Turkey Breast

Despite the fact that a kitchen mishap led to me removing the skin from the turkey when I should have left it on, this recipe worked out perfectly well. It even scored the "Kevin's best" award! If you don't have a mishap, you should separate the skin from the meat and then smear the butter mixture under the skin. I served this with mixed mashed potatoes, green beans, and gravy. Mmmm... Gravy...


Roasted Turkey Breast
2 turkey breasts (approximately 4 lbs)
1/2 red onion, cut into large chunks
6 tblsp butter, divided
2 cloves garlic
large handful fresh herbs (I used chives, thyme, oregano, and parsley)
salt and pepper
1 tblsp honey
Preheat oven to 450. Place turkey breasts in a lightly oiled roasting pan. In a small food processor, combine onion, 5 tblsp butter, garlic, herbs, and salt and pepper. Spread the butter mixture on the turkey breasts. Place turkey in oven and immediately reduce heat to 400. Cook for 30 minutes. Melt 1 tblsp butter in a small dish and stir in honey. Baste turkey with half of the butter/honey mixture. Cook for an additional 15 minutes. Baste again. Return to oven and cook until turkey reaches 170.

Ham and Cabbage

So sad. I just realized that my last post was almost an entire month ago. I've been getting pretty tired of standing and the kitchen and cooking as the third trimester has been moving along. It's just not as much fun when your giant belly keeps hitting the pots on the stove as you reach for things on the top shelf of the spice cabinet. So, the recipes will be even easier than normal for a little while.


One of my favorite fall dishes is ham and cabbage. It can't get much easier either. And it's one of Kevin's favorites. He gets as excited for it as he does gourmet dinners! You gotta love a guy like that!


Ham and Cabbage
1 head cabbage, sliced
3 large white potatoes, cut into 1.5" cubes
1/3 cup water
1 small onion, sliced
3 large carrots, sliced
1 large ham steak, cut into 1" cubes
salt, pepper, paprika to taste
olive oil
Add cabbage, potatoes, and water to soup pot. Bring to boil. Add onion and carrots. Cook until potatoes and carrots are tender. The water should mostly evaporate by this time. Add the ham steak and cook until heated through. Add salt, pepper, and paprika to taste. Drizzle with olive oil. Adjust seasonings and enjoy!

Roasted Veggie Salad

While eating this, Kevin said, "If this salad was served at a restaurant, it would be a restaurant known for its salad." What can I say? That man knows how to complement the person cooking for him! 


Roasted Veggie Salad
2 kohlrabi, cut into 1/2" chunks
6 small red potatoes, cut in half
3 spring onions, cut in half
2 zucchini, cut into 1/2" chunks
1 head romaine lettuce, torn into bite size chunks
1 tomato, chopped
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
dressing of your choice, I went with pepper parm because I ran out of time to make my own.
Toss kohlrabi, potatoes, onions, and zucchini in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast at 350 until tender. While the veggies are cooking, divide lettuce, tomato, and cheese into two large salad bowls. Top with veggies and dressing. Serve while roasted veggies are still warm.

Eggs with Sugo (previously Sougle)

Okay, okay, I don't know how to spell sougle. (Note: I was corrected by someone who actually speaks Italian. Sugo=Sauce) You know what else I don't know how to do? Poach eggs. Turns out that's something you need to know to make eggs with sougle. If you also don't know how to poach eggs, you should look up instructions. That's what I'll be doing next time! Anyway, eggs with sougle always sounded gross to me when Kevin told me about it, but then his mom made it for us one day and it turns out I was totally wrong and it's really tasty. I served it with cheesy polenta, but it's also delicious with a big hunk of bread.


Eggs with Sougle
olive oil
1/2 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tblsp tomato paste mixed with half can water
basil
oregano
red pepper
Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and saute for 3 minutes. Add diced tomatoes, tomato paste/water mixture, and spices to taste. Bring sauce to simmer. Poach eggs. Let sauce reduce slightly.


Cheesy Polenta
3 cups water
1 tsp salt
1 cup polenta
1 tblsp butter
1/2 cup asiago cheese
Cook polenta according to package directions - Mine called for boiling water and salt, adding polenta, and cooking for five minutes. Stir in butter and cheese.


Serve two eggs per person over polenta and topped with sauce.

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!

Thin Mint Ice Cream

I stole the idea for this from John, but since his recipe required patience (something I'm not known for) I opted to create my own, more immediately gratifying version. John's recipe can be found here. Either recipe gives you the chance to put cookies in a bag and bash them with a rolling pin and that's good stuff! Especially if you're having a bad week, which I was, which is probably why my cookies were more pulverized than crushed.

Kevin dubs this the best ice cream ever - high praise from a guy who claims not to like mint chocolate combinations.

Thin Mint Ice Cream
1 cup whole milk
2/3 cup half and half
1/3 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
1/2 sleeve thin mint cookies, crushed
Mix everything but cookies together and whip with a wire whisk until foamy. Add mixture to ice cream machine and run machine for 15 minutes. Add cookies and continue according to your machine's instructions. Serve immediately or place in freezer until it reaches desired consistency.