Rolling Up the Leftovers

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday last week! And I hope you all got a hold of some great deals between Black Friday and Cyber Monday!

The holiday here was lovely! The only thing that burnt was the French fried onion topping on the green bean casserole. Overall, a lovely success! One of my favorite things about making all of this food for one day is the leftovers! Especially Thanksgiving leftovers! Everything seems to reheat well, making dinner for the next 2 days a breeze! This is good, because I needed those 2 days to put my kitchen back together!

As you may have guessed, I also love turning leftovers into new dishes. I enjoy the real simple ones like turkey noodle soup with turkey stock from the bones and cold turkey salad on sandwiches. Then I also like to come up with something a little bit different or new. This year, I popped my baked beans in the freezer with the intention of making cheesy bean dip for guests this coming weekend. I also threw some leftover stuffing in the freezer. I plan to use that to make meatballs.

The new use for leftovers I am most excited about this year is Cranberry Rolls! Now, in previous years, I have taken leftover cranberry sauce and used it to fill crescent roll dough that you get out of the can. I roll the crescent dough around a teaspoon of cranberry sauce, bake until the rolls are done, and top with simple powdered sugar and milk glaze. This year, I decided to take the same idea and step it up by making cinnamon roll dough instead.

I was also thinking that I wanted to add a little texture and just a little more jazz to these things so in my dough recipe, I substituted about a cup and a half of flour for ground up quick oats. I contemplated a cream cheese frosting for this but I decided to stick with the simple glaze to make sure you could really taste the cranberry sauce. Now, I make a very simple cranberry sauce to start with; just sugar, orange juice and fresh cranberries. So to spruce that up a little bit, I tossed in a bit of cinnamon and butter. There’s got to be some rule somewhere that you can’t make rolls like this unless you use butter.

The way I roll when it comes to cinnamon rolls, or cranberry rolls in this case, is I make one batch and split it in two, one for the morning and one for the freezer. These things are best fresh from the oven. The best method I have found so far is to let the rolls go through their second rise, bake them until they are just set and starting to get just a touch of color, then take them out to cool. At this point, I refrigerate one for the next morning and I pop the other in the freezer. When it is time to serve, I put them back in a 350°F oven for about 15-20 minutes until they heat though and turn beautifully golden brown. For me, this works because I don’t have to get up at a ridiculous time in order to serve these puppies for breakfast but they still come out piping hot and fresh!

As my little girl put it, “my belly likes these cranberry rolls”. I baked a pan of 8 rolls this morning, there are 2 adults and 2 children under the age of 4, and there are no leftovers… ‘Tis the season to indulge right?

Cranberry Rolls

Dough

1 cup warm milk (110°-125°F)

1/3 cup butter, melted

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 packet active dry yeast

2 eggs

3 cups flour

2 cups quick oats

Filling

1 cup, or so, leftover cranberry sauce

1/2 heaping tsp cinnamon

4 Tbsp butter, softened

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1-2 Tbsp milk

½ tsp vanilla extract

Add 2 cups of oats to blender. Pulse until the oats have broken up and resemble coarse flour. Set aside.

To stand mixer bowl, add milk, butter, salt, sugar and yeast. Mix on low 30 seconds to allow the yeast to activate.

With the mixer on low, add blended oats. Then add flour 1/2 to 1 cup at a time until soft dough forms and begins to leave the side of the bowl. Turn the mixer up to begin kneading dough. (At this point, I like to remove the dough to a floured surface and knead by hand for 5-8 minutes)

After dough has been kneaded, place in greased bowl, cover loosely and set in warm area of kitchen to rise until double (about an hour).

While dough is rising, mix cranberry sauce, cinnamon and softened butter. If your cranberries are in large chunks, consider doing this step in the blender or with a potato masher to create a relatively smooth filling. Set aside.

When dough has doubled, turn out on a floured surface. Use rolling pin to roll dough into a rectangle, about 1/4 inch thick. Spread filling evenly across rolled out dough.

Begin rolling the dough the long way to make a long log. You will have to roll some-what loosely to avoid squishing out all of your filling. When dough is rolled into a log, use a serrated blade to slice into 16 rolls. Place rolls in greased baking dish, cover loosely, and allow to rise for about another hour.

Bake rolls at 375°F for about 20 minutes. If you plan to refrigerate or freeze rolls, remove from oven when rolls are just set and barely starting to show color*. If you are serving immediately, continue baking until rolls are golden brown.

While rolls are cooling, mix together powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. Poor over rolls and serve warm.

*To finish rolls that have been refrigerated or frozen – thaw frozen rolls over night in the fridge. Preheat oven to 350°F and bake rolls for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Mix glaze and poor over rolls as usual.

Turkey Talk

I tried that theory of going to my favorite wholesaler last week to avoid the rush before the holiday this coming week… Turns out that even last Thursday at 2:30 in the afternoon, the place was packed!

Despite the crowd, it was a necessary trip and turned out to be well worth it. They had fresh turkeys on sale for almost half the price of my local grocery store! Unfortunately, because of the crowd, the turkey sizes went directly from 13 pounds to 22 pounds. I plan to brine my turkey so I need a bird small enough to fit in my brining vessel, which happens to be my pressure canning pot. That means I have a very adorably sized 13-pound turkey chillin’ in my freezer. Still more than enough to feed the 4 adults and 2 small children gathering at my house this year.

After making our rounds through the store, my kids and I picked a checkout line and began our wait. An older gentleman got in line behind us and started chatting; talking about how busy they are for a week day and so on. He listened to my three-year-old as she shared random information and made small talk, seemed friendly and nothing odd. Then I started unloading my cart onto the belt and when I got to the turkey and this guy goes, “That’s not a very big turkey, lady”. Now how exactly do you respond to such a comment? Was I just judged on the size of my turkey? I think I might develop a turkey complex.

Nah, the size of the bird doesn’t matter as long as it is juicy and delicious! I have my plan all set to help me accomplish said juicy and delicious bird. Although, I already pushed my Sunday plans back to Monday… not really the best way to start the to-do list. Oh well, game on tomorrow!

It Pays to Have a Plan

The count-down is on! Thanksgiving is next week! Arguably the biggest food day of the year, I spare no expense when setting out our Thanksgiving feast!

My husband works in an industry that gets stupid busy for the holidays. And yes, I meant stupid. We also live far enough from family that it takes us longer to get there than it does to have dinner. The result, new tradition!

I have been preparing Thanksgiving dinner every year since we bought our first house. That particular year, I thought it would be an awesome idea to grill a whole turkey breast. Yeah, not an awesome idea in Wisconsin in November. It took FOREVER for that little turkey breast to cook through. I had invited my mom and younger siblings to dinner that year and to spend the night… They have not been back for Thanksgiving since. Sorry mom…

No picking on my handwriting, scribbles or miss spellings!

The following year, I discovered turkey brining (thank you Good Eats!) and also decided I needed a plan. Every year since, I make a plan and I start as much prep as I can on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I also grocery shop in two parts so I don’t spend an entire day at the store. Tonight’s project was menu plan (which is basically the same every year) and the grocery list. Tomorrow I can head to my local grocery store and stock up on dry and canned goods, lightening the load for early next week. I can also head to my favorite wholesaler at the end of this week instead of trying to fight the crowds there next week.

Still to be done this week, list all the tasks and give them time slots for next week. Thanksgiving is a labor of love! Plan and prep and then I spend the entire day in my pj’s, going in and out of the kitchen. So much to be thankful for!

Piping Hot Freezer Pie

I love freezer cooking! It is a life saver! I have found everything people say about how it saves time and money while being far healthier than fast food to be true! It’s like having a safety net if the day gets away from me or if the weather is terrible and I don’t have any groceries or if someone is sick, etc. I can still serve a yummy meal without dishing out extra cash for delivery.

Before we moved, I was able to be a part of a freezer cooking event at the church my family belonged to. In the days leading up to cooking day, the congregation signed up to bring the ingredients needed and then dropped them off to the church kitchen. The morning of cooking day, a group of a dozen or so women came together in the church kitchen and turned out a couple dozen meals. All the meals were stored in the church freezer and when someone was ill or had a new baby or some other immediate need, the pastoral team would take them a meal. I love this ministry. It is so simple but such a powerful way to help another person and I was blessed to be a part of it.

I have given away freezer meals to friends of mine who could use a little dinner time relief and I have also given them as gifts! People love food! And if you can feed them something delicious that they don’t have to fuss over, what a fabulous gift!

I have done the one day freezer cooking marathon before and it was good. I made the meals I had planned and ended up with three additional meals from the leftover ingredients. The result was something like 22 meals; lasting roughly three months at my house. That is just about perfect as you don’t typically want to keep meals frozen longer than three months. However, my favorite way to do freezer cooking is just to double something I’m already making and pop one in the freezer. This gives me a wide variety in the freezer and I don’t have to dedicate hours to the cause; just the amount of time I was already going to spend on dinner.

Today’s doubled-up recipe is Shepherd’s Pie. Yet again, I am not claiming authenticity… it just tastes good! I have had shepherd’s pie at an Irish pub but I found it a bit bland. I’ve been playing with my recipe for a little while and this is my family likes it best! My method for making this might be a bit odd. I like to make my meat base and divide it into two pans and freeze it. Then I make my mashed potatoes, cool them, and spread them over the frozen base. Two reasons I do this, 1) It’s really easy to spread the potatoes over the frozen base, 2) It allows me to break up the process on the days I have less time in the kitchen.

Shepherd’s Pie comes out of the oven piping hot and full of comfort! The meat and veggies are coated in savory gravy and the potatoes are just barely starting to crisp. It’s not fancy but it just feels like home.

Shepherd’s Pie

(makes 2 casseroles)

2 lbs ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

3 Tbsp butter

1/4 cup flour

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 bag frozen mixed vegetables (1 lb), thawed

4 lbs potatoes

1/3 cup whole milk

1/2 cup butter

Salt & Pepper to taste

Over medium-high heat, brown ground beef and onions. When beef is cooked through, add 3 Tbsp butter and 1/4 cup flour. Stir and allow flour to cook 1-2 minutes. Gradually add beef broth and stir to avoid lumps. Season with garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, black pepper and Worcestershire sauce.

Add mixed vegetable and allow to simmer about 10 minutes.

Transfer meat mixture to two greased baking dishes (8”x10” or similar). Allow to cool and then freeze until solid.

For mashed potatoes:

Peal and boil potatoes. When potatoes are fork-tender, drain and set aside. Melt butter in pan potatoes were boiled in over medium heat. Add milk and let it warm for 2-3 minutes. Add potatoes back into butter and milk mix and mash. Season with salt and pepper.

When potatoes are cooled, remove meat mixture from freezer and top with potatoes. Smooth potatoes with spoon or spatula so entire meat base is covered and potatoes reach edges of pan.

Immediately return pan to freezer if you are not eating it on the same day. To serve on the same day, place in the refrigerator to thaw meat base.

To heat Shepherd’s pie for serving, preheat oven to 350°. Cover and bake approximately 30 minutes. Remove cover and bake additional 15-20 or until heated through and potatoes are just starting to brown.

Dinner Slump

I keep seeing this thing pop up in my news feed that says something like "I hate when I'm waiting for mom to make dinner and then I realize that I am mom". I can relate to this!

Just yesterday dinner time was here before I knew it and all of a sudden I was going through the fridge like "it's too late to start that" and "the kids won't eat that" and "maybe we should just have cereal..." We did not have cereal, at least not this time :)

Having freezer meals come in especially handy for days like this! Even though I stay home with my kids, time still gets away from me and having a dinner back up plan is a life saver! Last night, I pulled out a bag of burrito "filling", shredded some cheese, chopped a tomato, pulled out tortillas and ta da!!! Supper is ready! Saved by the freezer!

My Roots are Roasting

Buckle up friends, we have a three for one tonight!

So now that everyone in my house is pretty much over this last round of colds, I have some time to connect with all of you fine people again! Tonight’s adventure took place over a span of three days. The growing season here is just about over and I have received my last box of veggies from my CSA. From the last two boxes, I formed a small collection of root vegetables; beets, turnips and celeriac. I know, what the heck is celeriac? It is also known as celery root and does have a celery flavor but not as distinctive as actually celery stalks.

As I was reading about each of these bulbous roots, I noticed that they are all commonly roasted and they are all commonly seasoned with thyme. Seemed to me like they were made to be served together somehow. I decided my best bet was to roast them all individually, according to the best recipes I could find for each, and then bring them back together in my final dishes.

My first idea was inspired by pizza night at the farm where we get our CSA from. On Friday evenings, during growing season, the farm hosts pizza night where they serve homemade pizza with farm-fresh ingredients baked in their outdoor brick ovens. It is and awesome community event and my family just loved it! One of the pizzas on the menu at the end of the season was Roasted Root Vegetable. We tried the October Special over the Roasted Root Vegetable at the farm so I don’t know exactly which root vegetables are on it but the idea sounded like a perfect use for my trio.

Like I mentioned, I had a small collection of veggies so I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to use them all on pizza. When I’m working with ingredients that I don’t use often, I like to try to fit them into something I already know that I like. For example, I know I like skillet breakfasts with fried potatoes and ham, served with a fried egg on top (I have no idea what is with this fried egg on top kick that I have going here). I know that potatoes and beets taste nothing alike but I have substituted rutabaga for potatoes in this kind of breakfast so I thought maybe I could sneak my roasted root veggie combo in there too! The morning that I made Root Veggie Breakfast Skillet, I threw in a couple baby red potatoes to make sure I had enough food in case I was totally wrong about this idea.

The third roasted root vegetable experiment was risotto. Now, risotto is up there with the Italian Wedding Soup; I have never had it anywhere but my own kitchen. I have no idea if what I’m dishing up is what risotto is “supposed” to be like. Doesn’t matter. We love it! My favorite way to make risotto is with a combination of mushrooms but I have read and heard that there are about a million ways to spin risotto and I got the most confidence from butternut squash risotto. Again, butternut squash does not taste like a beet but both veggies are on the sweet side and I could see no reason why creamy rice wouldn’t make a delicious home for my rooty mix.

After eating all three meals, my husband and I ranked them as such:

1^st place: Pizza. This one turned out great! I had drizzled it with a balsamic glaze when it came out of the oven and the vinegar just took the veggies to a new level! Paired with homemade crust, this one is worth making again!

2^nd place: Risotto. This was also very tasty. I added the roasted veggies in when the risotto was almost done to give the whole dish time to melt together. Finished with a pad of butter and some salty Parmesan, it made a delicious side to baked chicken.

3^rd place: Breakfast Skillet. I’m still thinking this could be really tasty. For some reason, the turnips in this application tasted a bit bitter. Now, they did not taste bitter in either of the other two recipes but they had more time to cook in both of those. So maybe the turnips needed more roasting time to start with or more time in the pan while I cooked the potatoes. The beets and celeriac both paired well with the ham and fried egg!

I’m a big fan of preparing one thing and turning it into a bunch of other things. I’m good with leftovers too but if you can turn it into something new, it is so much more exciting! I had a lot of fun checking out new ways to use these root vegetables and no leftovers suggests that the results were not half bad!

Roasting the Vegetables:

(I did all of the roasting the day before and stored them in containers in the fridge. I also lined my pan with tin foil to help with clean up)

Peal the beets and celeriac, scrub the turnips. Cut all veggies into 1/2 inch cubes.

For the Beets: Toss with 1 Tbsp olive oil. Season with 1/2 tsp dried thyme, salt and pepper. Roast at 400°F for 45 minutes or until tender.

For the Celeriac: Toss with 1 Tbsp olive oil. Season with 1/2 tsp dried thyme, 1/2 tsp paprika, salt and pepper. Place celeriac on a piece of heavy duty foil and close foil

to form a packet. Place packet on a cookie sheet and roast at 425°F
for 25 minutes. Open and spread the foil out on the cookie sheet and roast 15-20 minutes more, until tender.

For the Turnips: Toss with 1 Tbsp olive oil. Season with 1/2 tsp dried thyme, salt and pepper. Roast at 425°F for 30 to 40 minutes, until tender.

Roasted Root Veggie Pizza

1 pizza crust (preferably homemade!)

1/3 of the roasted root veggie mix

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

Balsamic Glaze (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 425°F. Stretch raw pizza dough to fit pan. Poke a few holes with a fork to prevent large air bubbles. Bake until crust just starts to brown; about 5-7 minutes.

Remove crust from oven and carefully flip it over. Return to pan upside down and top with veggie mix and then cheese. Return to oven for another 8 to 10 minutes or until cheese is completely melted and just starting to brown.

Drizzle with Balsamic Glaze, cut and serve.

Balsamic Glaze

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup brown sugar

Combine vinegar and sugar in small sauce pan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and allow to reduce by half. Cool slightly before using.

Root Veggie Breakfast Skillet

2 -3 baby red potatoes, cubed

1/3 of the roasted root veggie mix

2 ham steaks, cubed

1 Tbsp oil

1/4 tsp garlic powder

Salt and pepper

1 -2 eggs per person

Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Add potatoes, season with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Cover for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. When potatoes are just tender, add root veggie mix and ham. Cook uncovered to heat veggies and ham through.

While veggies and ham heat through, fry 1-2 eggs per person. Plate the veggie mix and top with over easy eggs. Serve immediately.

Root Veggie Risotto

4 cups chicken broth

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 cup Arborio Rice

1/4 cup white wine

1/3 of the roasted root veggie mix

2 Tbsp butter

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Sliced green onions for garnish

In large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add rice and toast for 1-2 minutes.

Add wine. Stir and cook until wine has been absorbed.

Add 1/2 cup broth. Stir and cook until broth has been absorbed. Continue to add broth 1/2 cup at a time and allow to absorb until you have 1/2 cup of broth left. Add root veggie mix then the last 1/2 cup of broth. Allow the broth to be absorbed.

Remove from heat. Add butter and grated Parmesan. Garnish with green onion. Serve immediately.