Butter Beef

Okay, this is just my Butter Chicken recipe made with beef, in a crockpot, and I forgot the butter so I don't know what you'd really call it. But let's just go with Butter Beef for now.

BUTTER BEEF
1 lb. stewing beef
1 can tomato paste
1/4 c. buttermilk (or 1/4 c. milk + 1 tbsp. lemon juice, or plain yogurt)
2 tbsp. Curry Powder

2 tsp. ginger paste

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 onion, diced or chopped

1 c. whipping cream

Mix together first 5 ingredients in a bowl or ziploc bag, and marinate overnight. Toss in the crockpot with garlic and onion, and cook on low for 8 hours. Stir in cream and let it heat through before serving with rice and naan.

Super easy, super tasty (although I think I put too much lemon juice in it, so it was a little tangy), and the kids love it. Okay, they love the naan bread from Superstore, but they eat the rest of their supper because they know they won't get naan if they don't eat the curry. Who cares, as long as they eat!

Geneviève's Squash Lasagna

Last week, Rachael Ray made a Pumpkin & Sausage Lasagna. It looked interesting, so we tried it out for supper tonight. Since my son helped out with cinnamon buns the other day, it was my daughter's turn to smile for the camera!

Sprinkling the butternut squash with 1 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice, 1/8 tsp. Chipotle Chili, salt & pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil.

Posing with the seasoned butternut squash before it went in the oven at 400 F for 30 minutes (cut-side down on a lined baking sheet.) Then it was puréed with 3 c. chicken stock.

Laying the oven-ready noodles in the dish (with squash purée on the bottom.) After the noodles, we put a layer of squash purée, then cooked, crumbled sausage.

Sprinkling a three-cheese mixture over the layer of Bechemel sauce (4 tbsp. butter, 4 tbsp. flour, 4 c. whole milk - melt butter, whisk in flour, whisk in milk, season with Sage & Apple Stuffing Seasoning, salt & pepper, and let it thicken for about 7 minutes.

To assemble the lasagna, we put squash purée on the bottom, followed by noodles, squash, sausage, noodles, Bechemel, cheese. We did two layers of that, and had enough to make another small lasagna (I just had to make another 1/2 batch of Bechemel sauce.) Bake at 400 F for 30 minutes, covered, and then take off the tinfoil and bake for another 15 minutes.

This isn't the greatest picture, but the lasagna is awesome! I would definitely try it again, next time probably with more seasonings on the squash just to bring out some more flavour.

William's Cinnamon Buns

My son and I made some yummy cinnamon buns today, and they turned out fabulous! I think I put a bit too much flour (3 1/2 c. probably would have been plenty) but I let them rise for an extra 30 minutes and the dough finally doubled.

I just googled "cinnamon buns" and found this recipe for Ooey-Gooey Cinnamon Buns.

Look at how big it got!

Punching down the dough as fast as he can.

My little baker.

Mmmm, sugar and cinnamon!

Just a wee bit proud of himself!

The finished product!

Halloween Supper

My daughter and I watched Rachael Ray on Friday, and she thought this recipe looked good, so we had it for Halloween supper.

Sticky Orange Chicken from Rachael Ray

I used 1 c. chicken stock (next time I think I'd use even less to make the sauce stickier), and I didn't have any fresh herbs so I used some Tuscan Rub instead. I served it with sweet potato fries (thinly sliced, drizzled with olive oil, and baked at 425 F for about 30 minutes) and curry mayo.

I thought it was delicious, and the family seemed to enjoy it too. Definitely a quick and easy meal to make. The only problem I had was that it seemed to take a while for the sauce to reduce, which is why I would use less broth next time. Otherwise, it was great!

Pesto Cheese Bread

This is nothing fancy, but we made it last night at cooking class and I whipped some up tonight to go with our supper. It's a simple pizza dough that you can jazz up to make a yummy flatbread with whatever you like. In cooking class we put olive oil, asiago cheese, garlic, and parsley. Tonight I did one half with olive oil, Pesto Herbs, parmesan cheese, marble cheese, and Herb & Garlic Sea Salt. On the other half I left out the Pesto Herbs so the kids wouldn't complain.

MY COOKING TEACHER'S FAVOURITE PIZZA DOUGH

1 pkg. yeast

1 c. hot water

1-2 tsp. sugar or honey

2 tbsp. oil

2 1/2 c. flour (might need less)

Mix together first four ingredients, then add flour until you can form a ball that doesn't stick to your hands or the bowl. Knead for a few minutes, then cover and let rise for 45 minutes. Punch it down and cut into two portions. Roll each portion out on a floured surface, then transfer to a greased baking sheet (use oil and cornmeal). Poke with your fingers to make indentations, then drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with your seasonings/toppings, and bake at 400 F for 15-18 minutes.

Turkey Soup & Homeade Buns

I saw a recipe for Sweet Milk Dinner Rolls on My Fabulous Recipes and decided to try them out today. I could have just eaten the dough without baking them (mmmm, dough!) but I did bake most of them and they turned out pretty good. (No fault to Sook's recipe, I'm just not great at any type of baking, so all my attempts generally fail.) They are nice and sweet (which is why the dough was so good!), but mine didn't rise very much (me and yeast don't get along very well.)

Anyway, I made some turkey soup to go with it. I just sort of tossed in things from the pantry and the fridge that seemed to be appropriate. It turned out better than I expected.

TURKEY SOUP

5-6 slices of bacon, cut into smaller pieces

1/2 onion, diced

2 carrots, sliced

3 celery stalks, diced

1/4 c. lentils

1/4 c. brown rice

8 c. turkey broth

1 c. leftover turkey, diced

Cook bacon in the bottom of a soup pot. Drain most of the fat, then add onion and cook until soft. Add remaining ingredients (except turkey) and bring to a boil. Cover and let it simmer for about an hour. (Maybe less, I wasn't really paying attention to the clock.) Add turkey near the end, just to reheat it.

Perfect meal for a cold, blustery day!

A Perfect Thanksgiving (and some ideas for leftovers!)

We were blessed to have lots of family here this weekend for Thanksgiving. Everyone has gone home now, with a belly full of the best turkey dinner I think I've ever eaten.

This year I tried brining a turkey. It's supposed to make the meat juicier, and let's face it, turkey usually isn't known for being juicy. I used Epicure's recipe for Canadian Maple Brined Turkey. (Instead of ice, I added about 12 c. water to cover the turkey.) I brined it overnight (about 14 hours)and then rinsed it off, patted it dry, and rubbed it with butter and Turkey Rub (even underneath the skin.) I cooked it at 325 F for about 3 1/2 hours, and each time I basted it, I glazed it with maple syrup as well. This made the gravy sooooooooooo delicious!!!(Sorry, that's a terrible picture. It fell apart when we lifted it out of the roaster, plus this is only my second attempt at cooking a turkey, so I haven't mastered the art of a beautiful looking bird yet. But it sure tasted good!)

I also made Cranberry Apple Stuffing, with some slight modifications to the recipe. Instead of bread crumbs I used cubes of french bread (from our wine & cheese the night before.) I also used less Cherries & Berries, more apples and onion, and I used Sage & Apple Stuffing Seasoning. I made it the day before and tossed it into the oven in tinfoil packets for about an hour while the turkey was cooking. It was delicious, although I must admit, I do still love Stove Top Stuffing!

One of my favourite dishes was the Maple Roasted Root Vegetables. These were amazing. When the turkey was cooked, we wrapped it in tinfoil to let it rest, so we just poured the gravy drippings into another container and used the roaster to make the veggies (because this recipe makes a huge batch!) I followed the directions exactly and they turned out perfectly.

We also had some garlicy mashed potatoes that I forgot to take a picture of. I think we all know what they look like. Potatoes, butter, milk, and (perhaps a little too much) Garlic Potato Topper all whipped together.

But the highlight of the meal was my sister's Pumpkin Cheesecake, topped with Crystallized Ginger.

It was as good as it looks... huge, tall slices of rich, creamy cheesecake, topped with real whipped cream. She also made Lemon Meringue Pie from scratch, but I didn't take a picture of that either. It was just as fabulous - my sister is an amazing baker!

Now if anyone is wondering what to do with their turkey leftovers, here are my suggestions (and if I don't blog this week, it's because I'm eating one of these three things and the recipes are already on here.)

1. TV Dinners - Get some pie plates and serve up a portion of all your leftovers onto each plate. Pour some gravy overtop, and wrap in tinfoil. These are handy to keep in the freezer and pull out on cold winter nights. They do take a while to heat up in the oven (maybe an hour?) but it's nice to have a turkey meal sometimes without all the hassle.
2. Coq au vin - Instead of cooking the chicken, just add leftover turkey instead. If you boil the turkey carcass to make broth, save some to use in this recipe.
3. Turkey Enchiladas - Another favourite recipe I haven't made in ages, and it's also great for freezer meals (if you don't want to eat turkey all week.)

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! Enjoy your leftovers!