Taylor's Traditional Cranberry Sauce

We found this recipe years ago in a book called Thanksgiving Fun: Great Things to Make and Do by Ronne Randall and Annabel Spenceley. My daughter Taylor has been making it for years, now, and has improved it with the addition of crushed pineapple and a pinch of cinnamon. The best part is watching all of the children gather around the pot to see the cranberries pop. Serve it with generous dollops of homemade whipped cream.

Source: Thanksgiving Fun: Great Things to Make and Do

Ingredients

2 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen

¼ cup orange juice

¼ cup water

1 cup sugar

1 can crushed pineapple, drained well

a pinch of cinnamon

Heat everything except the pineapple in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring gently, for about

7-10 minutes. Pretty soon, the cranberries will start popping open! That's the fun part! When

they've all popped, add the pineapple. Cool, refrigerate, and serve with whipped cream.

Curried Lentils

One of my favorite recipes, My Favorite Lentil Soup, comes from Jane Brody's Good Food Book, a cookbook I bought when my eldest son was still in my tummy 20 years ago. I've enjoyed every recipe I've made from that book, but often overlook it when I'm in the mood to try something new. One afternoon, I had an overabundance of lentils and an underabundance of money, so I pulled Brody's book off the shelf, hoping for some more Brody magic. After I cooked up her Curried Lentils, I was hooked. Everyone in the house loved it over a dish of piping-hot basmati rice and a hunk of bread. We make it as a side dish to Chicken Paprikash and it's always a hit. The one difference between my version and Brody's is that I don't drain the lentils. The sauce oozes into rice perfectly!

The "time" involved in this dish is about a half-hour for the lentils to cook, but, other than that, it's an extremely simple dish and very inexpensive to make.

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1 cup lentils, rinsed and picked through for debris or stones
3 cups broth or water (use vegetable broth or water for a delicious vegan dish!)
2 large onions, chopped
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon curry powder

In a medium saucepan, combine the lentils, water or broth, half of the onions and salt to taste. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until lentils are tender.
While the lentils are cooking, heat the oil in a pan, add the onions and cook until they begin to brown. Turn off heat and add minced garlic and curry powder.
When lentils are soft, add the curry powder mixture to the lentils and stir well. Heat through.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Even though it's mid-winter and the temperature outside was hovering around 7 degrees F., it was time to grill. I had purchased some boneless chicken breast and was having a hankering for some Chicken Bryan. We'd just purchased a new charcoal grill after ours had faithfully served us for many years and then fallen completely apart, and we had a nice pile of charcoal to go with it after the previous evening's boneless sirloin dinner, so I convinced my husband (it didn't take much) to fire up the grill and toss on the chicken part of the Chicken Bryan. While he was seasoning and grilling the chicken, 14-year-old Aleks and I put together the sauce and side dishes. One of our favorite Italian restaurants serves Chicken Bryan with garlic mashed potatoes, which is a simply delicious vehicle for the extra sun-dried tomato and basil sauce that slides off of the grilled chicken breasts. Whether you make this as a side for Chicken Bryan or for a simple grilled sirloin, you'll love the zip of these potatoes.

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Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Serves 4-6

10 medium russett potatoes, peeled and diced
1 1/2 sticks butter (12 tablespoons butter), room temperature
3/4 cup sour cream, room temperature
2 cloves of garlic, pressed
3 tablespoon heavy cream, room temperature
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Remember to always start your potatoes in COLD water. Put just enough water in a medium saucepot to cover the potatoes. Salt the water, and then bring it to a boil. Once they start boiling, set timer for 5 minutes. Check potatoes occasionally for tenderness. They should be fork tender (a fork easily inserts into the piece of potato) but not so tender that they disintigrate in the water. Drain potatoes and return to the saucepan.

Add the butter, sour cream, heavy cream and garlic to the potatoes, mashing with a potato masher. Add more heavy cream if the potatoes aren't creamy enough. Season with additional salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste. Sprinkle with fresh chives and freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

Garlic Chicken with White Wine Sauce

This delicious recipe comes from Simply Recipes with a couple of minor modifications, including this garlic technique learned from Cooks Illustrated; when using whole cloves of garlic in a recipe like this, save yourself some time by throwing the heads in your stand mixer with the paddle blade attached. The blade will batter the heads apart, leaving you with cloves that have been lightly crushed and ready to use. Toss out whatever loose paper remains, but throw the cloves with the bits of paper attached right in. As Elise says, they add flavor. When you're done with this fabulous dish, you'll be left with a pot of liquid gold, as it produces much more sauce than you'll need for your meal. Don't throw it out, for heaven's sake! Strain it through a fine-mesh strainer, chill, remove excess fat from the top, and use it in your favorite soup or stew. I used mine in Beef Vegetable Stew, substituting it for the bouillon and other seasonings, and the family was amazed by the increase in flavor over how the recipe is usually made. And as my friend D.J. says, don't cook with a wine you wouldn't drink. I used Sauvignon Blanc, just as Elise suggested, and it was fabulous. Serve with lightly mashed Yukon Gold potatoes seasoned with salt and black pepper. If you want to take the time, fish a handful of the cooked garlic pieces (skins off--the skins will have slipped right off or easily will when you pick them up; careful, they'll be hot!) from the wine sauce and add them before you mash the potatoes. A hunk of crusty bread, a green salad, and you're so well-fed, you won't believe it. 

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Garlic Chicken with White Wine Sauce


Ingredients:

• 4 lbs chicken pieces--quarters, thighs, bone-in-breasts 
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2-3 whole heads of garlic
• Cooking oil
• 1 ¼ cup dry white wine, such as a Sauvignon Blanc
• 2 teaspoons of dried thyme
• 2 teaspoons dried marjoram
• (definitely use sprigs of fresh herbs if you have them, but as it's winter in Ohio, I don't)

Directions:
1 Toss heads of garlic, one at a time, into the stand mixer with paddle attached. Turn on medium-low and let the mixer separate the cloves, bruise them a bit, and knock off the extra skin. Don't peel the garlic, but dispose of any paper that fell off during the mixing process.

2 Trim the chicken pieces of excess fat. Pat dry and sprinkle pieces generously with salt and pepper.

3 Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a Dutch oven or roasting pan on medium high. Working in batches, brown the chicken pieces on all sides. Lay the chicken pieces on the hot oil, do not move until browned, then turn over to other side using tongs (about 3 minutes per side). Remove to a platter when browned.

4 Add a little more oil to the pan if necessary. Add the garlic, skins on, and sauté until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Take a HUGE whiff, 'cause this smells doggone GOOD! Add the wine and the herbs. Bring to a boil. Add the chicken pieces. Reduce the heat to medium low.

5 Cover the pan and simmer on the stovetop until the chicken is cooked through. Move the chicken pieces from top to bottom every 5 minutes for about 20 minutes. Chicken is done when a meat thermometer inserted into thickest part reads 180°F for thighs and 170°F for breasts.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer chicken pieces to a platter; spoon garlic sauce over the chicken.

Shortbread Cookies

Can there be anything as delicious, delicate and delightful as a good shortbread cookie and a big cup of milk or hot cocoa? These cookies are one of our standards for Christmas. Sometimes we sprinkle them with a bit of sugar before baking, and sometimes we dip them in melted milk chocolate. However you choose to make them, be sure you start with good quality room temperature butter and real vanilla. Using a 1/2 cup of cornstarch makes these cookies melt in your mouth even faster!

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Shortbread Cookies:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup powdered (confectioners) sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter on medium speed until smooth, 1 minute. Add the powdered sugar and beat until smooth, another 2 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and mix. On the second lowest speed of your mixer, add the flour, cornstarch and salt until combined with the butter. Flatten the dough into a disk shape and place in a baggie, then chill for an hour, or more, if you want to make the cookies later.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thick. Using a lightly floured cookie cutter, cut the dough into shapes. Place cookies on the parchment-lined sheet and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until edges of cookies are lightly brown. Place on wire rack to cool.

Makes about 2 dozen small cookies.

Turkey Carcass Soup

One of our favorite Thanksgiving traditions is to make Turkey Carcass Soup the day after the Big Feast. First of all, I just love the name. It sounds so...barbaric and medieval. Secondly, it's absolutely delicious and feels very resourceful to use all of the turkey this way. I discovered this recipe years ago in Jane Brody's Good Food Cookbook, one of my all-time favorite cookbooks.

Add a loaf of homemade bread, and you've got yourself an amazing meal.

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Turkey Carcass Soup


Ingredients:

• Stock:
• Turkey carcass, broken into pieces
• Any defatted pan juices or leftover gravy
• 12 cups of water, or enough to cover the carcass completely
• 2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
• 2 ribs of celery with leaves, coarsely chopped
• ½ cup diced carrots
• ½ cup diced well-washed leek (optional)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt, if desired
• Bouquet garni, made by tying in cheesecloth:
• 6 sprigs fresh parsley (or 2 tsp. dried parsley flakes)
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1 bay leaf
• Soup:
• ½ onion, finely copped
• 2 - 3 cloves minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup diced carrots
• ½ cup diced celery
• 1 ½ tablespoons flour
• 6 - 7 cups turkey stock
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• ⅓ cup raw barley or rice
• 1 cup diced turkey meat
• Hot pepper sauce, to taste (optional)
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley or chives

Directions:
For the stock, combine all the ingredients in a large stock pot, bring the stock to a boil and simmer it, partially covered for 2 to 3 hours. (It tastes better the longer it simmers, but be careful not to cook away the liquid.)

Strain the stock; cool, then skim off the fat.

Remove all of the meat from the bones and refrigerate for adding to the soup later. Discard other vegetables, bones, turkey skin, etc. Makes 10 - 12 cups.

To make the soup, in a large stockpot saute the onion and garlic in oil until soft. Add the carrots and celery and mushrooms and cook the vegetables for an additional 5 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Add the flour and stir for one minute.

Add the stock, marjoram, salt and pepper, and barley or rice. Bring the soup to a boil, reduce heat, partially cover the pot, and simmer the soup for about 1 hour. Add the turkey meat and hot pepper sauce. Adjust seasonings, and heat the soup to boiling. Sprinkle the soup with parsley just before serving.

Aunt Marilyn's Potato Soup

The girls visited with their Aunt Marilyn over the summer. What a wonderful time they had! They talk and talk and talk and talk about the fun and the arguments and the adventures. And they also talk about the food! Specifically, they talk about the potato soup.

So I called Aunt Marilyn for her potato soup recipe, and she gave it to me over the phone. She has that gift of cooking without recipes, a gift that I just didn't get in my life. So her recipe was "some of this," and "add that." I did it...and it worked!

Here's my version of Aunt Marilyn's Potato Soup. Enjoy!

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Aunt Marilyn's Potato Soup

Take a big soup pot and fill it with cold water.
Wash 5 pounds of Yukon Gold potatoes and cut them into bite-sized cubes.
Put the potatoes in the water as you go.
When they are all cut, drain the water, rinse the potatoes in the pot, drain again, and then fill the pot to just above the potatoes.
Cut up two large onions into bite-sized pieces. Add to the potatoes. Add more cold water to cover, if necessary. Don't add to much water because you won't be removing any from the pot when the potatoes are done cooking.
Salt well.
Bring to a boil, and then turn down to a slow boil or fast simmer.
Cook until potatoes are fork-tender but not falling apart.
While potatoes are cooking, crisp 1to 2 pounds of bacon (depending on how much you like bacon) and crumble when done.
When potatoes are finished, add 2 sticks of butter and a pint of heavy cream (or more, if you want it creamier).
Add salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste.
OPTIONAL: If you want a thicker soup,  remove three cups of potatoes and put them into a blender or food processor and puree, then add back to the soup.
Add 2 cups of grated high-quality sharp white cheddar cheese, stirring constantly so that cheese doesn't sink to the bottom unmelted. 
Top with more shredded white cheddar and crisp bacon bits and a twist of fresh black pepper.
Serve with warm, crusty bread.