Unconventional Comfort Food

It's cold outside and there's a Winter Weather Advisory in effect. They say it will sleet tonight.

It's wet, damp, and, dreary outside because it's been drizzling all day

I'm tired and have the sniffles.

If there has ever been a night for comfort food, tonight is the night. Oh yeah, since I'm on vacation from work this week you would think I'd be relaxing. You would be wrong. I didn't get any sleep last night. Zombies. No rest. Just writing,and doctors, and teachers, and teaching. I need a break. I need some sleep. Or at least a little comfort food and then a nap.

Tonight's the night for a blanket too. I want to have something small and simple.

Thinking about comfort food gave me tonight's menu. The idea is to make it fast, make it good, and be comfortable. To "think sideways" let's try a couple of new ideas too. For our Meatloaf, lets make it in a cupcake pan.

MEMO from The

Mini-meatloaves? When I grew up, we called those "meatballs".
Please consider changing the name.

Open-faced Mini-meatloaf Sandwiches










Ingredients

• 1 cups crushed saltines
• 1 pound lean ground beef, reserve 2 ounces
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped or pressed
• 1/2 stalk celery, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1 cup water
• 1 dozen dinner rolls

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix Saltines, beef, egg, parsley, 1/2 of onion, garlic, celerey, 1/4 teaspoon thyme, pepper, and salt together
3. Using a cupcake pan, press into individual portions
4. Bake for 20 minutes
5. In a saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat.
6. Saute remaining onions until translucent
7. Add remaining ground beef and brown
8. Remove beef and onions but do not drain
9. Add flour to make roux
10. Deglaze pan with red wine
11. Mix with water until smooth
12. Return onions and beef to pan and bring back to a boil
13. Simmer for 5 minutes.
14. Split dinner rolls and place meat loaves on top, cover in gravy.

Twice Baked Potato Leak Soup




Ingredients

• 32 ounces chicken broth
• 4 large russet potatoes, each about 3/4 pound each, scrubbed and dried
• Canola oil to coat
• Kosher salt
• 2 to 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 leek, sliced lengthwise, cleaned
• 8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/3 cup sour cream

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Wash potatoes thoroughly, dry, then poke with a fork 6 to 8 holes all over the potato. (This will allow moisture to escape while it cooks.)
3. Place in a bowl and coat lightly with oil. Sprinkle with kosher salt and place potato directly on rack in middle of oven. Place a baking sheet on the lower rack to catch any drippings.
4. Bake until tender, about 30 minutes more. Remove potatoes from the oven, and turn the heat down to 375 degrees.
5. While potatoes are cooking, saute leek in butter with salt and pepper.
6. When leek becomes soft an translucent, remove from butter.
7. Add flour to butter and stir to create roux.
8. combine Chicken stock into roux.
9. Add leek back into soup and keep at low simmer until potatoes are ready.
10. When potatoes are ready, remove from oven.
11. Hold the potato with an oven mitt, trim off the top of the potatoes to make a canoe-like shape. Reserve the tops.
12. Carefully scoop out most of the potato into a bowl. Take care to leave enough potato in the skin so the shells stay together. Remember, this will be used as a bowl for soup. (2)
    
13. Take the potato, cheddar cheese, and black pepper and add to soup.
14. With stick blender, puree soup.
15. Set the potato shells and lids on a baking sheet, and bake until heated through, about 5 minutes.
16. Move shells into soup bowls. Refill bowls with soup, top with sour cream, and cover.

Cream Cheese Brownie










Ingredients

• 1 (20 ounce) package fudge brownie mix (13x9 size)
• 1/4 cup water (or what mix calls for)
• 1/3 cup oil (or what your mix calls for)
• 2 eggs (or what your mix calls for)
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
2. Prepare the brownie mix according to package directions (water, oil, eggs).
3. Pour into a greased 13x9-inch baking pan.
4. Beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.
5. Add sugar and mix. Add vanilla and egg; mix until well-blended.
6. Place cheese mixture in dolups over the whole pan, leaving some brownie showing inbetween.
7. Cut or swirl through batter several times with a knife or fork for a marbled effect. It can be tricky to get a good marble effect so be careful not to over work it.
8. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool; cut into squares.(1)

Wow, I'm so warm and comfortable right now, I'm almost asleep already. I'm glad I've got kids to do the dishes tonight.

Until tomorrow folks, here's wishing you peace, love, and hollandaise sauce.


(1) http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-cream-cheese-brownies-147796
(2) picture credit http://goodcook.allaboutbecoming.com/2010/01/30/twice-baked-potatoes/

Changing a Turkey into a Butterfly (also known as Turkeymorphosis)

We had turkey for dinner last night.

"Objection! It's not the holidays! You can't have turkey unless it's Thanksgiving, or Christmas-time. The official dates for eating turkey are from the fourth Thursday in November until the end of December. It is to be cooked until it is dry, stuffed full of bread, and served with canned cranberry sauce. "

Check out around :27 seconds

Your objection is overruled. Turkey is tasty anytime of year. If you go get a sandwich, do you wait until November to get a Turkey club? No. So why wait to cook a turkey? Plus, if you have left overs, you can make that turkey club sandwich the next day. And who doesn't love a turkey club sandwich. (I think I want a turkey club sandwich now).

"Objection! Turkey is expensive! The only time it's reasonable to buy is around Thanksgiving, otherwise it's too expensive! Then you have to buy the potatoes, the sweet potatoes, the stuffing, the green beans, the cranberry sauce, and everything else. Plus you have to make so much food that your stuck eating it for days! "

Overruled. Really overruled. Phyllis and I are gourmets (I hate the term "Foodies"), but we are also cheap. So we shop frugally. We set threshold prices for food, we use coupons, we chase sales on the internet, match prices, split cases, and keep a freezer.

Threshold pricing though is the big one that we use.

	MUST	DON'T
	BUY	BUY
Item	BELOW	OVER
Chicken	0.69	1.29
Turkey	0.69	1.29
Beef	0.99	1.99
Pork	0.99	2.99
Diet Soda	0.69	1.29

A couple of weeks ago when we found Butterball turkeys at $0.48 a pound, we bought several of them. Quality wise, I have never felt the need to go out of my way for a specific brand of turkey before. But after having these Butterball turkeys, I am beginning to wonder. They were juicy and flavorful. I don't think they were injected with any sort of soy brine, they just tasted good. We may make the point to get this brand again. But if we can find them at $0.48 a pound, we WILL get them again.



"Objection! Turkey can only be cooked one way. Dull, bland, overcooked, dried out, blah, gray, tired, uninspired, juiceless, boring, dreary, plain..."

Ugh... Objection noted... and overruled."

"But..."

Cooked one way? Last week we made a Pulled Turkey BBQ. We've also made Chipotle Turkey, Turkey in Buffalo Sauce, and Deep Fried Turkey. In fact last night we made Butterflied Whiskey Turkey.

"A ha! Objection! Turkey takes to long to cook!"

Overruled. Let me present my case.

If you butterfly your bird, also know as "Spatchcocking" you can cut your cook time in half. Look, this is a great method for any foul: chicken, duck, Cornish game hen, even goose. Because it takes less time to cook, you can cook it at a lower temperature and it won't dry out.

How to Butterfly or Spatchcock a Turkey

Method

Take your defrosted turkey (You'd have to be a lot stronger than me to do this with a frozen bird!)










Flip it breast side down and remove the tail (aka The Pope's Nose)










Save all of the odd little bits and pieces.



I put them in a kettle and boil them. The broth produced can be used later on for making gravy.



Work down one side of the backbone with a pair of poultry shears, then the other. Does it matter which one you start with? YES! If you buy a left handed turkey you must start on the right hand side, and visa-versa. No exceptions.



Remove the backbone. Add it to the stock.



Flip the bird back over and press down on the breast bone. When you hear a loud crack, the bird should lie flat. (I know it looks like I'm giving the turkey CPR... trust me, he didn't make it)

Your bird is now prepped and ready to go. At this point you have lots of different options. If you have time, I recommend you brine your turkey. Last night, I didn't have time.

Butterflied Whiskey Turkey

Ingredients

• 12-14 pound turkey
• 1 tablespoon ground sage
• 2 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon adobo powder (available in most supermarket Mexican sections)
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees
• Lift the skin from the bird and rub the flesh with the sage garlic and adobo. Be sure to get the breasts, legs, and thighs.
• Pierce skin in several locations with a sharp knife.
• Sprinkle liberally with sea salt, paprika, and any remaining garlic powder
• Place turkey into oven

• Cook approximately 20 minutes per pound or until the juices run clear when pierced with a fork.

• Remember that since the bird has been butterflied it will take less time per pound.
• Remove from oven and allow the turkey to rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing.

We served it with freshly grated potato hash browns and peas and carrots.


"Objection!"

Oh, don't start again.

Until next time my friends, I wish you Peace, Love, and Hollandaise Sauce!