Thursday Thoughts - And liberty she pirouette when I think that I am free

1. What time is it, what day is it. I’m skidding into Thursday coming at you live from Philadelphia. 

2. Where this morning, I went to work in my basement on something due by noon. When I surfaced, face unwashed, hair unbrushed, still in pajamas and not wearing a bra, I realized the entire campaign staff had arrived, as well as some volunteers I had not met yet. And the technician from the alarm company. COOL COOL. Women in real life, motherfuckers. Welcome to my home. That looks like this everywhere. 

3. Last night before I left the shore I ground my feet into the earth, communed with the moon (best friend dogs not into communing with the moon), touched a tear to the ocean, thought about who I am and how it does not matter who anyone else thinks I am, found the gift left for me, listened to the universe. 

4. Shelling has been stellar. Lots of broken dreams with a curve worth a save. 

5. I have spent almost all of my free time at the beginning of this week walking on the beach. Before and after work. At lunch. Just walking and thinking or not thinking. 

6. I did do a lunch break on the porch. I never sit out there upstairs and every time I do I'm like oh yes, I like it out here. The best friends do too.

7. This week's food survival sponsored by perfectly cooked eye round roast, Here Comes the Sun from Bungalow Bowls, and grilled cooper sharp cheese on whole wheat sprinkled with pink Himalayan salt. For a perfect roast: bring meat to room temp. Pre-heat oven to 500 and make sure you have a pan to withstand that heat. Rub roast with veggie oil and rub in salt, pepper, paprika, and if you have it a dash of truffle salt. Cook for five minutes per pound then turn the oven off and DO NOT OPEN IT for two hours. Do not open. Resist. 

8. For your consideration: The Love - Black Eyed Peas and Jennifer Hudson (cried), Tenacious D & guests do the Time Warp (vote). I don't have the bandwidth for anything more serious or in depth right now. There is so much at stake in this election. So many people out there hurting. There is a better path forward then this highway to hell we're on now. 

9. Reminder:

10. Ecards: I'm pretty sure this is my standard Halloween fare. 

How are you?

Lyrics behind Thursday Thoughts hyphen are Solsbury Hill by Peter Gabriel

This might be beef stroganoff.

I don't know what beef stroganoff actually is, and maybe this isn't it, but it's what I call it. We also say strokemeoff and laugh like 12 year olds. I got a recipe from Big Hungry Shelby over 10 years ago and modified it as the years flew by and here we are with a quasi beef stroganoff casserole thingy.

Despite that intro and the photo (casseroles photograph like dog meat) it's good. I promise.

Ingredients
2 lbs ground beef - for this I had leftover shredded french dip so I used a pound of that instead + a pound of ground beef
2 tbs worcestershire sauce
2 cans cream of mushroom soup - please make your own if you can, it's good, I promise
1 medium minced onion
One bag of egg noodles, cooked
16 oz sour cream
parsley
buttered cracker crumbs

Directions
Saute onion in a smidge of butter. Remove and immediately brown ground beef. Drain, add Worcestershire sauce. Mix meat, onions, cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, and cooked egg noodles. Grease a 9x13 dish and dump it in. Top with buttered cracker crumbs if you dare.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Serve it with a side of veg and get some health in you.

Haikuesday

Casseroles look gross,  

taste good. It's a conundrum.

Like eighties fashion.

Please tell me you are voting in your local general election today. 
I don't care who you vote for, I don't even care if you go and push the vote button without making any choices to make your thoughts on the bullshit political process known. 
I do care that you go and push the button. 
"Voting doesn't matter, it won't make a difference" is up for debate. 
Sitting at home on your couch will definitely not make a difference. 
Go.
Vote.

Jusy's chicken

When I first started really cooking - late, not until I was 25 or 26 - I wanted things that would be hard to fuck up. My older friends were happy to oblige, handing over easy recipes for me to follow. I also liked the thought of comfort food. It's what felt most domestic to me. This is both a hand me down easy recipe from my friend Judy (Jusy) and comfort food. I cannot tell you the last time I made something with a cream of anything can of soup in it...these days I will typically "do the right thing" and make a replacement for it that's healthier as cream of whatever soup isn't really en vogue anymore. But Lord, was this as good as I remember. I serve it over wide egg noodles with a side of green veg (usually steamed broccoli or green beans).

Ingredients
family pack chicken breasts
kosher salt
pepper
American cheese slices (American is preferred, here I used colby jack)
1 can of cream of chicken soup or equivalent
Sliced tomatoes in season, or a can of diced tomatoes drained well
Stove top stuffing mix
2 tbs butter

Directions
Preheat oven to 375.

Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper and place in a greased 13x9 dish.

Cover each piece with a slice of cheese. Pour cream of chicken soup over dish and spread it around evenly. Place sliced tomato or diced tomatoes over entire dish. Put stuffing in the microwave with butter until butter is melted. Stir together. Sprinkle over entire dish. It looks less than appetizing in its making, but it's good.

Bake for 45 minutes at 375.

One pan sausage and veggie dinner

By Sunday of this past weekend, I just wanted some easy dinner food that would not be yet another poor dietary choice for the weekend. Something hearty without being filled to the brim with cheese and fat. I went back though some stuff I used to make and happened upon this one pan dish (I cannot locate the original recipe source right now, but it's out there). Winner winner sausage and veggie easy cleanup dinner. The banana peppers give this basic bitch dish an unexpected thrill. It's the perfect thing when you want a healthy-ish dinner that's not a big production in prep, cooking, or cleanup.

Ingredients
1 ring turkey kielbasa
1 ring beef kielbasa
1 red onion, sliced in half then in rings
2 bell peppers, sliced in strips
1 big ass jar of banana pepper rings
about 10 baby red potatoes, quartered
3 tbs olive oil
kosher salt
pepper

Directions
Preheat oven to 450.

Put veggies in a bowl, top with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and mix well with your clean hands. Slice kielbasa on the bias and add, mixing in.

Get a very big sheet tray with lips or two regular sized baking sheets, spray with non-stick spray, and spread veggies and sausage out evenly.

Cooking time sort of depends on how much you have on the trays and how crisp you like your veggies - I like them a little burnt. I'd start checking it at 35 minutes. I had a lot on mine, so I cooked it for 40 minutes then bumped it up to 500 to finish it off for another 10 minutes.

Mini Stuffed Peppers Two Ways

I love food in miniature and I love dips, so it's safe to say I could exist on appetizers.

I made these for Carol & Dad's annual holiday party and it was my first time making the taco ones but the mozzarella pesto beauties are a standard quick little bite in our house.

Ingredients
1/2 lb or 1 lb ground turkey
taco sauce to put in with that
green onions
finely shredded cheese
mozzarella cheese, cut in strips
pesto
bag of mini peppers

Directions
Brown ground turkey, drain, and add taco sauce . Use the leftovers to have tacos one night that week - you need a very little amount of this. Allow to cool.

Cut tops off of peppers and cut them in half. Scoop out any seeds and cut away some of the pepper to make them a little wider if you need to. Lay them in a 13x9.

I filled half and half with the taco mix and topped with some finely shredded cheese and green onions and half with the mozzarella cheese topped with the pesto. You could certainly do all of one or the other. Preheat oven to 400 and bake for seven minutes. Serve immediately.

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Haikuesday

Finger foods for life

Sorry forks, you are fired

Manner regression.

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One-ish pan chicken dish

I know, what's with the one-ish, right? Well, this is absolutely a one pan chicken dish unless carbs are your mistress, like me, then it's a two pan dish. It's a recipe that's like a Choose Your Own Adventure Book. You decide how this story ends!

Amanda shared this original recipe on the facespace, then I crapped it up because I didn't really read it all the way through. So I got the idea here and ended up with this. I was initially peeved because I thought fresh spinach would work better and I didn't have any, but I was happy with how this turned out with the green beans and it was easy. 

Ingredients
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
6 small pieces of boneless chicken (thin cutlets would work well, I cut a few chicken boobs up and sliced them thin)
kosher salt + pepper
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 cups grape tomatoes, sliced in half
2 cups green beans, steamed for about 3 min in the microwave (I used frozen, cleaning out the freezer)

Directions
Heat oil over medium high heat in a large skillet.

Season chicken with salt & pepper. Drop it into the pan and cook 4 min on one side and then three on the other. If you overcook it, it will be like eating a rubber ducky. No one wants rubber ducky for dinner.

I put a lid on at this point to reduce mess. To be honest, I rarely cook chicken on the stove top because it's a wretched mess and I hate it.

Anyhooooooo I put three pieces in, cooked them, removed them to a plate, then did it again with the other three pieces and removed them as well.

Pour balsamic vinegar in and watch it bubble like a witch's cauldron. Scrape the bottom with a wooden utensil. Add tomatoes and cook about 3 minutes, then add green beans and cook another 3 minutes. Add the chicken back in, remove from heat, and serve.

And if carbs are your mistress, try spooning it over whole wheat orzo. You won't regret it.

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Haikuesday

Chicken Little lies. 
See? The sky is not falling.
I do on skis, though. 

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Corned beef and cabbage...soup

Happy corned beef month! Is that a weird thing to wish you? Shush, now, and let me sing you a love song about corned beef. How do I love thee, corned beef? Let me count the ways.

I love to roast corned beef topped with a little brown sugar and ground mustard. I love to make a Guinness roasted corned beef. My least favorite way is boiled corned beef with cabbage in the traditional style. I think I like that way the least because even though it's the simplest, my Grandmom killed it on that dish and I have never made it so it tastes as good as hers did, even though she gave me instructions and said mine was passable...but not hers. LOL

Last year I came upon SkinnyTaste's corned beef and cabbage soup and I was intrigued. I never made it last year or any time throughout the year because every March I make corned beef and my heart sings as I eat it so I vow to make corned beef at other times of the year. Then the next time I eat it again is the following March because I have no corned beef follow through.

So on a March day in Philly that's going to get to 80 degrees, I give you an early St. Paddy's gift of soup.
p.s. fellow Americans...it's St. Paddy's. Not St. Patty's.

Ingredients
2 leeks, chopped and washed (white and light green parts only)
1 tbs garlic
4 medium carrots, chopped
1 yellow pepper, chopped
1 small head of cabbage or half of a large head, cored and chopped
2 medium red potatoes, washed and chopped
1 tsp bay leaves
1 tsp parsley
2 tbs olive oil
1.5 lb corned beef + the little seasoning packet (I got a 3 pounder, cut it in half, and baked the rest)
6 cups water

Directions
Put your potatoes in a bowl of cold water so they don't turn black in the next few hours.

Heat oil over medium low heat in large pot or dutch oven. Add leeks and saute for five minutes.

Add corned beef, seasoning packet, bay leaves, parsley, and water. Cover and bring to a boil. Cover it and simmer it over low heat for three hours.

Pull the corned beef out. You can shred it with a fork or use a food processor to break it up. I chose the latter because it was 10 pm and I didn't have time to be playing forksies.

Return corned beef to the pot, drain and add potatoes and cabbage. Add salt & pepper if needed. I think corned beef is super salty so I declined...and I am the queen of salt.

Cook about 30 more minutes until the potatoes and cabbage are tender.

Slainte!

Slowing our fat rolls - It's All Greek to Me Salad

Here we sit, poised on the precipice of a big weekend of shoving our faces. I'm already gleefully thinking of succulent turkey and pie pie pie. I figured a salad recipe might be good for today since we might collectively need to slow our rolls after this weekend. So my Mom is here today with this recipe for her It's All Greek to Me Salad.

It's All Greek to Me Salad
We had this salad at a friend's house and I made a few tweaks and made up the name, because of the Feta cheese. It is a salty/sweet combo.You can add chicken, too, if you choose to make it a main course.

Ingredients
Baby Greens (I get these from Sam's Club)
Craisins
Pecans (could use walnuts)
Sunflower seeds
Feta Cheese
EVOO
Balsamic Vinegar
Sea Salt in a grinder - I love this salt. It tastes great & does not bloat me up like a balloon! A miracle.

Directions
The base is baby greens- using the entire container pictured would serve 6 good sized side salads.

I then add the craisins, the nuts and seeds, the feta (use the amounts you desire) and then the EVOO and Balsamic and the salt as desired.

I only use a tiny bit (maybe 3-4 shakes) of the Balsamic and I have my EVOO in a dispenser and use 5-6 drops of EVOO.

I am now toasting my nuts and sunflower seeds in a little saute pan with a few drops of EVOO, since it really brings out the flavor of the nuts.

I used to say now I "toss the salad" but Steph told me never to say that again and then told me why- who makes up this stuff? So "mix" the salad  and enjoy!

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Haikuesday

Terminology...

Please don't make me explain it.

Google carefully.

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Thanks to my mom for the recipe - how do you slow your holiday eating roll between Thanksgiving and Christmas?

To brine or not to brine? Let's talk turkey.

Every year my Grandmom made Thanksgiving turkey. No brine. Every turkey my mom made, no brine. So for the early part of my adult cooking life, I was firmly entrenched in the no brine camp. Then I decided to try brine, and I'm not going back.

It brings a flavorful succulence to the turkey that is sometimes missing otherwise. When you roast a beastly bird for a few hours, it's bound to lose some moisture. When you brine before roasting, it counteracts that. I now brine other poultry and meats too, using this same basic recipe that I got from Savory Sweet Life.

Note: You do NOT want to brine a kosher or self-basting turkey. It will be like a giant salt lick, your Thanksgiving will be ruined, and everyone will cry because you will be eating hotdogs out of the freezer instead of the much anticipated turkey. Pre-seasoned turkeys? Meh. You can still brine. Just cut the brine time down by half or more.

Ingredients 
12 cups water (four up front and eight later)
1 cup kosher salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons fresh sage (chopped)
3 tablespoons of rosemary (I typically toss in a bunch of sprigs)
3 tablespoons thyme (I typically toss in a bunch)
1 tablespoon white pepper
4 cups of ice

Directions

Bring four cups of water to a simmering boil. Add salt and sugar. Stir until totally dissolved.

Remove from heat. Stir in eight cups cold water and the rest of the ingredients. Set aside.

Make sure turkey is totally thawed. I usually thaw it for a day longer than the directions suggest. Remove giblets and neck and rinse the bird thoroughly, inside and out. Pat that baby dry with paper towels.

Place the turkey in a large bag - once I used a trash bag, but now I use those large ziploc bags because they are food grade and trash bags are not. Whoops.

Pour brine into the bag and put it in the fridge. The minimum amount of time is one hour per pound, turning it halfway so both sides get good and brined. You can go longer than that if you want or need to.

When it's time, rinse the turkey inside and out. Pat it with paper towels. From there I like to lather mine with seasoned butter and roast that sucker.

What about you? Briner? Not a briner? Brawler? Shot caller?

Loaded for lunch - Loaded Cauliflower Bowls

This is what I had for lunch last week - loaded cauliflower bowls. My coworkers were actually sick of me exclaiming over how much I loved my lunch every day.

It couldn't have been easier to prepare, and it was mildly healthy to boot. Even better, you can make it healthier if that's your bag.

Ingredients 
3 bags frozen cauliflower (you can use fresh, I had frozen on hand)
about 1/2 cup of cooked, chopped bacon (more or less to taste)
1/4 cup sour cream
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
3 TBS butter
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder

Directions

Steam cauliflower in microwave according to directions. If you're using fresh, steam for 5 minutes, stir, steam for another 5. Drain well.

Put cauliflower, sour cream, butter, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder in a large bowl. Using an immersion blender or potato masher, mix and mash. I used the immersion blender and left my cauliflower a little chunky, because I like it like that. Divide among containers if using for lunch.

Top with bacon, cheese, and green onion. If serving right away, throw it in the oven for a few to melt the cheeses. Otherwise, pop it into the microwave at lunch and enjoy!

And hey - thank a veteran - today and every day.

What's your favorite healthy-ish lunch?

Linking up with Jenn @ Going the Distance for What's Hap-Pinning Wednesdays.

Once upon a turchicken burger

I've been meaning to share this recipe for what feels like a decade for a few reasons:
1. It's easy and a chimp could do it
2. They're freezable so it'll allow you to build up your freezer meals if you're into that
3. They're also good for a party because you can make them in advance
4. It allowed me to combine the words turkey and chicken
5. People asked on Instagram and I ignored the requests because I was feeling too lazy to type it all out there.

I typically end up making these, using some for the week, and freezing about 15-20 of them for future use. That is reflected below in the quantities. If you do not have any desire to freeze them, use only one pound of ground meat, almost a full container of crumbled goat cheese, and divide everything else by three. When not divisible by three, err on the side of over-seasoning because ground turkey and ground chicken could use it.

Ingredients 
2 lb ground chicken
1 lb ground turkey
3 eggs, lightly beaten
15 oz frozen spinach, defrosted  and squeezed so there is no excess water (this is a bag and a half)
2 4 oz containers of crumbled goat cheese
3/4 of a red onion, diced fine
2 TBS worcestershire sauce
4 TBS dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon season salt
1/4 teaspoon ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
a few sprinkles of whole wheat bread crumbs

Directions

Mix ingredients by hand. Feel free to sub out seasonings. Form medium sized patties and use your thumb to depress the middle a bit.

Cook patties in a heated cast iron skillet four minutes per side. Even when I'm freezing them, I cook them first. That way I can just thaw and eat.

Set aside to cool. Wrap the ones that will be frozen in parchment paper and freeze in gallon bags.

Linking up with Jenn @ Going the Distance for What's Hap-Pinning Wednesdays.

Veggie Pizzas

I'm all about the easy cold app in the summer. These veggie pizzas have an element of cooking, but it's small so they count. I originally got this recipe from Carol I think. My aunt Sue makes them too and they are always a favorite.

Ingredients (can be doubled, tripled etc. for a party)

1 pkg crescent rolls
1 8 oz light cream cheese, softened
1/3C mayo
½ tsp dill weed
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp minced onion
Finely shredded cheese
Fresh broccoli, grape tomatoes, bell pepper.

Directions

Grease 9x13 baking sheet or use a non-stick sheet. Unroll crescent dough and pat down on sheet. Follow directions so they're just lightly browned on top (it's about 9 and a half minutes in my oven). Set aside to cool.

In bowl, mix cream cheese, mayo, and spices. Beat until smooth and spread over cooled dough.

Top with minced veggie toppings and shredded cheese. Cut with a pizza cutter.

Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight. Other veggies may be added or substituted - I've used purple cabbage, carrots, green onions, etc. in the past.

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Haikuesday

Summer - humid. Hot.
Appetizers should be cold. 
Like my cold dark heart.  

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