Cranberry Cornbread Stuffing

My sister just cleared out her garden and gave me a gallon bag of fresh sage. In my pursuit to use some of it before drying it I found a great recipe on Foodnetwork.com for Stuffed Pork Chops.

I decided I didn't feel much like pork chops for dinner, but that cornbread stuffing sounded pretty good. Plus, I have three gallons of cranberries I need to figure out how to use.

I picked up a Costco rotisserie chicken, made some glazed carrots and I had a mini-Thanksgiving in no time at all.

I reheated the chicken in the oven 20 minutes before taking out the stuffing (or dressing in this case) and it made enough juice for some tasty gravy.

Ingredients:
2.5 cups crumbled cornbread
2 slices of bacon, chopped
1 Tbs. butter
2 celery ribs, chopped fine
1/2 onion, chopped fine
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 Tbs. chopped parsley
1 Tbs. chopped sage
1 Tbs. chopped rosemary
1/4 cup dried or fresh cranberries
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a heavy skillet, start browning the bacon. Add the celery, onion, garlic and mushrooms and cook till bacon is fully cooked, about 10 minutes. Add the parsley, sage, rosemary (sorry, no thyme) and cook another couple of minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

In a bowl, toss together the cornbread, cranberries and raisins. Add the rest of the ingredients including the chicken stock and gently toss to combine.

Transfer to a casserole dish and top with little bits of butter.

Cover and bake for 50 minutes.

Roasted Carrots in a Honey Dijon Rosemary Glaze

Recently I've been poking around online newspapers from the little villages around Alaska. Something I've noticed is that they frequently feature recipes sent in from the locals.

I came across a glazed carrots recipe from a radio station in Petersburg, Alaska (population 3,000). I really want to give the station all the credit, but upon closer inspection, I discovered it was lifted from The Healthy Foodie blog.

My dad was roasting a leg of lamb and had first dibs on the oven, which was set at 350 degrees. So I opted to use the gas grill as an oven. The temperature wasn't consistent, but the carrots turned out perfectly caramelized, garlicky, mustardy and a delicious side dish for lamb.

Here's the link to the original blog post, since I'd like to give credit where it's due. Also, her photos are a heck of a lot better.

Ingredients:

 1 pound medium sized carrots

 2 Tbs. olive oil

 2 Tbs. honey

 1 Tbs. Dijon mustard

 1 Tbs. fresh rosemary, finely chopped

 2 cloves garlic, minced

 salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Brush the carrots under running water. Cut them in half lengthwise and crosswise and set them aside.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the olive oil, honey, mustard, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper. Add the reserved carrots. Toss to coat evenly and spread in a single layer in a shallow baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, turning once or twice, until the carrots are tender and golden.

Crock Pot Stuffing

Eating is one of my favorite activities. That's why Thanksgiving is so fun for me. There are about a dozen different dishes on the table and I can pick and choose from them all. Turkey isn't the main event on my plate, but stuffing definitely would be a contender.

Last year I finally took Alton Brown's advice and in addition to brining my turkey, I didn't stuff it because he said it cools it down and hence makes the bird cook longer and less evenly.

This is actually the first year in a decade that I wasn't in charge of the turkey. Instead I decided just to do the stuffing, or in this case I guess you would have to call it dressing.

Since some friends were hosting the feast I knew I would have to make the dressing easy to transport and also easy to keep warm. I also wanted to be courteous to the hosts and try not to take up their valuable post-turkey oven space.

I was perusing a slow cooker cookbook from the library the other day, and between the velveeta, onion soup mix and cream of mushroom soup ingredients I found a humble recipe called Slow Cooker Stuffing. I promptly disregarded the recipe, but it was the method I was interested in.

A Crock Pot makes a lot of sense for stuffing. It's almost like a giant turkey -- it keeps moisture in and cooks slowly. It would solve my transportation, heating and oven problems. I had to try it.

So I used my tried and true Daddy O's Stuffing recipe and Crock Potted it instead of casseroling it. What I ended up with was moist, flavorful stuffing that tasted as though it was scooped right out of the bird.

Ingredients: 

1 cup of chopped onion

2 celery stalks, chopped

Cereal bowl full of sliced crimini mushrooms (Less than a carton)

1.5 packets of breakfast sausage links

1/2 cup golden raisins

3/4 can of medium black olives, chopped

14 oz. bag seasoned bread cubes

3/4 cup finely chopped parsley

3/4 stick of butter

2 cups chicken stock

salt and pepper

A large crock pot

Directions: Start making this when you're ready to eat breakfast. This way you can eat a couple of sausage links with some eggs while the other ones are cooling. Brown all the sausage links in a big saute pan. Once they are cooled, chop them into little rounds.

Secret ingredient: meat

Slice the mushrooms using a hard-boiled egg cutter. I love this trick I invented that I'm sure other people have also come up with!

Add 1 Tbs. butter in the saute pan and heat on medium-high. Add the celery, onion and mushrooms and cook till everything is softened, about 7 minutes.

Spray the inside of the crock pot with Pam and dump in the bread cubes. Add the breakfast sausage, mushrooms, onion and celery. 

Use the hard boiled egg slicer again for the olives. It's a cinch!

Brilliant!

Add the raisins, olives, parsley, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. 

Cut the butter into little cubes and mix into the stuffing. Periodically pour in the chicken stock between mixing so everything is well incorporated.

Put the lid on the crock pot and turn it to low. Let it cook for 4-5 hours. Don't remove the lid until you're good and ready cause it takes a long time to reheat the crock pot. 

Thank you thrift store!

Fluff up just before serving.

Asparagus with Cheese Sauce

I don't love asparagus. I don't hate it either. So I thought I might like it more if I smother it in cheese sauce. Cheese sauce makes every vegetable super delicious and totally less healthy.
This recipe is based on one from Cooks Country Magazine April Edition. After starting the recipe, I realized I was lacking half of the ingredients, so I improvised. I really like what I came up with.

Serves Two

Ingredients:
1/2 pound asparagus
3/4 cup water
pinch of salt
1/4 cup chicken stock
pat of butter
1 tbs Wondra Flour
1/2 cup sharp cheddar
pepper

Trim about 2 inches off the ends of the asparagus. Reserve the trimmed ends. Boil the water in a saute pan and add the trimmed ends. Cover and boil for 5 minutes. Remove the trimmings with a slotted spoon and throw them away. Add the asparagus to the pan with a pinch of salt, recover and cook for 4 minutes. Set asparagus on some paper towels to drain and dry. Reserve the asparagus liquid in a measuring cup and add enough chicken stock to make 3/4 cups of liquid. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour. Whisk over medium-low heat for about a minute. Add the liquid and whisk for another few minutes till thick. If it's too thick, add more chicken stock. Too thin, sprinkle in more flour while whisking vigorously (this may create lumps). Turn off the heat and stir in the cheese till melted. Add pepper to taste. Pour over asparagus. Yum!