I’ve been growing herbs for almost 30 years. For a self-taught “gourmet”, it’s thrilling for me to go into my backyard and pick lush flat leaf parsley, flavorful chives, fragrant rosemary and thyme. With our recent freezing temps and heavy snowfall, I was certain that I wouldn’t be harvesting herbs for this year’s Thanksgiving dinner. Then we had a thaw and under the weather damaged herbs, I was able to find an ample supply – hooray!
Fresh-Picked Herb Compound Butter
Fresh picked herbs & butter (not pictured crack black pepper)Start with 2 sticks of very soft butter (I use salted butter), add 1 generous tablespoon each of chopped flat-leaf parsley, thyme & rosemary, 1 teaspoon of chopped garlic chives and 1-2 teaspoons of cracked black pepper. Stir together with a dinner fork. Cover and store in a cool (not cold place) until ready for use.
Butter, herbs and cracked black pepper.
When the butter is soft, the herbs & pepper blend easily
The finished product!
As we speak, it’s the Monday before Thanksgiving and I just prepared mine. Making ahead allows the herbs to really flavor the butter. While there are many uses for compound butters, I’ll use this one after gently loosening the skin of the turkey breast then taking gobs of it, massaging and slathering it between the skin and the turkey. As it roasts in the oven, the herb butter self-bastes the turkey. Enjoy!
Here’s the ingredients, prepped and ready to go, plus a glass of wine for the cook!
I know, I know. It’s stuffing if it goes inside the turkey and dressing if not. Whatever you call it, mine is seriously without equal. Here you see the ingredients of what goes into it. It’s just Spence and I on Thanksgiving and what looks like overkill on the quantity that I make, I call smart. At least half of what I make I freeze – unbaked in air-tight freezer bags and some in large size muffin tins (once frozen popping them into freezer bags as well). I make rotisserie and baked chicken throughout the year and this makes the best side dish, lovely to have on hand – simply thaw and bake!
This recipe is flexible. I’m going to list the ingredients and you can make as much or as little as you need:
Cubed leftover bread (I always have a lot in the freezer) I use a mixture some artisan, bakery & grocery store “regular” bread – even cubing up leftover cornbread if I have it on hand. Place all cubed bread on a sheet pan in the oven overnight with the oven light on to let it dry out. (turn oven on lowest setting for 30-60 minutes the day of assembly if it’s still too soft)
Additionally I use both the Pepperidge Farm seasoned Classic Stuffing & Country Style cubed stuffing
1 lb cooked sage breakfast sausage, use your spatula to crumble it while it’s browning, drain off any grease and blot with a paper towel
Apples – I generally use two kinds and don’t peel them, just chop into bite size chunks
Lightly saute chopped onion and celery (about 6-8 minutes), in several tablespoons of butter, add some poultry seasoning during the saute. I use equal quantities of onion and celery.
Chestnuts – I roast my own (check my blog for how-to roast chestnuts, link is below)if you want substitute toasted pecans, walnuts or hazelnuts. (But the chestnuts are what make this special in my humble opinion)
Fresh herbs – flat leaf parsley, thyme, rosemary – adds both a pop of color but also lots of flavor, chop them. I use a mezzaluna (pictured above).
Poultry seasoning
Lots of chicken stock – have more on hand than you think you’ll need, trust me on this.
I assemble this using two very large mixing bowls and put half of the ingredients (except chicken stock) into each, little by little – and adding chicken stock and poultry seasoning along the way, stirring and then building more ingredients, seasoning and stock (you get it) until the prep station is cleared.
I fill a large oval baker and refrigerate this overnight – really packing it in (and fill a second one to refrigerate and bake later with leftovers. Freeze the rest). I take the oval baker (or casserole dish) out of the fridge on Thanksgiving morning to take the chill off. It will have absorbed a lot of stock overnight so drizzle an ample amount over the top. Bake this at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes, uncovered, until it’s browning a bit and there’s some crunch happening on top. If you’re making this and have your oven set at another temp when this goes in it’s not a problem – just watch the top and feel for the crunch.
Bon appetit!
Assembled and ready to be baked tomorrow!
As promised, here’s the link on how-to roast chestnuts:
I have loved Mole Sauce since I was first introduced to it at age eighteen. My co-worker Loretta, was of Mexican descent and one evening after work made us homemade cheese enchiladas with Mole sauce from scratch. I was hooked. Over the years, I’ve experienced everything from average mole sauce to spectacular mole sauce when dining at Mexican restaurants around the world. What I’ve never done is attempt to make this complex and richly nuanced sauce myself. That is until yesterday….
Cobbling together multiple recipes and then pulling ingredients from my pantry, fridge and freezer, I went to work. It turned out incredibly well (Spence rated it A+ and 5 star). Of course, I neglected to write it down precisely while making it. That said, I’m going to share the steps I followed and what I used. I’d encourage you to try it and play with these flavors until it tastes perfect to you. Was it alot of work? Yes. Was the effort worthy of the outcome? Oh yeah.
Mole Sauce
3 cloves minced garlic
olive oil
2 T chili powder
1 t cinnamon
1 t cumin
salt & coarse ground pepper
Place the garlic, olive oil and dry ingredients (above) in a sauce pan set at a medium-low heat, warming and softening the garlic – not browning it – for 7-10 minutes. Into the same sauce pan, add the following:
1/2 c chopped fresh tomatoes
1 – 2 T Chipolte in Adobo
1 16 oz can of chicken broth
1 T olive oil
1 T grated or finely chopped sweet onion
After adding these items, bring to boil then reduce to simmer for 8-10 minutes. Pour through a strainer, place liquids back into sauce pan, discard solids. Increase heat (not to boiling), adding these next ingredients:
2 T tomato paste
2 T smooth peanut butter
semisweet chocolate chips – between 1/4 to 1/2 cup (start with less, add more to taste)
1-2 T sesame seeds – lightly toasted in a dry skillet
Stir together until smooth and allow to simmer at a low temp for at least 1 hour, stirring occasionally. The sauce will reduce and if it becomes too thick, add a bit more chicken stock.
Wet Beef Burritos with Mole
1 recipe Mole Sauce – heated
Taco Meat – Ground Beef seasoned with garlic, onion, red pepper flakes, cumin, salt, pepper & Mexican seasoning blend
Finely Shredded Mexican Four Cheese Blend
Flour Tortilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat each tortilla, one at a time, on the burner of your stove until soft and pliable (20-30 seconds). Assemble by spooning in meat, then cheese – rolling up like a burrito. Place in baking dish. Continue assembling the remaining burritos. Spoon a generous amount of mole sauce over each burrito covering top and sides, top with more cheese.
Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is nicely melted on top.
A gift from my life-long BFF that adorns my kitchen!
I’m a foodie and proud of it. There are those who live to eat or eat to live. I’m in that first group. There’s something that nourishes my soul when I’m preparing a meal, the creative process, the aromas. Then savoring that meal – bliss. There’s a joy that I get from reading cookbooks, food magazines and an obsession for the Food Network that hasn’t diminished over time. I’ve always photographed food that I’ve prepared. I do the same at restaurants and have filled many travel journals with detailed descriptions of what Spence and I’ve eaten as we’ve traversed the globe. When still working (ironically I worked with foodies) time between customers was filled with talk of food, recipes exchanged, restaurants recommended, what we wanted to have for lunch that day. It was through a co-worker that I learned of Pinterest which further fuels my passion; I have no less than 10 specific food boards. Since retiring, I’m making more things from scratch as I have that luxury of time. And though my first from-scratch batch of gnocchi wasn’t perfect (but darn good) with my potato ricer spewing potatoes all over the kitchen, I won’t be deterred. And I’ll learn to make crepes and tamales within this first year of retirement, my to-do list knows no bounds. Stay tuned for more recipes and stories of my foodie ways…..
For an easy side-dish, great for entertaining, try my new favorite potato dish.
Oven-Roasted Smashed Potatoes with Gremolata serves 4-6
1 dozen new potatoes (you could also use redskin potatoes)
4 cloves of garlic, whole & peeled
sea salt
cracked black pepper
olive oil
Fill a large pot with water and 2-3 heaping tablespoons of sea salt, bring to a boil. Add the potatoes and reduce heat to medium. Cook until tender – use a sharp knife to test. Drain and cool them for 5 minutes.
Line a large baking pan with aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil. On a cutting board, place each potato under a spatula (or lunch plate would work), I use a heavy meat tenderizer from Williams Sonoma. Press down with even pressure – gently – smashing but not pulverizing.
My heavy-duty potato smasher.Place each smashed potato on the foil-lined baking sheet.
Drizzle the potatoes generously with olive oil, sprinkle sea salt and black pepper over them. (I also put the garlic cloves that boiled with the potatoes on the sheet pan)
Heat oven to 450 degrees. Bake the potatoes for 18-20 minutes, remove, flip each one. Drizzle with more olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Bake for another 18-20 minutes. Remove the pan from oven, turn off heat. Top the potatoes with Gremolata (see recipe below) and place the pan back in the oven for 5 minutes and serve.
Enjoy!
Gremolata
Zest from 1 orange, 1 lemon and 1 lime
1-2 garlic cloves minced
1 t sea salt
1 t coarse black pepper
red pepper flakes (to taste)
1/2-3/4 cup chopped parsley
I use a mezzaluna given to me by my lifelong BFF, to chop the parsley and garlic, having first place the citrus zest, salt and pepper under the parsley and garlic. Cover until ready to serve.
Mom has sold her home in Florida, moving back to Michigan to be nearer my sister and I. Part of the process is letting go of things she won’t need in her smaller senior apartment. Cupboard by cupboard, drawer by drawer, closet by closet, she’s offered my sister and I numerous items before donating them. Not unexpected, the items I feel most drawn to wouldn’t be of interest to others; sentimentality has played a large part in items that I’ve said yes to.
Mom’s Mixing Bowls
Formerly Red, Green, Blue & Yellow
Her mixing bowls have seen better days. Once a vibrant green, blue, yellow and red, they’ve faded to a more “rustic” look. What I see are bowls used when mom made cookies and cakes, teaching me how to use a rubber spatula with my reward being able to lick off the batter. I fondly remember the large one brimming with bubbling casseroles of baked spaghetti on Sundays and Six Layer Dinner, my Grandma’s recipe. She taught me how to measure and follow recipes, sparking my love of cooking and nurturing it. These bowls were always present. Years later when I’d visit, those bowls appeared when she cooked a requested family favorite for me or we prepared something delicious together. Good times.
Grandpa Fox’s Knives
Seriously sharp knives
My love of food and cooking came from not only my Mom but her father as well. My Grandpa Fox found his passion and talent for cooking after a long illness in his forties that necessitated early retirement. Memories of his cooking make me salivate to this day. He was gifted in the kitchen and on the grill. His enjoyment was evident, his enthusiasm contagious and he loved feeding his family. So many memories – the aroma of his fried chicken wafting out the door giving us a preview before we entered. His veal scallopini for which he became a legend (now a recipe I’m known for). His homemade beans, made in a special sunken bean crock built into their stove lovingly stirred and coaxed along over what seemed like several days. His ham glaze and homemade peach jam – divine. His perfectly crispy hash browns made using a potato ricer, dusted with minced parsley from his garden, browned in butter then expertly flipped – in the air. His famous charcoal grilled, rotisserie chickens that drew neighbors to his yard in awe and to whom he offered “a peek for a nickel” (with a wink and twinkle in his eye). And then there’s his Lamb Stew, so beautiful that you wanted to photograph it, the pop of green peas, bright orange carrots and perfect pearl onions in a glistening rich gravy with chunks of melt-in-your-mouth lamb.
So when Mom asked if I’d like two of Grandpa’s stainless steel knives is it any wonder that I’d want to inherit those instruments used to create meals ingrained in my memory and so much a part of my happy childhood?
While this photo is not of my Mom nor I, it evoked the mood of this blog.
Within the last two years, a former co-worker turned our little band of foodies on to baked oatmeal, a concept we’d known nothing about but that has since been showing up everywhere. The variations are endless and delicious and it’s a great way to start the day making enough for a quick breakfast for the rest of the week.
I hadn’t made it for a while yet it’s been on my mind, especially during these cold winter mornings. So today, culling a myriad of suggestions from Pinterest and other sources, then surveying my ample pantry and freezer ingredients to see what I had available, I came up with this delicious recipe of my own. Enjoy!
Raspberry Walnut Baked Oatmeal serves 6
2 cups old-fashioned whole grain oatmeal
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup light brown sugar packed
1 teaspoon sea salt
Mix dry ingredients together, set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8×8 baking dish. In a separate bowl mix together:
1/3 cup melted butter
2/3 cup milk
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Add to dry ingredients. Fold in:
1 2/3 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
2/3 cup coarse chopped walnuts
Pour into baking dish. Bake for 40 minutes. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes. Serve with or without milk.
Before baking
Fully baked, cooling and smelling insanely delicious!
Chef’s note: you can substitute blueberries, strawberries, dates, dried apricots, pecans, almonds, almond or soy milk – you get it. It is the ultimate easy way to use what you have on hand, what’s seasonal and what sounds good.
This is one of my favorite go-to recipes for appetizers. I had this years ago in a restaurant and it was so tasty I wrote down everything I could identify and have made it ever since. I’ve even had numerous guests who at first said “oh I don’t care for olives” but trusting enough in my culinary skills to try it and viola! Everyone loves it – not a crumb left at the end of the party. And this is actually better if you make it ahead – 24 hours minimum or even better a few days. I serve this atop little slices of baguette, first drizzling a bit of extra virgin olive oil on the slices, giving them a few minutes in a 350 degree oven, then adding a spoon of the tapenade on each slice, then back for 5-10 minutes. I’m making this today for a party on Saturday so thought I’d share it with my followers.
Assemble your ingredients
This is what you’ll get – now into the fridge until party day. Easy, is it not?
Finely chop both kinds of olives and garlic cloves. I use a hand-chopper (Pampered Chef) to achieve a very fine texture. Stir olives and garlic together. Add oregano and black pepper to olive mix, stir to blend. Add the olive oil and give a final stir. Place in a covered container to refrigerate for 24 hours or longer.
Note from Spence’s Girl: If you have more tapenade than bread, this is excellent tossed into a pasta sauce or used as the olive salad component of a muffalletta sandwich!
I LOVE FIVE BEAN SALAD. So great to take to a potluck or picnic (no mayo), it’s a favorite of ours to have as our salad or veggie side with any number of meals year round. It makes a lot and only gets better each subsequent day. It keeps for up to two weeks in the fridge but never lasts that long! I use my mom’s recipe but tweak it in my own way to give it a bit more pizazz!
Five Bean Salad, my way
serves 15 Weight Watchers Smart Points 7
1 can garbanzo beans (or chickpeas as they’re also known)
1 can great northern or navy beans
1 can cut green beans
1 can dark red kidney beans
1 can wax beans
2 large shallots finely minced or red onion finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
4-5 finely chopped peppadew peppers (these come in a jar) or substitute 1 tablespoon chopped pimento
1 teaspoon finely chopped jalapeños (first removing ribs and seeds) or green pepper if you can’t take the heat.
Drain and rinse beans and put into a large serving bowl. Add the shallots, peppadew peppers and jalapeño, stir taking care not to break the beans.
Marinade:
3/4 c red wine or champagne vinegar
3/4 c vegetable oil (canola or olive oil)
1/2 c sugar
1-2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cracked pepper
sprinkle of red pepper flakes
Mix this together well – making sure that the sugar has “melted” into the marinade. Pour over the beans and stir together. Refrigerate. Stir every 30-60 minutes to further distribute the marinade. This is best made at least 8 hours prior to serving.
