Thanksgiving Paninis

We love making paninis, especially with leftovers. And when there is turkey and stuffing involved, we get doubly excited.

Ingredients

• 2 slices whole wheat bread or ciabatta
• Turkey breast, sliced however thick you like
• Turkey stuffing (about 1/2 cup per panini)
• Cranberry dressing (about 1/4 cup per panini)
• Mayo for spreading
• Butter or spray oil

Steps

1. Power up the panini press - we use High power setting for panini.
2. Spread mayo over both sides of your 2 slices of bread.
3. Lay turkey and stuffing on one side, cranberry on the other side.
4. Carefully fold the pieces back together.
5. Spray oil on both sides of the panini outsides or butter if you are feeling naughty.
6. Cook the panini for 4-5 minutes.
7. Enjoy!

Dulce De Leche

This is from Alton Brown's superb recipe. The baking soda really makes a difference for us.

Ingredients

1. 1 quart whole milk
2. 12 ounces sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
3. 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
4. 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Steps

1. Combine the milk, sugar, vanilla bean and seeds in a large, 4-quart saucepan and place over medium heat.
2. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved.
3. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the baking soda and stir to combine.
4. Reduce the heat to low and cook uncovered at a bare simmer.
5. Stir occasionally, but do not re-incorporate the foam that appears on the top of the mixture.
6. Continue to cook for 1 hour.
7. Remove the vanilla bean after 1 hour and continue to cook until the mixture is a dark caramel color and has reduced to about 1 cup, approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
8. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer.
9. Store in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to a month.

Eiley's Blueberry Muffins

One fall morning, Eiley looked up from her crafting (making her own font!) and said, "Can we have muffins? I love muffins." We had blueberries in the freezer and just enough butter and yogurt to pull this off - 45 minutes later, we had muffins. Perfect muffins.

Ingredients

• 3 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 10 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 1 1/2 cups blueberries
• 1 Tbsp flour (if using defrosted frozen berries)

Steps

1. Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together, beating until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one. Beat in the grated lemon peel.
4. Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt. Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients. Beat in a second third of the yogurt. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat.
5. Fold in the berries. If you are using frozen berries, defrost them first, drain the excess liquid, and then coat them in a light dusting of flour.
6. Use standard 12-muffin muffin tins. Coat each muffin cup lightly with one of those convenient vegetable oil sprays. Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups.
7. Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick (we use a thin bamboo skewer) to make sure the centers of the muffins are done.
8. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin and serve slightly warm.

Yield: 12-16 muffins.

Chopped Salad, American-style!

This salad dates back aways, but while it may be historic, it is really delicious. If you don't have the time or interest in this dressing, we have substituted a Honey-Lemon yogurt dressing.

Ingredients:

• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 1 pint of cherry tomatoes, halved or 1 or 2 large tomatoes, diced
• 1 cucumber, diced
• 2 Romaine lettuces, or 4 little Boston or butter lettuces, sliced thin
• 1 cup of black olives, sliced thin
• 1 cup baby carrots, sliced thin
• 1 cup celery, sliced thin
• 1 handfuls of mixed fresh herbs (parsley, basil, chives, mint)
• 2 teaspoons English mustard
• 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 8 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Steps:

1. Wash the salad ingredients and drain, then get a large chopping board and a chef’s knife, and get ready to chop!
2. It is important to dice the tomatoes, pepper, cucumber into 1/2 inch pieces, as this will help to bind with the dressing when you come back to mix it in.
3. With the greens, just make sure you chop them all into 1/2 inch strips.
4. Make a well in the center of the veggies.
5. Add the mustard, vinegar, and oil - mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Now fuss with the flavor, remember you don't get time to let this stand, it must be flavorful from the get-go.
6. Toss the salad well and bring to the table to a choruses of "Hurrahs".

Serves 6.

Perfect Custard

This is a great base custard, especially for trifle. Hold those egg whites for another day (angel food cake, anyone?).

Ingredients

• 3 cups whole milk
• 8 large egg yolks
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Steps

1. Heat milk in a 2 1/2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat until hot but not boiling.
2. While milk heats, whisk together yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a heatproof bowl until smooth.
3. Add 1 cup hot milk to yolk mixture in a stream, whisking, then add remaining milk, whisking constantly. Transfer mixture to saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and registers 170°F on thermometer, 6 to 10 minutes (do not boil).
4. Immediately force custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean bowl and stir in butter and vanilla.
5. Chill custard, its surface covered with wax paper, until cold and thickened, at least 3 hours.

Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Pancakes

So, the little ones asked for BFD (breakfast-for-dinner) and they love pancakes above all else (much to my waffle-philia). Daughter #2 "Sweet-Tooth" said, "Oh, what about... chocolate chip pancakes?"

With buttermilk in the fridge for a couple of recipes later this week, this seemed like a logical choice for light, fluffy pancakes.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour (mix-n-match white and wheat flours)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 4 Tbsp oil or melted butter
• 1 cup of mini chocolate chips

Steps

1. Heat a griddle at 375 F.
2. Mix together the dry ingredients thoroughly.
3. Make a well in the dry stuff and crack the eggs. Scramble the eggs. Slowly add the milks and the oil. Mix until just moistened (like brownie batter).
4. Finally add the chips and just mix through.

Sausage Apple Pie

I saw this recipe in a related form over at Simply Recipes (see recipe link below). That version has a lot more cheese (3 cups more!) and a more "set" consistency. We were looking for a recipe to use up the last of a bag of Granny Smiths, then we used them up making Apple Crisp.

But I had the idea in my mind. I searched for something that was savory, but not "breakfast-y". I made this one up based on what we had - but there are some great versions out there.

• Amy's Apple Sausage Pie (many variants, but "apple pie filling"? Nope.)
• Apple and Sausage Pie from Simply Recipes (cheese-crazy)
• Sausage and Apple Pie in a Cheddar Cheese Crust from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients

• 1 lb of sausage (pork, chicken, or turkey; ground or in casing)
• 1 onion, sliced
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 3-5 apples (Granny Smith or Empire), sliced well
• 3/4 cup of good applesauce (if storebought, add cinnamon and nutmeg)
• 1/4 cup of cheese (feta, extra sharp cheddar, nothing mild)

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Slice or remove the sausage from the casing and saute till browned. Remove the sausage from the pan.
3. Reserve the juices and saute onions and garlic for 5 minutes. Remove and keep on reserving the juices!
4. Next comes the apple - if you use 3 apples, bulk it out with some potatoes (I had a leftover baked potato, I sliced it thin).
5. I mixed the sausage, onion/garlic, applesauce and apple/potato together. Add in cheese at this point. Taste it, add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Drape the pie crust over a 9-inch pie pan.
7. Place the filling inside the crust and "tamp down".
8. Bake for 40-45 minutes at 350 F.

Serves 6.