating after each. Beat well again until you see batter begin to become puffy and increase in size.

Now you’re ready to assemble the cake. Start filling the prepared tube pan with 3 cups of batter, follow with 3/4 cups of the streusel for the interior, one cup of batter, and then the remaining interior streusel, the last of the batter, and the streusel with butter for the top of the cake. 

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 30 minutes. May be difficult to slice while still warm. Wrap in aluminum foil to serve.

These cookies might be called a close relative of Toll House Cookies. Although I like my own recipe better, the differences between the two recipes are very slight. I have made them so many times I no longer have to refer to the directions. To get the best results, I believe it is critical to use butter, and not shortening or margerine.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Have at room temperature 1 cup butter. Add 3/4 cups sugar and 3/4 cups brown sugar. Cream these together, either with a mixer or with a wooden spoon. Once they are blended into a paste, add two eggs and a teaspoon of vanilla. Mix well. Now put 2 cups of flour, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda in a sifter. Sift over butter mixture. Mix in well. Now all that is left to do is add 1/2 a 12 oz. bag of bittersweet chocolate chips. Mix these in and you have your batter.

Grease two cookie trays, perhaps using the paper wrappers from the butter. Put heaping tablespoons, or so, of batter on the cookie trays, evenly spaced. Cook in the oven for about 10 minutes. Remove and cool on newspaper or a cooling rack, but do not leave them on the tray to cool as they will stick.

These do not last long if you have children. My father used to make them, back in those lovely childhood days of not worrying about eating too many sweets, and he always made a double batch. What a great dad. I miss those days so much, but when I eat even one chocolate chip cookie, or better yet, the batter, I am instantly transported to being 10 years old. It’s a good feelling.

Well, I have to say that my favorite is: The Turkey Pie

This recipe can also be made topped with biscuit dough, above, for those who like turkey and biscuits instead of turkey pot pie.

This will give you something like those Birdseye Frozen Chicken Pot Pies my mom used to feed us when I was a kid, but much better tasting.

You’ll want to use a big pie pan (10″ is good) or you’ll have filling left over for sure.

Pie Crust:

Make enough crust for a double crust pie. Mix together 2 cups flour with 2/3 cup shorting and about 1 tsp of salt. Gently work with a fork until it forms pebbles about the size of peas. Then add ice water until it clumps into a ball in the bowl. Actually, add a little more after it clumps to make it easier to roll out. Put in fridge.

Now, you’ll probably need about 2-3 cups of chopped cooked turkey. Don’t put any bits in the pie you don’t want to eat personally, like stringy meat, big chunks, skin, whatever – this is where we beat out those Birdseye people. Take this high quality turkey meat and set it aside. Now, get some gravy. You could buy canned gravy (2 cans) but you can make your own by frying

Homemade Gravy:

2 tbsps butter or turkey fat and 2 tbsps flour until lightly brown, then add, 1 1/2 cup of stock and stir rapidly with a whisk to make the gravy. Stir it quickly as you add the liquid or it will clump. When it “gels” add some sprinkles of salt and pepper. Taste it to make sure it’s good. It doesn’t get better while baking so make sure you’ve got what you want now.

Okay, now take a package of frozen vegetables. Choose something you’d like with the turkey. Corn is good, maybe peas … carrots. But whatever you want. Cook it in the microwave as if you were going to serve it on the table. Now, put the meat, gravy and vegetables together.

Get the crust and roll half into a circle about 1 inch bigger than the pie dish. Lay the crust in the dish, then heap the filling inside the crust. Then roll out the second crust, cust a vent in the middle, and put it on top the filling. Crimp the edges of the crust, rolling the bottom crust over the top.

Bake at 350 for about 1/2 hour, until the crust is done. The middle is already cooked so you don’t have to worry about it. Put a cookie sheet under the pie dish while baking to make sure you don’t have any spills. Cool for 20 minutes or so if possible after removing, it will be easier to cut.

This recipe is a little labor intensive but the customer response has been very good!