Thanksgiving Eve and Missing Ingredients? No Problem. Adapt

It was such a wretched battle on the city streets, after work, this Thanksgiving Eve that I didn't bother to go to the grocery store for the five items missing for my holiday meal prep. This meant I had to change the menu. Though I had the prosciutto, I did not have fresh lemon or the right cheese for poultry saltimbocca. So this meant I had to face roasting a whole 12 pound turkey tonight. If that didn't turn out I would make ordinary panko covered chicken breasts as a substitute.

Ingredients:
12 pound turkey
1/4 cup ground Saigon Cinnamon
4 TB dried rosemary

Equipment:
oven
roasting pan
oven safe roasting bag
oven mitts

I roasted my turkey for 3 hours at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Since I used an oven cooking bag, I was not allowed to raise the heat any higher. The result? Great browned turkey skin and fully cooked all around! The meat thermometer read 190 degrees Fahrenheit when I tested the thickest part of the breast. Good! The turkey was frozen but I thawed it under cold running water and stored it in the fridge with a drip pan for 48 hours. It was pre-brined so I only seasoned it with Saigon cinnamon and dried rosemary.

That was the entree.

What about a side? Vegetarian lasagna.

Ingredients:
12 lasagna noodles
boiling water
1 jar basil marinara sauce
12 oz. pureed pumpkin
2 TB ground cloves
10 oz low fat mozarella
20 oz ricotta
1 tsp dried oregano
10 oz shredded carrot
8 oz shredded zucchini
12 oz fresh or frozen spinach
6 oz mushrooms

Equipment:
Tall pot
wooden chopsticks--handy for lifting noodles without breaking them like a pasta claw
water
oven safe rectangular or square pan 3" deep

This is a story. I actually baked it twice. How? I don't recommend this but I forgot the spinach and mushrooms for the first baking so I did something sneaky. I wanted it to still appear nicely browned and bubbly on top yet I didn't have any more mozzarella. This is how I did it. I took a finished rectangular pan of lasagna and recut it. I cut the rectangle into two squares and sandwiched the sauteed spinach and mushrooms in between. Without a doubt this made a conspicuously tall square lasagna but it had the bubbly top layer I wanted.

What will I do differently with the veggie lasagna beside remember the spinach and mushroom layer? Next time I will pre-cook the shredded carrots. At first I thought that the carrots would soften in the oven. However, even through the second trip to the oven the carrots were still crisp. That meant a strange crunch amid all the wonderfully soft zucchini bites, warm riccotta, tender noodles and stretchy mozzarella. Since this was a pumpkin lasagna I recommend keeping the clove seasoning. It's delicious with the mild cheese!

What's for dessert? Pumpkin trifle.

At first I was going to do a simple repeat of the modified recipe from Sandra Lee of Food Network. I didn't use any liquor and I made my own gingerbread chunks last time. I also used chocolate chips baked into the cake rather than butterscotch chips scattered in the layered dessert.

What was missing this evening? The shortcut. Last time I used Sandra Lee's great cheat! I used boxed vanilla pudding mix and used heavy cream instead of the milk. Since I didn't want to brave the crazy, pushing crowds and picked over supermarket shelves. I dared to make my own stirred custard!

Keep in mind most stovetop puddings have failed even though I thought I followed Alton Brown's suggested proportions for powdered milk, powdered sugar, unsweetened cocoa and cornstarch. One time it became an aspic. Another time it was horribly bitter. Another time it became a dried flattened gel much like a peelable fruit snack.

What could I do? I had guests anticipating pumpkin recipes so I gave stirred custard a try! Would you believe  it worked! I made it from scratch and it worked. I danced in the kitchen. Since I knew it was delicate kitchen chemistry at work, I didn't stir in the pumpkin puree haphazardly. Instead I whisked and tended the stovetop liquid until it began to thicken. When I dropped in the butter and stirred for 8 minutes more on medium heat then I was sure the pudding was stable. I took it off the heat, poured the cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg stirred custard in a pan to cool. Then I used the same saucepan and stirred pumpkin puree with a little cream, more sugar and a bit of cornstarch on its own until I was confident it wouldn't dilute and break the binders of the other batch. I stirred the clove custard and whisked it for 3 minutes with the pumpkin. Success!

I confess it was a little lumpy. I learned my lesson. If the pudding pours out smoothly do not attempt to scrape any residual pudding from the pan. Hidden danger! I found rogue cornstarch at the bottom. If I wasn't greedy then my stirred custard would have been lump-free! The recipe from eHow for stirred custard worked perfectly. "How to Make Homemade Custard" by eHow was foolproof. I obeyed the proportions for starch, water and evaporated milk. I admit I added about 1/4 cup more sugar though. I wanted to compensate for the unsweetened pumpkin puree. Also instead of vanilla I spiced the pudding with cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pumpkin spices. I also used 4 TB of butter instead of 1 TB to make it richer.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

1 Winning Biscuit Recipe

After 3 failed attempts, I had 1 kitchen victory this week!


Lessons Learned
1. Revert to proper measuring.
2. Avoid cooking when dead tired.
3. Under-season when trying a new recipe.

My husband has eaten over-salted chicken saltimbocca, way too eggy pancakes and gristly beef patties this past week. Poor man! The only dish I am proud of is my Herbs de Provence biscuits.

I altered Giada de Laurentiis's recipe for chicken saltimbocca because I did not have black pepper, frozen spinach or prosciutto. I used white pepper, fresh spinach and turkey bacon. That wouldn't be so bad but I also used 1 TB of seasoning salt. This was a very bad idea considering I also use the suggested amount of salty parmesean and chicken broth. My fault. Not Giada's. The flattened and rolled chicken breasts looked great on the plate with green, red and gold from the cheese. Next time I make this I will substitute the parmesan for bland ricotta or mozzarella. I am very attached to seasoning salt since hubby prefers it. The allure of this recipe was the use of lemon juice and spinach. Next time will be better.

I used a Food Network Kitchen's recipe for plain pancakes and added chocolate chips to the batter. What went wrong? I only had a little bit of all purpose flour left in my kitchen cambro. I didn't measure it and used all the given amounts of liquid ingredients. The result? Dark yellow pancakes, overly rich with yolk. My husband was right when he said that the pancakes tasted like fudge with scrambled eggs. Fail again. In hindsight, I could have mixed my all purpose flour with some cake flour for the right amount of flour for the recipe. I also should have reduced the yolks to one and used the whites of two eggs. Since I decided to add the chocolate chips, I should have reduced the sugar in the batter and avoided the sweet rum entirely. Oh well.

I bought 80/20 ground beef from Trader Joes because at $3.49/pound it was less expensive than chicken. Chicken is still at $7/pound in most grocery stores this season. Maybe it's because I froze the beef and grilled it two days later but it was a terrible texture. Hubster said it was too fatty. I found it too dry. I was very tired after work when I made dinner so I made a number of mistakes. For instance, I only partially defrosted the beef. Next, I made the patties more than 2" thick and slammed them on the George Foreman grill. When they were still tar tare raw but dry on the outside, I shove them to broil in the oven--in hopes the oven would reach the bloody core. The meat had no chance. It had a dry awful crust and a freezer burned taste. I think even the best grade of meat would taste awful cooked this way. Next time I will grill the patties the same day I buy it without freezing it. I will mix the ground meat with flavorful BBQ sauce and form small 1/2" thick patties. I will avoid putting ground meat under the broiler!

My Herbs de Provence biscuits are actually Betty Crocker's recipe for pan rolls with 3 tsps. of baking powder instead of yeast. I also swapped cream for milk. I sprinkled a 1/4 tsp of dried Herbs de Provence. The biscuits were baked at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 21 minutes. They were tall, flaky and wonderful! I felt proud.

If you have three kitchen failures in a row, you are not alone! Don't despair and try again.

5 Favorite Food Sites: Roundup November 2011

I have been cooking since I was 8-years-old. My cousins used to plead with me to make my spicy spaghetti with turkey meatballs. When I was in college, I worked as a banquet server. I learned how to prepare wedding-banquet-worthy chicken marsala and prime rib. Since I enjoy running 5Ks and staying in shape, I try to maintain non-food hobbies too such as DIY interior design, museum visits, and blogging. These are my five favorite go-to sites when I want to learn a new recipe and impress guests. Check back in the new year for a new set of five.




Pinterest

Where else can you visit a flurry of cute images, bulletin board-style, connected to DIY tutorials? Well, actually you can also go to Weheartit and Notcot.org. However, I love Pinterest for its quirkiness. I also appreciate how quickly communities form. I have the option of repinning images onto my own boards. I can also follow all the boards of someone else. As for an example of quirkiness, today I found faux turkey bread. Bread made into the shape of a roasted turkey? I love it! I use Pinterest for work, consumer research and play.

NotMartha

When I came across this blogger's tentacle pot pie and Halloween meatloaf hand, I became a follower. I found her site through DIY home decor searches. Then I found her work on Babble. I like her writing style and her tutorials.


MrsHappyHomemaker
I plan to make this blogger's apple pie muffins for holiday brunches. I met MrsHappyHomemaker through email exchanges for work. She reviewed bathroom lighting for my employer's online lighting retail company. I approached her because she is a frugal homeschooler and I admire that.


Food Network's Giada de Laurentiis
This celebrity stays in great shape plus she uses flavor combinations for her dishes that are less common. For instance, she suggests pancetta seasoned with cinnamon! I've applied her bread pudding recipes and dazzled guests. I'm only guessing but I imagine her recipes are lower in fat than Paula Deen's. I wish Giada de Laurentiis would come out with a clothing line for petite women. I like her makeup too and fashion sense. I aspire to be in great shape like her if I become a mom someday.

Food Network's Alton Brown

Alton Brown's "Good Eats" show was a classic. It was funny, instructive and used puppets! Since I grew upon the Muppet Show, this won me over. My husband likes the kitchen chemistry explanations. I'm sure Alton Brown has an audience of males and females because of his kitchen stadium narration too. His aforementioned show used kitchen mixers emblazoned with flames like an Indian motorcycle and I bet it made men feel more comfortable making doughnuts and man food.

His mantra of using multi-functional gadgets keeps my kitchen tidy. In addition, I learn fool-proof recipes from Alton Brown and save money doing so because the first batch comes out right. To illustrate, I won compliments using his scone recipe.