Sorry about that Part 2

Part 2 of the Thanksgiving theme. If you can't understand the title, see part 1.

I'm going to do each part before and after. This is the turkey before. It is stuffed with apples, oranges, celery, herbs and spices.

And after. We cooked it at 500 degrees for 30 minutes. Then we lowered the temperature to 350 degrees until a meat thermometer read 161 degrees. 

 

 Rumaki- bacon cut in half and cooked slightly, whole water chestnuts, 1/2 cup ketchup, 1/2 cup sugar. Mix sugar and ketchup in dish. Microwave 1 minute, stir. Wrap bacon around chestnuts and secure with a toothpick. Place in ketchup mixture. Cook at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Before.

 

During.

 

After. This is actually my Grandpa's recipe.

 

The continuation of stuffing. Here I am cutting apples.

 

This is me smiling while pouring broth in.

 

This is me spreading the stuffing in the pan.

 

 And this is me putting a smile made out of butter. This smile simply melted.

 

Home Fries- cube potatoes. Cook in olive oil over medium heat, seasoned with garlic salt.

My favorite. I worked hard on these.

 

Before. 

 

After. 

 

The plating. Admire the presentation, if you must.

Pumpkin Pie-http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Perfect-Pumpkin-Pie/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Thumb&e11=pumpkin%20pie&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page&soid=sr_results_p1i2 I also added a little bit of vanilla extract.

Before.

 

After.

The end. I hope I can continue this blog. You can try some of these recipes if you want.

Sorry about that....

 Sorry about being gone for quite some time. We had a baby then we moved then we moved again and we're going to move again in a few days so I thought I would get this blog going again. And to celebrate me coming back, we're doing Thanksgiving! And, of course, you can't have Thanksgiving without turkey! Today is part 1 of my 2 part series. So I hope this blog can get some more viewers again!

We defrosted this turkey by placing it in cold water. We changed the water to fresh water about every hour or so.

 

Here is the recipe we used for the brine.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe.html

We changed it slightly, as we didn't have the allspice berries.

 

We took this picture and added it in because I liked how the brown sugar started to dissolve so I thought this picture would look cool. 

 

The turkey is sitting in the brine, in the fridge, as I type this.

 

This is the stuffing.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Awesome-Sausage-Apple-and-Cranberry-Stuffing/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=stuffing&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page&soid=sr_results_p1i1

This picture shows me chopping celery.

 

This shows the celery and onion. We don't always follow the recipe exactly, so this is more onion and celery than called for. We also doubled the recipe.

And this is me stirring the sausage. I think there was onion in there too.

 The stuffing will be finished tomorrow!

This is the cranberry sauce which, as the picture shows, is me pouring the orange juice in. We also doubled this recipe because my dad really likes it!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cranberry-Sauce/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Thumb&e11=cranberry%20sauce&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Recipe&soid=sr_results_p1i1

 

 

Beginning of cranberry sauce.

 

Middle. This is when they started popping!

 

Still middle, nearly done.

 

Just about done. All you need to do is chill it in the fridge overnight and you're done!

 End of part one. Check back tomorrow night for part 2!

Hot in the Mexican Night

My father had a friend over from his work. She's one of the sous chefs for this post. Her name is Laura Acosta and she is from Juarez, Mexico. She showed us how to make lots of delicious foods.

Salsa
2-3 roma tomatoes
1-4 jalapenos (however spicy you like it)
1 onion
salt

Place tomatoes, jalapenos and quartered onion in a pan over medium heat. Move them around until browned. Remover and cut stem off jalapenos and tomatoes. Place all ingredients in a blender and pulse until desired consistency. Add salt to your taste.

*Optional- we also added a little fresh cilantro from our garden*

 

 

 

 

Guacamole
1 avocado
tomato
onion
jalapeno
salt

Remove avocado from shell. Mix with tomato, onion, jalapeno and salt to taste. (we used the same tomato, onion and jalapeno that we cooked for the salsa).

 

Vegetable Taco Filling
bell peppers (any color)
onion
mushrooms
garlic salt

Slice peppers, onion and mushrooms. Cook in medium heat pan for a few minutes until cooked but still crispy. Season with garlic salt.

 

Beef Taco Filling
ground beef
onion
garlic
ancho chili powder
cayenne pepper
black pepper

Dice onion and mince garlic. Cook in skillet with beef until beef is cooked all the way. Season to your liking.

Churros
We used this recipe from all recipes.

Laura brought us some dulce de leche which we had with the churros. Yum!

 

Here is one veggie taco and one beef taco. 

 

Here are the churros with the dulce de leche sauce on them.

Shrimp Scampi with Seasoned Steak and Grilled Potatoes

I've actually ate these potatoes for a long time, and I don't know why I haven't posted them on my blog sooner. Anyway, I paired them with steak and shrimp and we've got a great meal! Here's how to make it.

For the shrimp I marinaded it in fresh lemon juice, butter and chesapeake bay seasoning. I grilled it for about 10-12 minutes until the shrimp were cooked through.

For the steak I marinaded it in a montreal steak seasoning and worchestire sauce. I grilled it at 500 degrees for 4 minutes, flipped, 4 more minutes, flipped and then 1 last minute.

For the potatoes I washed them and cooked them in the microwave for just a couple minutes. Then I sliced them and brushed them with a mixture of melted butter and garlic salt. I grilled them for a couple minutes then flipped then grilled for a couple more minutes until they were browned and cooked.

Chinese in the making

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a very long time. I haven't been feeling good a lot, so that's the reason why. But I'm feeling better now and ready to get back to cooking. 

Today I made chicken, rice, asparagus and pineapple with cream sauce. I don't really have a recipe for it because I made it up as I went.

For the chicken I breaded it in flour (seasoned with salt and pepper) then egg and then panko bread crumbs. I fried it in some hot oil and then finished cooking it in the oven.

For the asparagus I sauteed it in a hot pan with some spicy sauce we had in the fridge. I tasted it and it was really spicy so I put a little bit of sour cream in it. I also added some chopped fresh pineapple.

For the rice I put the rice and water in the rice cooker.

For the cream sauce I put some sour cream and pineapple with a tiny bit of milk in a blender until it was mostly smooth.