Oh! Those Thanksgiving Leftovers!

It was Day 5 of leftover turkey and ham. What to do, what to do? Luckily we had a free-range turkey for Thanksgiving. What does that mean? No funky flavor after two days of storage, that's what. Sometimes after only one day. That's what happens with the conventionally raised turkeys, anyway.

Do you know that funky flavor I'm talking about? It's a chemical flavor...that's the best way I can describe it. A strange aftertaste. That's the way it always was with the ever-popular Butterballs and other major brands. We stopped buying those many years ago.

Anyway, we had reached Day 5 of leftover turkey and ham. Since the meats were still very tasty, we had a Cobb Salad with turkey, ham, bacon, two cheeses-(Tillamook Cheddar and a Parmesan/Gouda Cheese-a lovely pairing, by the way.), carrots, red cabbage, cucumber, avocado, red onion and boiled eggs...all over a lovely mix of four different greens: Iceberg, Butter Lettuce, Romaine and spinach. Add to that some black olives, a nice green olive mix and some Chia seeds.

Was it good? Boy, oh boy! It was delicious! We never would have been able to pull off eating the leftover turkey in a salad on "Leftovers-Day 5," if we had used a turkey pumped full of growth hormones and other nasty stuff.

So...here it is, along with some other dishes we have enjoyed with the leftovers: Turkey and Dumplings and Ham-n-Cheddar Quiche.

The turkey and dumplings were plain with no veggies added. We had our veggies on the side. The quiche was made with leftover ham, Tillamook cheddar, Goat Feta Cheese, red bell, green bell, onion, and of course, eggs.

It has been a great year for Thanksgiving leftovers. There's still a bit of turkey left. I'm mulling over a couple of recipes in my head. We'll see if they "pan" out. That's pan out...get it? Ha ha ha! 

Cobb Salad

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turkey-n-Dumplings

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ham-n-Cheddar Quiche

I Love Food and Food Loves Me...

An accidental gravy heart on Thanksgiving. Not that mashed potatoes-(made with real butter and cream)-and gravy are particularly good for your heart...but...well...at least these are free of chemicals and other nasty additives. So I conclude that they are definitely better for you than other versions. Ha!

And were they good? OH, LAWDY!! They were goooooood!! It's okay to indulge once in a while, and Thanksgiving is surely the day to do it. 

Accidental Gravy Heart

Mushroom Overkill? Not at All!

You won't find a burger like this at a fast food joint! Here are the mouth-watering ingredients:

A Portabella(o) mushroom (for the patty), Muenster Cheese, Goat Cheese (locally produced), sauteed button mushrooms, sauteed red onions, roasted red bell pepper, and avocado. You doan need no stinkin' condiments!

Make this beauty at home. You'll never regret it!!  Click ***HERE*** for the standard version.

Double Mushroom, Double Cheese, Eat right up, It's Sure to Please!

Aaaaaaah!! What the Hell is it?

It looks like something Sigmund the Sea Monster left behind after one of his strolls on the beach!! Not even close, Friends and Neighbors!

It's a lovely pile of cabbage patties. Yum, yum, YUM! Growing up around Czechs and Germans will give you intimate knowledge about cabbage. There are many ways to prepare it and for all of the recipes I've seen and tasted so far, they're all good!

This one is as simple as can be: about 3 cups of shredded cabbage, 1/4 cup of thinly sliced onion (or more, if you like), 2 eggs, a dash of milk, 1/4 cup of flour, 1 tsp. of baking powder. Oh and salt & pepper to your taste.

Not fancy at all. A great companion dish for Polish sausage, German sausage, ham, pork loin, pork roast and even pork chops. Well, let's be honest, it's great with chicken and beef, too. I think it's good enough for the main dish in a vegetarian meal, too, especially with an interesting sauce to top it off.

Yummy Cabbage Patties

It's Broccoli's Time to Shine!

Broccoli is good to eat all year long but the holiday season kicks its popularity up a notch. The holiday season + cooler weather=the perfect excuse to make Broccoli Casserole.

Click here for my "cheater" version of Broccoli Casserole.

I have a better version with ingredients that are all made from scratch. I haven't gotten around to posting it yet. For that version it's best to plan ahead a little bit so you can make cream of mushroom soup and real cheese sauce instead of the "gloopy" canned stuff. The wholesome version still adds calories but has no unnecessary chemicals and other crap. In the meantime, check out the cheater version. 

Cooked Broccoli that's ready for some casserole action!

A Restaurant Review to Tempt Your Taste Buds

UPDATE: Unfortunately, this restaurant closed several years ago. 

Bad me! I haven't posted since October! I've been really busy lately with many things, including an additional writing gig with examiner.com. The presidential election also had me spellbound and I had some articles published with Yahoo! Contributor about the local scene during the election. I have a lot of material for the blog that I need to add as soon as possible. In the meantime, here's the link to a review of a restaurant I visited in October. It was a most excellent meal! Click on "Feast" below to visit my review and then go visit the restaurant itself if you're near Houston. Add it to your itinerary if you're planning to visit Houston.You will be happy you did!

Feast

 

Vatrushky Night...Fun with Food!

A Lovely Vatrushka

Vatrushky, (the plural of vatrushka, much like kolache is the plural of kolach), are Russian cheese tarts that are savory instead of sweet. These tarts are very popular in the Ukraine and often served with dishes such as borscht.

I was doodling around one night, looking in a cookbook when I ran across a recipe for vatrushky. Had to try it out, of course.

The recipe called for cottage cheese which had to be drained for a few hours. For those interested, I used the entire tub of cottage cheese (16 ounces), and ended up with 2/3 of a cup of cottage cheese swill. (Which would have been great to use in another recipe, but alas! I didn't save it.)

These tarts are rolled out by hand but if you have some of those nifty mini-tart pans, those would do, too. Heck, you could get away with using a pie pan and just making one big one. But in the interest of making them the traditional way, I rolled them out.

These tarts are gooooood. The dough is superb. I think that it would be great in place of regular pie dough to make pies. I'm telling you, this is the closest recipe I've had where the dough tasted like communion wafers. If it was rolled thin enough, it would almost be spot on.

Anyhoo, I'm sure it was the sour cream in the recipe that made the dough so heavenly. Here's a link to a good vatrushky recipe if you're interested: Ukrainian Classic Kitchen. This is not the same recipe I used when I made my vatrushky, but it's close enough for a handshake.

Please enjoy my pictorial vatrushky adventure:

Roll out the dough: 4" circles

Crimp the sides

Add the filling

Glaze the whole tart with egg wash

The finished vatrushka!!

Happy Eating, Boys & Girls! :)