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Green Bean Casserole

24 Nov

Green Bean Casserole is one of our favorites.  You can find the recipe on a can of cream of mushroom soup, sometimes on a can of green beans, or on a container of fried onions.  This time, I used fresh green beans, and I don’t think I had quite enough, it was more soup than green beans.  But, it was still really good!

Green Bean Casserole

What you need:

1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 cups cooked cut green beans (or 2 14.5oz cans of green beans, drained, or 2 9oz pkgs frozen green beans, thawed)
1-1/3 cups fried onions

How to make it:

Stir soup, milk, soy sauce, pepper, beans and 2/3 cups onions in an 8×8 casserole dish.

Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes or until hot. Stir.

Top with remaining onions. Bake for 5 minutes more.

 

Tip:  If you forgot to thaw your green beans, like I did, put them in a medium sauce pan on the stove.  Let them heat up for a few minutes, then add them milk, soup, soy sauce and pepper.  Let that heat on the stove a few minutes, mix in the onions, and transfer to the casserole dish to bake it.

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Wild Rice & Sausage Dressing

23 Nov

My Aunt Paula started making this for holiday meals a while back, and I just loved it.  Her recipe is super simple, 1 box of Uncle Ben’s wild rice, 1 package of breakfast sausage, 1 beaten egg.  Make rice according to the box, brown the sausage and crumble, mix it together with the egg, and bake at 350 F for 20 minutes.  This year, I wanted to make it more into a dressing, like the traditional bread & celery dressing, and make it a gluten-free dressing, so that it could be an alternative for a Thanksgiving meal.  Or, in our case, an addition to our meal.  We don’t have anyone in our household that needs to eat gluten-free, but I wanted to try this out in case we need it in the future or have someone over.

Wild Rice & Sausage Dressing

What you need:

1 cup wild rice blend (I used Lundberg Wild Rice Blend)
2 cups water (or amount specified on package directions)
1 Tbsp olive oil or butter (optional)
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp poultry seasoning (make sure blend is just spices, not any “blends”)
1 package breakfast sausage (most are gluten-free, but check the label)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
2 cups celery, chopped
1 egg, beaten

How to make it:

Put rice, water, oil or butter, parsley, and poultry seasoning in a medium sauce pan.  Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to simmer for amount of time on rice package directions, mine was for 50 minutes.

Meanwhile, remove casings from sausage (if there are casings).  Place in a large skillet, crumble, and brown.  Add garlic, onion, and celery to skillet and continue cooking until onions and celery soften.

Mix together rice, sausage mixture, and the egg.  Pour into a greased 8×8 or 11×7 baking dish.  Bake at 350 F for 20-30 minutes.

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A Thanksgiving Feast

23 Nov

Today, for lunch, I made our Thanksgiving feast.  It turned out excellent!  Everyone in my family was happy with it.  And, Bountiful Baskets was a huge part of this meal, pretty much everything I made had something in it from Bountiful Baskets.

First off, I started the morning by getting the turkey going, a 15 pound bird.   I ended up doing a combination of fridge and cold water thawing, since we decided last minute to have our meal a day early.  Every year, I cook my turkey in a Reynolds Oven Bag.  I find it helps keep the turkey nice and juicy, and it’s a pretty easy cleanup too.  You remove the neck and giblets from inside the turkey, usually one is up at the top where the head would be, and one is in the large cavity at the bottom.  Shake 1 Tbsp of flour in the oven bag.  Rub turkey with vegetable oil and season with poultry seasoning.  Put turkey in bag, close bag with the zip tie provided and tuck under the turkey.  Bake at 350 F for about 20 minutes per pound of turkey, or like on mine, until the thermometer pops up.  Result – A golden, juicy, delicious turkey.

 

And now, the sides.

 

Starting top left, and going clockwise:

– Mashed potatoes, using red potatoes from Bountiful Baskets.  I left the skins on for these, love mashed potatoes with the skins!

– Dinner rolls, thawed from frozen, from the wagon wheel of dinner rolls that was a Bountiful Baskets extra.

– Green Bean Casserole, using green beans that I had frozen from a Bountiful Basket a while back.

– Wild Rice & Sausage Dressing, using onion and celery from Bountiful Baskets.  This side is also gluten free, as an alternative to the traditional bread & celery dressing.

– Bread & Celery Dressing, using 9 grain bread, onion, and celery from Bountiful Baskets.

The casserole and dressings I cooked in the oven all at the same time after the turkey was cone cooking.  The mashed potatoes were done on the stove top.  The rolls I thawed, then heated up for 5 minutes at 350 F, after the casserole and dressings were done.

I will post the recipes for Green Bean Casserole, Wild Rice & Sausage Dressing, and Bread & Celery Dressing here shortly.  This afternoon, I will be making a Sweet Potato Pie and an Apple Crisp as our dessert, once our lunch has settled and we’ve napped.

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Slow Cooker Spinach, Lentil & Tortellini Soup

22 Nov

 

This is one of my favorite soups to make.  I got the recipe from the Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes, a cookbook I bought when I first got my slow cooker a few years ago.  I was secretly wishing for spinach from Bountiful Baskets, and this week, that wish was fulfilled!  And it’s pretty chilly here today, so perfect weather for eating and making soup.  The original recipe calls for ham and for chicken broth, but I make it without the ham and you can switch to vegetable broth to make this a meatless meal!  I think it tastes great without the ham, but you may choose to add it in.  Mine also looks less soup-like in the picture above because I used a larger family size package of tortellini, because that’s what my girls like the most.

Slow Cooker Spinach, Lentil, and Tortellini Soup

1/2 cup dry lentils
2 cups coarsely shredded carrots (I used the julienne blades on my mandolin slicer)
1 small onion, finely chopped
4 ounces chopped cooked ham or Canadian style bacon, optional
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp snipped fresh basil or 2 tsp dried basil, crushed
1 1/2 Tbsp snipped fresh thyme or 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme, crushed
1/4 tsp pepper
5 cups reduced sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
1 cup water
1 9-oz pkg refrigerated cheese-filled tortellini
1 bunch fresh spinach, slightly torn

1. Rinse lentils and drain. Place lentils in a slow cooker. Add the carrots, onion, ham or bacon (if using), garlic, dried basil and thyme (if using), and pepper. Pour broth and water over all.

2. Cover; cook on low heat setting for 6 1/2 – 7 hours or on high heat setting for 3 1/4 – 3 1/2 hours. If using the low heat setting, turn to high heat setting. Stir in tortellini. Cover and cook 30 minutes more. To serve, stir in spinach and, if using, the fresh basil and thyme.

I also like to put some shredded mozzarella cheese on my serving.

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Sausage & Potato Pie

21 Nov

 

This recipe came from a cookbook I received called Bake Until Bubbly.  My Papou almost always got me a cookbook for Christmas, and after he passed away, this was a cookbook my mom found in his house, and she figured it was most likely meant for me.  It’s a pretty good cookbook, I wish it had pictures of the dishes, but I do like that it’s dishes made more from scratch, not from a lot of processed foods.  For this Sausage & Potato Pie, I end up not following the recipe exactly, but pretty close.

Sausage & Potato Pie

What you need:

2 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and diced.  I prefer Yukon Gold, but a lot of times use Russet.
1 large egg
1 lb Italian sausage, casings removed
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 lb fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into cubes OR 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley OR 1 Tbsp dried parsley

How to make it:

Preheat your oven to 350 F.  Spray a 9 inch deep dish glass pie pan.

Place the potatoes in a large pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil, and cook at a gentle boil until potatoes are soft.  Drain, and return to pot.  Blend egg into potatoes until smooth.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, break up the sausage and cook until browned.  Add onion to the pan and cook until onions are translucent.  Use a slotted spoon and add sausage and onion to potatoes.

Add in mozzarella cheese, 1/2 cup Parmesan, and parsley, and mix well.  Spoon the mixture into the pie pan, forming a smooth, flat surface on top.  Sprinkle the 1 Tbsp Parmesan over the top.  Bake for 40 minutes, or until golden brown.  Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes.

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Remember to Thaw Your Frozen Turkey!

20 Nov

Thanksgiving is this Thursday, and if you are cooking a turkey, it’s probably time to start thawing it in the fridge, if that’s the method you choose.  There have been a couple of years where I almost forgot to start thawing it out, or started it too late, so at the end, I had to put it in cold water to thaw it the rest of the way.

The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service has a fact sheet on safely making your turkey for the holiday, including guidelines on thawing and roasting your turkey.

Let’s Talk Turkey – A Consumer Guide to Safely Roasting a Turkey

In addition to turkey, we will also be having mashed potatoes, bread and celery dressing, wild rice and sausage dressing, green bean casserole, dinner rolls, and sweet potato pie.  I’m excited to get to post my dinner spread and all the recipes.

What will you be cooking and/or eating this week?

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Persimmon Cookies

20 Nov

I was so excited to get persimmons last week.  Last year, I made cookies with them that were very good, and I wanted to make them again this year.   These cookies are more cake-like, and spiced much like pumpkin cookies.  In fact, my husband thought they were pumpkin.  They are getting eaten, in fact, this picture should have been a full 2 dozen, but as you can see, there are only 18.

First, let’s talk a little about persimmons.   There are 2 varieties common in the US, hachiya and fuyu.  The persimmons I got were fuyu persimmons, which resemble a tomato.  They are ripened when they are orange, and can be eaten raw.  The hachiya can be eaten raw as well, but you have to wait until they are very ripe, or they will be very bitter.  Here are what the fuyu persimmons look like whole, and then I cut them in half each way to show the insides as well.  They are quite interesting on the inside.

To prepare them, you remove the leaves from the top, then remove the peels.  Put them in the blender and puree.  It’s more of a gelatinous puree.

I had 4 persimmons, so I doubled this Persimmon Cookie recipe, but left out the chopped walnuts.  We aren’t big fans of nuts.  They seem to be a big hit in our house again this year!

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Slow Cooker Italian Chicken

19 Nov

This meal was a bit of an experiment, and luckily it turned out good!  It was very easy to put together and not very many ingredients.  You don’t have to use carrots, you could use another vegetables, like broccoli or cauliflower, maybe even green beans.  I thought about adding potatoes to this too, but decided I would serve it over angel hair pasta, that way, I would have the pasta for the kids if they didn’t want much of the chicken or carrots.  They ate some chicken, only tried the carrots.  My husband thought it was great.  Parmesan Garlic Pull Apart Bread would be a great addition to this meal too, but my oven was already taken with Persimmon Cookies (recipe coming soon), so no bread for us tonight.

Slow Cooker Italian Chicken

What you need:

1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 lb carrots, sliced, or a vegetable of your choice
1 cup Italian dressing
1/2 box angel hair pasta, cooked

How to make it:

Spray your slow cooker with cooking spray.  Add chicken to slow cooker, and fill in around chicken with the vegetable.  Pour the Italian dressing over all of it.  Cover, and cook for 6-8 hours on low, 3-4 hours on high.  Remove from slow cooker and serve over the cooked pasta.

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Homemade Applesauce

17 Nov

Last year, I split a couple cases of apples from Bountiful Baskets with friends.  With some of the apples, I made homemade applesauce, which both of my kids enjoyed.  Recently, there was a case of fuji apples available, so I ordered it and split the apples with some friends.  Then, we moved, then I broke my glass blender pitcher (a very sad day), so applesauce got put on hold.  I was able to get a very similar blender this week, and the apples are still good to go, so it was time to make applesauce.

Homemade Applesauce

What you need:

8-10 apples, in variety of your choice
2 cups water
1 tsp cinnamon

How to make it:

Wash, peel, core and slice the apples.  I have 2 little helpers who love getting to wind the apple peeler/corer/slicer we have.  This invention makes the whole apple prep process go pretty quick.  It makes the apple into a sliced spiral, which I then cut into fourths.

Add the sliced apples to a large pot, along with the water and cinnamon.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer for about an hour or so, until apples are nice and mushy.

Pour cooked apples into a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.  My new to me blender worked perfectly for this.

Then, serve or put into containers of your choice.  This made 3 cups of applesauce, so I put 1 cup into each of the 3 containers that I had on hand.

My kids were already in bed by the time this was finished, but it will be a nice addition to breakfast or a good snack!

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Another Use for Ciabatta Bread

17 Nov

I can’t say enough good things about the bread from Bountiful Baskets.  I’ve tried almost every kind they have offered, 9 grain, honey whole wheat, whole wheat, Italian olive oil, ciabatta, sourdough, foccacia.  Plus, all of it freezes really well, or at least is has in my experience.  So, when I had a bottle of barbecue sauce that was about to expire, I wanted to make Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken and Broccoli Cheese Cornbread, but didn’t have buns and didn’t want to make a run to the store just for that.  Cue the ciabatta bread in the freezer.  I mostly have only made BLTs with it, but decided to give it a try for the BBQ chicken.  It was great.  I added a little shredded cheese to mine, my husband added some pickles.  Yum!

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