Monthly Archives: December 2012

Slow Cooker Candy Nuts

Have you ever walked down a city street and you pass a hot nut vendor? The smell fills the air with nutty sweet goodness and you crave a bag. Now imagine making it at home. I made the mistake of doing it at night in the slow cooker and kept getting out of bed to have a few more, the whole house smell amazing.

Ingredients:

1 Lb Pecans
1/2 Lb Walnuts
1 Stick Butter
1/4 Cup White Sugar
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp Pumpkin Spice
1/2 Grated Whole Nutmeg
1/2 Tbs Cinnamon

Star by heating butter and white sugar in a pot until melted. While butter is melting pre-heat slow cooker. Next, place nuts in slow cooker and pour butter mix on top. Stir together well then sprinkle in brown sugar,pumpkin spice and nutmeg. Stir well and cook on high for an hour leaving the lid partly open. Then add vanilla and cinnamon and stir again and continue to cook with no cover for about another 40 minutes. Remove mixture and pour onto large cookie sheet to cool over night. Store in air tight container.

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Disappearing Pumpkin Soup

Everyone knows I love pumpkin. Well I have to admit both my boyfriend and Dad are not big fans. I was determined to make something pumpkin for dinner but I knew I had a hard group to please. Well this soup has the title for a reason, it was gone in less then 15 minutes. It truly is out of this world. I promise it won’t disappoint.

Ingredients:

2 Cups Pumpkin ( I prefer my fresh or frozen from my Pumpkin Breakdown recipe but can pumpkin would work)

1 Peeled and Chopped Apple

3 Cups Vegetarian Broth

1/2 Tbsp Pumpkin Spice

1 tsp Tyme

1 tsp Rosemary

2 tsp Salt

2 tsp Sugar

1 Tbsp Oil

1/4 Cup Heavy Cream

1/2 Cup Skim Milk

Start by placing the onion and oil in the slow cooker on high for 20 minutes. Then add all remaining ingredients and cook on low for at least 8 hours. Taste and adjust seasoning as you would like. Pour the whole mixture into a pot and pure with an immersion blender. Then heat soup and serve hot. This soup is great to make the day before and leave in the fridge until the next day. Just heat and serve.

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Stuffed Grape Leaves

I am not sure what it is about grape leaves but I love them. Anything that makes food fun, great to entertain and something different is always a winner with me. You have seen me stuff them with meat asian style on NBC but now I am going back to my route and doing it the meditaranian way. At the next party skip the bigs in a blanket and do it the guilt free way.

Ingredients:

1 Jar Grape Leaves
3/4 Cup Rice Uncooked
2 Cups Water
1/3 Cup white Raisin
1 tsp Salt
1 TBS Olive Oil
1/2 Onion Chopped
1 Lemon

First start by adding oil to a pot and browning the onion lightly. Add rice and water and bring it up to a boil. Once boiling add raisin’s, parsley and salt. Lower to a simmer and cook till liquid is almost gone but make sure to stir every few minutes. Once done place rice in a container and chill in fridge for about an hour to cool.

Now for the fun part. Take about five grape leaves out at a time and rinse well to remove brine. Lay one leaf flat on counter and place about a tablespoon of rice in the shape of your thumb on one edge. Then roll the leaf like you would any wrapper with folding in the sides and rolling the filling to the other side. Place each one on a well sprayed cookie sheet. Once all the rice is rolled spray the tops with oil or none stick spray and squeeze with lemon juice. Broil on low for a few minutes on each side. Make sure you watch them the whole time. They will burn easy if your not careful.

I like to serve them warm with a simple yogurt sauce. Enjoy

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Turkey Pot Pie

With so many left overs in the fridge I have been playing around with some great new recipes. This is a great recipe to make in advance and have ready for a great comfort dinner. Plus and gluten free pot pie is a hard find and this is a great alternative.

Ingredients:

3 Cups Chicken Broth

1/2 Onion Sliced

2 Carrots Sliced

1 Stalk Celery

2 Cloves Garlic Sliced

2 Cups Chopped Roasted Turkey

2 TBS Corn Starch

3 TBS Left Over Gravy

1 OZ Red Wine

1 tsp Thyme

1 tsp Sage

Salt and Pepper

Place carrots, onion, garlic and celery in sprayed pot and cook on low until onions are translucent. Add both, thyme, sage, salt and pepper and heat until boil. Once boiling lower flame, add turkey and wine and simmer for ten minutes. Place corn starch in a little bowl and add some of the hot broth to make a thick liquid. Pour the liquid into the broth and continue to stir and simmer. Add gravy and cook until it all becomes a thick soup. I stored the soup in the fridge over night to make sure it firms up a little more.

The next day I placed the soup into two two small casserole dishes. Topped it with left over mashed potatoes. Spray the top well to prevent from burning and bake at 350 degrees for 45 min.

Enjoy!

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Super Simple Roast Turkey

It is funny to me how so many people are intimidated to roast a turkey. I came up with this recipe in college and it is alway a hit. I host thanksgiving every year and always do it that same. Feel free to use the same recipe for a fun week night chicken.

Ingredients:

1 Turkey (Breast or Whole)

2 Carrots Cut into Chunks

2 Celery Stalk Cut into Chunks

2 Oranges

1 Lemon

2 Onions

1 Garlic Head

1/3 Cup Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Paprika

Sage, Thyme and Rosemary *Optional

Prepare your turkey, rinse and dry it. Place into roasting pan with pieces of carrot and celery at the bottom, the vegetables will help make a super flavorful gravy. Slice and peel lemon, orange, onion and garlic and place into a large bowl. Now you need to place about half of all the slices under the turkey skin. I start by making small cuts in the skin all over the bird including the legs, thighs, breast and so on. Then just insert all different pieces of the fruit, onion and garlic all over. I try to put one piece of each in every section of the bird. This will really keep the meat moist and add a lot a flavor. Take the remaining pieces of everything and stuff inside the bird. Pour oil all over bird coating all the skin. Then sprinkle all the seasoning all over the skin and rub it all in. Cover the bird with foil and bake covered at 325 degrees for about 3 hours depending on the size. I leave it covered for about two hours and then uncover it for the last 45 minutes to an hour and also baste it every 40 minutes. The best rule of thumb is an internal temp of 160.

When turkey is done, remove and let it sit covered with foil for 30 minutes before cutting.

For a gravy, put all the drippings in a pot. Add corn starch and a splash of red wine. Cook down and stir until gravy becomes thick and bubble.

Enjoy.

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Drunken Cranberry Sauce

There is something about tart cranberries as a side dish with any meal that always seems like a great match. From breakfast to dinner its always a great match. I loved the canned version as a kid but my grown up homemade version is a crowd please that takes not effort.

2 Lb Cranberries

2 Cups Sugar (or 1 1/2 Cups Sugar and 1/2 Cup Splenda)

1 Cups Red Wine

Zest and Juice of One Large Orange

1 Cup Apple Sauce

1 Oz Port

Place cranberries, sugar, orange juice, zest and wine in a small pot. Cook on medium heat and stir continuously. The sauce will quickly combine and berries will start to pop. Its important not to cook longer then 15 minutes in order to save some of the pectin to keep the sauce firm. 15 minutes is plenty of time for the cranberries to cook down and for everything to combine. Remove from heat and allow to cool in fridge. Once cool add apple sauce and port.

Enjoy

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Gnocchi Re-do

Spending so much time in Italian kitchens making gnocchi has become second nature. With so much leftover mashed potatoes in the fridge I decided to do something fun with it. You will rarely find gluten free potato gnocchi, they normally make cheese gnocchi gluten free but this recipe works great.

Ingredients –

2 Cups Cold Leftover Mashed Potatoes (Check out my recipe for Fluffy Mashed Potatoes)

1/2 Cup Rice Flour with an additional 1/4 Cup for rolling out

1/2 Cup Chest Nut Flour

1 tsp fresh ground nutmeg

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 Tbsp Fresh Chopped Parsley

1 Egg

Mix everything together saving the flour for last. Work with about 1/6 of the dough at a time. Take about a handful and place it on a well floured cutting board. Roll dough out into long strips about 1 inch thick and about one foot long. Use a sharp knife and cut the strip into pieces a little less then an inch. Place the pieces in boiling water. Once they start to float give them an addition 3-4 minutes to cook. They will plump up and look very soft but they harden as they cool. Cook all the gnocchi in a few batches. If you have to many in the pot they will bump into each other and not cook correctly. Strain each batch in a calender and allow to cook on a large cookie sheet. I continue roll out and cut the gnocchi as I cook them. Once all the gnocchi are done I place them in a large deep pan over medium heat. Give them a little toss to re-heat and add any sauce you would like. This time I used pesto but red sauce or even some butter, capers and cheese would be great.

Enjoy

 

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Fluffy Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes are one of the easiest most loved classic side dishes. I did an event the night before thanksgiving and was shocked by all the people that had crazy horror stories from holiday dinners when the mashed potatoes came out like glue. The reason is the starch in potatoes will become stiff if it is over worked. Don’t ever use a food processor, blender and hand processor to whip your potatoes. A simple spoon and hand masher will do the trick. If you need all little help a hand mixer (like the one you use to make cake) will help.

Ingredients:

10 Medium potatoes (Washed)

1 head of garlic

3 TBS Salt (Plus a handful for water pot)

2 TBS Heavy Cream

2 Cups Milk

3 TBS Butter (melted)

1 tspn Rosemary

1 tspn Tyme

1 Tspn Tyme

The first step is the most important. Place all the potatoes in a large pot of cold water. Salt the water heavily. Turn the heat on high and bring to boil. Once boiling lower heat to a simmer and cook until potatoes begin to fall apart. This can take over an hour.

While potatoes are cook place the whole head of garlic on tin foil. Coat in oil and a tiny bit of water and sprinkle with herbs. Place in oven at 375 degrees for about an hour. Keep on eye on it. Your looking for the inside to get soft. When its done, squeeze out the inside cloves and get ride of the paper peel.

Once potatoes are done, drain and let cook for a few minutes. Depending on your preference remove the potatoes peals. My family loves the rustic potatoes so I remove about 50 percent of the peals. Believe it or not potatoes skins are filled with nutrition so leaving some on are a healthy option.

Return potatoes to pot, add garlic and mashed with potato masher. Add cream, melted butter, salt, and any remaining herbs. Continue to mash and add milk slowly until you have the leave of creaminess you are looking for.

Serve hot and save leftovers for my gnocchi recipe that is soon to come!

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