He's home!!

Yesterday evening, after a crazy afternoon of cleaning, hurrying to base, locking my keys in my car, calling what felt like a bazillion locksmiths and finally and losing $60 so we could actually drive home that day, I got to see my husband again. It was exciting, tiring, cold and strange, but such a relief to have the day I waited nearly 9 months for finally arrive. I know I had at first said I was going to stop this when he came back, and my posts may come with less frequency, but I think I will continue with the occasional post. One of my husbands favorite meals, and the first home cooked meal he had after so long, was Shepherd Pie. Growing up, I always thought that Shepherds pie was beef, vegetables, gravy and mashed potatoes, but after hours of watching The Food Network, I found out that wasn't so. Shepherd's pie specifically gets its name because it is made with whats available to shepherds: lamb. When it's made with beef it is actually called Cottage pie, but that's just a name game. I have always made mine with beef, but this time I was determined to get a little fancier, and so I sought out some ground lamb. After visiting and calling almost 10 different places, I finally found a place that carried it, and while it is a quite a bit pricier than beef (nearly $7 a pound) my husband definitely appreciated the change in meat. And for the low down on how to do it traditionally, I went to he always wonderful Alton Brown. Now, on to the recipe.


Alton Brown's Shepherd's Pie

• 1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes
• 1/4 cup half-and-half
• 2 ounces unsalted butter
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced small
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 pounds ground lamb
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons tomato paste
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons freshly chopped rosemary leaves
• 1 teaspoon freshly chopped thyme leaves
• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen English peas

Peel the potatoes and cut into 1/2-inch dice. Place in a medium saucepan, cover with cold water, set over high heat, cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, uncover, decrease the heat to maintain a simmer and cook until tender and easily crushed with tongs, approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Place the half-and-half and butter into a microwave-safe container and heat in the microwave until warmed through, about 35 seconds. Drain the potatoes in a colander and then return to the saucepan. Mash the potatoes and then add the half and half, butter, salt and pepper and continue to mash until smooth. Stir in the yolk until well combined.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. While the potatoes are cooking, prepare the filling. Place the canola oil into a 12-inch saute pan and set over medium high heat. Once the oil shimmers, add the onion and carrots and saute just until they begin to take on color, approximately 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and stir to combine. Then add the lamb, salt and pepper and cook until browned and cooked through, approximately 3 minutes. Sprinkle the meat with the flour and toss to coat, continuing to cook for another minute. Add the tomato paste, chicken broth, Worcestershire, rosemary, thyme, and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer slowly 10 to 12 minutes or until the sauce is thickened slightly.

Add the corn and peas to the lamb mixture and spread evenly into an 11 by 7-inch glass baking dish. (That's what the recipe seriously calls for, who has an 11x7 baking dish? All I have is a 8x8 or a 9x13, I went with the 9x13 and it just seemed too thin, I'd opt for the 8x8 and just hope it doesn't overflow next time) Top with the mashed potatoes, starting around the edges to create a seal to prevent the mixture from bubbling up and smooth with a rubber spatula. Bake for 25 minutes or just until the potatoes begin to brown. Remove to a cooling rack for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Thanksgiving!

The holidays will be upon us soon, I had been hoping my husband would be home by then but it's looking like it won't happen, so I will be spending Thanksgiving with some of my friends, and while I won't be cooking a full meal like I usually do, thought I would share some recipes that I usually do when I would be cooking a full meal. We're a turkey family, I'm not a huge fan of ham, so every year since we've been married I've done a full turkey along with the traditional mashed potatoes, green beans, pumpkin pie, stuffing, etc. I have yet to have a turkey flop, and I usually do those for Christmas and once for Easter as well! Mine always turn out flavorful, moist and deliciously brown. I thought I would go ahead and share that recipe, and then the one I'm making this year, which is my sweet potato recipe. I was never a huge fan of sweet potatoes growing up, but I decided to try to do it last year, and instead of using marshmallows on top I did a sort of pecan crumble and I actually loved it! So if you've never liked it before but want to make it, maybe try this version and see what you think :)

Turkey

Butter
Favorite herbs (I use rosemary, thyme, oregano, garlic)
Olive Oil
Salt and pepper
Aluminum foil
Onions
Optional: Celery, Shallots, Garlic, Lemons, etc.

I don't have exact measurements, because quite frankly it depends how big the turkey is that you've bought! So what I do is I put a good amount of butter in a bowl and mix all of the herbs in with it, more herbs more flavor, so don't be afraid to go a bit overboard with it! Once that is done, rinse your turkey off and put it in your roasting pan, and separate the skin from the breasts so you can fit your hand under there. Carefully take hand fulls of the butter and herb mixture and put it under the skin until it's all gone, pushing it to cover the entire breasts and even back onto the top of the legs if you can get it back there.
Once that is done, drizzle the top of the turkey with the olive oil and rub it in so it covers the entire bird and then sprinkle it with a good dose of salt and pepper. For the inside of the bird try to get some salt and pepper along the inside of it, and then cut up one of the onions and whatever other vegetables/fruits you decide to have and put inside the cavity of the bird. Roughly chop the other onion and any of the other vegetables or fruit that you want and put it in the pan under the bird. The more you put in the more flavorful the pan juices for the gravy will be and the more flavorful the bird will be. Once thats done, tent some foil over the bird, making sure to cover the wing tips as those will burn the quickest. Bake at 325 for 15 minutes per pound of bird, taking the foil off when you have a half hour left so you can get a good brown on it.


Sweet Potato Casserole 

• 4 cups sweet potato, cubed (or same amount of canned yams)
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/2 cup milk 
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 
  
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Put sweet potatoes in a medium saucepan with water to cover. Cook over medium high heat until tender; drain and mash. In a large bowl, mix together the sweet potatoes, white sugar, eggs, salt, butter, milk and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Transfer to a 9x13 inch baking dish. In medium bowl, mix the brown sugar and flour. Cut in the butter until the mixture is coarse. Stir in the pecans. Sprinkle the mixture over the sweet potato mixture. Bake in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until the topping is lightly brown.

I hope everyone has a great holiday season with friends and family, safe travels to those of you travelling and happy cooking!!! :)

Copy Cat Soup and Breadsticks!

So I realized, after deciding that I was going to slack off a bit until my husband got home that I didn't like that idea one bit! I regretted not doing anything the week before and was determined to change that this week! So, on a bit of a spur the moment idea, I scrounged up some recipes from pinterest and got to it! My husband is not a fan of soup, but I happen to like it a lot, so I decided to try to squeeze in a recipe I was wanting to try for a bit in before he got home. Broccoli Cheese soup is one of my all time favorites, but I'd never made it from scratch before, so I decided to try my hand at that using a Panera copy cat recipe. It really was pretty good and very very easy, but next time I think I might even double the amount of cheese as it didn't really have that cheesy goodness I was looking for. What better to go with soup than bread sticks? And (in my opinion) the best bread sticks come from Olive Garden, so I had a copy cat recipe of that floating around that I tried too. These really were great, they weren't quite as light and fluffy as the ones at olive garden, but they still had a good texture and the salty garlic butter you put over them was mmm to die for! The best part was I had all of the bread stick ingredients just sitting around the house! I don't have pictures right now as I'm in Florida visiting my grandparents, but I will upload them as soon as I'm able :)

(Olive Garden) Bread sticks

• 1 1/2 cups warm water (between 110 - 120 degrees F) 
• 1 package active dry yeast 
• 4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 
• 2 tablespoons sugar 
• 1 tablespoon salt 
• 1 stick unsalted butter ( I used unsalted)
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder 
• 1 teaspoons salt

In a large bowl, dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water and allow to sit for 10 minutes or until mixture starts to get frothy. In separate bowl, combine flour and salt, then add to yeast mixture. Add melted butter and mix with paddle attachment (or hand mix, as I did) until fully combined. Knead dough for a few minutes just until dough is smooth. Grease a cookie sheet and pull off pieces of dough and roll out into strips (It should make roughly a dozen bread sticks, more or less depending on size). Cover the dough and let sit in a warm place for 45 minutes to an hour. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees . In microwave, combine the rest of the ingredients. After bread sticks have cooked for 6 or 7 minutes, brush the bread sticks with half the butter mixture, then continue to bake. Bake for 5-8 more minutes. Immediately upon removal from the oven brush the other half of the butter on the sticks. Allow to cool for a few minutes before eating.

(Panera Bread) Broccoli Cheese Soup

• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 cups half-and-half ( or skim milk)
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 pound fresh broccoli ( florets only)
• 1 cup carrots, julienne
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 8 ounces grated cheddar cheese

Saute onions in a little butter in a small pan until they get soft and set aside. In a large stockpot melt the butter then add flour and mix for 3 minutes. Slowly add half- half – mixing the entire time followed by the chicken stock. Let simmer on low for 20 minutes before adding broccoli, carrots, onions and cook on low for 25 minutes.Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Place soup in a blender or use an immersion blender and puree, I stopped a bit short of it being smooth as personally I love to have some little chunks of vegetables in my soup. Heat soup over low heat and add cheese and mix till melted. Serve and enjoy!