Thanksgiving is Officially Over
The last of the turkey was consumed tonight. Considering I bought such a (comparitively) small bird this year, I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did.
Hot turkey sandwiches were the appropriate finishing meal. Unfortunately, I forgot the cranberry sauce.
Oh well...
I just had a memory of Turkey Dinner when I was in Uncle Sam's Yacht Club. Christmas Day, 1972... Gulf of Tonkin.
I was a baker and five of us made something like 700 pies, while the cooks in the galley cooked off something like 500 BRT turkeys. (BRT=Boned, Rolled, and Tied.) Mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, dressing... The forward bakeshop made 5000 or so dinner rolls. Gourmet, it was not.
So after baking all those damned pies, I got to serve them, as well. I don't remember who sent the Santa outfit to me - one of my sister's probably - but there I was dressed as a pretty lame Santa in a flannel Santa outfit serving those thousands of slices of pie.
The ice mold on the counter there was also a thing to behold. My best buddy Tim - who later became my brother-in-law - and I filled up a small mixing bowl with water and floated plastic holly, tinsel, and lord knows whatever other holiday-type stuff one could find while floating off the coast of Viet Nam. Into the freezer it went, and we had instant holiday ice sculpture. They loved it.
The only thing I really remember well - 36 years after the fact - is just how uncomfortable and hot I was. I think I actually weighed about 150 pounds in that picture and had tons of padding on me. (I wouldn't need the padding, today!) The galley and the bakeshops were always incredibly hot to begin with - and there I was dressed in layers and layers.
And how about those Navy-Issue glasses?!? What a stud.
Pork Chops with Pears
I always like it when I have a semblence of a plan for dinner when I leave the house in the morning. I had pulled pork chops out of the freezer before going to bed last night and had an idea I might make Lidia's Pork Chops with Pears and a balsamic reduction.
Lidia's Pork Chops with Pears and Caramelized Red Onions
- 2 cups balsamic vinegar
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 6 garlic cloves, peeled
- 4 center-cut pork rib chops, each about 12 ounces and 1 1/4 inches thick
- 1 large red onion, cut into 8 wedges
- Salt
- Freshly ground pepper
- 2 ripe but firm Bosc pears, peeled, cored and each cut into 8 wedges
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons honey
In a small saucepan, bring balsamic vinegar to a boil over high heat. Adjust the heat to a gentle boil and boil until the vinegar is syrupy and reduced to about 1/3 cup. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet with a flameproof handle over medium-high heat. Whack garlic cloves with the flat side of a knife and scatter over oil. Cook, shaking the skillet, until brown, about 2 minutes. Lay the pork chops in and cook until the underside is browned, about 6 minutes. Remove and reserve the garlic cloves if they become more than deep golden brown before the chops are fully browned.
Turn the chops, tuck the onion wedges into the pan and continue cooking until the second side of the chops is browned, about 6 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. About halfway through browning the second side, tuck the pear wedges in between the chops.
Stir the red wine vinegar and honey together in a small bowl, until the honey is dissolved. Pour the mixture into the skillet and bring to a vigorous boil. Return the garlic cloves to the skillet if you have removed them. Place the skillet in the oven and roast until onions and pears are tender and the juices from the pork are a rich, syrupy dark brown, about 30 minutes. Once or twice during roasting, turn the chops and redistribute the onions and pears. Handle the skillet carefully -- it will be extremely hot.
Remove skillet from the oven. Place a chop in the center of each warmed serving plate. Check the seasoning of the onion-pear mixture, adding salt and pepper if necessary. Spoon the pears, onion and pan juices around the chops. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar reduction around the edge of the plate.
Makes 4 servings.
While at work, though, I thought that some gorgonzola cheese instead of the basamic reduction would probably be good, so, when I got home, I followed the basic premise of the recipe - the pork chops, red onions, and pears, but when juuuuust about done, I crumbled some gorgonzola over everything and then drizzled some 10 year old balsamic over all.
WOW! The gorgonzola really played off the pears and onions well. And the little hint of balsamic brought it all together. It was yummy.
Fresh green beans and Carolina Plantation Aromatic Rice finished the plate.
The Carolina Rice is a bit of an un-wedding gift from our friends Mike and Barbara down in South Carolina. It should have been thrown at the wedding-that-wasn't (even though we explained to them that at our advanced ages, the last thing we needed were fertility rituals.) It's a medium grain rice with a great flavor. Definitely better eaten than thrown.
They also sent up a nice big bag of Carolina Plantation grits. I'm working on a Sunday Breakfast idea...
Panko Breaded Chicken
I've been craving bacon for days, now... I picked up almost 2 pounds at the farmers market the other day and it's been sitting, nicely wrapped, in the refrigerator ever since. Tonight, it became a part of dinner. (Well - four slices did. The rest was nicely portioned with the FoodSaver and into the freezer it went...)
I had thawed out a couple of really huge chicken breasts (so huge, actually, I should have used one and split it, since we both only ate half tonight...) so chicken was definitely the star, but I needed some supporting players, and bacon, roasted red peppers, and manchego cheese easily filled the bill.
I dredged the chicken in seasoned flour, dipped into egg, and then into seasoned panko bread crumbs. (The basics - garlic, salt, and pepper.)
Into a hot skillet with a bit of grapeseed oil it went. When the chicken was well-browned, I put it into a 350° oven for about 10 minutes to continue cooking.
I then topped each breast with 2 slices of cooked bacon, roasted red pepper, and thick slices of manchego cheese. Back into the oven.
In the meantime, I had cubed and roasted potatoes, and steamed broccoli and drizzled it with Victor's roasted garlic butter.
The flavors really worked out well. The bacon, pepper, and cheese really worked well with the panko chicken. Lots of flavors and textures for minimal effort.
And I ate all my broccoli.
Turkey Soup
It's hard to take credit for boiling bones with water - but, what the heck...
Coming from a large family, we were raised on soups. My mother could make soup out of anything - or nothing, depending upon how close it was to payday. Soup is merely putting things into a pot and making it all hot. Really basic. And really, really easy.
Tonight's soup started with the turkey carcass in a pot filled with water. I added a bit of white wine, a couple of bay leaves, a couple of garlic cloves, and a bit of salt and pepper. I let it go at a rolling boil for a couple of hours, allowing it to reduce by almost half. (It did a wonderful job of humidifying the house.) I strained it, added a couple of cups of leftover gravy, and after it cooled, into the 'fridge it went. I probably ended up with a gallon of broth.
Today, I skimmed the grease from the top and back into the soup pot it went - with:
- 2 cups chopped celery
- 2 cups chopped carrots
- 1 cup fresh peas (leftover from my farmer's market run)
- 2 cups fresh green beans
- 1 can cannellini beans
- about 3/4 cup dried barley and
- about 1/3 cup wild rice that I precooked before adding
- 3 cups chopped turkey
It all went into the pot and cooked. Really simple, really basic. The beauty is any and all of the ingredients could have been changed or omitted. In most situations, it's about what's in the refrigerator or cabinets. You shouldn't have to go shopping to make soup.
And now that cake is calling my name...
A New Spin on an Old Recipe
Victor got a recipe for an Apple Cake years ago. It's really, really good. Today, however, we were home - without apples - and Victor wanted to make a cake. What we did have was a lot of dried fruit we had bought for our train trip home.
Apple Cake became Dried Fruit Cake.
Here's the original recipe and Victor's tweaks, after:
Apple Cake
- 3 cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup oil
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 4 tsp sugar
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 4 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 5 large apples
Preheat oven to 350°. Peel and cut apples into small chunks. Add 4 tsp sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon and stir together.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and set aside.
Beat together eggs, OJ & vanilla. Add oil, mix in flour mixture.
In a well-greased tube pan, pour alternate layers of batter and apples. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top.
Bake at 350° for 1 1/2 hours or until cake tests done.
Cool before slicing.
Dried Fruit Cake
- 3 cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup oil
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 4 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 2 cups chopped dried fruit (an assortment of pears, pineapple, apricots, dates, cherries, and peaches)
Preheat oven to 350°. Peel and cut apples into small chunks. Add 4 tsp sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon and stir together.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and set aside.
Beat together eggs, OJ & vanilla. Add oil, mix in flour mixture. Dust fruit with flour and stir into batter.
Pour batter into a well-greased tube pan. Top with pecans and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
Bake at 350° for 1 1/2 hours or until cake tests done.
Cool before slicing.
It smells divine!
As soon as we finish our soup.....