It's Turkey Time!

I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving! We had a huge dinner at our house (38 people to be exact) on Friday night with family and friends.  We started this tradition last year and hope to continue it for many many years to come. As I've mentioned before, I absolutely love to entertain at our house. Every aspect of it has me entwined. Just having people over makes me so pumped.

I have several philosophy's when I'm in the kitchen. Two always come to mind which are

DRUM ROLL.................

... if you're going to host a party, dinner, or event, never ask or expect your guests to bring anything except the clothes on their body and their party shoes. The second, always over cook. Make sure there is enough food if a small army shows.  These two "kitchen mottos" have taken me very far in life!

Just like the other gatherings I've hosted, I started planning the menu several weeks in advance making sure there was enough variety of foods, flavors, desserts, smells, etc. I am always worried that someone won't like exactly what I've prepared, so I try to make many options.  This year our menu included:

Turkey
Ham
Sausage Balls
Deviled Eggs
Mashed potatos
Mac & cheese (2 crock pots full)
Brocolli & cheese casserole
Sweet potato casserole
Rolls
Coconut cream pie
Double layer pumpkin cheesecake
Banana bread
Chess bars
Award winning choc chip cookies (I'm serious these are famous)
French chocolate mousse pie
Oreo cheesecake (I'm talking better than the Cheesecake factory)

All of which I prepared and baked myself except for the ham which was bought and the rolls.  Sister Shubert knew what she was doing when she created her rolls because I know for a fact I can sit down at one sitting and eat an entire pan, good for the tummy but not the waist.  They are easy an oh so delicious!

Although I would love to post all of my recipes on my blog, I have to keep you coming back for more so I'm only going to post a few that you can hopefully use for your next gig!


The oh so amazing TURKEY. First, buy the biggest bird you can find! The more the merrier!


Ingredients:
big ole bird
kosher salt
celery
carrots
2 large onions
onion salt
garlic salt
5 cans chicken broth
10 trash bags
1 large tub
lots of water


1. First you need to thaw your turkey in the fridge for several days, unwrap the turkey, rub with 3-4 cups of kosher salt, and place the turkey inside of the trash bags, inside of the tub and add water to the turkey to allow it to soak all night long.  This will make Mr. Turkey extremely moist and extra delicious.


2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove the turkey from the water and place in the roasting pan. Place the cut celery, carrots, and onions inside his tushie. If you have extra veggies, place in the pan for extra flavor. 


3. Rub onion salt and garlic salt on his skin.


4. Pour 3 cans of chicken broth over Mr. Turkey into the pan which helps makes lots and lots of gravy.

5. Place a thermometer in his thigh and cover with aluminum foil.


6. Since the cooking time will depend on how large your bird is, I recommend you keep Mr. Turkey baking until the thermometer says 180 degrees.  This is take several hours if you have a large one like mine.  

7. As soon as it hits 180, you can take it out and enjoy! Also, dont forget to carve him so that he looks his best! Thank heavens for the electric knife!

Are you ready for Recipe #2?- Creamy deviled eggs


These are so scrumptious you will eat the entire batch before you know it! Several special ingredients make this mouth watering!

Ingredients:
Eggs (I used 24 eggs)
1/3 c. Powered ranch 
1/4 c. Mayo
4 oz. Cream cheese


1. First, place all of the eggs in a large pot of water. Bring the pot of eggs to a boil. Leave the eggs in the hot water for 10-15 minutes.


2.  Drain hot water and set in the sink, Turn the faucet on cold and keep letting it run over the eggs until the pot is completely consumed with cold water. 

3.  Let the eggs completely cool before you try to peel them or you will have an egg disaster!


4. Cut the eggs in half lengthwise & place all yolk in a medium bowl.


5. Mash the yolk until it is smooth, Add the mayo, cream cheese, & ranch.


6.  Stir and place bake inside of the eggs. I used my cookie decorator to make them look fancy for Thanksgiving but you can easily pipe it out of a sandwich bag with the bottom corner cut.  You do not have to be Martha Stewart for these to look and taste great!

Last but certainly not least, French Silk Chocolate Pie


Ingredients:
1/2 c. butter, softened
3/4c. white sugar
(2) 1oz. squares of unsweet baking chocolate, melted & cooled
1 tea. vanilla
2 eggs
pie crust


1.  Bake pie crust according to directions
2. Cream butter in your mixer. Add 1/2c. sugar
3.  Stir in the chocolate and the vanilla extract

4. In another bowl, wisk the eggs with 1/4c. of sugar for 6 minutes with the wisk attachement
5. Mix with the chocolate mixture
6. Place the chocolate into the cool pie crust 
7. Add whipped cream (cool whip) over the pie and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight. 

ENJOY!



 

Apple Butter

For our wedding, I decided to make homemade apple butter for all of our guests.  Call me crazy, because I am, but I had so much fun making this! This post makes it looks easy, but this requires a lot of blood, sweat, & tears! I'm serious!

Although this was my first time canning anything, I didn't find it very difficult. It reminded me of my grandmother.  Anyone who knew her would attest to what a great cook she was.  She loved to can tomatoes, green beans, etc.  Not a tomato was wasted. She had a HUGE garden and would work all day out in the hot sun re-tying tomato stakes, watering, & all the things a master gardener does.  I admired her hard work in the garden.  In the summer, her kitchen would be full of canning baths for all sorts of her vegetables from her garden. My only regret is not asking her "How to Can" before she passed.  So it was up to me and Google.

The first thing I did was order canning jars, oh about 130 of them, from a website so that they would be here in time for me to have ready for the wedding.  This was before I realized that they sold Ball jars at Walmart!

Ingredients:

3 Bags of Apples (Any kind)

3c sugar

4Tbsp. Cinnamon

Canning jars & lids

Caning equipment (jar tongs, bubble remover, basket, jar funnel)
Crock Pot 

1. First, peel, core, and dice all of the apples.  You do not want any seeds, peels, or the hard part of the apple, located in the center.

2.  Pour these in the crock pot.

3. Add the sugar and cinnamon.

4. Cook on high for 2 hours, then on low for 20-24 hours.  Continuously stirring.  The apples will release lots of water so at first it will seem like you are making apple soup.

5. The key to making sure the apple butter is done is to take a spoon full and place on a dish. If the water separates, KEEP COOKING! I found that 1 crock pot full would make about 6-7 8ox. jars.

Canning:
 1. First you need a huge pot full of boiling water. The jars need to be sanitized in the boiling water for 10 minutes. Place the jars in your basket and set down into the water. The lids also need to be sanitized but place them in a small pot and make sure the water is almost boiling but not boiling (boiling can mess up the seal of the lid).

2. Make sure apple butter is hot and add it to the jars when they are done being sanitized. Place the lids on the jars but don't screw them too tight. Place them back into your basket and set back into the boiling water for 12-15 minutes.

3. Remove the basket full of jars and set in the sink to cool off.  You will start to hear the seals pop when the jars start to cool down.  This will let you know that they have properly sealed.  When they cool down, make sure the the middle of the lid is "sunken down" which means it is sealed. If the jars are not sealed, you will need to do the boiling bath again.

4. Screw the rings of the lids on tighter when they are cool enough!

5. Make labels & voila! 

Pumpkin Mousse & Homeade Whipped Cream

 As you know, I LOVE to bake. Recently, for the Halloween Bash we had at our house in October, I made this Pumpkin Mousse and everyone has been asking for the recipe. This is a great item to add to the Thanksgiving table!

Well here it is and when I say this is scrumptious... I mean it!


Ingredients:
5 large egg yolks
3 1/2c heavy whipping cream
1c sugar
15oz. canned pumpkin
2 tea vanilla extract
1 1/2 tea. ground cinnamon
1/2 tea. ground ginger
1/4 tea. ground nutmeg
1/4 tea. salt
2 Tbsp. dark rum
1 tea. powered unflavored gelatin
1 bag of Hershey chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Fill a large bowl halfway with ice eater and set aside. (I usually pick the largest mixing bowl in the set that way the medium bowl will fit inside)


2. Whisk the yolks, 3/4c plus 2 Tbsp. sugar, & 3/4c heavy whipping cream together in a medium saucepan.  Heat on medium heat while stirring continuously with a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon.  You want to heat until it thickens & coats the spatula- about 10 minutes.


3. Transfer this to a medium bowl and place in the ice bath.


4.  Fold pumpkin, vanilla, spices, & salt to the bowl in the ice bath.  


5.  In a very small bowl, add just the rum. Heat in the microwave for 12 seconds.  Pour in the gelatin and stir until it is dissolved.  Gently whisk this into the pumpkin mixture.


6.  Beat 1/2c heavy cream to stiff peaks and fold it into the pumpkin mixture. 

  

7. Place this in a shallow dish and cover. Chill until cold and thick enough to fall from a spoon in heavy dollops- about 8 hours or overnight.

This is what mine looked like after removing from the fridge.

 8. Beat the remaining cream and sugar to stiff peaks- this may take a while (I'd recommend a Kitchen Aid stand up mixer, my dad purchased  for me several years ago and I literally use it for everything!)

9.  Get a container of some sort- I used a tiramisu dish, but you can use anything. You want it to be clear glass so the layers are visible. 

10. Divide the pumpkin in half. Place half of the pumpkin mixture in the bottom of the bowl. Then add half of the whipped cream. The third layer is chocolate chips.  Repeat this and add lots of chocolate chips to the top.


11. Cover and chill until time to dig in!

Friday Night- Southern Style

Living in the South has many advantages: the culture, the slang, 4 seasons, hospitality, along with many others, but the most important one of all is the FOOD! Who doesn't like biscuits & gravy with a side of homemade preserves as a starter? Or better yet, mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese? YUM-O. 

Those of you that know me, can attest to my love for mashed potatoes & macaroni and cheese.  If they are on the menu, I will always order them, so I would consider myself as a connoisseur of those two foods. Growing up, I developed a passion for cooking & baking; mostly for my father. You might ask why, but he was the best taste-tester because to him, everything was delicious.  He never complained nor made a sour face even though it was obvious the food was inedible.  My father and I were talking this week about how I used to have sleepovers just so we could have a "bake-off".  Of course everyone was a winner in his eyes.  He was telling me a story about one night the bake-off included tacos.  The meat was cooked, water and seasoning mix was added, but there was one problem... no one ever told me that the grease had to be drained.  So according to my father, there was 4 inches of grease in the taco meat.  Just one of the many memories made in the kitchen. Nothing in the kitchen was "off limits" to me.  It was my playground & I enjoyed just investigating and experimenting.  Sometimes I would just mix flour and water and make sculptures, baby food, bird treats; you cannot begin to imagine all of the things I made with flour and water.  My love for the kitchen has continued to grow and there is nothing I would rather be doing than cooking.

Us eating at Magnolia's

 Growing up we vacationed to Hilton Head Island and later Charleston, SC.  One of my inspiration's for the recipe that I am about to post comes from "Magnolia's."  This true southern quaint restaurant in downtown Charleston isn't much of a eye catcher from the street but their dishes will have you drooling for more.  This summer, I had the opportunity of taking my husband to the finest city in the South.  Of course he fell in love just as I had many years before.  I took him to Magnolia's one night and we both ordered the pork chop... we actually came back the next night and ordered the exact same thing it was so good.  It has taken me several months to finalize this recipe but I hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

Southern Fried Pork Chop with Creamy Macaroni & Cheese


Ingredients

package of pork chops (I like the thinner cuts better)
2c. bread crumbs
1c. parmesean grated cheese
2c. flour
3 eggs
2 tea. kosher salt

6c. cooked macaroni noodles
6c. sharp cheddar cheese (shredded)
1c. milk
1c. sour cream
3 eggs
1/2 stick butter
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1Tbsp. dry mustard
salt & pepper

Mac & Cheese
1. Add the cooked macaroni shells, butter, and cheese in a saucepan.  Cook until the cheese is melted. (This will end up looking like a huge cheese ball but don't be scared).

2. Add this along with the other ingredients: milk, sour cream, eggs, soup, dry mustard, & salt/pepper in a crock pot.
3. Cook on low for 4-6 hours or high for 2-3 hours but you have to continually still it so that it doesn't stick to the crock pot. 

Pork Chops
1. You will need 3 separate bowls for breading the chops.  In the first bowl, wisk the eggs. In the second bowl, add the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, & kosher salt.  In the third bowl, put the flour.

 2. Put the bowls in order: flour, egg, bread crumbs.
3. Dip the pork chops in the flour, then the eggs (making sure that you let all of the excess egg fall off), then cover on both sides with the bread crumbs mixture. Do this to all of them.
4. Place the chop's in a skillet with oil (I like to use peanut oil) and fry on each side until they are golden brown. Approx 3-4 minutes on each side.

5. After you sear them, place them on a baking sheet and cook for 8-10 minutes. They should be white on the inside, not pink, but don't over cook them.

6. Enjoy