RECIPE: Vegetarian Stovetop Stuffing

Here is some yummy stuffing. I didn't get any pictures of the cooking process, but here's the recipe...

Vegetarian Stovetop Stuffing
Adapted from Organicgrocerydeals.com

serves 4

Ingredients:

2 C small-cubes or 3 C large-cubes stale bread
1/4 C butter
1&1/4 C vegetable stock
1/2 C finely minced yellow/sweet onions**
1 t dried parsley
1/2 t salt
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t dried sage
1/4 t ground pepper
1/4 t celery seed

In a medium saucepan over low heat, sweat the onions in the butter for 2-3 minutes until butter is melted. Add seasonings and stir. Add vegetable stock and stir until combined. Bring to a simmer- about 5-6 minutes. Remove from heat and add bread crumbs, giving a quick stir to coat. Place lid over pan and let sit 10 minutes until liquid is absorbed. Fluff with a fork before serving.

Yeah, baby! That is some good stuffing! The only thing was that it was a little too wet and mushy. So next time I might ease up on the liquid a bit- substantially ease up on it. Since I added a few extra handfuls of breading after seeing the liquid flooding the dish, and still wound up with mushy stuffing, I would probably start with about 3/4 cup of liquid and add more until it seemed about right. But very good flavor!

RECIPE: Braised Fall Vegetables with Shallots and Red Wine Sauce and Mushroom Gravy

Well, I forgot to post the recipes from my Thanksgiving Day menu. So we'll start with the Braised Vegetables and Mushroom Gravy...

Braised Fall Vegetables with Shallots and Red Wine Sauce
Adapted from MyRecipes.com

Ingredients

• 2  tablespoons  butter
• 1  tablespoon  olive oil
• 20  large shallots, peeled and separated (about 2 pounds)
• 6  carrots, cut into 2-inch-thick pieces (about 3/4 pound)
• 2 1/2  cups  quartered mushrooms (about 1/3 pound)
• 4  large parsnips, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1-inch pieces
• Red Wine Sauce, divided
• 1 1/2  teaspoons  minced fresh or 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 1/8  teaspoon  black pepper
• 2  bay leaves
• 2  thyme sprigs
• 3  tablespoons  chopped fresh parsley
• 1  garlic clove, minced

Preparation

Heat butter and oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add shallots and carrots; sauté for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add mushrooms and parsnips; sauté 10 minutes. Now the red wine sauce recipe they had was too much work for me, given everything else I had to do that day. So I don't remember exactly what I did in its place, but I think that I just poured in some red wine and maybe some broth and butter, rosemary, and next 4 ingredients (rosemary through thyme); bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes. Discard the bay leaves and thyme sprigs.

Combine parsley and garlic in a small bowl; sprinkle over each serving.

Vegetarian Mushroom Gravy
Adapted from NPR recipe for Vegetarian Gravy

The gravy thickens up quite a bit, so keep some warm water or vegetable broth on hand to thin it out before serving, and for leftovers. Makes 2 cups.

Ingredients

1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup chopped onion or shallots
5 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz package of sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Preparation

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion, garlic and mushrooms until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour and soy sauce to form a smooth paste. Gradually whisk in the broth.

Season with sage, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring constantly, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until thickened.

The braised veggies weren't bad, but I discovered that I do NOT like parsnips! So next time I will skip them! Also the size of the chopped veggies as they suggested were too big to cook thoroughly. So next time I would also cut the veggies smaller.

The gravy (as seen here on the stuffing) was AWESOME! I absolutely loved it! I plan to make this plenty in the future. However it really does thicken up, so I would suggest doing as they say and keeping some broth on hand to thin it out when reheating for leftovers and such.

Braised veggies-- Not bad. Would probably be quite good if carrots and mushrooms and maybe potatoes minus the parsnips, and smaller pieces that cook well. Also could easily use onion instead of shallots. Much simpler.

Vegetarian Mushroom Gravy-- Absolutely delicious! This is a definite keeper!

Sunday Morning Breakfast of Oven Baked French Toast

Sunday morning we decided to make breakfast for a change, and I made a deal with Woodrow: I would make the french toast, and he would make the scrambled eggs. This was really a totally selfish tactic, as I wanted good scrambled eggs and knew that Woodrow makes better scrambled eggs than me! But before he started on the eggs, I got going on the french toast:

Oven Baked French Toast

3 tbs melted butter
1/3 cup orange juice
2 tbs honey
3 eggs
Cinnamon
Vanilla
8 slices of french bread, sliced 1 inch thick

Directions:

• First drizzle the melted butter across the bottom of a 13 x 9 inch pan.

• Slice french baguette into 1 inch slices.

• In a medium-large bowl, add 1/3 cup of OJ, 2 tablespoons of honey, 3 eggs, a dash of cinnamon and a bit of vanilla (maybe 1/2 tsp)...

• Beat mixture well with a hand beater until the mixture becomes a bit frothy.

• Dip the bread into the egg mixture and thoroughly cover it with the mixture. Place each slice in the pan with the melted butter.

• Allow the bread slices to set for up to 12 hours in the frig. I would let them set for at least 30 minutes.
• Bake in 450 degree oven until golden brown. I think it takes about 6-8 minutes on one side, then flip and cook the other side.

And there you go! Yummy french toast that is crispy on the outside and soft in the center, with a hint of citrus flavor.

And look at those perfectly cooked scrambled eggs! I get impatient with mine and cook them too high, resulting in browning.

Nice breakfast! Next time we'll try making regular french toast using the same egg mixture and see how that turns out.

The Daring Kitchen: Roasted Tomatoes for the Freezer

This month's cooking challenge dealt with food preservation. You had your option of doing a canning method or a freezing method. Given that I got rid of my canning equipment years ago when I lived in my small condo, I went with the freezing method. So I chose to do roasted tomatoes for the freezer.

First I took 13 fresh tomatoes and washed them with vegetable cleaner, and put them on a paper towel to dry.

Then I removed their cores...
Slice 4 basil leaves into thin strips...

Mix the basil in a small bowl with a tablespoon of olive oil and 2 cloves of garlic.

Slice the tomatoes into halves and lay them cut side down on cookie sheets lined with aluminum foil. Distribute the garlic-basil mixture evenly over the tomatoes.

Sprinkle with sea salt and a pinch or two of ground cloves.

Place cookie sheets in 325 degree oven. Roast them for 1-2 hours, until they are beginning to get golden brown.
Their skins will get really papery. I needed to roast mine closer to 2 hours. Small plum tomatoes may have taken closer to an hour.

I found I was able to peel off the skins pretty easily. Then when I would use a spatula to lift up the tomato, I could easily remove the seeds and pulp, and was left with a lovely medallion of roasted tomato.

The tomatoes layered nicely in a small tupperware dish. 13 tomatoes amounted to about 1 1/2-2 cups of roasted tomatoes.

I haven't had a chance to use the tomatoes yet, but I am sure that they will be delicious! I hope to try them out this week or weekend, perhaps with a little pasta and garlic bread. Thanks for the challenge!

RECIPE: Cherry Bruschetta

This morning I had an awesome breakfast of Cherry Bruschetta. Really easy to make and really tasty!

First pit about 12 oz of sweet cherries.



Cut the cherries in half. Stir in 1 tablespoon of sugar and about 1 teaspoon of lemon juice (I actually added more like a tablespoon of lemon juice). Mix it together and let it rest for 15 minutes.
Toast rustic bread slices. Spread with cream cheese. Top with cherry bruschetta.



Oh baby! We'll be eating this for dessert tonight, too!

Birthday Party and Black Bean Salsa

Saturday night my friend Pam and I drove an hour and half to give a guy a card. He said we could have just put a 32 cent stamp on it! (Of course, I guess the cost now is 44 cents!)

Yesterday was my cousin-in-law Frank's birthday, and Pam and I went to join in on the fun. We got a late start, and wound up not getting there until the party had already been in swing for 3 hours.

When we arrived, we found the band playing and Frank dancing...

That's my aunt Karen running around like a crazy woman trying to get photos of Frank.

Unfortunately within 15 minutes after our arrival, the police arrived and shut down the band. (For the record, the band was not playing that loud, and it was only about 9:30 PM). Too bad. They sounded great, and they had a great setup (even lights!)

This was the birthday boy Frank...


...and these are my uncle and two of my aunts, David, Bette and Karen...


They were already having a lot of fun! For reasons not yet understood, they began doing impressions of Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter...


Okay. So it was probably just the beer.

Then my uncle David turned into the storyteller, and began relaying a conversation between him and his girlfriend. From what I recall, it had to do with a birthday card that was simply signed without a "Love You" or "Love" or even just "Best Wishes" or anything. The card came from her family, and when he pointed out this fact about her family, she proceeded to talk about our crazy family that fights. He told her that all may well be true, but at least we say "I love you"!


It was a fun evening, and Pam and I stayed until after midnight with a long drive home to still embark upon. As we were leaving, I saw this lovely condom bouquet created by my aunt...

I got a shot of my aunt Karen and Pam together as we were leaving...


...and they got a shot of me and birthday boy Frank.


Even the dreaded duo Rocky and Bullwinkle got in on the picture taking...


...to the point that they would vie for your attention, butting in front of one another for a pet.


Funny dogs!

So we enjoyed our time at the party, and got home and got me to bed before 4 AM! (The time change, don't you know. I got home at 2 AM, when the time changed and it became 3 AM. A little blogging, and in bed by 4 AM.)

I took some of my black bean salsa to the party, knowing that it was something that my aunt Karen has seemed to like in the past when I've taken it to our reunions. Here is the recipe...

Black Bean Salsafrom Cooking Light

• 1/3 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
• 1/4 cup chopped cucumber
• 1/4 cup diced plum tomato
• 2 tablespoons chopped celery
• 2 tablespoons chopped seeded jalapeño pepper
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained

Directions:

Rinse the black beans and allow them to drain while you prepare the other ingredients.
Things like celery are easy to prepare. Just cut celery into two-inch long pieces, and cut those into matchsticks. Then just finely chop.


I got lucky with the jalapenos. I bought a whole basket of them a couple of months ago, and I finely chopped and froze them for future use.


So I only had to thaw out the appropriate amount in the microwave, and then drained it between two paper towels to release the extra moisture.


Combine all of the chopped veggies in a large bowl.


Then add the spices and seasonings, and drizzle on the oil and vinegar.


Mix it all together, and serve with tortilla chips or wrapped in tortillas, or even on a lettuce salad with some rice and sour cream.


Mmmmmm! This is one of our favorites around here! And it's good for you!