Mom's Turkey Stuffing

Mom’s Turkey Stuffing

This stuffing is simple, yet delicious. My mom started using toasted bread to include my brother and I in the process of cooking Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. We were delighted to help with the toasting and tearing. I no longer stuff the bird but cook it separately as recommended for healthier cooking.

• 2 loafs white bread
• 1 pnd margarine

• 3 tsp poultry seasoning or season to taste
• 1 yellow onion chopped
• 5-6 stalks celery chopped
• Turkey stock

Toast white bread and tear into bite size pieces. Slowly melt margarine in large sauté pan. Add poultry seasoning to taste. Add chopped celery and onions. Sauté vegetables until tender, around 5-10 minutes. Mix with bread bites. Add a bit of turkey giblet stock to taste. Add more poultry season if needed. Stuff in turkey or bake separately at 400 degrees for around 10 minutes or until heated through.

Roast Turkey

Recipe and photo found on the website simplyrecipes.com.

I have made my Thanksgiving and Christmas turkey this way for the past couple years and it is tender and juicy.

 

• 1 turkey, approx. 15 lbs.
• Juice of a lemon
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil or melted butter
• 1/2 yellow onion, peeled and quartered
• Tops and bottoms of a bunch of celery
• 2 carrots
• Parsley
• Sprigs of fresh rosemary, thyme

To start, if the turkey has been refrigerated, bring it to room temperature before cooking. Keep it in its plastic wrapping until you are ready to cook it. While in the refrigerator, and or while you are bringing it to room temp, have the bird resting in a pan, so that if the plastic covering leaks for any reason, you are confining the juices to the pan. If you get a frozen turkey, you will need to defrost it in the refrigerator for several days first. Allow approximately 5 hours of defrosting for every pound. So, if you have a 15 pound turkey, it will take about 75 hours to defrost it in the refrigerator, or around 3 days.

Handle a raw turkey with the same amount of caution as when you handle raw chicken - use a separate cutting board and utensils to avoid contaminating other foods. Wash you hands with soap before touching anything else in the kitchen. Use paper towels to clean up.

Remove the neck and giblets (heart, gizzard, liver). Use the heart and gizzard for making stock for the stuffing. The neck can be cooked along side the turkey or saved for turkey soup. Or all of the giblets can be used for making giblet gravy.

Note that if your turkey comes with a plastic piece holding the legs together, check the instructions on the turkey's package. Most likely you do not need to remove those plastic ties for cooking (unless you plan to cook your turkey at a very high temperature). If you remove the plastic ties, you will need to use kitchen string to tie the legs together.

 Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

 Wash out the turkey with water. Pull out any remaining feather stubs in the turkey skin. Pat the turkey dry with paper towels. Lather the inside of the cavity with the juice of half a lemon. Take a small handful of salt and rub all over the inside of the turkey.

In this method of cooking a turkey, we don't make the stuffing in the turkey because doing so adds too much to the cooking time. For flavor, put in inside the turkey a half a yellow onion, peeled and quartered, a bunch of parsley, a couple of carrots, and some tops and bottoms of celery. You may need to cap the body cavity with some aluminum foil so that the stuffing doesn't easily fall out. Close up the turkey cavity with either string (not nylon string!) or metal skewers. Make sure that the turkey's legs are tied together, held close to the body, and tie a string around the turkey body to hold the wings in close.

The neck cavity can be stuffed with parsley and tied closed with thin skewers and string.

 Rub either melted butter or olive oil all over the outside of the turkey. Sprinkle salt generously all over the outside of the turkey (or have had it soaking in salt-water brine before starting this process). Sprinkle pepper over the turkey.

 Place turkey BREAST DOWN on the bottom of a rack over a sturdy roasting pan big enough to catch all the drippings. This is the main difference between the way mom makes turkey and everyone else. Cooking the turkey breast down means the skin over the breast will not get so brown. However, all of the juices from the cooking turkey will fall down into the breast while cooking. And the resulting bird will have the most succulent turkey breast imaginable.

Add several sprigs of fresh (if possible) thyme and rosemary to the outside of the turkey.

 Chop up the turkey giblets (gizzard, heart). Put into a small saucepan, cover with water, add salt. Bring to simmer for an hour or so to help make stock for the stuffing.

Put the turkey in the oven. Check the cooking directions on the turkey packaging. Gourmet turkeys often don't take as long to cook. With the turkeys mom gets, she recommends cooking time of about 15 minutes for every pound. For the 15 lb turkey, start the cooking at 400 F for the first 1/2 hour. Then reduce the heat to 350 F for the next 2 hours. Then reduce the heat further to 225 F for the next hour to hour and a half.

If you want the breast to be browned as well, you can turn the bird over so that the breast is on top, and put it in a 500°F oven or under the broiler for 4-5 minutes, just enough to brown the breast. Note that if you do this, you will have a higher risk of overcooking the turkey breast.

Start taking temperature readings with a meat thermometer, inserted deep into the thickest part of the turkey breast and thigh, an hour before the turkey should be done. You want a resulting temperature of 175°F for the dark meat (thighs and legs) and 165°F for the white meat (breast). The temperature of the bird will continue to rise once you take it out of the oven, so take it out when the temperature reading for the thigh is 170°F, and for the breast 160°F. If you don't have a meat thermometer, spear the breast with a knife. The turkey juices should be clear, not pink.

Grilled Filets Mignons with Caramelized Onion & Mushroom Sauce

I made this tonight for dinner and it was delicious. This is a recipe I will make over and over again. I found it in the Williams-Sonoma catalog this month and it is by Chef Bryan Voltaggio, owner of Volt restaurant in Maryland, and contestant on Top Chef season 6.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbs. vegetable oil
• 1 red onion, halved and cut into slices 1/4 inch thick
  
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup diced bacon
• 8 oz. wild mushrooms, cleaned and trimmed
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 Tbs. unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
  
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 4 filets mignons, each about 8 oz. and 2 1/2 inches thick
• 1 Tbs. olive oil
• Smoked coarse ground pepper, to taste
• Sea salt for sprinkling
  

Directions:

(picture from Williams-Sonoma website)

In a sauté pan over medium heat, warm the vegetable oil. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until soft and caramelized, about 15 minutes, adding the water halfway through the cooking time. Add the bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp, about 8 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the onion mixture to a bowl; reserve the fat in the pan.

Increase the heat to medium-high and add the mushrooms to the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, 6 to 7 minutes. Return the onion mixture to the pan and add the broth and butter. Cook until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the rosemary and season with kosher salt and black pepper. Keep the sauce warm.

Pat the filets dry with paper towels. Wrap kitchen twine around the sides of each filet and tie securely. Drizzle the filets with the olive oil, rubbing it evenly on all sides. Generously season the meat with kosher salt and smoked pepper.

Preheat a grill pan over medium heat for 10 minutes. Place the filets on the pan and grill for 6 to 7 minutes per side for rare to medium-rare, rotating the filets 90 degrees halfway through grilling on each side; the internal temperature should register 125° to 130°F on an instant-read thermometer.

Transfer the filets to a cutting board, cover loosely with aluminum foil and let rest for 10 minutes. Cut the filets into 1/4-inch slices. Spoon the sauce onto individual plates and fan the steak slices on top. Sprinkle with sea salt and serve immediately with. Serves 4.

My Mom's Butter Tarts

My mom is from Canada, and a popular dessert in Canada is Butter Tarts. They are so delicious and you cannot find them in the USA. One of the key ingredients is starting out with my moms pastry passed down through the generations and it calls for lard. If you don't want to use lard, that is fine, but it will change the taste. I have tried many butter tarts while visiting Canada and I have never found one comparable in taste to my mom's recipe.

Mom’s Pastry

5 cups flour

1 pound lard

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp baking powder

Mix the above 4 ingredients together in a large bowl, use fork to start then by hand (I use my Cuisinart mixer for the entire recipe and it does a fabulous job).

Beat 1 egg in a measuring cup

Add 2 tsp white vinegar

Then add water to make ¾ cup

Add to flour mixture and mix. Mix until lard is almost absorbed. Mixture will be very sticky. Roll into log and cut into 6 even pieces. Wrap in tin foil and freeze for at least 1 day. Thaw and roll out with lots of flour. 

Butter Tarts

Roll out pastry and cut pastry to fit muffin pan. Paper baking cups will help avoid sticking but if not using spray pan with non-stick spray.

Filling:

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup syrup (Use golden syrup, Cost-Plus has great stuff imported from England or Scotland).

3 tbs butter

Cream these 3 ingredients together.

1 egg beaten well

Add a little at a time to creamed mixture while beating.

½ tsp vanilla

Pinch of salt

1 ½ tsp white vinegar

1/3 or ½ cup raisins

Spoon mixture into pastry cups.

Bake at 425 degrees for 5 minutes, lower temp to 350 degrees and bake 12 minutes more.

Yields 15-18 tarts

Spaghetti and Meatballs

This is my daughter's favorite dinner and is simply delicious. The recipe is from Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen cookbook but I have changed a few thing to make it simpler.

Picture found on Gourmet Magazine website but recipe from Lidia's Italian American Kitchen cookbook.

 
Makes 6 servings

For the Sauce:
Two 35-ounce cans Italian plum tomatoes,  with their liquid
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 teaspoon crushed hot red pepper
2 bay leaves
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

For the Meatballs:
1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 pound ground beef
1 cup fine, dry bread crumbs
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped fine
1 large egg
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
All-purpose flour
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 pound spaghetti
2/3 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Pass the tomatoes and their liquid through a food mill fitted with the fine disc. (This is where I change things. I buy crushed tomatoes in rich puree and skip the food mill) Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a 4- to 5-quart pot over medium high heat. Stir in the onion and cook, stirring, until wilted, about 4 minutes. Pour in the tomatoes, crushed red pepper and bay leaves, and season lightly with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat so the sauce is at a lively simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, crumble the pork and beef into a mixing bowl. Sprinkle the bread crumbs, 1/3 cup grated cheese, the parsley, and garlic over the meat. Beat the egg with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper in a small bowl until blended. Pour over the meat mixture. Mix the ingredients with clean hands just until evenly blended. Don't over mix. Shape the meat mixture into 1-1/2 inch balls.

Dredge the meatballs in the flour until lightly but evenly coated. Heat 1/4 cup olive oil and the vegetable oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Slip as many meatballs into the skillet as will fit without crowding. Fry, turning as necessary, until golden brown on all sides, about 6 minutes. Adjust the heat as the meatballs cook to prevent them from over browning. Remove the meatballs, and repeat if necessary with the remaining meatballs.

Add the browned meatballs to the tomato sauce and cook, stirring gently with a wooden spoon, until no trace of pink remains at the center of the meatballs, about 30 minutes.

Stir the spaghetti into the boiling water. Return to a boil, stirring frequently. Cook the pasta, semi-covered, stirring occasionally, until done, about 8 minutes.

Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Spoon in about 2 cups of the tomato sauce, tossing well until the pasta is coated with sauce. Remove from the heat and toss in 2/3 cup grated cheese. Check the seasoning, and add salt and pepper if necessary. Serve the pasta in warm bowls or piled high on a large warm platter. Spoon a little more of the sauce over the pasta, and pass the remaining sauce separately. Pass the meatballs family-style in a bowl, or top the bowls or platter of spaghetti with them.

Enjoy! I know you will love it.