Food for Friday: Thanksgiving Stuffed Rolls

Tags

thanksgiving, thanksgiving left overs

This girl doesn’t shop on Black Friday.  She bakes.  Specifically, she tries to figure out how to clear her fridge of all that Turkey Day food.  As yummy as T-Day leftovers may be, eventually the idea of another round of taters and turkey just makes me go blegh.
Which is why this little trick is so wonderful…

Meet the stuffed roll.  Sure, every culture has their own variation of savory-food-in-bread, all of which have far more interesting names (the pirozhki, the pasty, the samosa, the fatayer, and my personal favorite, the öçpoçmaq)…but at the end of the day, they are all delicious.

The best part about these guys is that you can freeze them until you feel like a Turkey Day reboot!  Just put them on parchment paper on a tray in the freezer for about an hour or so before you pop them off and put them in another container and put them back in the freezer (otherwise they stick together).

All you need is dough for bread or rolls (your preference).  You can whip up a batch of your own bread dough (best bread dough ever) or rolls (like these) or be lazy like me (the last thing I want to do is make fresh bread along with everything else) and buy premade dough.  Either way, you break off pieces of dough slightly larger than a golf ball, flatten them out (make sure your fingers and surfaces are floured, or you it will get sticky), add in your fillings, close up the dough around the filling, and bake according to the instructions of the dough you are using (though the baking time will likely be shortened).  If you want, you can place them in a greased muffin tin…I just bake them on parchment paper on a baking sheet.

The rolls in the above picture feature chicken stuffing, mashed potato, and a rotisserie chicken, along with chicken gravy (as a side, afterwards).  Our plans for leftovers include ham and mac’n’cheese stuffed rolls, turkey cordon bleu stuffed rolls, turkey with stuffing and mashed potatoes stuffed rolls, and some sort of veggie mix stuffed roll.  For most of these, its pretty straight forward…pick out what you think goes well together and stuff!

The only one that needs any extra ingredients or preparation is the turkey cordon bleu, since you need the sauce (recipe to follow) and the Swiss cheese.  For that one, you use turkey, ham, and some Swiss cheese as your stuffing.  You also have the option of adding a spoonful of the sauce on the inside or using it on the side for dipping or as a topping (or both!).

Cordon Bleu Sauce

2 Tablespoons Butter
2 Tablespoons Flour
1/2 cups Whole Milk (or A Bit More If Needed; Whole Milk Is Required)
1/2 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard
1/4 teaspoons Garlic salt
1/8 teaspoons Smoked paprika
1/8 teaspoons Lemon pepper

For the sauce:

Make a light roux with the butter and flour. Slowly pour in the milk while stirring until smooth. Add in the rest of the ingredients and stir. Bring sauce simmer and then turn the heat off.

(this is an adaptation of the sauce from this recipe for Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole, which is one of our family favorites over some egg noodles)

And don’t forget to add some turkey soup to those stuffed rolls!

As we go about this day…

Tags

cooking magic, holiday, stress, thanksgiving

Many of us, on this day, will be cleaning and cooking in a frenzy to put together a meal for family or friends. It is easy to lose sight of enjoying that meal or those people in the hustle and bustle of the day. It is easy sometimes to feel resentful of the time others have to visit and chat while cloistered in the kitchen away from the gathering (though sometimes the solitude is nice as well). It is easy to feel frustrated when people stuff their face at a pace that far outstrips the care and work that goes into preparing such a feast.

It is at this time (and really, any time one prepares a large meal for a gathering) to remember the immense power that we wield, and the sacred task that we are undertaking.

The kitchen is a temple, and all the pots, pans, spices, grains, fruits, and vegetables, as well as the stove, spoons, knives, bowls, and plates, are all Divine objects, full of consciousness, waiting to become part of the Divine, alchemical process of creating a meal. Allow the fire of your soul to become part of the heating element that cooks your food.

As we go about this day, there may be times where we feel harried, impatient, overwhelmed, and just plain cranky. When this happens, stop and breathe. If necessary, pull someone else into the kitchen (or pull someone else out of the kitchen and take their place), and go outside and breathe.

What we do in this space is ritual. It has intention. It is magic. It is transformative. It is the act of worship itself–of service to life.

Though we all guilty (some of us more often than others) from being overly familiar and dismissive of the act of eating and the preceding task of preparing food–perhaps because we see it as common, or because it is transitory and fleeting…or both–it is a simple truth of life that cooking is an intensely sacred life-affirming act of creation.

Whether you are cooking for one or for twenty, for yourself or for strangers, your actions and your intentions matter.

Preparing and cooking food is a magical act, a potent, alchemical process, through which one form is transformed into another form: varied ingredients are deftly combined and subjected to the elements of water, fire and air in just the right proportions, with just the right timing and with appropriate spells—consisting of good mental intentions—to manifest a delicious meal that satisfies both body and soul. A cookbook can be seen as a book of formulas for this magical process, complete with how-to instructions, suggestions, and advice, which, if followed with a cheerful heart and sense of adventure, could result in the most delightful culinary experiences manifesting on the dinner table. Food prepared in this way can even produce a shift in perception of oneself and others, yielding hope and encouragement to move forward through life.

 

 

**All quotes are from Sharon Gannon, adapted from the book, Simple Recipes for Joy, September 2014 (as found here, in its entirety–I cut some of the quote out for being unnecessarily and unhelpfully preachy, IMO)**

Wordless Wednesday: Sassafras Snow Candy

Food for Friday: Wild Spring Greens

Tags

chickweed, dandelion, foraging, herbs, recipes, violet, wild edibles

Too bad we are having miserable weather as I write this, when I was out and about last week I noticed the chickweed was out and about…  (I’m actually a bit bummed, because I was going to going take the munchkin on a photo-taking expedition for this post!!)

The thing to remember about spring is that when and where chickweed leads, the rest of the greens follow!

Some of the common green spring wild edibles include chickory, chickweed, henbit and deadnettle, clover and (Asiatic and Virginia) dayflower, wood sorrel, purslane, plantain, violet, garlic mustard, and wild onions and wild garlic, and dandelion.  Around the neighborhood in early spring, its mostly mouse-eared chickweed, with some henbit and red deadnettle, and  narrow leaved plantain (as opposed to broadleaf plantain).  We also have a bit of dandelion and the occasional wild onion (rather than dig it up, you can top off the leaves and use them like chives) and (pink and yellow) wood sorrel.

Wild Green Pesto

2-3 cups wild green (chickweed, plantain, dandelion greens, etc)
3 cloves garlic
1/2 c pine nuts or walnuts
3/4 c grated Parmesan
1/4 tsp salt
1/3-1/2 c extra virgin olive oil

Wash greens in cold water and remove leaves from stalks, drain greens. Run garlic through a food processor at chop and then add the greens, nuts, cheese, salt and 1/3 cup of olive oil and process until pest consistency. If the mixture is too dry, add up to the 1/2 c of olive oil.

When it comes to picking greens, the most important thing to remember is to choose locations that with a minimum of pollution.  Also, know the best time to pick–most greens are the tastiest when the leaves are small and sometimes (as with dandelions) before the plant flowers, or before the weather heats up.  If you want to try grocery shopping in your lawn (or someone else’s lawn), you can easily substitute many wild greens for conventional ones (never forage a plant you can’t absolutely identify).

Once you bring your greens in, make sure you wash them well before preparing them.  Mild greens, like chickweed or violet leaves, can be eaten raw in salads or pesto (see the above recipe) as well as cooked.  Chickweed specifically is a great (and nutritious) ingredient in juicing or smoothies. Bitter greens (like dandelions) can often be blanched or to remove some of the bitterness and then sauteed or otherwise cooked (don’t forget to drain them before sauteing or cooking).  Most greens need to be removed from the stems to make them more palatable, with the notable exception of chickweed*.

Chickweed “juice”

A Pile of Chickweed, washed and coarsley chopped**
An apple
An orange
ginger
A cucumber

Juice it and drink!

Recipe Round-up from the Interwebs

• Wild greens gourmet
• Wild greens Florentine 
• Chickweed Pakoras
• Wilted dandelion greens
• Wild green risotto
• 16 ways to do wild greens
• Chickweed Salad

*Can you tell how much I love chickweed? Its a great medicinal herb too!
**BTW, never try to juice the long stems of chickweed, it will clog up the juicer.

Food for Friday

Tags

caker cooking, crescent rolls

Caker Cooking with Crescent Rolls

For all I talk about eating local, mostly plants (a la Michael Pollan), etc…sometimes you need quick and easy comfort food.  Sometimes you care more about the yum than the health.  And you don’t want to be wilting away in the kitchen with a home full of guests that you’d rather be chilling with.  Your solution is here!  All you need is some creativity, and crescent rolls in a can…its the ultimate in caker cooking!

Maybe I should have called this post “food I used to be able to eat, before gluten turned on me”.

Apple Turnovers

Thinly slice apples and layer slices on the crescent roll, sprinkle a wee bit of brown sugar and cinnamon, and fold up. Dust on some cinnamon, and bake following the directions on the can.

Asparagus and Bacon Wrap

Wrap asparagus (fresh or frozen) in crescent rolls and wrap everything in bacon.  If you use fresh asparagus, cover the ends in foil.  Sprinkle with lemon pepper and garlic salt and bake according to the directions on the can, plus a few minutes (just keep an eye on it).

Breakfast Pizza

Flatten out the crescent rolls and press together either on a cookie sheet in a rectangle or into a pizza pan as a circle.  You may want to make a raised edge with the crust.  Sprinkle with cooked bacon and/or sausage crumbles and/or ham, frozen hash browns or shredded potato, veggie chunks, or other toppings.  Whisk 3 eggs  and pour evenly over the toppings.  Sprinkle seasonings (I like basil and minced garlic with a tiny bit of lemon pepper) and cheese, then bake.

PB & J Pockets

When I was a kid, I always wanted to make grilled PB & J…which is pretty much a toasted cheese sammy, minus the cheese and substitute with PB&J.  Except its really, really messy…peanut butter does *not* melt like cheese.  So, my momma came up with the idea of using crescent rolls–put a scoop of PB, and another of J into the big triangle part of one crescent roll, and place another on top, pressing together the edges.  One can makes 4 pockets.  You could just as easily add cheese, and other toppings as well to make your own “Hot Pockets”.