CategoriesArchivesAugust 2008 |
Recipes
ice cream mushWe made a healthy dinner of halibut, cooked with a little tomato, garlic, olive oil, basil and fresh onion and a little pot of wild rice. Delicious. Nutritious. And virtuous to boot. After an hour or so of feeling smug, reality hit, and I had to have something sinful. The problem was, with Will in England, Dave on the Island and Emily over there too, I didn’t have the fridge loaded with anything that called my name. So...I made something up. And it was really tasty, so here it is. Ice Cream Mush -Take around a clenched-fist sized piece of peanut brittle and chop it up into chunks that are around the size of chocolate chips. - Then take a hunk of milk chocolate (I’m sure semi sweet would work as well) And shave off around the same amount as you have of the peanut brittle. -Then scoop out some vanilla ice cream into a mixing bowl and sprinkle the chopped peanut brittle and chocolate on top. -Mash together with your spoon until blended. -Now pour some rum in the bowl and stir that in. Just a glug or two. -Blend. -Place back into the freezer for around 15 minutes or longer to set. Then DEVOUR!
It’s really good. I feel quite pleased with my new creation. Hope you like it too!
Posted by Meg Tilly on Saturday, July 12, 2008 in Recipes oatmeal cookie updateToday has been a lovely day. My writing went relatively smoothly. Which is always cause to celebrate. Then I met up with Gayle Friesen. We went for a gargantuan walk, even though it was raining, sometimes a little bit harder than others, but we didn’t care. We just walked and talked and walked and walked. And it was really fun. And remember the blog I wrote about how I’d met her at the BC Book Prizes Soiree and said I liked her. Well, I never would have guessed that a short two months later we would have found each other’s contact info sort of accidentally through a mutual friend and that we would have actually gotten together. And yes, I know it might seem like I am name dropping, by saying her whole name because she is an award winning author and all, but really that’s not the reason I do it. The reason I write both the first and last name whenever one of my stories or references has to do with an author friend, is because quite a lot of people come to visit my site, and I figure, who knows. Maybe the next time one of my blog readers are in a bookstore, they might pick up one of my friend’s titles, and that is not a bad thing. Because most of the children and young adult writers out there are earning a pittance compared to any other job. If you count the hours we spend at our computers, the months and years it takes to write a book. And then if you look at what kind of advances most Canadian childrens authors get paid, you’d laugh. Because seriously, broken down to an hourly salary, an average author would earn far less than the average Joe flipping hamburgers at a fast food joint. So, that is why, whenever an author friend is a happy part of my day, I mention their full name. Not because I am bragging and saying “Oh, look at my fancy literary friends,” but because that is what I feel is important for us as authors to try to do. Speaking of which… for those of you who are old-time-officialmegtilly.com readers, remember when I did that guest blogging thing on The Debutantes Ball, with author deb. Danielle Younge-Ullman. Well this week end she attended her first Book Expo Canada. And her publisher, Penguin, printed out 100 advanced reading copies of her first novel, Falling Under, and they ran out! People grabbed those babies up like hotcakes. Whoohooo, go Danielle! Wow. I just read back over what I’ve written and I went way off topic. I wanted to tell you about the new futzing I did with the Oatmeal cookie recipe.
-I cut the white sugar down from 3/4 a cup to 1/2. The cookies were starting to taste a little too sweet for me.
Everything else I did the same. It tastes really good. Like a not-so-sweet chocolate chip cookie with a really satisfying texture and taste. You’re kids won’t like them as much as Toll House chocolate chip cookies though, because they aren’t as sweet. This is more of a modification for my adult cookie eaters. I’m off to eat another cookie. Bye! Posted by Meg Tilly on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 in Recipes Delicious Oatmeal CookiesTonight is closing night of the musical Will is doing with his school. There is a party afterwards at the Headmaster’s house and then another party after that. I find when teens are going to a party, it is a good idea to try to sneak food into their belly one way or another. Just in case. Hence, my oatmeal cookies! Who could resist? Delicious Oatmeal Cookies ingredients: butter, white sugar, light brown sugar, vanilla, egg, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, raisins, salt, old-fashioned oatmeal (important, don’t use “instant” or “quick")
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. (If you have convection, you can use it with this recipe to make the cookies even crispier)
-I cup of softened butter
Mix in another bowl:
Blend the flour/oatmeal etc. mixture into the butter/egg etc. mixture. When all the flour mixture is blended in, sprinkle in to the cookie dough, -1 1/4 cup of raisins. (I like a LOT of raisins, so I get one in almost every bite, but if you like only an occasional one then cut the raisins down to 1 cup or even 3/4 of a cup. OR you could forgo the raisins altogether, leave out the cinnamon, and sprinkle in semi-sweet chocolate chips and if you really want to get crazy you could chop up a handful of pecans and fling them in there as well. That’s the joy of being the cook. You get to decide these things, without an if-you-please to anyone.) Back to the recipe. Fold the raisins in, so they are spread out evenly. Then drop rounded teaspoons of the cookie dough onto a greased pan (greased with butter of course!) Smoosh the rounded balls slightly with the palm of your hand and bake for 10-12 minutes. And then, gobble them up while they are still warm, with a nice cold glass of milk. (The musical, by the way, was lots of fun, and Will was wonderful, of course! I should know. I went to every single evening performance they had.)
Posted by Meg Tilly on Saturday, March 08, 2008 in Recipes Meg’s made up muffinsMy brother Ben wrote that he’d made my buttermilk pancakes! It made me so happy. I’m not sure why. I guess because I kind of figured that I was putting these recipes out there, but that nobody was actually making them. I sort of thought that perhaps people would even scroll past the recipes to the next blog down. Well, my brother made my pancake recipe, so now I have free rein! It made me feel so cozy to think of Ben and Joline with baby Claire in her tummy and my little nephew Sam eating yummy pancakes. I got such a flash of Sam, with that faint flush that young children have, his tiny feet swinging slightly as he chewed. Not only that, but if Ben used the pancakes recipe, then who knows? Maybe other people are playing around with my recipes as well! So, I’m giving you a brand-new one. I made up this new recipe on Sunday. I woke up with a craving in my mouth and no recipe that matched, so I went into the kitchen and started fooling around and...EUREKA! Meg’s Made-Up Muffins Ingredients: butter, white sugar, light brown sugar, eggs, bananas, buttermilk, vanilla, flour, wheat bran, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, apples Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Either grease two sets of muffin tins,( or use cupcake liners )
Mix in large bowl
Blend well.
Measure into second bowl
Stir well - Peel, cut out the core and dice two small/medium apples (If you only have large, than just do one) Mix the flour mixture into the egg/buttermilk/butter/sugar bowl. When blended, add the diced apples. Spoon muffin batter into muffin tins and bake until the tops spring back when you press your finger on them. (Around 25-35 minutes, depending on your oven.) Serve piping hot. They taste good with a slice of butter or without. They are also good once they cool down to munch on as a snack. Posted by Meg Tilly on Tuesday, February 05, 2008 in Recipes Buttermilk pancakesI’ve decided to post my buttermilk pancakes recipe. I got the original recipe from a cookbook, but as with everything I make, I have fine-tuned and changed it a bit according to what my taste buds like. When pancake loving people come to my house, they always say they are the best pancakes they have ever tasted. Maybe yes, maybe no, but I’m going to post the recipe just in case our friends are telling the truth about the tastiness quotient. This recipe makes around 8 four inch pancakes. It’s enough for the three of us in the morning, but that’s because we have to eat at 7:15 a.m. so Will can get to school on time, and so our stomachs aren’t very hungry. It’s best if you play with it and see what works for your family. If you have large appetites or are more than three people, just double every measurement by two. Meg’s Buttermilk Pancakes ingredients: unbleached flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder, butter, buttermilk, maple syrup (If you like a side of bacon with your pancakes, start cooking the bacon on medium-low, and then start the recipe. That way the timing will work out and the pancakes and bacon will be done at the same time.) Put a large pan on the stove on medium-low heat. (I don’t use a non-stick pan for pancakes. I use a regular one. I find that the non-stick makes the pancakes sweat slightly, whereas the regular one allows the edges to get that slight crisp.)
Measure into a mixing bowl.
Mix the above ingredients with a fork. If you are using a two cup measuring cup, you can mix the next section right in the cup. (If you are using a one cup measuring cup, then mix the following ingredients in another mixing bowl.)
- 1 and 1/4 cups of buttermilk
Blend. Place 3 tablespoons of butter in the hot frying pan. Keep a close eye on it. Swirl the butter around so the whole bottom of the pan is greased. As soon as the butter is melted, pour it into the buttermilk and egg mixture, stirring constantly. Turn the frying pan up to just a little bit higher than medium heat, (but not to medium-high!) Then pour the wet mixture into the flour mixture. Do not over blend! Just a few strokes of the fork until all the flour mixture is mixed in. Slip your fingers under the faucet, then dash a couple of drops of water on the frying pan. If the drops of water skiddle around then the pan is hot enough, and you can spoon out the pancake batter into the hot pan. (The pan shouldn’t be smoking. If it is turn the heat down a bit, and remove the pan for just a few seconds to cool it down.) When there are a least two bubbles that have formed in the cooking pancakes and popped without the uncooked batter filling in the holes then the pancakes are ready to flip with a spatula. Do not flip before this or you will have raw and gooey middles. (The second side of the pancakes don’t take nearly as long as the first side. They brown quite quickly and are ready to go.) Important! Do not fiddle with the pancakes while they are cooking just leave them to cook. I see people using their spatula to press down on them all the time and that is not a good idea. It makes the pancakes heavy. Also important While you are waiting, I know it is tempting, but do not stir the sitting batter in the bowl. When you spoon it out into the frying pan, do not re-stir the batter either. It takes the fluff out of the pancakes. When the pancakes are cooked serve them up, piping hot with a slab of fresh butter and real Canadian maple syrup. That’s what we had this morning, and it was good. Posted by Meg Tilly on Thursday, January 24, 2008 in Recipes Living dangerously aka/Black Cod with misoStephanie and Todd just left. They arrived yesterday afternoon for the Sidney Crosby game… Okay, well, it wasn’t “The Sidney Crosby Game” per se. Seeing as how he would have looked pretty ridiculous gliding up and down the ice by himself, slamming his body into the boards and dodging pretend opponents, darting in and out, weaving and bobbing and then scoring on an imaginary Luongo! So, let me rephrase. Stephanie and Todd arrived from Seattle to attend the Pittsburgh Penguins/Vancouver Canucks hockey game at which Sidney was playing. How does Meg know all this fancy information, one might ask? Well...it would be a gross understatement to say that my husband is a wildly crazed Sidney Crosby Fan. Do I need to say more? I, by the way, was saved from having to attend the game ( I don’t like the fisticuffs) because my son, Will was singing in a Christmas concert with his school choir and of course I wanted to be there. I watched beaming from the incredibly hard pew of the church where they were performing, and since I told the woman next to me that he was my son, both her, her husband and an elderly friend that might have been a father of some sort, watched and beamed proudly at my son too. (They weren’t parents there for Will’s school choir. They had come to hear the processional singers that the school got to perform with.) So my son had a whole row of listeners proudly beaming at him. Surrogate family for six songs. Anyway, our friends arrived. Came for the game, bearing gifts. Thoughtful gifts! Like really thoughtful. I’m a horrible gift buyer. I get all anxious, like whatever I get it’s going to be dumb or not fit or they will have no use for and it will clog up their cabinets and be an albatross around their neck. I’m about as good at gift buying as I am a clothing shopper. I have no idea. It’s not that I don’t love the people that my gifts are so uninspired, it’s just that some people have some talents and some people have others. Sigh. On the rare occasion when I get corralled into entering a store with a family member or friend, I try to deal with that slight panicky claustrophobia that set in, by watching them closely, trying to figure out what they are going to like, holding up suggestions. But what people like seems to change with the seasons, and what was a home-run last year is a oh-god-mom-never-in-a-million-years look this year. It changes too fast. I get overwhelmed in stores. That’s why I avoid them. Get in, buy what I have to. Get out. Actually, that’s a lie. My scenario is more like, walk in, look around, get overwhelmed, talk myself out of needing what I drove down for, by saying something like, “Hey, these boots are only 7 years old, the soles aren’t worn through and no one can see that the tiny triangle of stretch elastic at the top is unraveling when you’re standing up. And if they noticing that when you’re sitting down, well...Why are they looking at your feet anyway? Your feet don’t talk. If they are looking at your feet they must have a foot fetish and then that’s their problem to deal with not yours.” And then I feel quite relieved to turn around and walk out of the store. Quickly, I might add before, god forbid, someone asks me if I need some help! Whoa! I went way off topic there. Back to the recipe. I decided we are going to live dangerously my dear bloggers! I am once again going to post a recipe that I have never tasted. I am going to post it because Stephanie has impeccable taste and so I feel that if she says this is an amazing recipe, and since the salted chocolate caramels from Fran’s that she and Todd brought me from Seattle were yummy, this fish will be yummy too. Nobu’s (and Stephanie and Todd’s too because they wrote it out and brought it!) Black cod w/Miso
1lb black cod (sable-fish)
-Marinate for 24-72 hours.
Posted by Meg Tilly on Sunday, December 09, 2007 in Recipes sponge cakeThe wonderful thing about having a blog is that last night when I was still reeling from what-the-hell happened? I was able to look back at my life for the last little while. And reading my entries from the start of this whole disaster at the end of October all the way up to now, gave me some sort of perspective. I felt comforted somehow, by visiting back to those past times. I did the best I could. Nothing else to be done but to step off this emotional roller coaster. When I woke up in the middle of the night...now that was a different story. I wasn’t feeling comforted at all. The thing about those middle of the night rampages where every fear or worry gums you to death, is that there are no distractions. You put one worry down and another one leaps into the gap. Anyway, enough of that. It’s out of my hands. Move on. As I was reading back over the last month and a half, I noticed that right before all this happened I promised that I would post my favorite cake recipe. I love this cake because unlike angel food cake, you use the whole egg and it’s not as sweet. I find angel food cake too sweet for me. I’ll eat it if there is absolutely nothing else around, but I far prefer sponge cake. This is not a recipe that I made up however. I got it from my grandmother’s old Betty Crocker’s Cookbook. The first edition. It’s funny how much these cookbooks have changed over the years. (In my mind, not for the better.) Anyway, this is an old-fashioned cake. You can serve it with any icing you like. My family is partial to my butter icing, but I like this cake best with sliced fresh strawberries and a generous dollop of freshly made whipped cream. I make this cake a lot once strawberries come into season, filling the front section of the grocery store with their summertime fragrance. But sometimes if I’m desperate, I’ll make it in the winter with imported strawberries that taste faintly of cardboard, and I have to squeeze half a lemon over them and sprinkle them with a little bit of sugar. Or I’ll make a compote with the frozen summer berries I have stored away in the freezer. Glorious Sponge Cake (that’s what it’s called. Honest. I didn’t make that up.) ingredients: flour, sugar, 6 eggs, water, cream of tartar, salt, (now the recipe calls for 1 tsp of lemon extract and 1 tsp of grated lemon rind. I don’t do this. I use vanilla, which is what I’ll write here, but really, it’s your choice. What do your taste buds prefer?)
In writing this recipe I realized that I have made this recipe my own as well. It not written at all like the book and I’ve changed some of the ingredients and tweaked the order and blending process. Funny. I never realized it before. I thought I was doing it verbatim! Posted by Meg Tilly on Tuesday, November 27, 2007 in Recipes my yummy corn breadI lost 5 pounds while I was away. It’s funny, when I’m away from my family, eating is harder somehow. Not so much fun. Anyway, the minute I arrived home I was suddenly ravenous and have been indulging my belly ever since. And tonight, rather than make a bit of pasta to serve the pot roast over, I had a craving for my yummy corn bread. THIS IS NOT A RECIPE FOR DIETERS! If you are trying to lose weight, don’t walk, RUN away from this recipe! For those of you who are not on a diet, feel free to continue reading.
I am posting this recipe because my husband said, “What did you do? This is my favorite corn bread you’ve ever made!”
my yummy corn bread
ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, buttermilk, eggs, bacon, ham, onion, Parmesan cheese, sharp cheddar cheese, fresh rosemary, 9x13 glass baking pan.
mix together in a bowl
mix well in another bowl
-Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture. And blend just until all the dry mixture is moist. (Don’t over blend, it’s supposed to look a little lumpy.)
It should take between 20-25 minutes to cook. Take it out at 20 min. and poke a fork, or a little wood skewer into the middle and if it comes out clean, cut corn bread in to squares and serve pipping hot! I hope you enjoy this as much as we did tonight. I’m embarrassed to admit that I ate three huge squares of it and I was trying to be restrained!
(And for all you vegetarians out there. Just delete the bacon and ham. Maybe jack up the onion and use 1/2 instead of 1/3. Use an oil to grease the pan, and when you take the hot pan out of the oven, throw a tablespoon of butter on it before you add the batter. And use 3 tablespoons of melted butter in the liquid mixture instead of the 2 tablespoons of bacon grease. Also I bet you could chop up a little jalapeno pepper and throw that in as well, if you wanted a bit of a zing.)
Posted by Meg Tilly on Sunday, October 14, 2007 in Recipes Dream Pie UpdateI got back from my reading with Richard Scrimger (author of Into the Ravine, and a million other books) and there was a little white plastic bag resting on my bed like a present. Hmmm… I thought, what could this be? Felt kind of like Christmas. It didn’t even enter my mind that it was Maureen’s dream pie. When she didn’t show up at the theater, I figured life ran away with her, as life is apt to do and there simply wasn’t time for dream pie. But no. There was, two containers, lids and all, encased in two ice packs so if I came back late I wouldn’t get botulism. Another example of Maureen’s thoughtfulness. Inside was a note saying that she forgot to say in the recipe that instead of regular cream cheese she uses light cream cheese and skimmed milk. I stood over the hotel bathroom sink and scooped out fingerfulls into my mouth, thinking “I can’t believe something that taste this rich, could be so low in calories!” And the taste of the Cool Whip brought back memories of my grandmother, who passed away in 1988. And how I visited her when I was 7 and she served me oatmeal, but she didn’t have any milk because she was was allergic to it.
And I was thinking as I was eating Maureen’s Dream Pie that this is a perfect recipe for someone who is trying to lose weight and yet still craves rich, fluffy desserts. And if somebody else wants to say, “Calories be damned!” Then they could substitute butter for margarine, use regular cream cheese, whole milk, and real whipped cream instead of Cool Whip. What a versatile recipe! I was also thinking sliced bananas on top would make another delicious addition. Thank you Maureen for your thoughtfulness and the memories of my Grandmother. Posted by Meg Tilly on Friday, October 12, 2007 in Recipes Maureen’s Dream PieMaureen’s Dream Pie has arrived! And even better in her note, she said she is going to drop some off at tomorrow’s reading for me! How lucky is that? I think what happened is she read my blog this morning and thought, “She sounds a little bit sad. I think I better whip that girl up some of my Dream Pie! That’s just the kind of comfort a woman needs.” I’m feeling wonderful now, but the good thing is, the fax was already delivered, the promise made. So even though I’m feeling jaunty...I still get Dream Pie! Yes.
Thank you Maureen. I’m looking forward to tomorrow with a smile!
Posted by Meg Tilly on Thursday, October 11, 2007 in Recipes a turkey gravy noteThis is another quick note. I just got my turkey in the oven, and in this particular bird there was no heart or gizzard tucked inside. If that happens to you, no worries, a turkey neck alone makes perfectly wonderful gravy stock. There was however a turkey liver inside and I forgot to mention this in my gravy recipe. I don’t like liver. The taste or the texture. So I don’t put the liver in my gravy stock, I find I can taste the slight tinge of it. Maybe it’s my imagination, but I leave it out. If you like liver, go ahead and plop it in. If you are like me and hate liver, do what I do and cook it up for the dogs. They love it! For those of you who don’t know which piece is the liver, it’s the darker colored one that has a swidggy texture and if you spread it out it has two sides of it. The gizzard has two sides as well, but it is much, much firmer. That’s all for now. Back to the family! Love you Emily xxxooo. Miss you! Posted by Meg Tilly on Sunday, October 07, 2007 in Recipes turkey gravyThis is going to be very quick as I just picked up my boy David from the airport and since we’re going to be having our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, I have to get shopping and then make the pies.
Good luck with your Thanksgiving Day feast. Much love to you and your family from me and mine. And Emily, I’ll give you a call tomorrow, but if we aren’t able to make contact, know that I’m loving you and we’re missing you and wishing you were here! Love, Mom xxxooo Posted by Meg Tilly on Saturday, October 06, 2007 in Recipes A flaky pie crust & Meg’s fancy super duper pie dough rolling out secretSeventeen years ago when Will was just a little baby I was shooting Leaving Normal in a minuscule town in Alberta. I don’t remember the name of the town. I do remember the flat beautiful horizon that went on forever, broken up only by the relief of a tall grain silo. Broad skies. We were staying at a rather tired looking motel, with a small diner attached. Yes, the motel wasn’t much to look at, the cast and crew complained. Generally we stayed in more upscale places. But me...I was in heaven! That diner had the best pie I had ever tasted! And every day when we finished shooting I would race to the diner to have another slice, warmed up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I could have staying in that dusty, windswept motel forever!
On our final day of shooting there I worked up my courage and asked the woman behind the counter if she’d consider giving me her recipe for pie crust. I was so nervous, because some people are very possessive about their recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation. But she didn’t get mad. She laughed. “It’s tenderflake,” she said.
Well I’ve been making Tenderflake pie crusts for 17 years now. You can’t buy it in the stores in the States, and don’t try to substitute another lard because I tried that and it sucked. So I’d always bring a couple boxes of Tenderflake lard to the States with me if I was going to have an extended stay there. BUT the good news is, once I was in LA with no Tenderflake and a hankering for pie, so I phoned and ordered a bunch of it and made pie to my hearts content! That’s the good thing about that stuff, it’s probably really unhealthy for you because it never goes bad. So that’s my pie crust recipe. Buy Tenderflake lard and make the recipe on the back. (And no, I don’t know anyone who works at Tenderflake, nor do I own stock in the company.) However I don’t recommend their already rolled and frozen pie crusts. I don’t know why but...not so tasty! Now for the next part. If the idea of lard grosses you out, or you are vegetarian, or you already have a crust recipe that you like but can’t get it into the pan, you are in luck because my super duper rolling technique will work for all pie dough recipes!
Meg’s super duper pie dough rolling secret!
I personally don’t wait until after dinner. When I make hot apple pie, I want it right away! Sometimes I love eating dessert first. That way I’m sure I’ll have room for it. Posted by Meg Tilly on Friday, October 05, 2007 in Recipes Roast Turkey, with stuffingRoast Turkey is one of my favorite meals of all time. There is such a feeling of abundance about it! Even during hard times as a child, on Thanksgiving, we were allowed to eat as much as we wanted. And let me tell you...we did! I always purchase a BIG turkey, because I love having lots of leftovers. Sliced cold turkey, tucked between toasted bread, a little mayonnaise, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Yum! (My husband adds some of my leftover cold mashed potatoes to his sandwich, which he swears tastes delicious...but eew! Really, I’m glad he’s so happy, but yuck. Ruining a perfectly good turkey sandwich with cold congealed mashed potatoes?) This year we are celebrating Thanksgiving early because my boy David is coming by on the sixth on his way back from visiting his friend in Toronto. Emily, sadly won’t be here. She’s at University in the States and the Thanksgiving is in November there. Will, obviously will be eating. As will I and Don, however, Don did have a hard time controlling his mirth when I came back to the car from the butcher shop clutching an order form for a 22 lb Free Range, Organic Turkey.
If you can afford it buy a free range organic turkey. If you can’t, don’t worry about it. Being able to buy a turkey at all is a splendid thing! If your store carries fresh turkeys I recommend that over frozen. I find fresh turkeys tend to be juicier than frozen. If you have a regular sized oven I would warn you against buying anything over 23 lbs. I once told the butcher, “Give me the biggest turkey you got!” I ended up with a 25 pounder, and it wouldn’t fit in my roasting pan, so I had to race out to the store and buy one of those flimsy disposable roasting pans. Two of them actually because they were so flimsy I was worried that the turkey would just bust right through it and end up rolling around on the kitchen floor! And then, after all of that...the darn thing wouldn’t fit in my oven! It was an odd shaped bird and it’s frame was too tall, so I had to saw the thing in two, overlap the two halves, with the stuffing tucked underneath. It tasted well enough, but just didn’t feel the same. So from then on, I never would let my enthusiasm run away with me. My turkeys are now always between 20-23 lbs.
(Make sure you keep an eye on the water level of the gravy stock throughout the day and add more if it gets below the halfway mark on the pot.)
Ingredients:sour dough bread, french bread, whole wheat bread, celery, butter, bacon, apple,( sausage, if you like) onion, frozen orange juice concentrate, paprika, rosemary, thyme, sage, onion powder, salt, pepper (and lemon pepper if you have it lying around.)
Using approximately equal amounts of sour dough, crispy french, and whole wheat bread. You can do this part the night before to cut down on the amount of work on Thanksgiving day. The bread pieces should be around as big as a nickel (obviously not as skinny)
The rosemary, thyme, and sage can be either fresh and minced or dried from a jar. Both work well. Don’t skimp with the seasoning. Keep in mind that these spices are going to be seasoning the rest of the bread bits as well.
Make sure you scoot the bread mixture to the side so you can drop the frozen juice on to the hot part of the pan so it can melt. Stir as it melts so that the flavor gets mixed equally. Now I know the idea of frozen orange juice in stuffing sounds weird, but trust me, it adds that special zing. You can’t really taste it, but you miss it if it’s not there!
First stuff the top part where the head and neck used to be. Then fold the flap of skin over the stuffing and tip up on it’s head and stuff the rest of the bird.
Let me re-phrase that. If you bought a huge honking turkey like me, it is unlikely that you will jauntily “pop” that sucker into the oven. More than likely you will stagger that baby over to the oven and pray you don’t get a hernia when you bend over to heave it in. Now...Very Important! Many cookbooks say you are suppose to cook a stuffed turkey that is over 16 lbs for anywhere from 18-23 minutes per pound. With my big gigantic turkeys I find it’s more reasonable to give it 15 minutes per pound. But even then, depending on the turkey, that amount can be too much. What I do is when we are around an hour from the supposed end time, I take the turkey leg in my hand (wearing the pot holder of course!) Twist the leg gently. Using no more pressure than around half of what you would use opening a new jar of catsup. It the drumstick bone rotates easily in your hand take the turkey out immediately! Because it is done and if you don’t take it out, that sucker will be dry as dust. It can happily sit on the counter while you finish up the gravy, and last minute vegetables. Another Very Very Important Tip: After the turkey has been in the oven for around a hour you are going to want to take a stick of butter out of the fridge and run it all over the turkey’s breast, legs and wings. Try to repeat this every half hour or so. By around the 4th basting, there should be enough juice in the bottom of the roasting pan that you can stop using the butter and take a turkey baster, suck up the juice from the bottom and squirt it all over, really drench that turkey. There’s no such thing as basting a turkey too much! Also, don’t bother removing the turkey from the oven every time you want to baste it. Just slide the rack out, baste it, slide it back in and shut the oven door. There’s no need to race around checking the clock and doing it every half hour on the hour. Just use that as sort of a frame work and basically baste it when ever you are passing the oven. I aim for every half hour, and I doubt I’ve ever actually managed to do it. Don’t worry if one or two bastings slip your mind, my turkey is always nice and juicy! The Last Very Important Tip: You must remove all the stuffing from the turkey before you store it in the fridge! What I do is scoop it all out into a large serving bowl so it’s easily accessible and people can come back for 4th and 5ths. That way you won’t forget and by accident put the partially stuffed bird into the fridge and poison your family! (I’ll tell you how to make gravy next time. And don’t throw out those bones, because in my mind, turkey bones make the very best soup!) Posted by Meg Tilly on Monday, October 01, 2007 in Recipes Sweet potato mashCanadian Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away and my mouth is already watering for that turkey. I’ll give you my stuffing recipe and how to know when your turkey is done. I’ll give you my secret for rolling out pie dough without ending up with a bunch of crumpled little fragments, a headache and tears. But today I’m going to give you my sweet potato mash recipe. Well it’s not really a recipe, because I’m not going to give you measurements. That would be pointless as everybody is going to have different amounts of people to cook for. But I’m going to tell you how I make it. What I love about this dish is that you can prepare it the day before, stick it in the fridge and then pop it in the oven when you take the turkey out and begin making the gravy. My husband and boys love this dish. I like it, but to be honest, I prefer just a plain old baked sweet potato or yam with lots of butter, a couple shakes of salt and a spoonful of light brown sugar. Maybe it’s because it’s what I grew up with.
Ingredients: yams or sweet potatoes, brown sugar, salt, butter, rum, cinnamon, miniature marshmallows.
I call this sweet potato mash, but actually, around three-quarters of the time I use yams. It got the “sweet potato mash” name because the first time I made it, the yams were looking a little beat up and tired, so I bought sweet potatoes instead, and so when I made this up, the name stuck. Also, when you are shopping at the store, if they have organic yams or sweet potatoes get them, they are so much better for you than the ones full of pesticides, and are tastier too. Don’t pick out the biggest honkers you can find, because I find that although they look impressive, they can sometimes be sort of stringy and fibrous inside, whereas the smaller ones can be more tender.
Always start slow when you are seasoning. You can always add more, but once you’ve added it, you can’t take it back out! You want to make sure that the sweet of the sugar is balanced out with the savory of the butter, salt, and the bite of the rum.
Posted by Meg Tilly on Tuesday, September 25, 2007 in Recipes |
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