ThanksGiving for 2 (+3 dogs) Part Two

I am soooooo full! I continued my holiday tradition of making mostly recipes I've never made before. For the innernet recipes, the only change I made was add 4 tbsp 1/2 & 1/2 to the soup, which is incredibly yummy. My mashed potatoes follow:

Becca's Mashed Potatoes

3-4 larges Idaho potatoes
cream cheese
1/2 & 1/2
sour cream
butter
fresh ground pepper blend
tastefully simple's garlic garlic seasoning ( 1 tbsp for 3 lg potatoes) or a few oven roasted cloves.

Peel potatoes and cut into large chunks, then place in half full medium size pot. Let sit a few hours. turn water on high and bring to a boil. Turn down to medium and boil until fork-tender. Drain into colandar, then put back into warm pot. Add 4 tbsp butter, 4 tbsp sour cream, 1 tbsp garlic garlic, 3 splashes 1/2 &1/2 and 3 tbsp cream cheese. Mash with potato masher and then blend with immersion blender or hand mixer or fork until they are as smooth as you want them. Enjoy!

As for the chocolate cream pie, it's the simplest thing in the universe; make some chocolate pudding according to box instructions. Put in fridge to set. Make a graham cracker crust according to graham cracker crumb box instructions. Put in fridge. When you are almost ready to have dessert, mix one container cool whip with the pudding and pour into pie shell. Et Voila!

And here are the pictures to prove it.

Butternut Squash For Soup:


The "roux" for the soup



All Together now and ready to eat after being blended


Green Bean Casserole



Turkey Rolls


I can Mash Potato


And of course, My Big Bad Bloody Mary for Richy:


Start with a cocktail shaker full of ice and add:
3 Oz Grey Goose
2 splashes worcesteshire
2 squirts lemon juice
2 huge green olives
3 drops siracha sauce
2 tsp white horseradish
lots of fresh ground pepper
sea salt to taste
fill with tomato juice.
shake it like a polaroid picture.

Pour into snowman glass, garnish with celery and olives and serve. Pour yourself a glass of red b/c you don't like these drinks, but they make Richy sleepy so you can watch whatever you want onthe big Tv and that is something to be thankful for!

As for the chocolate cream pie. I'm too full and tired....We'll have that tonight as we just had dessert of a very different nature ;)

Here is a picture of Nico post- 1st feast:


And with that, blogger, I'm about five words away from doing a face-plant into my laptop.. Goodnight.

ThanksGiving for 2 (+3 dogs)

here's the menu


Butternut Squash Soup
Turkey breast rolled around stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Cranberry Sauce
Gravy
Chocolate Cream Pie

I'll add recipes and pics later if you click on the soup, the turkey, and the casserole all those recipes are from the innernets.


And it's Nico's 1st Thanksgiving!!

Grilled Cheese Sandwich Recipe (And Soup Accoutrement)

Shopping list
butter
bread
velveeta
oregano
plum tomato
peppermill blend ( yes, I put this in Everything)
Campbell's tomato soup
Milk

Make soup per instructions but add a can of milk instead of water and plenty of fresh ground pepper. Voila - creamy tomato!

To make sandwich, melt a few pats of butter on a microwave safe plate while preheating frying pan to medium low. Deseed and thinly slice tomato. Slice the velveeta thinly if you can, if not NBD, it's pretty malleable. Soak up the butter on the plate with a slice of bread, place in pan, add cheese, a sprinkling of oregano and pepper, and some tomato before soaking a second piece of bread with butter and slapping that on top. Press down a bit with your spatula on your sandwich and check often to make sure you don't burn it, as it should only take a few minutes per side.

Cheap and easy just like the powerboat club girls but way more satisfying.

Concoction Monday on Wednesday - Meatballs!

Last night I made my meatballs, which came out amazing as usual. Again, I'm not the best measurer but I've done my best.

Shopping list

2-3 lbs ground beef
1 large handful Italian breadcrumbs per pound
1 bunch Italian Parsely
1 egg per 1-1.5 pounds
parmigianno reggiano or artisan domestic parmesean
Locatelli romano or pecorino if you can't find Locatelli ( Fresh Market has)
fresh ground pepper
coarse sea salt
crushed red pepper
Olive oil


place beef in large mixing bowl. crack eggs in. add a small handful per pound each of parmesean and romano cheeses. Chop up 1/4 cup per 1.5 pound beef of italian parsley, and add to bowl. Add a tsp of crushed red pepper, more if you like. Add salt and pepper to taste. Preheat a large skillet over medium with a few tablespoons of olive oil. Mix all ingredients together by hand, taking care not to overwork the meat or the meatballs could become tough. Form into small and medium balls, to preference, and overload the pan so that later you can brown each side by propping them up against each other. Make sure to brown on all sides before removing to a paper towel covered plate to drain. Plop a few into your sauce during the last half hour of it's cooking for flavor. Leave the rest to keep the crunchy carmelization of the searing. Link to the post that has my sauce recipe click here

Belated Concoction Monday - Sauce! Meatballs to follow

This recipe is the culmination and distillation of 7 years of experimentation, watching my Italian college roommate, and later my husbands Sicilian family, reading more recipes than I ever thought could exist for a simple tomato based sauce, and many, many trial and error situations. Here is my best, and I'm hoping for your sake you have a bit of natural cooking talent/ creative spirit b/c I am not big into measuring with this recipe. It's a taste and stir, repeat repeat repeat situation.

Spaghetti Sauce

shopping list

2 large cans San Marzano tomatoes, 1 cubed, 1 crushed
2 tablespoons olive oil
coarse sea salt
fresh ground pepper
one package fresh basil
1 tablespoon butter
pinch sugar
flat leaf italian parsley, one large handful, roughly chopped
4-6 ( depending on size) cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 medium or half a large vidalia onion, finely chopped
red pepper flakes
one cup each for garnish : parmigiano reggiano and pecorino romano ( perorino locatelli even better try Macaluso's market for it)


heat the olive oil in a large, deep skillet or saucepan over medium low for a few minutes
add the onion and gently saute for ten-15 minutes over medium low
push the onion off the the sides, making a hold to put the garlic in at the center. saute garlic until it begins to turn a light blond color, if it gets too brown it will make the entire sauce bitter. If you've done this, it's ok, I've done it a million times. But you have to throw it out and start over. Now.

Next, stir in the two cans of tomatoes, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Add a pinch or sugar and the tablespoon butter. Bring to a boil. reduce to simmer, add parsley. let simmer for an hour to two hours depending on how much time you have, but AT LEAST an hour.

hand tear the basil, stir in. The sauce needs to simmer about another half an hour, so make the pasta during this time. Usually I have some meatballs simmering in the sauce as well, recipe to be posted asap. As always, comments and suggestions are appreciated. Happy Friday!

Since Manola and I are going out to an Egyptian Art thing tonight, there is still hope for bar food friday! YAY

Concoction of the Day; Maple Chicken and Avocado Wrap

When I was younger, I would spend hours in the kitchen creating recipes my mother and sister would laughingly refer to as "concoctions". In honor of that I'm making monday concoction of the day day, and will share a recipe each monday that is my very own. At special request, next Monday I plan to post the first thing I ever set out to master; sauce and meatballs. It took me years to get it right, and I've finally come to a place i don't think I can improve upon it any more. My sicilian husband prefers it to his mothers (thank god she doesnt have a computer!) This recipe I just created and ate, inspired by this gorgeous avocado I saw in a neighbor's tree while walking Reigna. Usually when you order something with avocado in it at a restaurant you get about 2-3 phyllo dough thin slices per sandwich/ salad. I wanted to make a lunch that highlighted the avocado in all it's glory, which is why I chose a wrap so the bread wouldn't distract.

Maple Chicken and Avocado wrap

Grocery list
Boars head maple chicken (my new favorite lunch meat) about three slices per wrap
Avocado, 1 per every two wraps.
lemon juice
fine sea salt
five peppercorn pepper blend(pink green red black white) ( I get this at fresh market) but black pepper will do fine
light mayo
boars head picante provolone ( two thin slices per wrap)
whole grain wraps


Head the oven to 375. Place wraps inside foil and warm for about five minutes
Meanwhile, roughly chop the avocado ( I tried to slice it using this green thing, which is supposed to be an avocado slicer but probably couldn't even slice room temperature butter.
Season the avocado with the juice of half a lemon or a few good squirts of those lemon shaped juice thingies. Ground pepper and sprinkle salt to taste. Juilienne the cheese and maple chicken, or just hack at it with a good knife a few times like I did. Then remove the wraps, spread a thin layer of mayo on each one, and put the chicken, then the cheese, and then heaps of the avocado on top. Roll over and seal, which I could barely do since I stuffed nearly an entire avocado into mine. But the mayo acts as a decent glue to hold the thing together. Enjoy! I know I did. I'd love to hear about your experience with this dish, or any of the other recipes I've posted.






Here's the finished product. As you can see I took a bite - I absolutely could not resist!

Aunt Flo's Favorite Recipes

Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake

6 scoops good chocolate ice cream
5 ice cubes
1/3 cup or so reeses PB
milk to cover ice cream

Blend on high 2 mins
stir
blend till smooth

pairs well with Advil, DVR, heating pad, laptop, and couch



Chocolate Almond Milkshake
Same recipe as above
skip PB
add hershey kisses w/ almonds


Friday's frozen queso ( in freezer section)
put in micro
chop chives and olives
pull out
dollop w sour cream
grab bag of chips
garnish

watch a girlie movie covered in couch and blankets

surf TWOP and MiamiBeach411.com

Playtex Sport ( for active lifestyle) tampons rock. I'll let you figure out why.

Pan Fried Portobellos with Balsamic and Romaine-lemon pesto and Fresh Mozz

This recipe was inspired by Rachael Ray's Portobello Burgers with green sauce and Smoked Mozzerella. I changed the sauce, the seasoning, the timing, the cheese, and swapped a lot of ingredients. Her version is in 30 Minute Meals #2
Here's Mine:
1.Fresh Mozz, 1 to 2 large balls (lol)
2. Coarse Sea Salt
3. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4. Fresh Basil, one package
5. One package romaine hearts
6. One large or two small packages pine nuts (pignoli's)
7. Onion Onion Seasoning Blend by tastefully simple ( or minced onion or any onion blend you may have available
8. Crushed red pepper flakes
9. Fresh ground pepper
10. Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino
11. 6 portobello mushroom caps.
12. 1 garlic clove (not one head!)
13. Lemon Juice
Assemble all ingredients. Brush the grit off of the tops of the mushrooms with a damp cloth or paper towel. Preheat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the pan over medium - medium high heat, depending on your cooktop. Season both sides of the mushrooms with a tablespoon of onion onion, red and black pepper and salt to taste, and a sprinkle of garlic powder. Pan fry for about five minutes on each side. When they have a nice browned appearance, add about a cup of balsamic vinegar and reduce the heat to medium low. Allow the mushrooms to absorb all of the reducing balsamic, flipping them a couple of times in the process. While this is happening, start to make your pesto. Put the entire package of basil, 1/4 cup lemon juice, the green leafy top of a romaine heart ( I just rip it off) 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup pine nuts, and 2/3 cup parmesean or pecorino romano ( I use both), salt, and pepper to taste, and the single garlic clove into your food processor or blender or mortar and pestle or whatever you choose to use.

Pulse to get it going, then process until smooth. Before the balsamic completely evaporates I like to take a spoonful or two out if I am serving as a side dish rather than a sandwich to dress the plate up a bit with the balsamic drizzle. Put thick slices of the milky mozzarella on top of the mushrooms with the burner off and cover with aluminum foil until they melt.

Either slice and toast rolls and slather with the pesto, then place the mushrooms inside, making a burger, or serve the mushrooms as a side, with the reserved balsamic drizzled on the plate and the pesto served in a ramekin with a spoon like at left.

Enjoy!! I'd love to hear about any of your messes or successes!
Beccal639@yahoo.com