Posts Tagged ‘turkey’

I'm thankful we could all spend a few days together last week. Meg, Jim, and Drew came down the day after Thanksgiving and spent the following week with us. Those of us who live in the area had to start back to work but tried to arrange our schedules to spend as much time as possible with them while they were here. It almost seemed like Christmas vacation to me because we had big family dinners and played games in the evening.

We also spent a lot of time playing with Drew. Here are a few pictures showing some of our activities:

Drew loves this library book about Thomas the train.

Rob loved reading to Drew.

Megan and Jim love reading too.

Drew hasn't quite gotten the concept of aunts and uncles yet. He calls Katie Uncle Katie. Here she is reading to him and Mark.

Nora is a nanny and she brought Samuel over one morning to play with Drew and the trains.

Since we had a houseful of people here for meals I was able to pull out some recipes that I rarely make for just the two of us. I made this Cornbread Casserole one evening and several family members asked for the recipe so I thought I'd post it here for them. I originally got this recipe from a radio program on WMUU (a local Christian radio station) many years ago. Barbara R. was the hostess of the program and Willie T., one of the announcers who pastors a local church gave the recipe. He said that a lady from his church would always bring it to church dinners and there was never any left. We ate it up before I could take a picture.

Cornbread Casserole
1 batch cornbread (recipe follows)
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 small onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. oil or butter
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 egg
a pinch of sage or poultry seasoning
2 cups of chicken broth
1-2 cups of chopped cooked chicken or turkey

Saute the onion and celery in the oil or melted butter until the vegetables are tender. Crumble cornbread. Combine with other ingredients in a greased crockpot. Cook on high for 2 hours or low for about 4 hours. (You could also bake this in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour.)
Makes 5-6 servings, depending on appetites.

Basic Cornbread
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsps. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 cup cornmeal
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup oil

Stir together dry ingredients. Mix together milk, eggs, and oil and then stir into the dry ingredients just until they are moistened. Pour into a greased and floured 9" cake pan and bake at 425 degrees for about 20 mins or until cornbread tests done.

Enjoy!

Becka

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I've been keeping busy lately and have been rather negligent in posting. There were just three of us here for Thanksgiving day so we had chicken for dinner. We are having our turkey on Sunday when the whole family will be together.

Our neighbors cooked three turkeys outdoors in a turkey fryer and also roasted one in the oven. They very graciously shared a large plate of it with us. Rob and I had never tried fried turkey before and we found it to be very tasty.

With some of the leftover turkey I tried a new pizza variation that I read about recently at Tammy's Recipes. She has many delicious recipes on her site which you might enjoy perusing. For those of you who cannot access her site, here is how I made our pizza:

1 pre-baked pizza crust
about 1/3 cup Light Italian salad dressing
2 cloves garlic
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1-2 cups diced cooked turkey or chicken
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1/4 cup small spinach leaves (you could use fresh basil)
1 Roma tomato cut into thin strips
black pepper

Combine the salad dressing and the garlic and spread on the pizza crust. Top with the cheeses, turkey, onion, spinach, and tomato. Sprinkle with black pepper. Bake at 425 degrees for about 15 mins. or until cheeses are melted. Enjoy a fresh take on turkey leftovers!

Becka

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A while back I ran across a recipe for cooking a turkey breast in the crockpot that I wanted to try. The last time I planned to prepare a turkey breast the one I bought was too large for my crockpot. Last week when I was grocery shopping I found a half of a turkey breast for sale (at Ingles) so I was finally able to try it.

Here's the simple recipe:
one half or whole turkey breast that will fit in your crockpot
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce (I used half a can with the half turkey breast)
1 envelope onion soup mix (I used half an envelope)

Place turkey breast in crockpot. Combine the cranberry sauce and the onion soup mix and spread on top of the turkey. Cook for 4 hours on high or until meat tests done with meat thermometer.

We ate this as is for the first meal, in this casserole for the second meal, and in a fruited turkey salad for its final appearance.

So, for all of you with small households -- be on the lookout for half turkey breasts on sale, or ask your butcher if he would cut a whole one in half for you. You still get a few nice leftovers, but not an overwhelming amount.

I didn't take a picture of the turkey breast itself, because it wasn't particularly photogenic, but, here's a picture of the fruited turkey salad (turkey, mayo, grapes, apple, celery, toasted almonds):

Becka

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For those of you who are still grappling with leftover turkey, here is another recipe that you might want to try. I think it is just about the ideal after-turkey-dinner recipe because it contains turkey, mashed potatoes, and green beans. I'm not sure where this recipe came from, but it's very tasty.

Green Bean and Turkey Casserole
2 cups cubed cooked turkey or chicken
2 cups fresh or frozen cooked green beans
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/3 cup milk (plus additional for moistening mashed potatoes)
approximately 2 cups cooked mashed potatoes (make extra the day of your feast)
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup French fried onions (from can or bag)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix turkey, green beans, soup, and milk. Pour into a two quart greased casserole dish. (If you have a little leftover stuffing you can add this too.) Moisten mashed potatoes with a little milk and whisk to fluff them up. Spread on top of turkey/green bean mixture. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake about 25 mins. or until bubbly. Top with french fried onions and return to oven for about 5 more minutes. Enjoy!

I thought I'd post a picture of our grandson Drew that we took yesterday while our little guy was napping with his friend (Curious) George - who makes a great pillow!

Becka

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I have always wanted to make bread bowls. I saw a recipe in a cookbook years ago, but just never quite got around to trying them – until this year. A few weeks ago I saw a recipe for Stuffing Bread Bowls on the King Arthur Baker's Banter Blog. This is a wonderful web-site with many great recipes for all of you who like to bake. I filled the bowls with Turkey à la King using up some of our leftover Thanksgiving turkey. Nora, Rob, and I all really liked them, so I am planning to have them again this weekend to help with the remnants of our Christmas turkey.

So, for all of you who need ideas for leftover turkey, here is one you might like to try. The bowls would also be delicious with just about any type of thick soup or stew.

Stuffing Bread Bowls
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
1/4 cup oil
3 cups bread flour
1/2 cup semolina (you could substitute cornmeal)
2 tsps. poultry seasoning
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup dry potato flakes
2 Tbsps. powdered milk
2 1/2 tsps. yeast
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds

Combine all ingredients in bread machine in the order given. Run the machine on the dough cycle.

After the dough has completed the cycle divide into 6 pieces. Round into balls.

Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and let rise one hour. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 mins. Let cool completely.

Slice off the tops of the bowls and then carefully pull out the insides to form a "bowl". The bread that is removed can be dried in the oven and then ground into herbed bread crumbs.

Chicken or Turkey à la King
1 can (6 oz.) sliced mushrooms, drained
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup flour
2 tsp. chicken bouillon
1/4 tsp. white pepper
2 cups light cream or evaporated skim milk
2 cups water
2 cups cubed cooked chicken or turkey
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper (or about 1/4 c.pimentos from a jar of olives)

In a large skillet cook and stir the mushrooms and red pepper in the melted margarine for about 5 mins. Blend in the flour and pepper. Cook over low heat until the mixture is bubbly. Stir in the water, the cream or evaporated skim milk, and the peas. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil and stir one minute. Stir in the chicken or turkey. Heat through and serve hot. This was wonderful in the bread bowls, but is also good on biscuits.

How about you — any new ideas for using up leftover ham or turkey?

Whatever you will be eating on Christmas day or the days thereafter I hope you will have a blessed Christmas as we contemplate our Lord's sacrifice in coming to earth.

Becka

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