Creamy white bean dip with roasted garlic

Do your kids ask you for things at the last possible second even though they have known about whatever it is they need for weeks?  My husband does this, too.  “If you knew last Friday that you would need to bring a wrapped gift for your party, why are you telling me as we’re getting into the car on the WAY to the party??”  It really messes up the walk I talk about being organized.

One of my daughters was going to a girl scout meeting which started at 6:00 pm, and guess what?  She announced at 5:25 that she needed to bring an hors d’oeuvre.  That 10 pre-teens would actually want to eat.  And “not like something so totally healthy either, Mom.”  Like cool!  Like let’s pretend we’re on an episode of Chopped!  But seriously, even though I like the idea of being able to whip something yummy together with stuff from my pantry in 20 minutes, it’s a little stressful.

Normally, my go-to would have been hummus, which I can make in 10 seconds and I know my daughter and her friends like it.  But of course, on this day I had no cooked chickpeas.  So you know what they say about necessity being the mother of invention.  I found some canned white beans in the pantry and added them to the food processor with a few other staples that generally taste good with white beans and we had ourselves a winner dip.  My daughter even said she liked it better than hummus.  At the time, I made it with a raw garlic clove and it was terrific, but another day when I wasn’t under the gun I tried it with a whole head of roasted garlic and looooooved it more.

I just made the bean dip again recently to bring to a birthday dinner with some health-conscious ladies and served it with some crudites as shown in the picture.  I stole the idea from Martha Stewart of putting the cut veggies in modern drinking glasses.  It always makes for a pretty presentation.  I also included a small bowl of balsamic vinegar and olive oil with a pinch of sea salt — another stolen idea, this time from an Italian restaurant.  We have also used the dip as a sandwich spread with grilled vegetables.  Fabulous with eggplant, sweet bell peppers and zucchini!

Sure I could have gone to the market on the way to the meeting and picked up a tub of salsa and a bag of chips, but thankfully I didn’t because then there would of been two of the same hors d’oeuvre at the meeting that night. (At least it’s not just my kid.)

Creamy White Bean Dip with Roasted Garlic

Pamela
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Ingredients
  

  • 1 head of garlic unpeeled to roast or 1 large clove raw garlic, peeled
  • 2 cups cooked white beans* such as cannellini or Great Northern, drained and rinsed, if canned
  • ¼ cup cold-pressed unrefined extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
  • Several dashes hot sauce
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • a few grinds finely ground black pepper

Instructions
 

  • Roast the garlic: preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice off the top fifth of the head of unpeeled garlic. Add a drop of olive oil. Replace the top. Wrap with parchment paper and then aluminum foil. Bake for 1 hour. Discard foil and parchment.
  • Take the top off of the garlic and squeeze the softened garlic out of the skins into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth and creamy. When I'm ready to serve it, I like to drizzle it with a touch of fruity olive oil. Can be made a day ahead and kept covered and refrigerated.

Notes

I like to serve this as a dip with crudités or blanched vegetables and/or with warm pita bread, chips or toasted slices of baguette. You can even assemble your own crostini with grilled baguette toasts and white bean spread topped with sautéed greens. It is also great as a sandwich spread.
To cook your beans from scratch, soak dried beans in lots of cold water for at least 6 hours or longer. Drain them. Put them in a pot with enough fresh water to cover by 4-6 inches. Bring to boil. Reduce to a simmer. Cook until tender, anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours, depending on the age of the beans. I like to add a tablespoon of kosher salt to the beans and allow them to cool in their cooking liquid for 30-60 minutes, if possible, but it's not necessary. Drain and use immediately or store in the fridge for 3 days. Beans also freeze very well.
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Spaghetti squash with kale and chickpeas

Did you participate in the low-carb craze of the 90’s?  If you did, you may have eaten a lot of spaghetti squash with tomato sauce trying to convince your carb-starved body that you were actually eating pasta. The body is no fool, though.  At least mine isn’t.  I ate lots of “spaghetti” for a good year, but never really felt like I was eating pasta and then I had a negative association with this pasta imposter.  The better attitude to take is to acknowledge that spaghetti squash is a delicious food unto itself and that replacing a processed food (pasta) with something whole and full of vitamins and minerals is a fantastic idea.  I had sworn off spaghetti squash for 15 years because I thought the only way to eat it was with marinara sauce and I had O.D.’d on that.  But my lovely summer intern, Hannah, had found this recipe that sparked my interest and I was back.

 

Spaghetti squash comes into season in the early fall and lasts through the early spring.  Like most winter squashes, spaghetti squash lasts quite a while off the vine without losing nutrients.  In fact, many winter squashes actually get a little sweeter when they’ve been allowed to “cure” on your countertop for a bit.  What is unique about spaghetti squash is that the flesh is not meaty like other winter squashes like butternut squash or pumpkin, for example, but instead stringy after it has been cooked.  It resembles spaghetti strands when you rake your fork through the flesh.  Pretty cool, actually.  The flavor of spaghetti squash is like the glass half empty-glass half full.  It has a very subtle flavor — really subtle — which means it tastes kind of bland, but it also means you’re not that limited with flavors you can use.

Funny enough, the trickiest part about cooking spaghetti squash is actually cutting it open.  I have tried numerous methods and the one that is hands-down the best is what I call the slot machine method.  You can see from the photos that I insert the tip of my big, sturdy chef’s knife into the flesh of the squash a few inches from the bottom and pull down.  Then I inch my way up the squash towards the middle and keep inserting and pulling down the knife.  This is the safest and easiest way to do it.  If you don’t want to try cutting it open and you have extra time, you can pierce the squash a few times with the tip of your knife so it doesn’t explode in the oven (ask me how I know this) and roast it whole.  This way it will soften up and be much easier to cut open, but you’re adding an extra 15-20 minutes to the cook time.  I prefer to roast the squash halves, which takes about 45 minutes.  You can also plunge the halves into a pot of boiling water for about 13 minutes if you’re in a rush, but I think you lose nutrients when you boil vegetables for a long time like that.  Also, it’s easier to overcook it and then the subtle flavor becomes even more subtle (as in, it tastes like water.)  I’m well aware that people also microwave spaghetti squash halves, but this is a site about NOT microwaving food, so you’ll have to figure that one out on your own.

 

Here I sauteed my BFF kale with garlic and a pinch of chili flakes to toss with the cooked squash strands and then I add cooked chickpeas.  But we’ve hung out enough that by now you know that you can substitute Swiss chard or spinach for the kale and white beans for the chickpeas.  Really the sky’s the limit with how you complement the squash.  Just make sure you add lots of flavor and don’t be stingy with the salt.  I added vegetable chili on top of it one day. Another time I tossed it with chunky braised root vegetables in a spicy tomato sauce.  Daughter #2 found some cooked spaghetti squash in the refrigerator and warmed it up and added olive oil, feta, olives and some leftover broccoli.  It was so darn good and I never had to convince anyone to try it because it was “just like pasta!”

Spaghetti Squash with Kale and Chickpeas

Pamela, adapted from My New Roots
5 from 1 vote
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Servings 4 -6 (or just me and my intern, both starving, standing over the stove)

Ingredients
  

  • 1 spaghetti squash about 3 1/2 pounds
  • 3 Tablespoons unrefined olive oil + more for drizzling the squash or unrefined coconut oil or ghee
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 bunch kale center rib removed, leaves chopped
  • 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas rinsed and drained, if canned
  • 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
  • ¼ teaspoon crushed red chili flakes or more to taste
  • Parmesan or Pecorino-Romano cheese shaved on top optional

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the spaghetti squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Rub the inside of each half with a drizzle of olive oil and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Arrange cut-side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes until tender.
  • Heat oil in a large skillet over medium. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute or less. Add chili flakes, stir for a few seconds and add chopped kale with a few pinches of sea salt. Sauté kale until the leaves are bright green, about 5 minutes. Add the chickpeas and cook until warmed through. Remove from heat.
  • Remove squash from oven when it is cooked through and tender. Using a fork, pull the strands of squash from the peel so that it resembles…spaghetti! Place the strands into a serving bowl and add the kale-chickpea mixture. If you do the spaghetti squash in advance and it is no longer hot, add to the kale and chickpeas and sauté over medium heat until warmed through. Toss to combine and taste for seasoning. Since spaghetti squash is rather bland, you will need to add plenty of salt and pepper. Garnish with cheese if desired.
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Mini-empanadas with mixed greens

Well, like it or not, it’s officially holiday season!  Even though there’s so much to love about the holidays, I just wish it didn’t all happen at once.  Do you ever have that feeling?  But one thing I truly look forward to is getting together with friends for a good, old-fashioned cocktail party, provided I get invited to one.  I love mingling and chatting with lots of different people and eating fun little noshes at my leisure.  However, if you ask me, I do think there’s a little room for improvement in the hors d’oeuvres arena.  (Maybe that’s why I don’t get invited to too many parties.)  You know what I mean, right?   Lots of baked brie with chutney, sad-looking crudite with not-homemade hummus, or tomato-basil bruschetta…in the winter!  We’re going to step it up a notch today, folks.  You need to bring an hors d’oeuvre to a party either this weekend or next, correct?  Although I have several fab party recipes on the site already, these empanadas are tied for my favorite with the Zucchini-Gruyere Tart, which is a winner every time.

Empanadas are these delicious little savory hand pies.    It’s almost like a small tart that has been folded over.  Whereas there are infinite fillings you can use, empanada pastry dough is usually stuffed with seasoned ground beef and fried.  We’re not doing any of that.  When I noticed a recipe for empanadas in Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone using leafy greens and olives, I knew I had to try them.  I have tweaked the recipe over the years to make it simpler and sometimes I add finely diced precooked turkey sausage to the greens — delicious, I tell you.  My kids are crazy for them and I really don’t think they even know what they’re eating.

After my last class the Friday before Thanksgiving when I thought I might collapse, I realized that two months ago I had volunteered my house for a pot luck dinner the NEXT night because, you know, it seemed like a bonehead  good idea at the time.  Well, what was a good idea was that I offered to do a turkey since I would have a leftover demo bird from Friday’s class as well as an hors d’oeuvre, knowing full well that I could make these scrumptious little empanaditas in October and freeze them.

Daughter #1 and I had fun making them one afternoon when she had a day off from school.  You don’t have to make the pastry from scratch like I did.  I have seen prepared empanada pastry rounds in specialty markets, or you can cut out rounds from pie crusts.  But if you have ever made cut-out cookies, you can do this.  I normally just roll out the little rounds and leave them with imperfect edges, but I was surprised that my daughter wanted to take the time to use round cookie cutters to make them “prettier.”  If you don’t want or need to freeze the empanadas, you can roll out the rounds the day before and keep them well-covered.  You can also make your filling in advance and then assemble the empanadas before you bake them.  Let me just tell you right now, you should make these whether you’re party-bound or not and freeze them for a rainy day.  My kids will pull them out of the freezer and pop them into the toaster oven for an after school snack or to eat with a bowl of soup on the weekend.  You can even stick them in a lunchbox!  Do my good ideas ever end?  Can you tell I’ve had too much green tea today?!

 

Mini-Empanadas with Mixed Greens

Pamela, inspired by Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
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Ingredients
  

  • Empanada Dough:
  • 3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour you can sub out ½ cup with whole wheat pastry
  • ¾ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
  • 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 2 sticks + 2 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter cut into pieces
  • ½ cup + 2 Tablespoons ice water
  • Filling:
  • 2 Tablespoons unrefined cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil or ghee
  • 1 small onion finely diced
  • 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
  • ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
  • ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 12 cups mixed chopped greens such as Swiss chard beet greens, kale, spinach, and/or escarole
  • 2/3 cup shredded fontina cheese optional
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 beaten egg + 1 Tablespoon milk

Instructions
 

  • Make the dough: In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, combine the flour, salt and sugar. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is in pea-sized pieces. With the machine running, slowly add the water through the feed tube and pulse until a ball of dough comes together.
  • Transfer the dough to a piece of parchment paper or plastic wrap. Use your hands to pat the dough into a disk. Wrap the dough with the parchment (or plastic wrap) and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
  • Divide the dough into 24 pieces: first cut 8 equal wedges, like a pizza. Then cut each wedge into three pieces. Roll each piece into a 4-inch circle. Transfer to a sheet pan and refrigerate.
  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Make the filling: Heat oil or ghee in a large skillet over medium heat and add the onion, garlic, parsley and red pepper flakes. Saute until the onion is tender, about 4 minutes. Add the greens and sea salt and pepper to taste and cook until softened, about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. If there’s a lot of moisture, drain some of the liquid.
  • Add the cheese to the greens and taste for seasoning. Allow to cool slightly before filling the pastry.
  • Place a spoonful of filling on the lower half of each dough circle, then fold the pastry over and seal the edges with the tines of a fork. Brush with the beaten egg and milk mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until browned. (If you are baking these directly from the freezer, bake an additional 10-15 minutes.) Serve warm or at room temperature.

Notes

If you would like to add some precooked turkey sausage to the filling, take 4 (about 12 ounces) and diced them up. Add them to the pan with the onion, etc. Reduce the greens to 10 cups.
If you have a few tablespoons of leftover filling, save it the next day for an omelet. Yum!
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Rustic butternut squash soup with fennel and wild rice

One way that I have learned how to be a more confident cook is by identifying certain “formula” recipes and then just changing the ingredients around to come up with something that seems like a different recipe. One day last year after I was bored with making Mushroom and Barley Soup for the umpteenth time, I changed a few ingredients based on what I had in the fridge and voila!  A new soup was born.  After a weekend of over-indulging (I keep leaving the house just before 4:00 when I know the craving for pumpkin pie will hit), this is exactly the kind of thing I want to eat.   It is light, but filling and very satisfying.  A bonus is that it is awesome with turkey stock, which I have loads of right now.  The kids are also happy to have this soup in their thermoses at school for a nourishing lunch, especially if I toss in a little shredded leftover turkey.

 

You can use any vegetables or grains you want or even substitute white beans or chickpeas, but one of my rules for a good diet is variety.  The day I made up this soup, I poked around the pantry and found a lonely bag of wild rice that I hadn’t said hello to in a while.  Funny thing about wild rice is that it’s actually not a rice at all, but really a grass.  And most of the wild rice that we find in our local markets is not really “wild,” but cultivated.  I love it all the same.   (Not) wild (not) rice is an absolutely delicious and nutritious whole food that you probably never eat.  It is nutty and almost smoky-sweet with a great chewy texture.  Wild rice is extremely high in folic acid (an essential B-complex vitamin lacking in many people’s diets), potassium and fiber.  Plus, that dramatic black color provides some powerful phytonutrients that aren’t easy to come by in nature.

Although this recipe came about as a pleasant surprise (just like my third child!), it has since become a regular in my repertoire.  Some things in life are just meant to be.

Rustic Butternut Squash Soup with Fennel and Wild Rice

Pamela
5 from 1 vote
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Servings 6 -8

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Tablespoon unrefined cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter or use all oil
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 1 garlic clove chopped
  • 1 carrot chopped
  • 1 celery stalk chopped
  • 2 fennel bulbs trimmed and chopped
  • 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
  • 1 cup wild rice or whole grain of choice -- adjust cooking time accordingly
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt double this if using unsalted stock + more to taste
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 8 cups vegetable chicken or turkey stock (preferably homemade)
  • 1 medium butternut squash peeled and chopped (about 5 cups)
  • a few green leafies such as Swiss chard, coarsely chopped (if using chard, chop stems and keep separate from leaves)
  • 1-2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar to taste (optional)

Instructions
 

  • In a large stockpot, melt the oil and butter over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, carrot, celery, and fennel (add chopped chard stems, if using.) Sauté until vegetables are tender, about 8 minutes.
  • Stir in the thyme, rice, stock, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, partially cover and reduce heat. Simmer for 25 minutes.
  • Stir in butternut squash, cover slightly and simmer for an additional 25-30 minutes or until squash is tender. Add chopped greens and stir until wilted.
  • Taste for seasoning and garnish with fennel fronds, if desired. If you like a little acidity, add a few drops of apple cider vinegar. (I think the soup is better with the vinegar.)
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Turkey Stock

Ahhhhh, the day after.  I hope you had a lovely holiday.  Ours was everything I hoped it would be — lots of happy people in the house and no major disasters in the kitchen.  The best thing I did this year was have everyone sign up for three tasks on the pre-Thanksgiving schedule.  It was actually very fun working in the kitchen with the kids and my husband.  I did have to let the girls listen to their music however, so now I have the first two verses  of “Super Bass” down pat, but apparently I do not have moves like Jagger.  It’s so important for kids to learn basic cooking skills when they’re young.  It will serve them well later.  Maybe they won’t turn out like my darling husband who when asked to peel four carrots, responded “what do you mean by that?”

Our big feast, however, has made me not want to cook another thing until Sunday, at the earliest.  No one is even permitted to utter the words “What’s for…?”  I’m off duty until further notice.  So I’m still in my pajamas (it doesn’t matter what time you’re reading this, I’ll still be in my pajamas), about to start my holiday shopping online while 2 large stockpots of turkey broth simmer away.  Ok,  I lied.  I’m not cooking another thing, except turkey stock.

By now you know I am obsessed with homemade stocks.  True, all that straining and stock pot-washing is a bit of a pain, but the reward is so worth it.  You literally cannot buy stock that equals homemade, although I hear that one of my local markets, Bristol Farms, sells a homemade stock and it is about $7/pint or something absurd.  On a day like today, when I am hanging around the house, it is no work at all to stick some turkey carcasses and a bunch of bones in a big pot with water and some vegetables.  What I love about making stock from a leftover Thanksgiving turkey is that there is almost nothing to do — very little skimming before the liquid comes to a boil and hardly any fat that rises to the surface the next day.  You can basically use it right away and mine is well seasoned since I dry rubbed my turkeys with salt.

I will make a nice pot of chunky butternut squash and fennel soup with wild rice tomorrow.  Oh, you’d like the recipe?  If you promise to give it a try, I’ll post it on Tuesday.  But the broth also comes in handy when we reheat leftovers tonight.  I don’t use a microwave, so my preferred method of reheating food is in a covered saucepan with a little stock or water.  I’ll freeze the rest and pull it out for turkey and vegetable soup or if one of the kids comes home from school with a scratchy throat.  In which case I’ll heat it up and hand out mugs of broth like medicine.  For now, today is my day to rest and restore my energy for the month ahead, because moms like me have no time to come down with a scratchy throat.

Turkey Stock

Pamela
5 from 1 vote
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Ingredients
  

  • 1 leftover turkey carcass + any leftover bones or wings
  • 2 onions peeled and quartered
  • 3 carrots halved
  • 3 stalks of celery halved
  • 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • 5-7 quarts of water this depends on the size of your pot

Instructions
 

  • Remove any meat still left on the turkey and discard anything you stuffed in the cavity. Place the turkey carcass and bones in a large stockpot with COLD water. I just fill the pot to about 2 inches below the rim. You can break the carcass up to fit the pot, if necessary.
  • Put the heat on high and bring to a boil. Immediately lower the heat to the gentlest simmer and skim any foam that surfaces.
  • Add the vegetables and apple cider vinegar and continue to simmer, partially covered for about 2-5 hours (or as long as you have.)
  • Strain the stock (use a fine mesh sieve to make it very clear) into a large bowl or individual containers and cool before refrigerating. Keeps in the refrigerator 3-4 days or frozen up to 3 months.
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Cranberry Sauce with Apples and Raspberries

Cranberry Sauce with Apples and Raspberries | Pamela Salzman
Cranberry Sauce with Apples and Raspberries | Pamela Salzman
Photo by Carley Rudd

I use a cranberry sauce recipe for Thanksgiving that has been in my family longer than I have.  My aunt received the recipe over 40 years ago from a colleague in New Jersey, who received it from someone who lived in her apartment building in New York City.  I have loved this cranberry sauce for as long as I can remember.  It makes no sense to me why I ever tried other recipes since this one is everything a cranberry sauce should be — uncomplicated, tart, slightly sweet, chunky and fresh.  My kids eat it in a bowl with a spoon, on top of oatmeal, pancakes, or French toast, or swirled into plain yogurt.  And of course, it’s divine on turkey or a turkey sandwich.

The original recipe shows its age a bit since it calls for 1 pound of fresh cranberries, because Ocean Spray used to make their bags in 1-pound sizes.  Now they’re 12 ounces.  The recipe also calls for frozen raspberries instead of fresh because I don’t think you could possibly get fresh raspberries in November 40 years ago.  I have made my own small changes, but it still tastes just as delicious.  I couldn’t help trying to cut back on the sugar a bit by substituting apple juice for water and reducing the quantity of sugar.  And this year I used sucanat in place of granulated sugar and no one could tell the difference.  My aunt’s recipe originally called for “chopped pecans to taste” which I have never put in simply because when I first started making the cranberry sauce, pecans were out of my budget.  So I’ve left them out all these years and I can’t say I miss them.

One thing that has never changed is that I make the cranberry sauce every year the Sunday before Thanksgiving because my aunt does, too.  We call each other on Sunday morning.  In fact, I just got off the phone with her.  “Are you chopping apples?”  “I sure am!”  I make enough for our Thanksgiving dinner with a little for leftovers (two times the recipe.)  But my aunt makes vats of it and then drives around town delivering jars of cranberry sauce to all of her lucky friends.  Our conversation cracked me up this year as she informed me she found BPA-free plastic containers for her sauce and this year she went organic with all the fruit.  I think she’s been reading my blog.  Although when I mentioned the sucanat to her, she said “don’t push it.”

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

 

 
 
 

 
 
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Cranberry Sauce with Apples and Raspberries

Pamela
5 from 2 votes
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Ingredients
  

  • ½ cup granulated sugar coconut sugar, maple sugar, or sucanat (you can add more if you like it sweeter)
  • 1 cup unsweetened apple juice
  • 1 pound fresh cranberries washed and picked through for bruised ones
  • 1 10- ounce bag of unsweetened frozen raspberries or 10 ounces fresh raspberries
  • 2 apples* any variety is fine, peeled and diced (same size as a cranberry)
  • chopped pecans to taste optional

Instructions
 

  • In a large saucepan, combine the sugar or sucanat and apple juice and bring to a boil. Add cranberries, cover and boil until berries pop, about 5-8 minutes.
  • Add raspberries and stir.
  • Add apples and cook 1 minute.
  • Add chopped nuts if desired.
  • Cool to room temperature and refrigerate.

Notes

*This will thicken as it cools and the apples will turn red. The more tart the apples, the more pectin and the thicker the sauce will get.
Good idea to make this the Sunday before Thanksgiving!
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Traditional roast turkey with gravy

My husband and I offered to host Thanksgiving at our new home a few months after we were married in 1995.  We were young and naive, but we were excited to play house with all our new china and crystal.  To prepare for the big day, my husband bought the firewood and I did absolutely everything else.  (You can see who was the naive one.)  I’ll never forget when he suggested I call the local Koo Koo Roo to order a cooked turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, “you know, just so we’re sure it’s good.”  I was slightly insulted at the suggestion, but I knew where he was coming from.  I had never cooked an entire turkey before and I was a bit intimidated.  For most people, the turkey is the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving meal.  If I screwed it up, I thought, the holiday would be a disaster.  So my plan was simple —  don’t screw up the turkey.

I called people I trusted — my mother, my mother-in-law and my aunt.  You know what they say about asking people’s advice.  I got three different opinions on how to cook a turkey which taught me that there’s no one right way to do this.  However in the years that followed I learned that there is more than one way to mess it up.  I’ve had my share of mishaps, which only reinforced to me that no matter what goes wrong, you’ve just got to roll with it because there’s usually a solution.  Like in 1996 when I carved into the turkey and it was rather raw undercooked in the center.  So we just cut it into slices and pan-sauteed them with a little stock.  Everyone complimented me on how moist the turkey was!  Funny enough, my worst disaster came last year when I was really feeling like a pro, having cooked so many Thanksgiving dinners for my family and taught so many of the same classes.  I had my two beautiful turkeys in the garage refrigerator and in the process of transferring 2 pans of stuffing the night before, I was distracted and inadvertently left the garage refrigerator door open.  All night.  When I came down the stairs in the morning and noticed one pan of stuffing still on the countertop, I knew what I did.  My garage is usually about 80 degrees and so were the turkeys.  I sat down and wondered if I had just ruined Thanksgiving.  That’s what you get for being so smug, I thought.  Instead I sent my husband to Whole Foods at 7:00 am where he was able to buy two 17-pound already brined turkeys.  Thanksgiving was saved, although a little saltier than I would have liked.  But you also know what they say about beggars.

Here’s what I’ve learned about turning out a fabulous turkey:

  • Before seasoning, check both the neck and main cavities to remove extra turkey parts like the neck and giblets.
  • Season it well and as early (like 2-3 days before) as possible for the best flavor and a very moist turkey;  I use about 1 Tablespoon kosher salt per 5 pounds of turkey.  See below for where to distribute the salt.
  • Pull the turkey out of the refrigerator a minimum of 1 hour and maximum of 2 hours before roasting.  Your bird will cook more evenly, especially in the center.
  • The heat in most ovens comes from the top, so roast your turkey on the lowest oven rack to protect the breast meat from drying out.
  • If you decide to baste, do so very quickly so the oven door isn’t opened for more than 30 seconds.
  • Use an instant read thermometer to determine if your turkey is properly cooked.  Do not rely on a timer!
  • Start testing earlier than you think you should.  Every oven is different and I’m noticing that the free-range birds are cooking more quickly than not free-range.
Turkey Weight Approximate Roasting Time
10 to 12 lb. 2 1/2 to 3 hours
12 to 14 lb. 2 3/4 to 3 1/4 hours
14 to 16 lb. 3 to 3 3/4 hours
16 to 18 lb. 3 1/4 to 4 hours
18 to 20 lb. 3 1/2 to 4 1/4 hours
20+ lb. 3 3/4 to 4 1/2 hours

 

 

 

 

Ironically, Koo Koo Roo went out of business years ago, but my kitchen is still open and bustling on Thanksgiving and my husband thinks I make the best turkey in town.

 

Traditional Roast Turkey with Gravy

Pamela
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Servings 10 -12

Ingredients
  

  • 12-14 pound fresh turkey giblet bag and neck removed, rinsed, patted dry and seasoned with 3 Tablespoons* kosher salt as soon as you bring it home from the market (2-3 days in advance is best)
  • *2 Tablespoons in the cavity 2 teaspoons on breast and 2 teaspoons on thighs and legs. Whatever is left on your hands, rub on the breast meat underneath the skin.
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 onion quartered
  • 1 celery stalk cut into thirds
  • small bunch of parsley sprigs thyme sprigs and/or sage leaves
  • 1 lemon quartered
  • 1 apple quartered or cores from 2 apples
  • 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted
  • 1-2 cups stock or water
  • Gravy
  • ¼ cup white wine
  • 5 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 3 cups chicken or turkey stock preferably homemade
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions
 

  • The day of roasting, take turkey out of refrigerator and wipe dry with paper towels. Bring to room temperature, about 60-90 minutes.
  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Position a rack in the lowest rung of the oven. Oil a V-shaped rack in a roasting pan.
  • Sprinkle a little freshly ground black pepper in the cavity and then add in the onion, celery, herbs, lemon and apple. Truss the turkey by tying the legs together. Brush the skin all over with some of the butter.
  • Place the turkey on the rack in the pan, breast-side down. Bend the wing tips behind the back. Roast for 40 minutes, basting with butter after 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to 325 degrees, turn breast side up (I usually wear clean rubber gloves to do this) and add 1 cup stock or water to the roasting pan. Continue to roast, basting with the remaining butter until used up and then with the pan juices every 20-30 minutes. Add additional stock to the roasting pan if you notice there are no pan juices with which to baste the turkey.
  • Roast until golden and cooked through. After about 2 ½ hours, start testing for doneness by inserting an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part of the breast away from the bone; it should register 165-170 degrees. You may also test the thigh – it should read 180 degrees. The turkey should roast a total of about 3 hours or 13-15 minutes per pound, but it can range from 2 ½ to 3 ½ hours.
  • Transfer to a cutting board or warmed platter and cover loosely with aluminum foil until ready to carve, at least 20 minutes (I prefer longer.) Use the pan juices to make gravy.
  • To prepare the gravy: Pour all the pan juices, including the fat into a gravy separator. Allow the fat to separate from the juices.
  • Heat the roasting over medium heat on the stove and add the pan juices plus the apple brandy. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer for 2-3 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon to dislodge any brown bits that stick to the bottom of the pan. Strain into a bowl or you can use the gravy separator again.
  • In a saucepan over medium heat, warm the reserved fat from the gravy separator until it is bubbly. You should have at least 3-4 Tablespoons. If you don’t, add some olive oil or butter. Add the flour and whisk rapidly to cook the flour, about 2-3 minutes.
  • Whisk in the strained pan juices and 3 cups of stock to the saucepan until smooth. Bring to simmer and cook until thickened, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Keep warm on lowest heat. Add additional stock as needed to achieve desired consistency.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

 

To carve:

Follow the same principles in carving a whole roasted chicken.  Cut into the joints, in between the connecting bones and it will be a breeze.  I carve in this order:

  1. Wings
  2. Drumsticks
  3. Thighs
  4. Breasts, which I take completely off the turkey and slice crosswise against the grain.

Don’t forget to save the carcass and bones for stock!

Planning a Happy Thanksgiving — 1 Week and Counting

Wow, the last three weeks have gone by so quickly!  Not only am I very excited to celebrate Thanksgiving — we have a super fun crew joining us this year — but I am looking forward to some one-on-one time with the kids.  They are all going to help me this year.  They just don’t know it yet.  I used to get all of them in the kitchen Thanksgiving morning to help me with pies or trimming green beans or whatnot, but two of my beauties have taken to sleeping until noon on days off.  However I had a stroke of genius, which is to tack my Thanksgiving to-do list on the refrigerator and have everyone sign up for three tasks.  I’m asking my husband to help too, to set a good example, of course.

I have a crazy work schedule until Sunday, so I’ll start getting busy then.  Here’s what my schedule will look like from Sunday until we eat on Thursday at 4:00 pm (-ish):

Sunday

Go grocery shopping for most perishable items, bread for stuffing and food for remaining dinners this week.

Make cranberry sauce (I used to make applesauce on Sunday, too, but my friend Caitlin is bringing it this year.)

Arrange tables and chairs

Write out placecards for table (a good job for one of the kids)

Dinner:  orange and rosemary-glazed chicken, brown rice and broccoli

Monday

Make salad vinaigrette

Pick up turkeys and dry brine

Make bread cubes for stuffing

Make ice cream

Dinner:  tacos, black beans and salad

Tuesday

Shop for last perishable items from farmer’s market

Buy flowers and put together table arrangements

Set table (I’ll set one place setting and have one of the kids do the rest.)

Wash and dry greens (salad)

Chop walnuts (salad)

Seed pomegranates (salad)

Shred gruyere (tart)

Defrost chicken/turkey stocks

Dinner:  Spice-rubbed salmon, sauteed spinach, sweet potato fries

Wednesday

Chop onions for soup, stuffing and roasted vegetables

Prep beets (salad)

Blanche green beans (salad)

Slice zucchini (tart)

Make soup

Steam, bread cauliflower

Blind bake crust (tart)

Herb oil (tart)

Make stuffing

Prep vegetables for Maple-Mustard Roasted Veggies

Trim and halve Brussels sprouts

Make sweet potato gratin

Set up for coffee and tea service

Check powder room

Dinner:  pantry pasta with chickpeas

Before bed:  make sure garage refrigerator door is closed!

Thursday

6:00 am wake and shower

Make cornbread (small oven)

Make pumpkin pies (large oven)

Bake coffee cake (small oven)

Make gingerbread (large oven)

9:15 Take turkeys out of refrigerator

All desserts must be out of large oven by 10:30 am

Make apple pie (small oven)

10:45 turkeys go in large oven breast side down at 425 degrees

11:25 turn oven down to 325 degrees and flip turkey breast side up

12:00 reheat soup and serve with cornbread

tidy up kitchen

get dressed and dry hair (a girl’s gotta look good!)

Put mixing bowl and beaters in freezer for whipped cream

Chop fennel (salad)

1:30 Peel potatoes and make mashed potatoes; keep in bowl, covered, over pot of simmering water

2:15 zucchini tart in small oven

2:30 fry cauliflower and heat tomato sauce; serve hot

3:00 serve hors d’oeuvres; start testing turkey temperature

3:00 – 3:30 take turkey out of oven

Put vegetables in large oven at 400 degrees

Make gravy

Reheat stuffing in small oven

Bake sweet potatoes in large oven

Make Brussels sprouts with turkey bacon and dates

Chop apples for salad, dress salad

Light candles, pour water in glasses

3:50-4:00 Carve turkeys

4:00 Dinner is served

After dinner:  whip cream (do not overbeat!), coffee and tea, sparkling water

Make notes on what to remember for next year.  Next year??!!