Meatloaf

Here is another Alton inspired, Aaron made recipe. He decided to give meatloaf a shot. I’m not usually a big fan, but it’s also been quite some time since I last ate it, so I figured why not. Aaron modified the original a bit and ours was about half as big. However, the basic technique is the same, so thanks again Alton!

Meatloaf modified from Good Eats:

Serves 6-8

3 oz. stale bread
¼ tsp. ground black pepper
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
½ tsp. chili powder
½ tsp. dried thyme
¼ onion, roughly chopped
½ carrot, peeled and broken
2 whole cloves garlic
7 oz. ground beef
4 oz. ground buffalo
7 oz. ground turkey
1½ tsp. kosher salt
1 egg
¼ c. ketchup
½ tsp. ground cumin
Dash Worcestershire sauce
Dash hot pepper sauce (he used Sriracha)
½ Tb. honey

Heat oven to 325 degrees F.

As a quick note, we didn’t have even amounts of the ground meats, but Aaron suggests keeping them even .

In a food processor bowl, combine bread, black pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, and thyme. Pulse until the mixture is of a fine texture. Place this mixture into a large bowl. Combine the onion, carrot, garlic, and red pepper in the food processor bowl. Pulse until the mixture is finely chopped, but not pureed. Combine the vegetable mixture, and ground meats with the bread crumb mixture. Season the meat mixture with the kosher salt. Add the egg and combine thoroughly, but avoid squeezing the meat.



Pack this mixture into a 10-inch loaf pan to mold the shape of the meatloaf. Onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, turn the meatloaf out of the pan onto the center of the tray. Insert a temperature probe at a 45 degree angle into the top of the meatloaf. Avoid touching the bottom of the tray with the probe. Set the probe for 155 degrees. We don’t have a probe, so Aaron checked the temperature of the meat occasionally to make sure it was cooking properly and that it was at a safe temperature.

Combine the catsup, cumin, Worcestershire sauce, hot pepper sauce and honey. Brush the glaze onto the meatloaf after it has been cooking for about 10 minutes.



Meanwhile, I fried up some potatoes with olive oil, herbs, and parmesan cheese and the whole meal was served with green beans.

This was a delicious meatloaf and I was really surprised by how much I liked it, especially the glaze. I really thought it was neat that the loaf didn’t cook in an actual loaf pan. I’d love to try a turkey/buffalo version or an all turkey version.

Calzones and More Pizza

Pizza is a fantastic thing. I know I already posted this recipe back in October, but there’s been a revelation plus I did something different with it.

First, the revelation. I made the full recipe and instead of making four pizzas, I divided the dough into three. 1/3 of it remained in the fridge for a couple of days until part two. Anyway, the other 2/3 made two perfect sized pizzas that were phenomenally easy to shape and work with. These are my prettiest pizzas to date and I just wanted to show them with all of you.







We bought some nice salami and Aaron cooked up some ground beef with oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram, and rosemary. Along with a heaping of mozzarella, we also used Tillamook aged white cheddar, and parmesan. I also infused olive oil with garlic and we used that to brush on the crust. We added some oregano to the marinara and just look at those pizzas. Seriously, I am so proud.

Now, part two. After a great achievement in pizza, we decided to make calzones. That was a brilliant idea.

Calzones:

Serves two or four, depending on how hungry you are

1/3 pizza dough
Mini meatballs (basic recipe here)
1 c. mozzarella, grated
½ c. aged white cheddar, grated
¼ c. parmesan, grated
2 c. broccoli, chopped and steamed
4 cloves garlic, diced
Tomato sauce
Oregano
Garlic olive oil

Roll out remaining third of pizza dough to desired thickness, shape into a circle and cut in half. Heat oven to 450 degrees.





In the center of each, paint on tomato sauce, not making it too saucy (haha). Make sure you leave a border so you can fold over the dough when you’re done filling it. Sprinkle on oregano. Fill with mini meatballs, broccoli and cheese. Fold over top and pinch down the sides. Brush with garlic olive oil (or regular extra virgin olive oil if you don’t have infused oil) and cut three slits into the top.





Sprinkle corn meal on a baking sheet and place calzones on pan. Bake for about 20 minutes. Allow to cool for another 5 minutes and dig in. We had ours with the remaining tomato sauce warmed up for dunking. These were so good! They’re huge, so you could cut them in half to serve four. The options for filling them, like making pizza, are quite varied, so mess around with it and see what you get. I was really impressed and I am looking forward to doing this again.

Onion Soup

I’m so glad I’m getting back to using The Moosewood Cookbook again. This recipe has been modified and thus is no longer strictly vegetarian. I had to do something with the Thanksgiving turkey carcass. So I made turkey broth and it is delicious. Anyway, what I love about turkey is that it subs well for beef in many things. French onion soup is traditionally made with beef broth, so what better way soup to make with turkey broth than onion soup? I would posit none!



Even though this isn’t vegetarian anymore, it is still delicious. You can use water instead of turkey broth, like in the original recipe, or veggie broth, which is what I usually have on hand. A small warning though: this will make your house very, very oniony and your eyes may sting for some time afterward. Fan your place out. Seriously.

Onion Soup from The New Moosewood Cookbook:

Makes 6 servings

2 Tb. butter
4 large yellow onions (I used 5 since mine were on the small side), thinly sliced
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. dry mustard
A dash or two of thyme
4 c. turkey broth
2 Tb. soy sauce
2-3 Tb. dry white wine (optional. I went for it)
A few dashes of white pepper
Thin slices of Swiss cheese
Olive oil
A few small slices of baguette
A few garlic cloves



Melt the butter in a kettle or Dutch Oven. Add onions and salt, and cook over medium heat about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add mustard and thyme; stir and cover. Continue to cook very slowly, about 35 more minutes. The onions will be exquisitely soft and simmering in their own liquid. Also, the bottom of my pot was covered in burnt on onion. A bit more butter or stirring or something may have prevented this. The rest of the onion, though, was as advertised.

While the soup is simmering, make the croutons. Brush thin slices of baguette on both sides with olive oil. I crushed a few cloves of garlic into the oil first. Bake on a tray in a 350 degree oven until crisp, 8-12 minutes. Check on them frequently. They can look underdone one minute and burn the next. Mine cooked for a bit over 12 and were perfect.





Add water, soy sauce, optional wine, and white pepper. I didn’t realize this while cooking, but we were out of soy sauce. We have teriyaki sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, and sweet and sour sauce, but no soy sauce. A quick look online suggested Worcestershire as an acceptable substitute. I think it worked out. Simmer at least 10 minutes more. Taste to adjust seasonings. Serve topped with croutons and Swiss cheese. If you’re serving the soup in ovenproof bowls (like I did), you can put them under the broiler briefly to brown the cheese. Be careful handling the bowls!

This was so delicious and wonderful. I loved this soup! It was salty, but not too, and so well flavored. The onion is soft and perfect with bread. Hopefully I’ll have soy sauce on hand next time. And I’ll try veggie broth too. Still, fantastic soup. Go make it. But maybe crack a window.

Meatball Sub

Lately, Aaron has been doing the majority of the cooking around here. I love that we can both cook and I love the ideas he comes up with. A couple weeks ago or at least sometime between now and the August 19, the last time I posted (sad, I know), Aaron made meatball subs. No, Aaron made THE meatball sub. It was delicious and I barely had time to take a picture before I scarfed down the whole thing. If I had blogged about this sooner, like a normal person, the following recipe would be a bit more accurate. As it is though, Aaron tells me he can give a ballpark of what he did. So good luck and hopefully yours are as tasty as his!

Meatball Subs from Aaron’s mind:

Serves 2

½ loaf French bread
½ lb. ground turkey
1/3 lb. ground buffalo
2 tsp. oregano (maybe more)
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste
Possibly other seasonings, to taste
Enough fresh mozzarella to cover the meatballs
Marinara sauce



Mix together turkey, buffalo, egg, salt and pepper, and oregano (plus possible other seasonings) in a bowl and form into balls. Fry meatballs in a medium size pan over medium high heat until cooked through. Cut ½ loaf into two pieces and split open, but not all the way through. Ladle sauce into bottom of bread. Place meatballs in and ladle more sauce on top of them. Cover with mozzarella and bake in 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

The combination of turkey and buffalo was fantastic. Both are leaner meats than beef and they play really well together. Aaron mixed them because traditional meatballs are a variety of meats and while I don’t eat most of those, this plays along those traditional lines. I’m also a huge oregano fan, and it works so well here. This is an easy meal and is perfect for midweek dinners. We had ours with mixed greens. I look forward to eating these again!

Braised Turkey Legs

I love turkey. Though at Thanksgiving I tend to be more of a sides girl, I do love having just a bit of the meat. Aaron’s really into turkey legs, especially after he had one at this fair in Minnesota while we were visiting his sister. We have been looking for them off and on at grocery stores since November and finally a couple of weeks ago, we found them! So we tossed them in the freezer while trying to figure out what to do. Finally, I realized I had a recipe on my ambitious list and a few days ago, I went for it.

This is actually a fairly simple recipe and the only thing you really need to invest is time. So I sat downstairs near the oven and watched Top Model while basting every 20 minutes. What a fabulous way to spend an evening. These are super tasty and if you can find turkey legs, I say go for it! This is a half recipe and slightly modified on the gravy bit.

Brasied Turkey Legs from The 2nd Avenue Deli Cookbook:

Serves 2 with leftovers

1 Tb. garlic powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
½ tsp. pepper
3 turkey legs
1 c.-ish chopped onion
½ c.-ish chopped celery
Poultry chop spices to taste
Handful of flour
Chunk of butter

In a bowl, mix garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Rub turkey legs with the mixture, covering them thoroughly. Place legs on a platter and refrigerate from at least 4 hours. I did mine overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place chopped onion and celery in a baking dish at least 2 inches deep and large enough to hold all of the legs. Place turkey legs on top of vegetables, add 1 inch of water, and bake for 45 minutes, basting about every 20 minutes with pan juices.

Turn legs, reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees, and bake for another 45 minutes (still basting occasionally), or until the legs are well browned and meat is cooked and tender. I did the full 45 and they were perfectly cooked. Remove from oven, and turn oven temperature to warm. Remove turkey legs to a platter, and strain pan juices into a saucepan. Discard celery and onion, retaining 2 cups of pan juices in the saucepan. Return turkey legs to baking dish and keep them warm in the oven while you prepare the gravy.

The original recipe had you use a browning sauce/gravy base, but I decided to just go for the gusto and make my own gravy for the very first time ever. I add some poultry seasoning to the pan juices, threw in a chunk of butter and added flour until it looked the right consistency and simmered this over low heat. I have never made gravy before, but I’ve seen my dad do it a number of times, so though I was just guessing, it seemed right. And it was! I was super impressed with myself.



Remove turkey legs from oven and spoon gravy over it. There is also a suggestion in the book that you can have them cold and though I didn’t, Aaron tried it and said that it was quite tasty, but better warm. We had ours with some fabulous mashed potatoes and green beans.

Mini Turkey Meatballs

There are so many things wrong with the Food Network (Sandra Lee, Rachel Ray, Emeril, Bobby Flay…I need to stop before my head hurts), but some things are good. While I find Giada’s show annoying (soft focus lighting? Really? Oh she’s washing her hands again, let’s watch that!), her recipes are so delicious and easy to do. I’ve tried a few and have just loved the results.

For Aaron’s birthday (hooray for part 3!), I wanted to do something meat-y, but since I don’t eat a lot of meat, I wasn’t sure I could do a good meatball recipe and get it right. Then this recipe came to mind. I skipped the tomato sauce part at the end and kept them warm in my slowcooker while I worked on everything else. I think it helped compensate for the lack of tomato sauce simmering.

Mini Turkey Meatballs from Everyday Italian:

Makes 42 mini meatballs (I got fewer, but I made random sizes)

1 small onion, grated (I used half of a larger Vidalia onion)
7 garlic cloves, minced
1 large egg
¼ c. dried bread crumbs
3 Tb. ketchup
¼ c. chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
¼ c. grated Parmesan
¼ c. grated Pecorino Romano
1 tsp. kosher salt
¼ tsp. ground black pepper
1 lb. ground turkey meat





Add the onion, garlic, egg, bread crumbs, ketchup, parsley, Parmesan, Pecorino, salt and pepper to a large bowl and blend. Mix in the turkey. Shape the turkey mixture into 1 1/4-inch-diameter meatballs (if you feel like being exact. I rarely do). Place on a large plate or baking sheet.



Heat the oil in a heavy large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs and sauté until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes. Cook through, about another 10 minutes on lower heat. It was at about this point that I put them all into the slowcooker. They were still very moist and tasty when I removed them 30-40 minutes later.

I think these are an incredible appetizer and I may try them with the tomato sauce one of these days or with the fried mozzarella balls in pasta, as I mentioned earlier. Right now, though, I think they are great just as is with toothpicks. My friend Bryan was a pro, though, and managed to get both a meatball and a mozzarella ball on a single toothpick, so maybe as is can include much more than I think! Italian kebabs maybe? I’ll have to work on some of these ideas.

Baked Macaroni with Smoked Turkey Sausage

Yesterday was a very exciting day for me. The GRE is over and my scores made me very, very happy. Even better, my husband decided to make dinner and what a delicious dinner it was. As always, I helped with the prep a little, but this is almost all his work. As you can probably guess from recipes like this, we’re into cheese and sausage dishes. I love turkey sausage. It’s tasty and it works well in so many things. Aaron doubled the recipe and added the sausage because a) we like leftovers and b) turkey sausage is wonderful!

Baked Macaroni with Smoked Turkey Sausage modified from Joy of Cooking:

Serves 4 or two very hungry people with plenty of leftovers

2 c. macaroni
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
2 eggs
1 1/3 c. half-and-half
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. paprika
2 Tb. grated onion
About two smoked turkey sausages (use however much you like or omit altogether)
Au gratin: dry bread crumbs, dots of butter, grated cheese, and paprika

Boil macaroni in salted water and drain. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat eggs, milk, salt, paprika, and grated onion until blended.





Place layers of macaroni and sausage in a greased baking dish. Sprinkle the layers with the cheese (reserve some for the au gratin). Aaron says he had about three layers. Pour egg mixture over the top of the macaroni. Sprinkle the top with the au gratin.

Bake the macaroni for about 40 minutes. Place under the broiler for a couple of minutes for a delicious, golden crust.





Serve immediately. We had ours with a simple salad. This would also make a great side dish. It’s super tasty and I hope he makes it again soon (*wink* *wink*).

The day ended very well. Carrina honored me with a super delicious cake wreck (which you can see here). If you haven’t been to Cake Wrecks, go now. You’ll laugh so hard. Thanks Carrina!

Spicy Turkey Burgers

When I’m super hungry, I need to make something fast or I will try to eat the entire fridge. Fortunately I had enough peace of mind last night to not do that and instead made spicy turkey burgers. I had about ¾ lb. ground turkey left over from the Pad Khee Mao and put it to use. As far as dressing it goes, you can do whatever you want. I used lettuce, pickles, some of my mom’s Kickin’ Ketchup, Dijon mustard and a bit of Cajun mayo left over from a recent dinner at Russell Street BBQ (so good! And I don’t even like barbecue sauce).

I wanted to make it interesting, so I added garlic (duh) and some random herbs and such to make it spicier.

I know Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I’ll be having some turkey (I’m much more of a sides girl though), but I love the taste of ground turkey. It works so well with so many things.

Here’s what I did:

Yield: 2 burgers

¾ lb. ground turkey
½ c. coarsely grated white cheddar cheese
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 tsp. oregano
2 tsp. chili powder
1 Tb. red pepper flakes
2 tsp. olive oil
Buns, toasted

In a small bowl, mix ground turkey, ¼ c. cheese, garlic and spices. Form into two balls and flatten into patties.

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Place patties in hot oil. Cook on each side for about 3-4 minutes, until cooked through. Just before done, cover patties in remaining cheese.





Place burgers on toasted buns and dress to your liking. I served mine with steamed broccoli and a couple small red baked potatoes. Obviously fries work well too. These were nice and not too spicy, but enough kick. Using some Cajun spice would’ve been a nice addition.

Tomorrow will be my Thanksgiving special. And by special I mean I’ll post the pies I made.

Pad Khee Mao

I feel like I’ve been spending all my time at the grocery store lately, mostly with the ramp-up to Thanksgiving. Anyway, two nights ago my husband and I decided that we were FINALLY going to make pad khee mao like we’ve been talking about for forever. We both love the dish. I accidentally got him into Thai food when living with our old roommate downtown. She and I used to make cheap food dates and for a period of time, that often involved E-San. I had ordered pad khee mao on a whim one day, tired of always getting fried rice and pad thai, and looooooved it. One night we got take out and brought it back to the apartment. While getting myself a drink, Aaron got curious, bit a noodle and then proceeded to eat all of the noodles, leaving me with tofu and peppers. He was hooked.

My parents were in town from Cave Junction a few weekends ago and took me with them to Anzen, their favorite Asian grocery in Portland. While they poked around at the rice, I found the rice noodles I had been looking for. My husband and I had decided to just make pad thai for our first experiment in Thai home cooking, but when I saw these big, fat rice noodles, I knew pad khee mao could be finally realized.

So that night we searched for a recipe. Our one and only Thai cookbook doesn’t have a recipe for pad khee mao, so we went to the internet. Epicurious.com helped us, although with some difficulty. Pad khee mao is also called drunken noodles and is described as the perfect hangover food (it is). For our billionth trip to the grocery store this week, we bought the things we needed, omitting the stuff my husband doesn’t like, and decided to make it the last night. The original recipe is here. We did about a half size and still ended up with a ton.

Drunken Noodles from Bon Appétit via epicurious.com:

Yield: at least 4 servings, depending on how hungry you are. This makes so much, even at half size!

16-ounce package 1/4-inch-wide flat rice noodles
1/8 c. olive oil
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 chopped Serrano chili (we couldn’t find Thai chilies and he’s not so into the spicy)
¾ pounds ground turkey
1/8 c. fish sauce (nam pla or nuoc nam)
1/8 c. black soy sauce
1/8 c. oyster sauce (replacement through another recipe my husband read the other night)
½ Tb. sugar
1 green bell pepper (about 6 oz. total), cut into strips
¼ c. fresh basil leaves

Cook noodles in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite, stirring frequently. Drain.





Meanwhile, heat oil in wok or heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add garlic and chili; sauté 30 seconds. Add turkey and next 4 ingredients and sauté until turkey is cooked through, about 4 minutes. Add noodles, tomatoes, and green pepper; toss to coat. Transfer to large platter, sprinkle with basil leaves, and serve.



This was so very, very good. The only changes I would make in the future would be to add a little more garlic, use actual Thai chilies for a bit more spice and a bit more of the sauces. Other than that, this was ridiculously good and so easy to make. I will be making this again! For now, I’ll just have to satisfy myself with the leftovers.