Bread & Celery Dressing

24 Nov

I admit, I love Stove Top stuffing.  My kids do too.  And it’s quick and easy.  But, occasionally, I like to make it from scratch, not from a box.  Now, I have made it the last 3 years for our Thanksgiving meal, but haven’t seemed to get it just right.  This year, I made it exactly how my husband and I like it.  I used the 9 grain bread from Bountiful Baskets for the bread cubes, celery that I had blanched and frozen, and an onion I got recently in a basket.  This turned out not too soggy, not too dry, just right.

Bread & Celery Dressing

What you need:

1 loaf of bread
3/4 cup butter
2 cups celery, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
2 tsp poultry seasoning
1 14 oz can chicken broth
1 egg, beaten

How to make it:

Cut bread into cubes and let air dry 1-2 hours.

Melt butter in a large pot.  Add celery and onion until it becomes soft.  Add poultry seasoning and mix well.  Stir in the bread cubes until they are moistened evenly.  Pour in egg and chicken broth., and gently stir until coated evenly.  Grease a 9×13 baking dish and evenly spread the dressing mixture into the dish.   Bake at 350 F for 30-40 minutes.

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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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Safeway Gift Card Promo

21 Nov

 

I somehow missed this in the ad for Safeway that came out in Sunday’s paper.  This is a nice gift card promotion too.  When you buy $100 in gift cards between 11/20/2011 and 11/23/2011, you get a coupon printed at checkout for $15 off your next order.  I haven’t gotten gift cards at Safeway before to know what specific ones they have, but I do know it is a pretty big display in the store, so most likely a good variety.  There are some restrictions and exclusions, so it says to check the display in the store to see which cards are participating.

Now, in addition, Safeway is running a 4x fuel points on the purchase of gift cards.  Since my Safeway doesn’t have a fuel station, and the nearest fuel station isn’t worth the amount of savings, I don’t pay attention to that promos to know all the details.  But, if you live in an area with a Safeway with a fuel station, the bonus fuel points make this an even better deal.

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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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4X Fuel Points at Fry’s Food

20 Nov

Starting today, November 20, 2011, though December 11, 2011, you will get 4X the fuel points when you buy gift cards at Fry’s.  Perfect time to get gift cards for your Christmas gifts and get some rewards back for buying them.  Or, go get them to do your holiday shopping.  They have lots to choose from, and when they run a promo like this, I will go to Fry’s, get a gift card for the store I need to shop at, just to get the fuel rewards.  There are some exclusions, the Kroger family of store gift cards and the prepaid generic cards are not eligible.  But, if you are headed to lunch at Chili’s or need to pick up some things at Target, stop and get the gift card.

Why get so many fuel points?  For every 100 points, you get $.10 off per gallon of gas for 1 fill up (up to 35 gallons).  Then, Fry’s is still running the promo to get up to $1 off per gallon (up to 35 gallons) at fuel centers at Fry’s stores.  Buying 1 $25 gift card will get you $.10 off per gallon at a fill up, or buy 10 $25 gift cards to get $1 off per gallon at a fill up, or some number in between!  So nice, since fuel is still fairly expensive.

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Bountiful Baskets – 11/19/2011

20 Nov

This week I got the conventional basket.

Oroblancos, pears, bananas, pineapple, grapes, celery, carrots, spinach, red potatoes, yellow squash, onions, and grape tomatoes.

The red potatoes I will probably use to make mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving.  I like to clean those really well and leave the skins on  for mashed potatoes.  I will probably make Spinach & Lentil Tortellini Soup in the slow cooker.  Since I froze last week’s celery to use for bread and celery dressing on Thanksgiving, I might use this celery and the carrots and make chicken & noodles.

Note: The type and amount of food may vary from another basket because of geographic location and because of variances in how the ends of produce cases are distributed after everything has been distributed evenly.

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