Cooking Up A Thanksgiving Meal . . . for Two

Our plans to visit my mom for Thanksgiving kind of fell through. I was slightly upset, but I'm actually glad that we don't have to deal with Drake's screaming for each 5 1/2 hour drive that the trip would take.

Rj's idea of Thanksgiving involves pretty much the typical stuff . . . and nothing less. And also, nothing more.


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Rj: What? We're not having turkey?
Me: What about a Cornish Hen?
Rj: Um, is that a turkey?
Me: It's pretty damn close. The two of us are not going to eat an entire turkey.
Rj: It's not Thanksgiving without a turkey.
Me: (huffing) Fine.

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Me: What kind of dessert do you want?
Rj: Pumpkin pie
Me: Well, what about Grand Marnier Sweet Potato Pie? Or maybe Chocolate Rum Pudding Cake?
Rj: No, pumpkin pie
Me: (huffing) Fine.

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Me: Do you have to have that green bean casserole crap too?
Rj: Yeah.
Me: Do you even like it?
Rj: Yeah.
Me: Well, what about a broccoli casserole instead?
Rj: (stares blankly)
Me: (huffing) Fine.

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Rj: And we need cranberry sauce. (with 'that' tone) Nothing homemade. Nothing fancy. Just the jellied shit that you plop out of the can and slice into circles.
Me: (with a tear about to fall) But, but . . . (Spicy Cranberry Sauce with Pinot Noir)

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Me: Ok, I bought some of the stuff we needed for Thanksgiving dinner. Sweet potatoes, canned pumpkin pie mix, pie crust* . . .
Rj: Did you get Cool Whip?
Me: No, I didn't get any damn Cool Whip! You have restricted everything else that I'm making and I'd like to have just one thing my way, so we're having real whipped cream on our pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, not fucking Cool Whip!


*If it wasn't for the fact that I am being forced to make a damn feast for two people, then I sure as hell wouldn't be using canned pumpkin pie filling with refrigerated pie crusts. I can assure you that I will be making plenty of stuff from scratch. PLENTY.

Time to Get Down to Business

Ok, so now that I've discovered that people are actually reading my blog, perhaps that'll give me the motivation I need to update regularly. And maybe if I tell myself that I only need to make three posts a week, then I won't feel so pressured to make a post every day - since that's the kind of pressure that results in me delaying my posts for THREE FREAKIN' WEEKS!

I've also decided that I'm going to branch out a bit on here - not every entry will be a recipe. It'll still be food related, but sometimes I may just point you in the direction of a great recipe whereas others will be me bitching about my ridiculously small kitchen.

And that brings us back to something I made in my very first post . . .

I don't have a microwave.

I am aware of how barbaric that sounds. I hear it every time my sister comes to visit me. To include this past weekend. Her boyfriend asked me if it was hard to do stuff without a microwave - and for the first time since the absence of a microwave, I actually gave that some thought.

It's no secret that leftovers taste much better when they're reheated in the oven or on the stovetop. Sure, it's a pain sometimes to wait 20-30 minutes for something to warm up, but it tastes so much better, so it's actually worth it.

But there are a couple of instances that it would be nice to have a microwave around (but not taking up any of my counterspace)(also, one of those little cart things that they make specifically for this type of situation will not do either: one word - toddler).

Melting butter. I recently discovered that the glass dessert bowls that we have are NOT oven-proof.

Defrosting meat. All to often I'm bitching about the meat that I removed from the freezer at lunch time not being thawed out completely by the time I'm ready to make dinner. I'm slack and cannot for the life of me write out and follow a meal plan, so I usually decide what we're having for dinner the same day.

But that's all. And those are good enough reasons to give up any of my counterspace. But I can assure you that when we move into a house, there will be a microwave in my kitchen. We'll probably still continue to live without television though.

Chicken Something

When I was younger, I remember frequently heading over to my grandmother's house for a huge family dinner. There were often several main courses - hamburger steaks, lasagna, ham, chicken pot pie . . . or at least what I thought was chicken pot pie.

When pastry strips are added to a pot of chicken with stock, most folks refer to that as Chicken and Dumplings. Not my family, oh no siree. They call that Chicken Pot Pie. When asked what she called an actual Chicken Pot Pie (chicken and vegetables in a sauce, covered with a crust and baked in the oven LIKE A PIE!), a certain member of my family had no response because she 'would never eat that'.

To further complicate matters, Rj seems to think of Chicken and Dumplings as a chicken, veggie, sauce mix with biscuits dropped on top. I call that Chicken and Biscuits. What I call Chicken and Dumplings, Rj calls Chicken Noodle Soup. I tried to explain to him that those aren't noodles, but I quickly gave up.

Why the hell is this so complicated?

Not at all complicated was Paula Dean's recipe for Homemade Chicken and Dumplings.

Chicken and Dumplings
Chicken:
1 (2 1/2-pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces
3 ribs celery, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
2 chicken bouillon cubes
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
4 qt water
1 can cream of celery soup

Dumplings:
2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 c ice water

Place chicken, celery, onion, bay leaves, bouillon, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and 4 qt of water in a large stock pot. Cook over medium heat until juices from chicken run clear, approximately 45 minutes.

Remove chicken from pot, cool enough for handling, remove the bones and skin from the chicken and return the meat to the pot.

Stir in can of cream of celery soup.

To make dumplings, stir together flour and salt. Slowly drizzle ice water into the mixture, combining with your fingers. After all water has been added, knead the dough and form into a ball. On a well floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8th inch thick. Allow the dough to rest for a few minutes.

Cut a 1 inch piece of dough and drop into the pot. Repeat for the remaining dough, working slowly so that the dumplings don't get stuck together.

Do not stir the pot with a spoon while the dumplings are cooking. Gently swirl the pot instead.

Allow the dumplings to cook, approximately 5 minutes.


This is a 'crowd' sized recipe, which makes 6-8 servings if you're having it as the main portion of your meal. I cut the recipe in half when I made it because I was using several pieces of chicken instead of an entire chicken and because I don't own a pot large enough to hold a whole chicken with 4 quarts of water added to it. Instead of only adding half a can of the cream of celery soup, I threw in the whole thing because I was really going for a creamy broth. I wouldn't have changed a thing either.

Like Livin' In the 50's

I used to be one of those people who couldn't have stuff touching on my plate. Thank god I got over that some time ago. But casseroles? Those still scare me a bit. Probably because I always think of tuna when I hear the word 'casserole' and tuna (along with any other fish) makes me sick to my stomach.

When I first started cooking, Rj frequently begged me to make 'a casserole'. He never specified which one he wanted me to make and probably would have been happy if I had thrown together the first six items I pulled out of the fridge and baked it for 30 minutes, just as long as I called it a casserole. It took a few dinners over at his mother's house to realize that a 'casserole' took him back to his childhood as I believe I have had a casserole every time I have ever been to his mother's house. (None of them were tuna or anything weird, so I eventually took down my casserole guard - thanks Carol.)

If you don't count the sweet potato casserole (because my idea of a casserole is a bunch of stuff thrown together to make a main dish that incorporates all four food groups - or close to it at least, not sweet potatoes, butter, sugar, and nuts), then this would be the only casserole I've ever braved making.

Chicken Casserole
1/2 stick butter
1/2 large onion
1 celery stalk
2 c cooked chicken, torn into pieces
1 c dry stuffing
1 can cream soup (chicken, mushroom, celery . . . they all work well)
1/2 c milk
4 oz cheddar cheese

Melt butter in pan over medium heat. Add onion and celery and cook until soft.

Mix all ingredients together in bowl and place in casserole dish.

Bake at 350 degrees until top is browned, approximately 30 min.

Man, casseroles are easy.

What the Leek?

I really don't want to get into the habit of doing this, but I'm going to write about what I had for dinner again last night. Yesterday I was using it as a kind of standby because I am determined to post here daily and I didn't feel like typing up a recipe, but today! Today I have goodness for you!

Posting about Baked Potato Soup got me craving some. But then Zoot made this post yesterday talking about documenting what you eat through photos - the idea being that if you have to take a picture of 4 cupcakes and post it for all your internet friends to see, then perhaps you won't eat your usual 4. Basically, stopping to take a photo forces you to think about what your eating before you eat it, not after, like so many of us do.

I try to focus more on what my family has for dinner and not so much what I snack on during the day, so I asked if I could participate in the Flickr group photopool if I'm just posting pictures of dinner. And of course, I was warmly welcomed. But considering the whole idea is to EAT BETTER, I thought perhaps Baked Potato Soup wouldn't be the best way to start out. But without any thawed meat and still a hankering for some potato soup, I started searching.

I came across several recipes for potato soups that included leeks. Being the amateur cook that I am, I had no damn clue what a leek was so I busted out my favorite kitchen reference book and looked it up. Pleased with what I saw, I headed into Earth Fare after our Gymboree class and picked up some leeks and French bread.

This soup is pretty easy to make, though the slicing and chopping can take a bit of your time, especially if you have a crappy knife.

Potato and Leek Soup
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 sm onion, coarsely chopped
1 med leek, coarsely chopped (white and light green parts only)
1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
1/4 tsp thyme
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 bacon slice
1 bay leaf
3 medium startchy potatoes, skinned and sliced thin
1 1/2 c chicken stock
1 1/2 c cream (I used whole milk)
1/2 c sour cream

Melt butter over medium-low heat. Add vegetables, thyme, bacon, and bay leaf and cook for approximately 5 minutes.

Add potatoes, then cover with stock and cream. Bring to a simmer and cook partially covered for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are soft.

Transfer soup to a food processor and blend until is has reached the desired consistency. I don't like to puree my soups very much - I enjoy the texture that a less pureed one has to offer. Transfer soup back to pot.

Blend in sour cream, season with salt and pepper, and serve with French bread.

Oh, now you want to know what a leek is?

Pork. The Easy Meat.

We're gonna try something a bit different here. I don't have a recipe to share today - well, not exactly. But I do have something to talk about, some ideas to share, and a picture of what I ate last night.

Pork tenderloins. They require minimal preparation and are absolutely delicious. I started buying these about a year ago and the first dozen or so times that I made one, I'd simply rub the outside with thyme and sage, sear in a frying pan with a little bit of olive oil, cover and toss in an oven set to 275 degrees. That's it.

But, like always, I started to get a little bored with fixing a cut of meat the same way every time. So I started to sample the flavored pork tenderloins that Hormel makes: Teriyaki, Honey Mustard, Barbeque. They were all pretty nasty. Then, a few weeks ago, I bought a pork rub and decided to sample it on a tenderloin. The seasoning had some Cuban flair to it and really added some flavor to the meat. And it definitely wasn't the same ol' 'Thyme and Sage' flavor.

Last night I seasoned a tenderloin with the 'Cuban' rub, wrapped it in bacon, and added a little pineapple juice to the pan after the searing step. About 40 minutes later, I had a delicious, tender and juicy main dish for my dinner. I paired it with a basic rice pilaf consisting of wild rice, onion, and chicken stock and steamed broccoli. I nearly always steam my broccoli because I don't want to loss or mask the flavor of that wonderful vegetable.

You Can Never Go Wrong With Potatoes. Or With Soup.

I don't make baked potato soup often enough. When I do make it, it's usually because I forgot to set out some meat to thaw or because I'm trying to use up the last of my cream or bacon before it goes bad. But every time I make it, we gobble it down like it's the best thing we've had in weeks.

Baked Potato Soup
6 slices bacon
6 medium potatos, diced (Russet, white, red - anything will do)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 c chicken stock
2 c cream
1 c cheddar cheese, grated
handful of green onions, chopped
salt and pepper

Fry bacon in a pot, not a pan. When done, remove from pot. Add potatoes and onion, cover, and cook over medium heat until potatoes are slightly browned and cooked through - approximately 15 minutes - stirring ocassionally.

Reduce heat to low and add chicken stock and cream. Before serving, stir in cheese, green onions, salt, pepper, and a crumbled bacon.

Mmm, soup season. I started making soups on a pretty regular basis last year once I realized that many of them are pretty fool-proof (as I was just getting into the cooking thing around that time). Also, beans are cheap and beans make an excellent base for a soup.

I plan to branch out a little with my soup makin' this year. Maybe get away from cream of broccoli, chicken noodle, and navy bean. I made this one shared by Becki last week and despite the wrinkled nose standing over the soup pot after I informed Rj that those were indeed carrots in the cheese soup, everyone enjoyed it. I've even been told that I can make it again.