Turkey Mac & Cheese

I don't know if this recipe has enough cheese! It's delicious and SO creamy....

8 oz noodles of your choice. Jacob chose this, but I also had mini shells on hand.
4 T butter
1/4 C flour
2 C milk
1 bay leaf
Dash of ground Nutmeg
2 1/2 C Cheddar Cheese (white, yellow, whichever), shredded
2 C Gruyere or Gouda Cheese, shredded
12 oz turkey sausage, stuffed with cheese (you can use any type of sausage or even kielbasa, I bought fully cooked meat), sliced
1 C crushed pretzels (Here, I would use bread crumbs instead, maybe not 1 full cup on crumbs. The pretzels came out soft)

Cook noodles according to package directions for al dente. While your water is coming to a boil, shred cheese. In a sauce pan melt butter over Med heat. Add flour and whisk 2 minutes. Add milk, bay leaf, and nutmeg. Whisk occasionally until thickened, about 5-8 minutes. (Drain noodles when they're done.) Add 2 C of cheddar cheese, and 2 C Gouda cheese to milk. Mix well. Add sausage and noodles, mix well. *Add up to 1 C of warm water to make the cheese less viscous. (you can use the water the noodles were cooked in here)* Spread mixture into a greased baking dish, at least 2 qt. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 C cheddar cheese and top with pretzels or bread crumbs. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes to heat through.

Cuban Chicken?

So, I used Cuban seasoning......would one call it Cuban Chicken? If you try the dish, let me know what I should call it! Inspiration from this dish came from Mario Batali, although I only used half of his recipe and changed it from Mediterranean to Cuban...yeah, I do that.

I made the meat part of this last night and put it in the fridge. It takes about an hour and a half to make the meat, so I thought I would do it ahead of time and warm it the next day. Today I made the rice and threw the chicken/stock into a pot over medium heat while the rice cooked. It warmed it up to a nice temperature and the dish was delicious! I will write out what I did and at the end let you know some suggestions that I will try next time. Don't get me wrong, I think the dish is fine as is, but dishes always have room for tweaking and changing to one's liking.

4-6 chicken thighs (boneless if you want), skinless
flour
1/4 C oil (plus a little extra)
1 Lg red onion, you may dice or slice thinly
10 shakes of McCormick Cuban Seasoning ~ okay maybe 2 t?
1 carrot, diced
4 C chicken stock
1C rice, cooked to package directions


Directions:

Dredge chicken in flour. In a deep dish pan (a pan with a lid) heat oil over med-high heat until smoking. Add chicken and brown on both sides, transfer to a plate. Repeat with any remaining thighs.

Turn heat to low. Add onions (and additional oil if necessary) to the dish. Cook for about 8-10 minutes or until soft. Add carrot and chicken stock, bring to a boil. Return chicken to dish and cover tightly. Bring temperature to Low and cook for 1 hour. Remove the lid and cook for 10 minutes.

Place rice on plate, top with chicken and sauce. Serve.

That all being said........


Mario's dish called for 1/2 t saffron threads to be added to onions, 1 C small green olives to be added to the carrot, and only add 3 C chicken stock. Also 6 servings of couscous instead of rice. Once you take the chicken out of the pot at the end, add 1/4 C fresh mint leaves. Stir leaves in sauce, then top over chicken.

What I would change to my dish......


I added another C of chicken stock because I wasn't sure if 3 was enough. The dish was DELICIOUS, but if you wanted less salt, try low sodium chicken broth instead of regular broth/stock ~ or homemade stock. I would also add more carrots and possibly celery or another vegetable. I'm sure the green olives would taste nice. I may add some fresh garlic to the onions and saute them together. I will use the McCormick Cuban seasoning again. I like that! I would have used couscous if I had any in my pantry. I think that's it.

Kid's Review:


Scott loved it! My 4 year old gobbled it up within minutes. My 2 year old is not eating much of anything right now, so I wouldn't put too much on him. And my husband hasn't had dinner yet......

Farmhouse Pork & Apple Pie

Yes, this is for dinner! This recipe makes servings for 10. So please cut amounts accordingly. It calls for 1 lb of bacon. If you want to go healthy and use something like turkey bacon that does not give off a lot of drippings then when it comes to that step you'll have to sub with butter or oil to saute onions in.

1 lb sliced bacon, cut into 2" pieces

2 medium onions, chopped

3 lbs boneless pork, cubed

3/4 C all-purpose flour

Vegetable oil, optional

3 medium tart apples, peeled and chopped

1 t rubbed sage

1/2 t ground nutmeg

1 t salt

1/4 t pepper

1 C apple cider (or apple juice)

1/2 C water

4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

1/2 C milk

5 T butter, divided

Fresh parsley, chopped (do not sub dried!)

Cook bacon until crispy. Remove and lay on paper towels. In drippings, saute onions until tender; remove and set aside. Dust pork lightly with flour. Brown in pan in batches, adding oil as needed (you may want to wipe the pan with a paper towel to clean prior to adding oil each time). Add all pork to pan; add bacon, onions, apples, sage, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Stir in cider and water. Transfer to a 12" baking dish (or other baking dish), cover and bake at 325 for two hours or until pork is tender.

Boil potatoes in boiling water until tender. Drain and mash potatoes in a mixing bowel with milk and 3 T butter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove pork from oven and spread potatoes over the pork mixture. Melt remaining butter and spread over potatoes. Broil for 6 minutes or until topping is browned. Sprinkle with fresh parsley if desired.

Corn Casserole

This dish goes great with Cilantro Chicken, posted 09/19/11 (I believe). It's a different taste, but the flavors just explode in your mouth! You can add spice to your liking (ex: hot sauce).

3 1/2-4 C corn (fresh, frozen, or drained canned)

1/2 pkg bacon (about 8 slices)

2 T diced garlic

1 med onion, chopped

2 T flour

1 t each: salt and pepper

1 C sour cream

Cook bacon on frying pan. Dry bacon on a paper towel. Crumble all the bacon except for 2-4 slices. Saute onion and garlic in bacon drippings until onions are soft. Add salt, pepper and flour. When it starts to bubble cook 1 minute longer, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. (at this point you can either mix in the pan or transfer to a bowl if you are using a small frying pan) Mix in sour cream. *This is where I would add any heat. Mix hot sauce, chili powder, or whatever you like into your sour cream Before you mix it into your onion mix.* Next, mix in bacon crumbles and corn. Transfer to a 1.5 qt baking dish. Top with bacon slices. Bake at 350 deg for 20-25 minutes or until heated through.