Thanksgiving

High Peaks Deep Dish Apple Pie and a {GIVEAWAY!} | WINNER ANNOUNCED!

October 25, 2012 by Rebecca 249 Comments

{UPDATE} The Pick Giveaway Winner plugin chose Christa D. as our winner! Congratulations, Christa! Email me your mailing information and I will forward it onto our friends at Harry & David!

This past summer I had the distinct privilege of traveling to Oregon as part of a group of bloggers brought out by Harry & David to tour their orchards, facilities and community. What a treat! It was wall to wall wonderment, beauty and inspiring people. You don’t get a trip like that every day, I’ll tell ya. Aside from making some great new friends, I came away from it all with a deep respect and affection for Harry & David’s operation and philosophy. They take care of their people – they have employees who have worked there for their entire lives who come from parents who worked their for their entire lives- and the mutual loyalty shows in their products.

As I drove from the very north of Oregon to the very south, I had ample time to admire the pines and peaks of the state. Living in New York, I’m no stranger to mountains and trees, so there was a bit of familiarity mixed in with the newness. Where New York has high peaks, they’re rounded and aged; worn down by elements and time. Oregon’s peaks are young and raw and dramatic. What views!

Harry & David is best known for its pears, but they also have spectacular apples. When they offered to give a gift box to Foodie With Family readers, I had no idea what to pick and posed the question to you all on Facebook. It came down to a tie, so I tossed a coin and was thrilled that the coin favoured a gift box with apples in it, too. It didn’t just have apples though, it had Moose Munch (on which I am now officially dependent), their spectacular pears, summer sausage, cheddar cheese, MASSIVE chocolate covered Oregon cherries, raspeberry galettes, olive oil crackers, and mixed nuts. Oh man. Good choice, people!!! I’m so excited because they sent one to me, too! Whoever wins this thing is going to be one seriously happy camper. (Giveaway details are after the recipe!)

…But first…

We must talk pie. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, pie is the best dessert in the whole world; fruit, crust, sweet, tart, tender fruit, and beauty all in one package. It’s just plain superior to anything else you can make. And I -unsurprisingly, probably- have some very strong opinions on apple pie. Don’t get me wrong, I will eat ANY piece of apple pie put in front of me and take great joy in it, but if I’m making a pie, I’m going to make my favourite version of it and THIS pie is it.

I’m going to tell you right now, I buck tradition in my apple pies. I leave out cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and whatnot. I have no problems with them, but when I’m making the pie, I prefer it without that. I want the vibrant, clean, sparkly apple to shine through without all those other notes to sully it. (Reminder: I will happily eat any sullied apple pies, too.)

I use home canned boiled cider syrup, but you can buy it commercially or -in a pinch- substitute plain apple cider in its stead. Do whatchoo gotta do, but do make this pie. It is as high as New York’s High Peaks and a nod to the apple growing power houses of New York and Oregon. This pie crams twelve big old apples in between two pie crusts and sings APPLE! A light brushing of milk and a generous sprinkling of coarse sugar brings the whole thing home.

Oh mama.

Cut a wedge out of that pie and look at it.

This is a pie to make memories.

High Peaks Deep Dish Apple Pie and a {GIVEAWAY!}

This glorious high-peaks, deep-dish apple pie is the ultimate in apple pies. Clean, pure apple flavour shines through and tastes wonderful with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or a big wedge of aged Cheddar on the side.

Ingredients

Pie pastry for a double-crust, 9-inch pie
10-12 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1/4 cup boiled cider syrup or plain apple cider
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup granulated or raw sugar
1/4 cup clearjel or cornstarch
Optional: milk and coarse sugar for brushing on the crust

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Roll out half of your pie pastry and line a deep dish pie plate, draping excess over the edges. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, toss the apples with the cider syrup, vanilla extract and lemon juice. In another smaller bowl, whisk together the sugar and clearjel or cornstarch until evenly combined. Pour over the apples and toss to evenly distribute. Use your hands to carefully pile and pack the apple slices into the pie plate. You may have to break up some pieces to find a way to get it all in there and it WILL mound up over the crust, just keep the excess pie crust clean and uncovered.

Roll out the second pie crust so that it is large enough to drape over the apples and around the edges of the pie plate a bit. Tuck the top crust under the excess bottom crust and crimp in whatever style you prefer. Cut a couple of vent holes on top of the crust (slits or shapes), brush the crust with milk and sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Put in the oven and bake at 425°F for 15 minutes, lower the heat to 375°F and continue baking for 45-50 minutes or until the juices are bubbly in the pie and the apples are tender when pierced through the vent holes. If the crust starts browning too quickly, tent loosely with foil around the edges.

Cool at least to room temperature before slicing if you want the slices to hold together.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/10/25/high-peaks-deep-dish-apple-pie-and-a-giveaway/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Now let’s talk GIVEAWAY! YES! Just look at everything in this Bear Creek Gift Box.

I have a couple of ways for you to enter.

MANDATORY ENTRY: Leave a comment telling me your plans for this gorgeous gift basket. Will you use it for appetizers at a dinner party? Share with friends and neighbors? Hide in the closet and eat it all yourself? (I recommend this last option at least for the Moose Munch and chocolate covered cherries.)

Optional Entry 1: Like Foodie With Family on Facebook.

Optional Entry 2: Like Harry & David on Facebook.

Optional Entry 3: Follow Foodie With Family on Twitter.

Optional Entry 4: Follow Harry & David on Twitter.

Don’t forget to leave a separate comment for each one of the optional entries so I can count them all! The approximate retail value of this gift box is $59.99. I will draw a random name on Saturday, October 27th ! Be sure to come back to see if you’ve won! Good luck, everyone!!

Filed Under: Giveaways!, Recipes Tagged With: family-friendly, kid friendly, party food, seasonal, Thanksgiving, traditional food, Vegetarian

Layered Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake with Salted Caramel

January 18, 2012 by Rebecca 12 Comments

This cake has two layers and this post has two purposes. One is a no-brainer: to share the recipe. The other? Well the other reason is a serious case of Mama pride. This cake is what my pickle in the middle son requested for his birthday but that’s not why I’m proud. I’m busting my buttons because he came up with the idea for the cake.

Let me backtrack a bit and introduce you to my guy.

This is Ty.

Not Tyler, not Tyrone, not Tyson. He’s Ty. It’s a Welsh word that means “House”: as in strong like one. And Ty is. He’s the strong, silent type. He has a fast wit, but you have to listen for it. Believe me, it’s worth listening.

Ty is a sports and outdoors nut.

He’d just as soon be hitting home-runs, throwing balls, climbing trees, running laps, slap-shotting, or bicycling at warp speed as he would anything else. Don’t let his elven appearance fool you. He is made of stern stuff. He taught himself to ride his own bike in one afternoon. It didn’t matter that he fell of about fifty times. He was determined to learn it and no gravity was going to stand in his way.

He zigs when others zag. (Note the upturned corners of the mouth during the obligatory Sturgeon Faces at the Sturgeon River pose. He’s the happy sturgeon next to the Grandpa Sturgeon.)

Sports, admiring cats, and reading Harry Potter are three of his favourite past times, but there’s one bigger than anything else. The boy loves to cook.

It gets better, though, because he’s darned good at it. He loves traditional British food (think treacle tarts, shepherd’s pie, toad-in-a-hole, etc…) but he’s an innovator, too. Proof of this came with his birthday dessert request; he wanted me to whip up a gingersnap crusted pumpkin pie with a thick cheesecake layer on top, thus combining all of his best-loved desserts. And here’s the kicker; he wanted to help make it.

Ty and I made gingersnaps together.

We snuck a couple, shared a few with the rest of the family and turned the remaining cookies into crumbs for our crust. He tossed in melted butter and sugar and pressed it into the bottom of a parchment lined springform pan.

We whipped up a small batch of pumpkin pie filling and a medium batch of cheesecake batter.

We did a very convoluted method of pouring both into the pan (which you can skip since it formed its own layers), put the pan in the oven, then sat down with a cup of tea (any Welsh readers will recognize the seriously appropriate nature and wondrous pun of Ty’s love of tea) to wait for the cake to finish baking.

After it was set up, all that was left was the long overnight wait for the cake to chill through and birthday proper to begin. Showing much more patience than his Mum, Ty insisted on waiting until after dinner (shepherd’s pie) to cut into the cheesecake pie. And like Ty’s humour, it was more than worth the wait.

The spicy, deep molasses of the gingersnap crust was the perfect foil to the custardy pumpkin pie and silky cheesecake. The slight hint of orange in the cheesecake amplified the nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon in the pumpkin pie. The just-this-side-of-burnt sugar salted caramel drizzled over the cloud of whipped cream pushed the entire dessert into the stratosphere.

Can you see why I’m about ready to pop with the pride?

Oh, these boys of mine. I think I’ll keep them. Happy Birthday, my Ty guy. You are very loved.

Layered Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake with Salted Caramel

The spicy, deep molasses of the gingersnap crust is the perfect foil to the custardy pumpkin pie and silky cheesecake. The slight hint of orange in the cheesecake amplifies the nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon in the pumpkin pie. Then, the just-this-side-of-burnt sugar salted caramel drizzled over the cloud of whipped cream pushes the entire dessert into the stratosphere.

Ingredients

For the Crust:

2 cups fine gingersnap crumbs
1/4 cup (1/2 a stick) butter, melted
1/4 cup raw or granulated sugar

For the Pumpkin Pie Layer:

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground or grated nutmeg
2 large eggs
1 can (15 oz.) canned pumpkin (NOT canned pumpkin pie filling)
1 can (12 fl. oz.) evaporated milk

For the Cheesecake Layer:

3 (8 ounce each) bricks cream cheese, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons Grand Marnier ~or~ 2 tablespoons orange juice
2 teaspoons real vanilla extract

For the Salted Caramel Sauce:

1 cup (7 ounces by weight) sugar
1 2/3 cups (13 ounces by weight) heavy cream
Sea salt or kosher salt to taste

Instructions

Grease and line a 10-inch springform pan with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper. Position the springform pan in the center of a rimmed baking sheet. Toss together all of the ingredients for the crust with a fork and press evenly and firmly onto the base of the prepared pan. The crumbs may extend up to 1/4-inch up the sides, but no higher. Set aside.

Position your oven racks so there is one in the center and one far enough below it to hold a bread or cake pan that will be filled with boiling water. Preheat the oven to 300°F and put a kettle of water on to boil.

To Prepare the Pumpkin Pie Layer:

Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl. In a smaller bowl, use a fork or whisk to combine the sugar and spices. Add those along with the pumpkin puree to the eggs and whisk until smooth. Stir in the evaporated milk and pour carefully into the prepared crust.

To Prepare the Cheesecake Layer:

In a food processor fitted with a metal blade (or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk), blend the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Scrape down the sides, add the eggs and blend until smooth again. Scrape down, add remaining cheesecake ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour carefully into the center of the pumpkin pie filling.

Place the baking sheet with the sprinform pan on the center rack in the preheated oven and pour boiling water from the kettle into the loaf or cake pan. Bake for 60-80 minutes, or until the outer 2/3 of the cake is set but the center is still a little jiggly. Turn off the oven and insert a wooden spoon in between the oven and the door to hold it slightly ajar. Let cool, along with the oven, to room temperature.

Lay plastic wrap directly on the surface of the cheesecake and refrigerate overnight before serving.

To Prepare the Salted Caramel Sauce:

Melt the sugar (with just a couple drops of water to help it along, if you're uncomfortable melting it dry.) over medium heat in a large, heavy-bottomed pot until it is a nice, deep-caramel colour. Do not stir as this causes crystallizing in the caramel. When it reaches the caramel colour you want, pour in the heavy cream (taking care as this will bubble up massively), whisk it and remove from the heat. Add sea salt (a couple good pinches usually does the job) to taste, whisk and set aside to cool to a comfortable temperature.

To Serve the Cheesecake:

Slice the cheesecake into thin wedges. On each wedge, dollop a hearty amount of whipped cream and drizzle the salted caramel sauce.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2012/01/18/layered-pumpkin-pie-cheesecake-with-salted-caramel/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Filed Under: Desserts, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: cake, dessert, family-friendly, kid friendly, party food, Thanksgiving, Vegetarian

Fromage Fort (Cheese Spread)

November 23, 2011 by Rebecca 6 Comments

We interrupt these Thanksgiving preparations to bring you a Public Service Announcement. This is only an announcement. This post will take less than five minutes to read and less than five minutes to prepare. You may then return to cooking for your feast:

Did you get invited to a last minute shindig? Do you need just-one-more-thing to round out your holiday feasts? Do you love cheese?

That last question is the most important really, because this is a recipe for cheese lovers. Serious cheese lovers only. Because this is how you use up the odds-and-ends in your cheese collection. You do have a cheese collection, right? A nub of Romano, a hunk of Cheddar, a couple tablespoons of crumbled bleu, some Asiago pieces rattling around in a bag or a drawer or a container in your refrigerator…

Well, the French ride to the rescue here, with the classic Fromage Fort. Fromage fort translates as “strong cheese” and believe you me, there’s nothing wussy about it. It is CHEESE writ large. It is a cheese spread from the country that many people find synonymous with cheese.

So what is Fromage Fort like? (Look away, my French friends. You may be horrified at this description.) It’s kind of like good ole American pimiento cheese, but minus the pimientos and plus wine. How could you possibly go wrong?*

*Let me tell you how you could go wrong. You could use Velveeta or American cheese. If you do that? You’re totally on your own. Blech. Don’t misunderstand. There’s a time and a place for both of those, but neither of those belong here. Emphatically. Amen.

The only specialty item you’ll need is a food processor. That’s kind of non-negotiable here for the best texture. Other than that, the world is your Fromage Fort oyster. You can make this five minutes before running out the door or a week in advance. The longer it sits, the stronger it gets!

Serve with crackers or crusty bread or veggie platters or on baked potatoes or pretzels or… or… or… You get the idea!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Important Cheese Eating advice: When making Fromage Fort, try to steer away from using too much from the bleu cheese or really salty cheese families (Asiago, Romano, Parmesano). Let those be “accent” notes. Use a milder cheese (Cheddar, Jack, etc…) as the melody!

Fromage Fort (Cheese Spread)

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Fromage Fort (Cheese Spread)

Fromage Fort -French for strong cheese- is a classic recipe that uses up odds and ends in your cheese collection. This slightly garlicky cheese spread touched with a flavour of white wine makes a wonderful appetizer or addition to any cheese course when served with crackers, crusty bread or crudites.

Ingredients

1/2 pound of assorted cheeses (Cheddar, Asiago, Romano, Parmesan, Monterey Jack, Colby, Swiss, etc...)
1/4 cup of dry white wine (or more, depending on desired texture)
1/2 a large clove of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
Cracked black pepper to taste
Optional: Chopped herbs for garnish

Instructions

Grate cheeses and add to the bowl of a work processor fitted with a metal blade. Add remaining ingredients and fix lid onto the food processor. Process until you have a spreadable consistency. Check the texture. If you want it runnier, add a splash of white wine and process again. Scrape into a bowl or a ramekin. Cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to serve, up to a week.

If desired, garnish with chopped herbs.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/11/23/fromage-fort-cheese-spread/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Filed Under: Accessible Ethnic, Appetizers & Snacks, Comfort Food, Comfort Food, Getting Creative With Leftovers, Holiday Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Snacks, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: budget friendly, Christmas, Food gifts, Frugal Food, holiday food, kid friendly, party food, quick and easy, Thanksgiving, traditional food, Vegetarian

Honey Potato Rolls

November 18, 2011 by Rebecca 12 Comments

Every year right around this time I get sappy. I spend November first through January tenth in a heightened state of emotional lather. We have all five boys’ birthdays interspersed among Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. The ever-racing nature of time is really driven home by singing Happy Birthday twenty five times in six weeks (I figure an average of five rounds of Happy Birthday per child) and throwing in Christmas carols to boot.

What this boils down to is that I am the Queen of the Holidays. I’m not suggesting that I’m about to whisk the immaculate turkey-shaped-folded-cloth-napkin-white-light crown from Martha Stewart’s coifed and calm head. Not even close. We are talking about Queen Thanksgiving and Christmas Spirit, folks.

We make handprint turkeys and construction paper cornucopias and real live turkey feather (dead turkey, rather. I’ve never plucked a feather from a live one.) headdresses to honour the native people who helped the settlers. We have a very Omnimedia-unapproved Christmas tree. Each year it is filled with odds and ends like homemade ornaments, bamboo umbrellas from our beloved and now defunct Chinese restaurant, and an ornament from my piano teacher when I was a kid. But there’s more. There are pieces of iridescent ribbon the children loved that they cut from a gift several years ago, rocks (Yes, rocks. My children love them.), twigs –because as one child said, “A tree can never have too many!”, and more often than not, a few lovingly arranged paper towels. I didn’t ask on that one. What I do know is that the child who does that has a look of rapture on his face when he does. That’s enough for me.

I burst into song with no provocation. I dance around the kitchen waving wooden spoons while my eyeballs glitter and my smile gleams (if a tea-soaked smile can do such a thing) at those who enter my lair. I brandish homemade cookies and cakes and bread and candies and dried fruit under the noses of anyone who says, “I’m hungry!” because the baking and the cooking reaches near manic levels.

Oh, the baking and the cooking.

What makes you feel the holiday spirit more than a scent of cookies or a rising loaf of bread wafting from the stove? I can’t think of a thing. I would add to the list, however, licking your fingers to remove the chocolate after breaking a freshly set batch of English toffee, a tall glass of cold eggnog, a steam-capped stockpot of simmering soup, and a pan of hot, soft rolls fresh from the oven, dotted with butter.

Topping the list of things that equal Thanksgiving to me are rolls: specifically, my grandmother’s rolls. You may remember me having an attack of guilt when I made another kind of rol l last week. They were the chief joy of the Thanksgivings of my youth and remain one of the biggest to this day. Her rolls are, in a word, perfect. My copy of her recipe, on an index card written in her hand, is one of my prize possessions. The soft, golden brown potato rolls with a touch of nutty whole wheat and a subtle hint of honey reliably disappear faster than the other fixings at the feast.

But there’s another wonderful reason to count on these rolls. You can make the dough, form the rolls, put them in pans, wrap them tightly and freeze them days in advance. To bake, thaw on the counter for about two hours, then let rise for another hour and a half. Bake and tada! Fresh rolls with all the hard work done well ahead of time.

Honey Potato Rolls

Soft, golden brown potato rolls with a touch of nutty whole wheat and a subtle hint of honey reliably disappear faster than the other fixings at the feast, but don't save them for Thanksgiving alone. If you're looking for the perfect accompaniment to a bowl of creamy soup, look no farther.

Ingredients

2 ¼ teaspoons (or one packet) yeast. Active Dry Yeast or Instant are both acceptable
1 ½ cups warm water (for best flavour, use the water in which you cooked potatoes)
2/3 cup honey
1 cup lukewarm mashed potatoes
2/3 cup butter, softened to room temperature
2 eggs
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
5 to 5 ½ cups all purpose flour

Instructions

To Make the Dough:

In a large mixing bowl, the bowl of a stand mixer, add the water and honey, stir gently and sprinkle the yeast over the top. Let stand for 2 minutes. Add everything but the flours and stir well (using a sturdy spoon or dough hook) to combine. Add the whole wheat flour and 2 cups of the all purpose flour and stir well until even. Add the remaining flour and stir it in. If you have a stand mixer, use the dough hook to knead it. Otherwise, turn onto a generously floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about five minutes. Transfer the dough into a large clean mixing bowl or dough bucket, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours but no longer than 5 days.

To Shape the Rolls:

Grease or butter two 9”x13” rectangular or four 8” round baking pans and set them aside.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and punch it down. Divide in half, then portion each half into 20 equal sized pieces. Roll each piece into a ball.

Place the dough balls into the prepared pans (5 rows of 4 in each rectangular pan or 10 rolls in each round pan.) Cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until puffy in appearance and nearly doubled in size, about 2 hours.

To Bake the Rolls:

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Bake the rolls for 20 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. If desired, brush the finished rolls with melted butter.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/11/18/honey-potato-rolls/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Filed Under: Bread, Comfort Food, kid food, Rebecca, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: Bread, Christmas, kid friendly, party food, Thanksgiving, Vegetarian

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

November 16, 2011 by Rebecca 9 Comments

As I walked up from the mailbox a couple weeks ago, I glanced through the pile of stuff; a bill, some advertisements, blah blah blah, and then something caught my eye. On the cover of the new issue of Whole Living was a pan full of what appeared to be roasted Brussels sprouts with grapes and walnuts. “Ooooh,” thought I, “That looks good. I’ll give that a look over as soon as I make myself a cup of tea.” I walked in the door, sat the magazine down and never saw it again.

What happened to it? Who can say? What happens to anything that disappears in a home with five sons ages thirteen (for another two days) and under? Well, sometimes those things end up in the chicken coop under a pile of something I’d rather not describe on a food blog, or on the roof of the shed (not kidding), or buried under the gravel pile (with my soup spoon), or stuck on a pike in the boneyard (not so scary, really, it’s a place where kids found a pile of deer bones left by the previous owner of our property, now a fertile ground for much imaginative play) as a pirate flag, or crammed under beds/van seats/recliners.

But the idea of the dish stayed with me. I didn’t want to overthink it, because Whole Living usually has lovely, uncomplicated, pure flavours in their recipes. They don’t get all wacky and difficult, God love ‘em, so I decided the fewer ingredients, the better. I grabbed the ingredients the next time I went to the store and came home to try my hand at the version my imagination had supplied.

I was assembling my pan-o-sprouts when my husband walked by, stopped and backtracked. “You’re putting grapes in with Brussels sprouts?” he asked incredulously? I decided to play it cool and replied with a, “Yep.” He shrugged his shoulders and moved on.

Thirty five minutes later I pulled a tray of roasted sprouts* and other goodies from the oven and took a deep whiff. Oh my. That smelled pretty good. I splashed balsamic vinegar onto the hot pan and vegetables and it smelled even better. I tossed it all together and it smelled best yet. Then I called Mr. Doubtful into the room. “Give it a try,” I said.

He did.

One grape, one Brussels sprout half and one piece of walnut in one bite. Then he went into broken record mode, trying the same combination again and again and again. “This is perfect. It is. You need one piece of everything for the perfect bite.”

I probably don’t need to tell you how well this would go with your Thanksgiving feast, but I should probably mention that we ate a full pan of this the first night I made it and forgot all about the rest of the meal. And I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you that with a little crispy bacon thrown in, this would be at home between a bottom layer of grits and a top layer of poached or fried egg. Then there’s that little matter of throwing together with pan-fried ham pieces for a quick hash.

…I never did find my Whole living, but I ran my version of the recipe past a friend who did not lose (or have lost on her behalf) her copy. As luck would have it, my method was the same and my end version differed only in the matter of quantity of olive oil and the fact that I didn’t include fresh thyme. How ya like that?

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Grapes and Walnuts

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Grapes and Walnuts

Roasted Brussels sprouts are mellower than their boiled counterparts, and when combined with intense roasted grapes, toasted walnuts and balsamic vinegar you have a perfect dish that you have to taste to believe. Try it with your Thanksgiving feast, or on a night when you want to make ordinary extraordinary.

Inspired by Whole Living.

Ingredients

1 1/2-2 pounds fresh Brussels sprouts
2-3 handfuls of red, seedless grapes
1/2 cup shelled walnuts (large pieces, not diced)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Kosher or sea salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper
2-3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Trim the Brussels sprouts of any dry ends and loose leaves, then halve. Place halved sprouts along with grapes and walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle the olive oil evenly over the top, sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss to coat. Roast for 30-35 minutes, or until the sprouts are well-browned in places, the nuts are fully toasted and the grapes are darkened in colour and very plump.

As soon as you remove the pan from the oven drizzle the balsamic vinegar over the contents of the pan and toss to coat. Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle with a little additional coarse sea salt.

http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2011/11/16/roasted-brussels-sprouts/

Recipe printed from Foodie With Family | Rebecca Lindamood http://www.foodiewithfamily.com

Filed Under: Comfort Food, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Rebecca, Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian Tagged With: budget friendly, Christmas cookies, quick and easy, Thanksgiving, Vegetarian

Grandma’s Famous Cornbread Stuffing

November 17, 2010 by Rebecca 9 Comments

…Kind of.

I call this Grandma’s Famous Cornbread Stuffing, but in reality this is my version of her recipe. It’s not precisely how my Grandma makes it, but it’s close. I’ve added fresh sage to the required powdered sage, sautéed the onions and garlic in a generous amount of butter instead of putting them into the stuffing raw, dropped in a few more dry bread cubes and made the beaten eggs mandatory. One thing is certain; this is the be all and end all of stuffings. This is what other stuffings long to be. This is the apotheosis of stuffing-hood. We’re talking about moist but crisp-on-top-and-around-the-edges sweet cornbread, herb-saturated, onion and celery laden dressing. In short, it’s pretty darned good*.

*This stuffing comes fully endorsed by my step-mom, Val, who helped me test this stuffing this afternoon. If you have an image of two very happy women sitting at a table with a pan full of hot cornbread stuffing and a couple forks you have it about right.

But there’s something else about this stuffing -or dressing, whichever term you prefer- that you need to remember. You cannot smell this without feeling like there are generations of Southern Grandmas cooking Thanksgiving dinner just for you. There is no way to taste it without feeling a big warm hug from my little sweet Grandma. And me. You’ve been warned.

Grandma’s Famous Cornbread Stuffing

Scroll to the bottom for an easy-print version of this recipe!

Ingredients:

4 cups crumbled cornbread (For the love of the South, don’t use a super sweet cornbread here. Please. I prefer my Grandmother’s Buttermilk Cornbread recipe. You can read it here.)
3 cups dry bread cubes (Homemade bread is best. Any type will do, but herb-laden choices make stuffing that is particularly flavorful.)
3 1/2 cups chicken or turkey stock (Again, homemade is best, but a low-sodium store bought broth will be good, too.)
3 large eggs
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon minced fresh sage
1 teaspoon powdered sage
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
freshly ground pepper and kosher salt, to taste

Melt butter over medium-low heat in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan or skillet. Add celery and onion with a good pinch of salt and stir well. Cook gently, not allowing the celery and onion to color, until the vegetables are nearly translucent, about 6-10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Gently grease a 8″x8″ baking dish and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, use your hands to toss together the crumbled cornbread, dry bread cubes, minced fresh sage, powdered sage, and poultry seasoning. Toss in the softened celery and onion. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Crack the eggs into another mixing bowl and whisk until evenly colored. Add the chicken or turkey stock and whisk to combine. Pour the liquid mixture over the bread mixture and use a wooden spoon to gently toss it until everything is evenly moist. Scrape the contents into the prepared pan and slide the pan into the oven. Bake for 40 minutes in the pan or until the internal temperature of the stuffing is 160°.

*You can freeze this stuffing ahead of time. To do so, cool the stuffing on a rack until the pan is cool to the touch. Wrap with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator until it is cold through. Wrap the pan with foil and freeze. To reheat: Remove pan from the freezer at least 24 hours, but no more than 48 hours, before you plan to serve it. Remove the foil and plastic wrap, replace the foil, and reheat in a 350°F oven until the internal temperature reaches 160°F. Remove foil for about 10 minutes of baking if you wish the top to become crisp.

Grandma’s Famous Cornbread Stuffing

Author: Rebecca Lindamood

Recipe type: Side

Prep time: 25 mins

Cook time: 1 hour

Total time: 1 hour 25 mins

Serves: 8

Crunchy on top and moist throughout, this is the cornbread stuffing I grew up eating and the one I will always turn to for special occasions. This is a true classic!

Ingredients

4 cups crumbled cornbread (For the love of the South, don’t use a super sweet cornbread here. Please.)
3 cups dry bread cubes (Homemade bread is best. Any type will do, but herb-laden choices make stuffing that is particularly flavorful.)
3½ cups chicken or turkey stock (Again, homemade is best, but a low-sodium store bought broth will be good, too.)
3 large eggs
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon minced fresh sage
1 teaspoon powdered sage
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
freshly ground pepper and kosher salt, to taste

Instructions

Melt butter over medium-low heat in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan or skillet. Add celery and onion with a good pinch of salt and stir well. Cook gently, not allowing the celery and onion to color, until the vegetables are nearly translucent, about 6-10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
Preheat oven to 375°F. Gently grease a 8″x8″ baking dish and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, use your hands to toss together the crumbled cornbread, dry bread cubes, minced fresh sage, powdered sage, and poultry seasoning. Toss in the softened celery and onion. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
Crack the eggs into another mixing bowl and whisk until evenly colored. Add the chicken or turkey stock and whisk to combine. Pour the liquid mixture over the bread mixture and use a wooden spoon to gently toss it until everything is evenly moist. Scrape the contents into the prepared pan and slide the pan into the oven. Bake for 40 minutes in the pan or until the internal temperature of the stuffing is 160°.

Notes

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Filed Under: Holiday Food, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Uncategorized Tagged With: Buttermilk Cornbread, Southern Cornbread, Thanksgiving

Spanakopita Dip

November 8, 2009 by Rebecca 14 Comments

When is a dip not just a dip? When it’s something transcendental. When it’s born to be a superstar. When it’s… Spanakopita Dip. (And that is NOT anticlimactic. It isn’t. Let me expound.)

Spanakopita Dip is the dip that can do it all. A meal-of-a-dip full of spinach, studded with feta cheese, garlic, onions and various herbs and spices it is wonderful at topping chips, crackers and veggie sticks. But it doesn’t stop there. With very little effort, a bit of phyllo dough, and some olive oil, it can be transformed into a beautiful and flavor-packed amuse bouche or finger food. (With just a little more tinkering, it can be made into actual, honest-to-goodness spanakopita. But more on this in a future post.) No magic required!

This falls into that coveted family of recipes that take little to no know-how or work yet still impress the most finicky, jaded food snobs. Spanakopita Dip starts with the same simple, five minute batch of the Dill-icious Greek Yogurt Dip that I featured on Friday. Here’s the skinny* on three of Spanakopita Dip’s many talents.

*And yes, it is indeed skinny. For details, see Friday’s post.

Dip it. Dunk it. Eat it on a spoon. But for the love of Pete, wherever he may be, don’t use some weak little chip. Use a ridged or kettle-cooked chip or a sturdy carrot stick or a broccoli florette. This is a serious dip. It will crush the milquetoast chip dust in the yellow bags.
Scoop it into crisp, brown phyllo cups. Sure, you can buy these in the store, but for the same price you can make twice as many and they’ll be four times as good!
It improves your health, so eat as much as you want. That creamy, decadent mouth feel from the dip is pure Greek yogurt, baby! And eating yogurt improves your ability to digest all the food you eat. Not only that, it’s crammed full of spinach. That equals iron, calcium, anti-oxidants, folate, niacin, and Vitamins A, C and B6, among other goodies, so dig in!

I’m giving you a two-fer here today. First is the Spanakopita Dip recipe. Left by itself it can make you very, very happy. My dear friend Melissa would be a happy girl left alone with a bowl of this and a spoon. But below the recipe for the dip is what you can do to dress it up into a stunning and savoury amuse bouche or finger food for Thanksgiving and Christmas buffets and parties. ‘Tis the season, after all. (Nobody needs to know just how very good this is for you unless you want to tell them. Your secret is safe with me!)

For photo-free, printer-friendly versions of these recipes, click here!

Spanakopita Dip

Ingredients:

1 (17.6 ounce) container Greek yogurt
1 pound frozen chopped spinach (thawed and lightly squeezed to remove excess moisture.)
1/3 cup feta cheese crumbles (You can increase or decrease this according to taste.)
2 Tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves (or 2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes)
2 Tablespoons dry minced onion flakes
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
½ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

As in the Dill-icious Greek Yogurt Dip, begin by combining yogurt with spinach and all other ingredients in a large bowl.

Now see this? This is fresh nutmeg. It’s my friend. My close, close friend. If you do not have fresh nutmeg don’t substitute the ground stuff in jars here. It just wouldn’t be right. If you don’t have the fresh nutmeg, just skip the nutmeg all together in this case. Trust me.

Stir well until evenly combined.

Store, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour prior to serving. Serve with sturdy chips, crackers, vegetable sticks or spread on bread.

This, alone, is a wonderful reason to look forward to your weekday lunches or football viewing snacks. But we’re coming upon the most wonderful time of the year, folks. In just a couple weeks you’re going to need more bang. You’re going to need more bling. You’re going to need to make Mini Spanakopita Phyllo Cups.

Mini Spanakopita Phyllo Cups

Don’t fear the phyllo. It’s not as scary as you might think. Just proceed carefully, don’t freak out if it tears a bit (you’re laying it after all) and have a little patience. Your rewards will be great!
Ingredients:

One batch Spanakopita Dip
5 sheets thawed phyllo dough
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 375F. Unwrap phyllo dough, taking care not to tear the dough.

Lay one sheet of phyllo dough out on a cutting board. Brush lightly with olive oil.

Carefully lay another sheet of phyllo dough over the first and repeat with olive oil and remaining phyllo dough.

Using a 2 ¾” round biscuit or cookie cutter, cut through the layered phyllo dough.

Gently press the layered phyllo dough rounds, olive oil side down, in mini-muffin tin cups.

Place on the center rack in the oven. Remove the pan after it has baked for five minutes. Press the center down, carefully, if it is beginning to puff up.

Place pan back in the oven and bake for five more minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven. Remember that the cups will continue to brown a bit as they cool. Transfer cups to a rack and cool completely.

Spoon about two teaspoons of the Spanakopita Dip into each cup and serve. The phyllo cups will remain crisp at room temperature for about three hours at room temperature. Now sit back and watch them disappear. You can do this because you ate fifteen in the kitchen before you took them out to the table.