King Ranch Chicken Casserole (p. 96), Cream of Broccoli Soup (p. 144) , and Tomato Soup (p. 132)

I wanted to make a few recipes that would feed Josh and I for multiple meals, because I knew I wasn't going to want to cook this week (I have two doctor's appointments and two procedures this week before driving home to Iowa for the holidays). The first thing I decided to make was King Ranch Chicken Casserole (p. 96).

I wasn't sure about this recipe. Reading through the ingredients made me feel like Sandra Lee (it especially would have made me think of SL if I dumped a bottle of vodka into it and made some sort of "tablescape"). American cheese? Cream of mushroom soup? Cream of chicken soup? Canned tomatoes? All in the same recipe? Wow.

I had a decent amount of chicken from making a recipe of chicken stock and I needed a big, filling dish...and this recipe fit the bill.

First step, layer corn tortillas (cut into quarters) in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish (greased with butter!).




Next, sprinkle cooked chicken on the tortillas...




Then a layer of onions...I only put onions on one side because I don't really like them (a theory that didn't work because I've eaten from both sides)



And a layer of shredded American cheese. Good luck shredding the cheese--American cheese does not shred easily. It would be a lot easier to layer really thin slices.




A gloppy mixture of condensed cream soups (both chicken and mushroom), chicken broth, and tomatoes (there are also supposed to be green chiles but I didn't have any) are then mixed together. And it is not pretty...(we certainly won't mention that it looks like vomit)...




The liquid is poured over the top and then another layer of tortillas, chicken, onions, and cheese, plus the soup mix.




And it's ready to be popped in the oven:



I know it looks like there are a ton of steps but this is a really easy recipe. Lots of steps but no skill required!





So how was it? Suprisingly good! There is nothing attractive about this dish. It looks okay in the picture but as soon as you cut into it, it oozes. But it was satisfying in a very comfort food way and heated up perfectly. It's already produced four meals and has at least two left.



I also decided to make a couple soups. Soups are so fast and easy to make and I had a bunch of chicken stock to use (and I know that Josh won't use it once I leave for the holiday). So I made Tomato Soup (p. 132) and


The tomato soup was super super easy. Cook an onion in olive oil, then add two 28-oz cans of tomatoes.



Cook it down for about a half hour.




And then puree it (this is a great time to use that awesome immersion blender!):



Isn't that an amazingly easy recipe? Almost too easy...

What did it taste like? Tomato sauce. It was like eating a bowl of marinara sauce. Sadly (and this is how you know I'm not a real foodie) I would rather have tomato soup out of a can...or at least a less thick recipe.


I also made Cream of Broccoli Soup (p. 144). I figured this would have a 50/50 shot of working--the Cream of Asparagus was delicious while I thought the Cream of Carrot was WAY too sweet for me.

The recipe is exactly like the Cream of Asparagus recipe except for the vegetable.


Saute celery and onion in butter...



Add the broccoli, cook for five minutes, and then pour flour over the top...



Add chicken stock an then cook it for about a half hour, until tender.




It's time for the immersion blender again! Pour in the cream to make it a "cream of" soup...




Stir and it's ready:



Delicious! Make sure salt is added though...it really brings out the flavor (I noticed the asparagus soup needed a lot of salt too). And it heats up extremely well.

I'll be heading back to Iowa at the end of the week which will give me some opportunities to make food that Josh and I don't like--but mom does (stuffed peppers, for example!).

Fettuccine with Salmon and Asparagus (p. 327)

Josh made salmon so I figured the logical recipe to use the leftover in was Fettuccine with Salmon and Asparagus (p. 327). I'm still in the midst of testing to find out what is wrong with me and don't feel like making anything complex.

The recipe was fairly simple. Chop up the asparagus and boil them in some water/salt. I like asparagus, so I would rather just eat it than use in the pasta, but I soldiered through...





The asparagus is then lifted out of the pot with a sieve and a pound of spinach fettuccine is supposed to be added...




Uh oh....



I don't like fettuccine....



And I especially don't like spinach fettuccine (I think it tastes strangely bitter sometimes)...



And we certainly don't have any...


So spaghetti got thrown into the pot instead (and you will have to imagine that it's green)...






Obviously, some of the asparagus missed getting lifted out of the boiling water--and the water was a strange and rather distasteful color of green.

The asparagus was then sauteed in a little (or quite a bit) of butter....yum!...and a little lemon zest (I used dehydrated lemon zest from Penzeys).



At this point, heavy cream, chives, parsley, and a little salt and pepper were added to the asparagus.




I was getting concerned at this point. That looks like WAY too much cream--and there was nothing at all to thicken it, so it was just asparagus swimming in cream...weird and not very tasty.

I was hoping a miracle would happen when I added the pasta...



Nope. Still strangely milky.

How was it? Okay but weird. I think the flavors were tasty, especially in combination, but the sauce was WAY too thin. This recipe goes into the "won't be made again" category. This is another recipe that I would love to know if others had better luck when they made it.

Creamy Pasta with Chard and Tomatoes (p. 328)

I decided that even though I feel horrible, not eating can't possibly be helping me, so I started searching TJOC for easy, fast recipes. The Pasta, Noodles, and Dumplings chapter is absolutely jam-packed with super-easy recipes. I decided to make Creamy Pasta with Chard and Tomatoes (p. 328)

Start by cooking onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes in olive oil. A cup of chopped tomatoes are then added and it's cooked down for about five minutes.




In the mean time, start the pasta cooking! It recommends fettuccine or egg noodles but I don't like either...so I used rotini:



The red chard is then added and it's cooked until wilted. TJOC says two minutes, it really took about fifteen, like usual.




Heavy cream is mixed in...





Then the drained pasta and 3/4 cup of Parmesan are added in...




It was DELICIOUS! Josh doesn't like chard so it was all mine...and I ate it all over three meals. I fried it up in some olive oil the second two times because I don't like microwaved pasta (it gets soggy and gross). Yum! Creamy, cheesy, and the chard was very tasty. It was also very filling


My mother pointed out that all of the food pictures on my blog are ugly so I am going to really try to post at least one decent food picture on each blog. I'll let you guess which picture is the one I feel is artistic (it's the last one!).


I just posted a bunch of blogs--five--and I still have two more to go...make sure you read them all!

Boiled Potatoes (Pommes Anglaise) (p. 295)

Sadly, I'm about four blogs behind again. I can only blame it on being sick and not being well enough to concentrate on posting. That same problem is to blame for my lack of cooking recently, which really makes me mad, since I was finally jetting through a ton of recipes.

I made one of the easiest recipe in the entire book--Boiled Potatoes (Pommes Anglaise) (p. 295). How do you make this?

Peel some potatoes and if "in haste", as I always am, cut the potatoes into chunks. Cook them in boiled water for about a half hour.



Drain the potatoes:



And there you go! That's the whole recipe. Again, this must be among the easiest recipes in TJOC--and I'm running out of potato recipes!

I just posted four recipes before this ones, so make sure to read them all...

Thanksgiving 2008.3--Quick Turkey Gravy (p. 547) and Italian Bread Stuffing (p. 533)

The final Thanksgiving blog. Why did I break the blog into pieces? I figured it would be considerably easier to read rather than in one novella sized post.

I've never made gravy before, and, strangely, it was the part of the meal I was most nervous about. People are always talking about lumpy or tasteless gravy...I love gravy and wanted it to be perfect (my Aunt Charlotte makes a spectacular gravy and I would love to be able to make a similar one).

I decided on the Quick Turkey Gravy (p. 547). There were a lot of drippings in the pan. Four cups of chicken stock were added to the stock and the drippings were s



The stock/pan drippings was then boiled down until it is the correct consistency.




A little bit of water and cornstarch are mixed together (my grandmother [who grew up in the Depression] used to make a mix JUST like this for me to use as glue when I was a child).




The cornstarch is then slowly whisked into the pan and it's simmered for about a minute. Then it's poured into the gravy boat...





How was it? Perfect! No lumps at all. It took mom quite a while to try to skim the fat off of the top but she did a great job. It was slightly salty, I imagine from the pan juices of the salt-brined turkey, but still really good. And it heated up perfectly (I ate it for the next week!).


I don't like stuffing the turkey, so I make the stuffing in a dish. This year, I chose Italian Bread Stuffing (p. 533). The first step is to cook some onion and garlic in butter for about five minutes. You add that to a bowl.




The breadcrumbs are added...




Then bread crumbs, (a LOT of) Parmesan, an egg, some parsley, rosemary, sage, salt, and pepper are added.




The stuffing is then moisened with some chicken stock and poured into a dish.

When I finished the first batch there was almost no stuffing! Honestly, there was about two cups of stuffing--not near enough for people who love stuffing! So I tripled the recipe. And the stuffing was attractive when it came out of the oven.



Apparently tripling the recipe was a mistake.

The stuffing was attractive. And it was salty. Strike that--it was SALTY. Almost inedibly salty. I figure that when tripling the recipe, the enormous amount of Parmesan cheese (a cup and a half) was WAY too much for the stuffing. This recipe is struck off of the list for future years although I would love to know if anyone else have made this recipe and had better luck...


The final table (mostly). It was extremely difficult to fit everything on the table! I also made TJOC's blue cheese dressing, which I've made before. It was still delicious and easy! So delicious, in fact, that mom refused to give it up and let us take it home :) As you can see in the picture, the salad came out of a bag.





I find this picture amazing because it's of my mom but if you didn't know that, you'd think it was me! I've never thought that my mother and I looked particularly similar but this picture would say otherwise. She's washing dishes...and there were a TON of dishes to wash.

Thanksgiving 2008.2-- Roast Brined Turkey (p. 443) and Mashed Winter Squash (p. 308) plus dogs in costume!

On to the most important part of the Thanksgiving meal...the turkey! I decided to make Roast Brined Turkey (p. 443).

First step, brining the turkey. This was a slight problem...Josh and I were driving in on Wednesday, after he got off of work. This meant we got in around 1 am Thanksgiving morning. Another problem--what the heck should we brine the turkey in? I figured that a Styrofoam cooler would be as good as anything else--I got it at the grocery store.

The cooler:



The turkey, during it's rinse. I giggled the whole time--I don't know what it is about naked poultry but it makes me laugh every time.



The turkey then got dunked into the cooler and covered with two gallons of water and four cups of kosher salt (that is a LOT of salt). We turned the turkey at the six hour mark so that both sides would get brined, since it wasn't entirely covered. This picture was taken when the turkey was finished.




After the turkey has brined for 12 hours, we took it out and rinsed it well. This was difficult--how do you know it's fully rinsed off?




An onion, carrot, and celery were then cut up to be shoved up the turkeys hole. When I pulled them out at the end, Josh was very impressed, like it was a clown car.




The turkey was set on the rack of the roasting pan (my roasting pan that I have to haul back and forth every Thanksgiving). I was glad I had a roasting pan because if you don't have one, TJOC recommends that you "prop it up with crumpled aluminum foil" and that sounds complex to me. We seasoned the breast-side first because it was supposed to start cooking breast-side down.



TJOC doesn't recommend seasoning, but that doesn't seem like a good idea. So mom seasoned it with all kinds of spices.



And then quite a bit of melted butter (this part actually is in TJOC) was smeared all over the turkey and it was popped into the oven. About two and a half hours in...you are supposed to flip the turkey.


"What?" you, the reader, exclaim.

You flip the turkey. TJOC says "wearing heat-resistant mitts or protecting your hand with paper towels, grasp the turkey at both ends and turn breast side up." PAPER TOWELS?? To pick up a boiling hot turkey?? I decided this was the perfect opportunity for Josh and his brother to get involved in TJOTJOC.

The turkey, pre-flip:



Getting ready to flip the turkey, and, yes, holding it with paper towels:




Why the paper towels? The turkey was greasy (remember the melted butter?). I protected the metal handles with dishclothes so they wouldn't burn themselves. And BAM!



The turkey, post-flip. I have to say, the flip does not make for a particularly beautiful turkey--it kinda looked to me like it had six-pack abs. I'm imagining it tells you to flip because the dark meat cooks slower than the white meat and the flipping allows for the dark meat to cook for a longer time.

Like an idiot, I managed to not get a picture of the finished project (I was in quite a bit of pain by the end of the cooking and was trying to get all of the final pieces figured out (mashed potatoes, heating up the mashed squash, the gravy). It fell through the cracks :(

Josh and his brother Jordan carving the turkey--and my mother's electric carving set getting it's once a year use:




The beautiful turkey, being carved:



Yum! The turkey was a bit salty but EXTREMELY juicy. It would be really difficult to overcook this turkey making it an excellent first turkey for me to have made...a starter turkey!


On to Mashed Winter Squash (p. 308). This was the BIGGEST PITA of the entire Thanksgiving meal.

The recipe doesn't look hard at all. Bake some winter squash and mash it with some butter, brown sugar, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cream. Easy enough, right? Except for I baked the squash until it seemed done. Tried scooping it out--it wasn't done. Put it back in the oven. Tried again, same problem. Tried it again. Honestly, this squash took about four hours on a day where we had very little extra time. I have to make this recipe once more (Mashed Winter Squash II), unfortunately, but that will be the LAST time I ever make it. Was it good? Sure, but not good enough to be worth the trouble. The mashed potatoes were good, too, and took about a half an hour.

I was so angry with this recipe I could barely force myself to take the one picture I did.








And here are some adorable holiday pictures!


Santa Duchess! She has such an impressive beard!




And Marilyn Gracie...such a bombshell!