mr. turkey, mr. turkey

Mr. Turkey, Mr. Turkey, Run away, run away...

A Thanksgiving song, but this post involves the ultimate demise of my Thanksgiving turkeys which I hope may give you ideas for the remains of your Christmas feast. After the meal is over and the best pieces gone to turkey sandwiches the bones are left for stock. (Note: I don't get people who complain about leftovers, I could eat turkey sandwiches for days. But with my family I rarely get more than two before the turkey's gone, not matter how big of a bird we have.) I made the first batch of stock after my family's Thanksgiving roughly following the Barefoot Contessa's Chicken Stock recipe (because that was on my mother's shelf) excluding the parsnips. Instead of 3 5 pound chickens, I used a 14 pound turkey. Stock is great because you can really use whatever you have. Below is the second stock I made, using the turkey from my apartment's holiday party. I used fresh scallions, carrots and celery from the farmer's market
and a package of 'roast chicken herbs' that I think had rosemary, thyme and dill. I tossed in peppercorns and garlic and left in the lemons the turkey was originally roasted in.

[Stock simmering]

When the stock is done (3-4 hours of simmering) take out all the solids (throw out anything unless it's usable turkey meat) and set in the refrigerator overnight. Or do what my grandmother does in the winter and use your garage as a fridge. The next day, skim off the fat and the stock is ready to use.

The first batch of stock I made a soup with about 2 cups of leftover turkey (dark meat is great in soup), a pound of Italian sausage, 2 cups cauliflower, 1 cup carrots, 1 can corn, and 1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies.

The second batch I wanted to do something similar, but with the addition of orzo. I used turkey and turkey sausage, 4-5 carrots, a bag fresh spinach, a can of white beans. Then, I dumped in one box of orzo. With all the stock, I felt like there wasn't enough pasta so I immediately added another. This was a mistake. For the first part of cooking, it seemed great. The orzo was al dente so I covered the soup up and waited for my roommates to get home.

[The soup, pre-orzo]

[The soup, as the orzo cooks]

[The end result]

In the end, we had less of a 'soup' and more of a warm pasta dish. The orzo absorbed all the stock, so was very flavorful. In the future, I'll definitely use only one box of pasta per stockpot of soup, unless I want to recreate this dish... which I definitely will want to do someday.

holiday potluck

When I moved in with my current roommates, they informed me they do an annual Thanksgiving Dinner for friends the week before Thanksgiving. We didn't get to it in time this year, so instead had a general Holiday Potluck. We decorated with Christmas lights, Hannukah lights and random orange lights. Not the most cohesive but the important thing was that we cooked- and ate- well.

[Our turkey, stuffed with carrots and onion]

To continue wrapping all the winter time holidays together, my roommate Julia made latkes using a recipe from her Dad (aka the one from Epicurious or that you get if you google latke recipe.) It is very good. We made far too many but they were all eaten.

[This is what 5 pounds of potatoes looks like once it's been shredded. Check out the sweet cupcakes in the background to celebrate of the UofR women's rugby team.]

My house supplied the turkey and asked everyone to bring side dishes. Not content to sit on the sidelines, I decided to make appetizers. Originally planning on keeping it simple, I made Sage and Brown Butter Cashews and bought brie and fruit. I decided to turn the berries into a Blackberry and Raspberry Compote, making up the recipe as I went. I've posted what I did below.

[Sage and Brown Butter Cashews]

A highlight was the candied bacon, which was a last minute addition. TheKitchn wrote that not eating it all immediately would be very tough. This proved true as the first batch was consumed while half the party guests were out picking up the last few items on the list. Lesson learned: thin center cut bacon is better than thick but cook it on a drying rack or something that drains. Coat heavily with brown sugar.

[Candied bacon]

Blackberry Raspberry Compote
1.5 cups blackberries
1 cup raspberries
2 tablespoons honey
1/3 of a lemon (eyeballed)

Put in a sauce pan and heat on low-medium heat. Mash the berries up a bit and once there is a decent amount of juice in the pan, bring to a low boil. Let simmer 10-15 minutes. Pour over brie.

[Super bad picture. Super yummy brie.]

manrepeller

I had not seen my college roommate (of all four years!) since graduating a year and a half ago, so last weekend I went up to New York/New Jersey to visit. The week before I discovered a new blog to love, The Man Repeller. This was fortunitous timing for many reasons. First, because roommate L and I often were items that would have graced the pages of The Man Repeller. They had names like Boxer Dress and Sailor Suit. Secondly, because we had already stated that no men should attempt to talk to us during our weekend of girl time. So we swore to each other to do our manrepelling best and I took the following photos to document the weekend. Many of my piece repeat as I took the smallest luggage possible for the long weekend.

[Chinatown bus in RVA]

[With our very adorable non-manrepelling friend at brunch. Romper=manrepeller]

[In Central Park. Fur coats=manrepeller.]

See more after the jump.

pumkin overload

A few weeks ago my roommate and I made a trip to Farm to Family and purchased a large blue pumpkin. Yes, blue. It was a lovely shade of pale blue and we were told it was the best for cooking. We had no interest in carving this pumpkin. Instead, we precariously chopped it into sixths and roasted it. Since then, I've read recommendations to roast whole and then chop, but this was a large pumpkin so we chopped then roasted.


To roast the pumpkin, we rubbed the outside with olive oil and the inside with butter then roasted it for about an hour at 450 degrees. We ended up with about 12 cups of pumpkin puree. I've used some it, including this amazing Pumpkin Cake with Mexican Chocolate Icing that I made for my family's Thanksgiving (see below.) But what else should we make to use up the last 6 cups of pumpkin?

[Pureed pumpkin]

[Thanksgiving Pumpkin Cake]

obession: reed's ginger candy

Made from ginger, sugar and tapioca starch. Amazingly chewy and incredibly gingery.
Get some.

peaches in the summertime, apples in the fall*

I started off my canning season with peaches, but all along I knew the one thing I absolutely absolutely had to make was applesauce. This recipe is from my grandmother. She is an amazing cook, family meals are always far more food than can be consumed by the numerous family members who surround the table each Christmas, Thanksgiving, some Easters, and random other times. Most of the holidays have standard dishes- one aunt makes corn pudding, one family members makes sweet potatoes, but one dish we have every holiday (and every meal if possible) is applesauce.

My grandmother uses tart Lodi apples for hers, which can be found in the Shenandoah Valley in July but I never saw any here in Richmond. I've used several types to make mine- including ones I picked at my roommate's family farm. Use your favorite variety, and if you aren't sure ask which ones are good for sauce or baking. Use a tart or semi-tart apple, or lower the amount of sugar.

[Picture is a little funky from being taken in my kitchen after dark, but some sort of
apple corer will be your best friend when dealing with this many apples.]

Recipe
16-18 apples
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sugar

Cut the apples into quarters or eighths, not peeled. Eighths cook faster.
Add about one-half cup water and cook on medium hear. Stir frequently or the apples stick to the bottom.

When they have cooked down so there are no lumps, take off the heat and add about 1/3 cup of sugar or more to taste and lots of nutmeg - again to taste. The type of apples will cause the amount of water you need to add to vary widely. Just start with 1/2 cup and add when it seems dry. You can also simmer extra water off.

* Yes, Julia gets credit for the name of this post. Though I did know the song before I knew Crooked Still. Check out Crooked Still for the perfect applesauce making soundtrack.

quick pic: BT+IRN

[Tree on University of Mary Washington campus]