Turkey and Red Pepper Roll Ups

This is a take off of one of Rachel Ray's recipe. Next time I will not make them with phyllo dough. Phyllo dough gets on my nerves. I'm sure it's delicious and all, but by the time I've torn those thin little sheets of dough apart and tried to get them back into one sheet by applying gobs of butter, I pretty much just want to throw it out the window. Next time I will try with pie shells or something. Pretty much anything but phyllo dough.


Turkey and Red Pepper Roll Ups
1 lb ground turkey
3 scallions, chopped
1 cup grated Romano cheese
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 tblsp tomato paste
1 or 2 large roasted red peppers, chopped
salt and pepper
phyllo dough (if you have the patience for it)
2 tblsp melted butter
Mix together ground turkey, scallions, cheese, garlic, tomato paste, red peppers, and salt and pepper. Put in a ziploc bag with one corner cut off. Lay down one thin little piece of phyllo dough. Brush with melted butter. If you're as bad at this as I am, you then need to fix the dough. Put one more piece of phyllo dough. Brush with melted butter. Repair tears. Curse phyllo dough. Top with one more piece of phyllo dough. Butter. Repair. Curs. Threaten to order carryout. Then one more piece. Squeeze turkey mixture out along long edge of phyllo dough - approximately 1/2 inch from edge. Roll up the phyllo. Brush with butter. Repeat to make a second roll up. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.

They Danced in My Head

Who knew that sugarplums were real?? They are real. And they're stinkin' delicious. And, when you hand someone a whole bag of cookies, you can point out that they are loaded with fruit and nuts and therefore are healthful. Hey, it works for me!


Sugarplums
6 ounces slivered almonds
5 ounces prunes (dried plums, if you're convinced that prunes are only for old ladies)
5 ounces dried apricots
5 ounces dried figs
1/4 cup powdered sugar, plus extra for dusting
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
In a dry pan over medium heat, toast almonds for 5 minutes. Let cool. Place dried fruit and toasted almonds in food processor. Pulse 20-25 times until fruit is in small pieces. Mix powdered sugar and spices in a bowl. Add dried fruit and honey. Mix with your hands until well blended. (I warn you people, it's sticky stuff. I wore gloves. I suggest you do the same.) Form 1/2 - 1 tsp size balls and sprinkle with additional powdered sugar.

Sweet Potato Peanut Soup

I never would have put these flavors together, but it turns out it works. And it's delicious. Kevin was pretty excited that it was healthy food that tasted like food he shouldn't be allowed to eat.


Sweet Potato Peanut Soup
4 sweet potatoes
2 tblsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 cups turkey stock
1 14 oz can diced tomato
1/2 cup peanut butter
crushed red pepper
dash ground ginger
salt and pepper
Microwave sweet potatoes 5-7 minutes, until cooked through. I peeled the potatoes first so that I wouldn't have to let them cool. I was in a rush trying to get the soup on the table. If you're not in a rush, you can cook them in the skins and then let them cool before you peel them. Either way, once you can handle the potatoes, cut them into 1" chunks.


Meanwhile, heat oil over medium heat. Sweat onions and garlic. Add potatoes, turkey stock, tomato, red pepper, and ginger. (As a side note on the ginger, the next time I will use fresh garlic.) Bring to boil, reduce to simmer. Add peanut butter. Taste and season to taste. Using a stick blender, puree soup until smooth.

Mom's Birthday Dinner

A couple of years ago my mom had the brilliant idea that I should cook dinner for her instead of trying to find a birthday gift for her. Most years involve quite a bit of "What do you want me to make?" - "I don't know, what do you feel like making?" conversations. This year she surprised me by immediately suggesting this dish. She thinks it's from Better Homes and Gardens. The original recipe calls for walnuts, which I omitted because they're not really my thing. I served the green onions on the side so that everyone could dole out what they wanted. I'll skip them altogether next time. They didn't add a whole lot to the dish.


Pasta with Roasted Butternut Squash
1 box pasta
1 large butternut squash
1 bulb garlic separated into cloves and peeled
1/4 cup butter
4 slices bacon, crumbled
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
shredded Romano cheese
sliced green onion
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Cook pasta. Peel squash and chop into 1 inch pieces. Coat squash and garlic with garlic, salt, and pepper. Cook at 425 until squash is fork tender. In a small pan over medium heat, cook butter until lightly browned, stirring frequently. Toss squash, bacon, and nutmeg in serving bowl with 1/3 of the butter. Add pasta to serving bowl and toss with remainder of butter and cheese. 

Spiced Ice Cream

This is just a little twist on the cinnamon ice cream I usually make. I was aiming for something that tasted kind of Christmasy. It was quite tasty!


Spiced Ice Cream
1 cup whole milk
2/3 cup half and half
1/3 cup heavy cream
pinch salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon 
1/8 tsp ground clove
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
6 squares of large Hershey's Special Dark bar, chopped


Mix milk, half and half, heavy cream, salt, cinnamon, cloves, sugar, and vanilla together until frothy. Prepare according to your machine's instructions. Remove from machine when soft serve consistency is reached and stir in chocolate. Stick in the freezer until you're ready to eat it.

Chicken with Gravy

I based this on Rachel Ray's Chicken with BLT gravy. I made a few substitutions based on what was in my pantry and the fact that I simply refuse to buy tomatoes in the winter. She made it in 15 minutes. I, however, encountered a little issue with my new meat thermometer and ended up taking just a bit longer. 


Chicken with Gravy
4 tblsp olive oil
1 package chicken thighs (Mine were bone in, which led me to need the meat thermometer, which led to this recipe taking longer than expected.)
5 slices bacon, cut into 1/2" pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tblsp flour
1 cup stock (I used beef because that's what I had in the fridge, but chicken would be recommended.)
1 tblsp tomato paste
1 cup frozen peas
2 tblsp heavy cream
3/4 cup white wine
salt and pepper


Split the olive oil between two skillets and heat both over medium high heat. Salt and pepper chicken thighs. In one skillet, place the chicken thighs. Cook on approximately 7 minutes on each side, until the meat reaches 165 degrees. In the other, place the bacon. Brown the bacon. Add the onions and cook until tender. Sprinkle flour over bacon and onions and cook for 1 minute. Add stock, tomato paste, and peas. Stir and bring to simmer. Add heavy cream and stir. Remove from heat. Move the chicken to a serving platter. Deglaze the pan with the wine. Add the wine to the gravy and mix well. Pour the gravy over the chicken and serve.

Kevin's Breakfast Potatoes

This recipe has been contributed by guest blogger, Kevin Holler, my loving husband. He’s been working on this recipe for years. Literally. It’s taken a lot of work, so I should be understanding about the length of his post, but really? Did it need to be this long? It takes longer to read than to cook and eat the potatoes. What a dork! ~J

I’ve been on a breakfast potato quest for many years now.  Really an embarrassing amount of years.  And I make potatoes every weekend.  So really I should have had a perfected recipe after about 8 weeks, right?  My problem is a combination of wild technique changes, and poor (or no) record keeping.  I also concentrated on ease of preparation, which isn’t always helpful.  I also experimented with par-boiling for a while, and decided that it is unnecessary.  Makes for yummy potatoes, but very mushy.  This recipe is good - maybe even really good -  but for as long as I have been working on it, they should really be the world’s best potatoes.  Honestly though, the best potatoes can be purchased at Ms. Shirley’s on Cold Spring Lane.  I don’t know what they do there, but I am a big enough man to admit they are better than mine.  I am also a big enough dork to admit I have contemplated getting a job there, just long enough to learn how to make them.  It finally took a pow-wow with a professional cook to figure out the last couple of “tricks” I needed in my recipe, so thanks to him.  Also, he recommended a “drawn” (or clarified) butter-margarine mix, and they’re probably even better that way, but I haven’t tried.  My second favorite (also better than mine) potatoes are McDonald’s.  I swear. They’re amazing.

 Anyway, onto the recipe!  (I have duplicated these consistently, so I feel comfortable with the recipe and process.)

Breakfast Potatoes

Equipment  and ingredients:

Round breakfast skillet, I use cast iron

Two baseball sized white potatoes (you know the ones, not russet, but more or less the same shape as a red potato, but not red). Other potatoes can be used, but the results are a little different, not better or worse, just different.

Bowl of salty water

Salad spinner or colander

One med-large onion

2 TBS Butter

Delicious fat from breakfast meat

Peanut oil as necessary

Salt and pepper

Spatula that you know and trust

Shred potatoes into salty water, and let soak, anywhere from 1-15 min, I don’t think it makes much difference. Drain, rinse well, and drain again. Spin with a salad spinner if you have it, but squeezing out into a colander works well, it’s what I did this morning.  This step is important, because it removes some of the starch from the potato.  Not doing this step yields really tangy, weird, and not so good potatoes.  You can do this right before you cook, or any time before. (Refrigerate or freeze if you do it more than a few minutes before.)

Cook whatever breakfast meat you are cooking and leave the grease in the pan. Add two tablespoons of butter and enough peanut oil to completely coat the bottom of the pan.  If the butter does the job, no additional oil is necessary.  Chop more onion than you think is necessary.  Add to the fat/butter mixture. Add a heavy pinch of salt and cook on low until the onion is soft and lightly  browned.  I think of this as flavoring the fat as much as cooking the onion. Remove the onion from the pan, but leave as much fat as possible. Turn the heat up to medium.  Mix the onion into your shredded potatoes. The oil is ready when you drop one shred of potato in and it immediately starts sizzling. Drop your potato and onion mixture right into the middle of the hot oil, and enjoy the sizzling deliciousness for 2 seconds, then gently spread the potato out so it completely covers the bottom of your pan.  Wait a beat or three, then use your spatula and pull the edge in all the way around the rim of the pan, about an inch or so, until you have a more or less a round patty of potatoes.  I’m always impressed with how perfect of a circle this makes. Pinch of salt and grind of pepper on top, to taste. 

Flip the potatoes when the bottom is a beautiful golden brown.  Try to flip this perfectly - like a pancake.  If you pull this off kudos to you - I never do. I always end up flipping one half at a time.  Reassemble as gently as you can back into a patty.  Salt and pepper this side also.  When the second side is golden brown, you are finished.  I usually take a couple of sample tastes before I remove, to make sure I have the crunch-to–soft potato ratio right, as well as enough salt.  Take a few more bites that you pretend are test bites, then remove and serve.  

If you try this recipe, let me know how it turns out for you!

Spicy Cheese Topped Tilapia

This is a modified version of my Aunt Joanne's southwestern fish, which I will surely make and post at a later date. It's a very tasty dish and it is on the table in a flash. I served it with couscous and broccoli.

Spicy Cheese Topped Tilapia
3 tilapia fillets
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 jar Harry and David Pepper and Onion Relish
1 tblsp horseradish
1 tblsp brown mustard
salt and pepper
Salt and pepper fillets. Place under broiler for 10 minutes. Mix together remaining ingredients. Remove fish and top with 1/3 of the mixture. Return fish to broiler and cook until cheese is melty and lightly browned.