Shop 'til You Drop - - - Not!

Am I the only one who find's "Black Friday" a somewhat disgusting display of consumerism?   And what is with all the incidents at Walmart?   We are indeed Walmart shoppers for the cats, some grocery products, vitamins, cleaning products, and the like.  But pepper spray?   How ugly is that?  

  One Boston woman (who said she has little money) ran out and bought three TV sets.  I have to tell  you we only have one that works, with a second in the bedroom  that is not cable ready and probably should be junked.  Obviously we are weird.  But in a good way.  Weird in that we would not dream of sitting in line on a cold New England Night to buy an $18 waffle iron when we could be snug in a warm bed.  Waffle irons are on sale all year.  Unfortunately, the waffle iron that flips over into a griddle isn't made any more.   It strikes me that the people who buy $18 waffle irons are the ones who buy frozen waffles anyhow.  Personally, I like waffles made in my no-idea-how-much-it-cost-at-Kohls appliance with low-fat Bisquick.  I dump a lot of berries in them and sometimes use part juice instead of milk and they're delicious. 

Did  you get yesterday's Turkey Croquette recipe?  It's a winner.  We are having them tomorrow, too.  I love to cook for two meals.  You get a day off with just a vegetable and salad. 

There are NO ACORNS in New England this fall, and we've been feeding the squirrels the old Halloween pumpkins, the squash seeds from the Thanksgiving meal, and some corn.   Dry bread.  A relative brought a bushel basket of acorns from Long Island, and the little half-gray half-red squirrel busied himself with carrying a lot of them off.  I hope he thrives.  So small and cute.  I have a photo but not yet on the computer.  Will you settle for a cat wearing glasses?  This cat is smarter than those people who are up all night buying cheap stuff they don't need. 

Turkey Croquettes

You probably already have the ingredients in the house this week.  These are really good and hearty.  If you don't have any turkey gravy left, buy some.  Cranberry sauce (your own or canned) is a nice accompaniment as is a green vegetable or salad.  This is an ancient recipe from The Chicago Tribune.  I've been making it for years.  Start mid-afternoon to allow plenty of time. 

Turkey Croquettes:

3 slices whole-wheat bread, crusts off

1/4 cup milk

2 1/2 cups coarsely chopped turkey, white and dark meat

1 cup coarsely chopped onions

2 eggs,  slightly beaten

1 t. dried thyme

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 cups seasoned bread crumbs (I use seasoned Panko)

3 T. chopped Italian parsley

2 T. paprika

3 T. unsalted butter, melted

Corn or other vegetable oil

2 T. unsalted butter

Turkey Gravy

1.   Soak bread in milk for 10 minutes.  Remove bread, squeeze dry and shred.  Reserve.

2.  In a separate bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups turkey, reserved bread, onions, eggs. thyme, salt and pepper.  Toss well. Place mixture in a food processor (steel blade). Using pulse action, process until mixture is well-blended but not completely pureed. Fold in remaining 1 cup chopped turkey. Cover and refrigerate for one hour.

3.  Combine bread crumbs, parsley, paprika and melted butter in a 9-inch pie plate. Stir together with a fork.

4.  Shape chilled turkey mixture into 6 patties. Coat in bread-crumb mixture and return, covered, to refrigerator for 1 more hour.

5.  Place 1/3 cup oil and 1 T. butter in a large skillet. Over medium heat, cook croquettes 3 at a time 7 minutes on one side, 5 minutes on other side. They should be golden. (Keep warm in 300-degree oven.) Proceed with remaining croquettes, adding more oil and butter as necessary.

6.  Serve hot croquettes immediately with heated gravy on top.   

World's Second Best Stuffing Recipe

Now remember:  if it's not inside the bird, it's dressing.  It's not stuffing unless you, well, stuff it!    My mother made this.  Save the recipe for next year.  If you want to make it today, you are  in trouble.   All common ingredients, cheap to make, tasty, no weird stuff like mushrooms or oysters, so the kids will eat it and ask for seconds.  I buy the el cheapo stuffing bread and slice it. 

Earla's Old Time Potato Dressing (may also be eaten as we did in my childhood, as a stuffing). Ready in one hour.  Serves six or more.  From allrecipes.com by Lauren Buckner with a few changes by moi.

Ingredients:
1 large onion, chopped fine
3/4 cup finely chopped celery
1/4 cup (or more) butter
1/4 turkey or chicken broth.  I'm using vegetable broth.
8 slices day old white bread, cubed with crusts removed
3 cups mashed potatoes (you can cheat and use prepared dry potato flakes to make 3 cups)
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 t. poultry seasoning  (I'll used fresh thyme, summer savory, and the herbs that constitute poultry stuffing).
1 t. kosher salt
1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper
1/4 t. ground nutmeg (I always do fresh)

Directions:

1. In a skillet, saute onion and celery in butter until tender.  Remove from the heat; stir in broth.  In a large bowl, combine bread cubes, prepared potatoes, egg and all seasonings.  Sir in onion mixture.  If mixture seems dry, add more melted butter or broth. Transfer to a greased  2-qt. baking dish.  Cover and bake at 325 degrees F. for  40 minutes.  Uncover and bake for another 15-20 minutes until the top is browned and a  meat thermometer reads 160 degrees.  You can also put a little extra butter, salt and pepper on top and place under a broiler until browned and bubbly.

Hint:  put in a shallow dish and you will have room for the stuffing AND the turkey in the same oven.  A little extra onion or some shallots or green onion would not be amiss.

Farmhouse Curry

Due to the power failure and having to cook all the defrosted chicken breasts, we missed a whole grocery shopping circuit.  This week the aim was to a) do a moderate diet week, calorie-wise and b) not break the bank.  So far so good.  Whole chickens were on sale for 99 cents a pound and I bought one and roasted it with cumin and citrus last night.  Most delicious with acorn squash and broccoli, all on sale.
Today I took the rest of the chicken off the bone, after putting aside a leg and a wing for lunch.  My curry is made with onions, an apple, fresh tomatoes, chicken broth and chicken (would you believe all on sale?) along with lots of spices including, natch, curry powder.  Our curry powder is hot! therefore I only use a fraction of what the recipe calls for.  In this case, 2 teaspoons instead of 2 tablespoons.  It still had a bit of heat.  Served with white basmati rice, sauteed bananas, and some leftover broccoli from last night.  Lots of lean meat and veggies, and great flavor with very little fat, not always the case.

This recipe is from The Artist's & Writer's Cookbook, a volume I acquired in the early days of marriage, and the particular recipe is by Anthony Powell, whom I later knew as the author of A Dance to the Music of Time.  The book is long out of print, but it turns up here and there in various used book places. Artists & Writers Cookbook at Amazon 

We have enough curry left for tomorrow, so I have got 6 entrees and 1 lunch out of a $4.00 chicken.  Not bad.  And both meals were delicious.  Later on in the week we have some lean porkchops and 2 baskets of Brussels Sprouts, then some steak tips with carrots.  Iceberg lettuce was also on sale, along with the pork chops and Brussels sprouts.  I'm trying a new recipe with toasted pecans and dried cranberries.  Sounds yummy.

In the morning when I come downstairs the house will still smell of curry.  Indian food rocks! 

The Cheeseparer

Chicken Time

Chicken Breasts With citrus Pan Sauce 

We experienced another power failure (3 days this time) due to the storm that came roaring through last Saturday night.  As usual, the food in the freezer began to thaw after a couple days.  I had a fresh flank steak to cook, and also some unfrozen shrimp.  The following night we had the chicken breasts with citrus sauce.  Very tasty.  We ate some frozen broccoli and some frozen butternut squash with it.  Formerly frozen.  Formerly frozen ice cream is a mess, but still rather tasty. This is the 3rd food disaster, and you can only do what you can do.  This time we just shoveled the snow into the cooler, but the house was 50 degrees and we burned a huge amount of wood in the fireplace.  Cats parked themselves in front of it right away.  Not so dumb.

I made chicken soup yesterday with the other thawed breasts.  Added onion, noodles, carrots, celery, the formerly frozen peas and seasonings.   We ate it with Bisquik biscuits and a nice salad.  Enough for tonight.  One breast I merely cooked and re-froze.  You can do that, you know.

This is very aggravating.  The beautiful beech trees in our neighborhood took a huge hit.  Oak limbs all over our yard.  It's not so easy to use the grill when there's six inches of snow on the ground.  At least we have the gas stove top.  Those without gas are SOL.  We had hot water, too.  Well, it's a mess and everyone is getting fed up with National Off-the Grid, out hapless utility who seem to have forgotten the old adage:  plan ahead.

Do try the citrus chicken.  I  think it rocks.  I did this w/o using the oven, but the oven does it better.   As my Significant Other always says, in an emergency, the devil eat flies.    Whatever.

We'll have good cornbread with the 2nd meal of soup tonight, and then except for one ham steak and a re-frozen pizza, we're out of entrees.    Climate change is at hand.  I think we better get used to it.

The Cheeseparer