Turkey Brine and Left over Turkey Casserole

We've had a turkey in our freezer for just about a year.  It needed to be cooked.  I have been wanting to try a bird brine (haha) for a while now, so I thought this would be a good opportunity.  I screwed it up in one way but all and all it was awesome and I will totally do it again.  Maybe next I will do it right.  How did I screw it up you ask?  I didn't leave it in the brine long enough.  Doh!  So, I kinda thought since Thanksgiving is rounding the corner, I would give the whole turkey brine thing a shot and maybe inspire a few people to try something new with the T-day bird this year.

Turkey Brine and Left Over Turkey Casserole

What you'll need:

For the Brine

8 pints cold water

3/4 cup sugar

Juice from 2 lemons

Juice from 2 oranges

1/4 cup old bay

5 or 6 bay leaves

1/2 cup salt

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 teaspoon all spice

Add everything into a large large large soup pot (make sure its big enough to submerge your turkey). Mix until sugar and salt has dissolved.  Place washed turkey into brine and place in fridge for 8-24 hours.  Longer the better.  Remove from brine and bring to room temp.  The normal rule of turkey cooking is 20 minutes per pound at 350 degrees.  I did mine at 450 for 30 minutes than kicked the oven down to 325 for 3 hours.  It was done just shy of the timer.

For the Turkey Casserole
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup diced celery
3 diced carrots (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 yam peeled and diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 sweet potato peeled and diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 cup diced onion
1 parsnip diced (about a cup. I'm new to the parsnip family.  It was white, if that matters.)
1 small head of broccoli cut into bite size pieces
1 cup frozen peas
3-4 cups turkey or chicken (cooked)
2 can cream of mushroom soup
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups biscuit mix
1 cup water

Preheat oven to 350. In a pan heat oil over medium heat and add onion, carrots, parsnip and potatoes.  While you prepare everything else let these cook moving every so often.  In a medium bowl whisk together mushroom soup, milk, salt and pepper.  Set aside.  In another bowl, prepare your biscuit dough.  Mix 4 cups biscuit mix with one cup water, it will seem dry but thats how you want it.  Read the directions on your mix's box and make sure its not telling you to add something mine didn't.  Follow those instructions.  Set dough aside.

After your carrot/potatoes have been cooking for about 15 minutes and are about half cooked add them into a 9x13 baking dish.  To that add peas, broccoli and turkey and mix together.  Pour soup mix over everything.  Plop 6 to 9 dough balls on top, just make sure they have a little space between then to rise.  I had 6 biscuits, I would probably stretch it to 8 if I made this again.  Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes or until biscuits are brown on to and no long doughy underneath when you slightly lift them up.  Grab a bowl, and if your Kameron, some sriracha, and eat up!

I had more turkey photos from the brine and whatnot, but I lost them. This this is what I've got. One.

So, I can't tell you any time if my life that I have eaten a parsnip.  So a while back I decided I would start buying produce that I have never really eaten before and learn to cook with it. One of those ingredients would be the beets I made with the orange glaze a while back.  So, turnips are awesome! You should try them if you haven't already!  This dinner is so simple and so fall weather appropriate.  You could really make any sort of gravy or pot pie type filling and bake biscuits or even corn bread on top and have a equally awesome dinner.  Enjoy!

Taco Turkey Burgers & Black Bean Vinaigrette Salad

There are a number of things that I used to cook long before I started this blog.  Long before.  Yummy dishes that we made a bunch of times then forgot about.  These taco turkey burgers came back to me the other day.  Way back when (when we were living in Friday Harbor, around 2006) we made these burgers all the time...then just forget about them.  I used to just plain old taco seasoning, this time I opted to make my own.  You could totally grab a packet of taco seasoning and skip most of the spice ingredients I have listed.  Either way, these are really good, full flavor, and best of all, quick and easy!  I think I'm going to try and go deep into my brain and try and remember the archives of foods I used to cook.  Then revamp them...

What you'll need:

For the burgers
1 pound ground turkey (I used the extra lean)
1 egg

3/4 cup feta

1 cup crushed tortilla chips

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 can black beans, rinsed

1 tablespoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons chile powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1/2 a lime juice

Put all ingredients into a bowl and mix until evenly combined.  Split into 4 or 5 burgers, and make patties.  Heat up grill over medium high.  Grill on each side for 5 minutes or until no long pink in the middle.  Serve with our without bun.  You can add whatever toppings you'd like, but we just left ours plain with a little mayo on the bun.  I did remove the center of my bun so it was hollow and just the crust left.  Easier to bite through and less calories/carbs.

For the salad:
1/2 can black beans
1 avocado
1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon green tabasco (optional)
1/2 a lime juice
1/2 head romaine chopped

Add vinegar, honey, tabasco and lime into a small bowl and mix until honey has dissolved into lime and vinegar.  Add in beans, avocado and tomatoes and toss to coat.  Evenly distribute onto a bed of lettuce.  The liquid will serve as your dressing.  You could also add lettuce into the bowl and toss everything together to be sure lettuce gets well coated.

Great dinner.  Fairly healthy.  Really filling.  I love the flavor of the corn chips and the spices mixed into the meat.  I wasn't sure what I was making when I created the salad, but it turned out pretty good.  Sweet, sour and spicy.  The creamy avocado and sweet tomatoes worked really well with the vinaigrette.  Good stuff.  Enjoy!

Stuffed Turkey Meatloaf

I was more excited to cut into this thing and see how it looked than I was to eat it.  Kam thought I was nutzo, but hey, I'd never stuffed a meatloaf before!  And, not only did it look awesome, but it tasted just as good as it looked!  Double bonus!

What you'll need:

For the Loaf:
1 package extra lean ground turkey
4 medium mushrooms sliced
1/2 onion chopped
1 egg
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup white wine
2 teaspoons mushrooms gravy mix from packet
1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used Italian Seasoned)
1 cup baked potato chunked (Optional. I had it left over from the filling from the hollowed out potato breakfast)
Pepper

For the Filling:
1/2 cup frozen spinach after water is squeezed out (I only had fresh on hand, so I steamed it for 5 minutes, ran it under cold water, then squeezed and pressed it into a fine mesh strainer until all the water was out. Same end product.)

3/4 cup feta

1/2 cup ricotta

Pre heat oven to 350.

First, place onions and mushrooms into a medium skillet over medium high heat, add wine and a splash of olive oil and saute until everything is nice and tender and all liquid has reduced.  Add garlic and saute for another minute or until garlic is nice and fragrant.  Remove from heat and place into a large bowl.  Allow to cool for a few minutes.  Once cool enough, add potato, bread crumbs, egg, pepper and gravy. Mix with a fork until evenly combined.  Add turkey.  I mixed this everything together with my hands, use whatever tool you prefer, just make sure it's well combined.

In a smaller bowl, combine spinach, feta, and ricotta. Set aside.

Grab your favorite loaf pan and spray with cooking spray so you loaf will come out easy and not fall apart.  Place half of you loaf meat in pan and press down, working meat up the sides about 1/2 inch and flat in the middle to form a moat for filling.  Next, scoop filling into center, and spread out evenly.  It's ok if its a little heaped.  Next pile the remaining meat on top and evenly distribute to cover filling.  Make sure you take you time pushing the meat around the edges to try and seal the two halves together.  This well help you remove the loaf from the pan without it falling apart. Cover with tin foil and place in oven for 40 minutes, then remove foil and continue baking for about another 20 or until meat is fully cooked.

Remove from oven and let set for about 5 minutes.  Use your favorite method to remove the loaf from the pan.  I ran a knife around edges to loosen it, then was able to place my hand over loaf and quickly flip the pan over so the loaf was in my hand, then set the loaf on a cutting board.  Done. Slice into 1 inch pieces and serve with some steamed veggies and a salad, or a baked potato, or whatever you feel like.

This thing turned out awesome.  I was thinking that beef meatloaf filled with sautéed mushrooms and onions would be heavenly too.  Enjoy!

(Update: Had the left overs tonight, better the second day!!)

more weekend bites

A friend was having a little birthday party on saturday, and I had to take something yummy for people to munch on.  I threw together these turkey cranberry pinwheels and roast beef horseradish pinwheels for a little snack, and they were a big hit!

What you'll need:

Turkey Cranberry Pinwheels

Spread:
1 box cream cheese
1/2 cup honey greek yogurt (optional)
2 T sugar
1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries

Mix and set aside.

Wraps:
4 - 5 Spinach tortillas
1 lb Turkey deli lunch meat.  (I got smoked turkey out of the deli case, pre-packaged would work too)
Baby Spinach
4 - 5 strips thick cut bacon cooked

Roast Beef Horseradish

Spread:
1 box cream cheese
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt (optional)
1/2 lemon juice
3 tablespoons horseradish (more or less depending on in your taste, I like LOTS)

Mix and set aside.

Wraps:
4-5 sun dried tomato tortillas
1 lb Roast beef deli meat (I got mine out of the deli case, pre-packaged would work too)

Baby Spinach

1 small onion halved and sliced

1 tablespoon butter

5-6 slices pre-sliced cheddar cheese

Saute your onions with the butter until very tender and a nice carmel color, remove from pan and let cool while you start to assemble.

To assemble: Grab one tortilla. Drop a healthy spoonful of your spread onto tortilla and spread evenly.  Begin layering meat, spinach, and remainder of ingredients over 3/4 of your tortilla leaving 1/4 of just the spread showing (this helps in getting the tortilla to stick when you roll).  I used 3 - 4 slices of meat per tortilla.  Once you have this done, start your roll from the opposite side of the tortilla with just the spread.  Try to keep the roll as tight as you can, you may have to tuck some of the spinach and meat as you roll.  Once you have a nice tight roll, you will see that the cream cheese spread works as a glue to hold the end down.  Wrap each roll in cling wrap and place in the fridge for 1-2 hours before slicing.  Slice into 1 inch sections.  I shared the ends with my fiance as test samples.  

   

Everyone at the party really loved them.  They covered everyones tastes, whether you are a sweet or savory person.  I personally really liked the turkey cranberry!  With bacon and the cranberries they were a little sweet and a little salty!  Enjoy!