Turkey Tetrazzini

Back in late October I hosted a pre-Thanksgiving supper club dinner. Because I hosted, I made the entree, a turkey breast. A whole, bone in turkey breast. For 4 girls. To say I had leftovers is an understatement. I found this recipe on AllRecipes and tweaked it to my liking. LOVED IT.

After Christmas, my mom was asking if I had any recipes for leftover turkey, and I told her about having made this with the leftover supper club turkey. She loved the idea, so we made it, and she, too loved it.

Now I bring the recipe to you in case you ever find yourself with so much leftover turkey and no clue what to do with it. It makes a sort of turkey casserole. The sauce for it is great though, so much better than some canned "cream of" soup as a base. I would even recommend trying the sauce for tuna noodle casserole as a way to avoid the canned soup base. Much yummier (and probably a LOT less sodium too).

Each time I have made this I halved in and baked in a 9" round cake pan or an 8x8 cake pan. If you make the whole recipe, use a 9x13 pan I think. The entire recipe should make about 6-8 servings.

Turkey Tetrazzini

Ingredients

• 1 package uncooked rotini
  
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• dried parsley, basil and oregano to taste
• pepper to taste
  
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups milk
• 1 2/3 cups grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 cups chopped cooked turkey
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F . Lightly grease a medium baking dish.
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add rotini, and cook until al dente. Drain, and place in the prepared baking dish. Add turkey.
   
3. Melt butter with garlic, pepper and parsley/oregano/basil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour and cook, stirring constantly for a minute or so until a thick roux forms. Mix in chicken broth and milk. Cook and stir until the mixture comes to a boil. Stir in about 1 1/3 cups Parmesan cheese, and remove from heat.
4. Mix chicken broth mixture (to taste: I used about 1/2 of it, but other people prefer theirs saucier and should use more) with rotini and turkey. Top with remaining cheese and breadcrumbs. Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, until surface is lightly browned.
   

Swiss Apple Grilled Cheeses

As I previously mentioned, I hosted a friend's birthday a while back and made various snacks, including these Swiss Apple Grilled Cheese triangles. My friend said it tasted like her favorite fondue (swiss with apples, who would have thought?!) Basically, very good.

I have made these like regular grilled cheese in a pan (with olive oil instead of butter) and in a panini press without any oil, and I think I liked the panini press better, but you can certainly make them as you would make a regular grilled cheese.

Grilled Apple Swiss Cheese

Ingredients
2 slices whole wheat bread
1/4 Granny Smith apple - cored and sliced
1/3 cup shredded Swiss cheese

Directions
Preheat the panini press to medium heat. Place 1 slice of bread onto the press, and arrange the apple slices evenly over the top. Sprinkle the Swiss cheese over the apple, then top with the remaining slice of bread. Cook until the bread is golden brown and the cheese is melted, 1 to 2 minutes. Cut into diagonal qurters for finger food.

Pizza Dip

A few weeks ago I hosted a friend's surprise birthday party. Now I am studying for finals. Guess which was more fun? TOTALLY finals, right?

While, sadly, the fun awesome time of the party is past, I would like to share what I made. I made the Italian grilled cheeses, swiss apple grilled cheeses, pigs in a blanket (ALWAYS disappears!! I made 150% of what I thought we'd need and there was still not a single one left), bean dip, chocolate chip cookies, the black forest cake and this pizza dip.

Hot Pizza Dip

Ingredients

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
  
• 1.5 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 cups pizza sauce
• 1/2 bell pepper, chopped
  
• 2 ounces sliced pepperoni, cut into 1/4s

Directions

1. A day or 2 before you want to serve, do steps 1-3. Do step 4 right before serving. Spread pepperoni on a few layers of paper towels on a microwave safe plate. Cover with another paper towel and microwave 30 sec-1min to get the grease out. Pat dry and let cool.
   
2. In a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, oregano, parsley, garlic and basil.
3. Spread mixture in the bottom of an 8x8 microwave-safe dish. Sprinkle 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese on top of the cream cheese mixture. Spread the pizza sauce over all. Sprinkle with remaining cheese, then top with bell pepper and pepperoni. Cover and refrigerate for a day or 2 until ready to serve (the flavors mesh well during this time).
   
4. Cover, and microwave for 6 minutes. Serve hot with crackers (bread may also be good).

Cashew Chicken

Normally I take forever to post something, but I JUST finished eating this and had to post. 2 reasons: 1. it was absolutely delicious and 2. I had to make a number of changes to the recipe, so I wanted to get it down while I remember. But mostly #1, bucause it really was good.

Because of the number of changes I made, I won't even go through it here. Just trust me on the changes. Also note: most of my recipes make 4 servings, this makes 2. Keep that in mind.

Cashew Chicken (adapted from Williams-Sonoma: The Weeknight Cook)
Serves TWO (2)

Ingredients
3TBSP soy sauce
1 1/2 TBSP white wine
1 tsp ginger
2 chicken cutlets cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3/4 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp cornstarch
1/2 head of broccoli cut into small florets
1 TBSP canola oil
2 green onions, chopped
3/4 cup salted cashews
steamed rice, to serve

Method
1. Marinate Chicken: in bowl, combine 2 TBSP soy sauce, 1 TBSP wine, and ginger. Stir in chicken and allow to marinate for 15-30 min.
2. Make the sauce: in a small bowl, combine 1TBSP water, remaining 1TBSP soy sauce, remaining 1/2 TBSP wine, Worcestershire sauce, sesame oil, sugar and cornstarch and stir to dissolve sugar and cornstarch,
3. Stir Fry the chicken. Steam the broccoli very briefly (about a minute) in the microwave so that it is not undercooked at the end. Heat oil in frying pan over medium high heat. Remove chicken from marinade and drain well, discarding marinade. Add chicken to pan and stirfry until slightly brown. Add cashews and stirfry another 30 seconds or so. Using a slotted spoon, move the chicken and nuts BUT NOT THE OIL to a bowl. Heat pan to medium high and stirfry green onions about 30 seconds until fragrant, add chicken and nuts and broccoli. Stir the sauce and add to pan. Stir until sauce thickens slightly (this happened very fast for me). Serve over the rice.

Quick Black Forest Cake

I appologize for the photos. I brought this cake to school and it was devoured, so the only pics I got were from a friend's IPhone. Trust me, it was good, and looked a lot better than these pictures show. It was a friend's birthday, but I had about 100 pages of reading for the night, so this quick, easy and delicious cake did not dispoint on any front. Also, it was the best cake batter I have ever tasted. I likely could have eaten the whol cake's worth of cake batter...not that I thought about that or anything...

Quick Black Forest Cake
1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix
3 eggs
scant 1/2 cup water
scant 1/2 cup oil
1 tablespoon almond extract
1 (21 ounce) can cherry pie filling
1 cup chocolate chips (I used Hershey's Special Dark chips to make it even more chocolatey)
chocolate frosting (I used a storebought one, but homemade is always better if you have time)
marachino cherries
almond extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Mix together: cake mix, beaten eggs, oil, water, almond extract, cherry pie filling and chocolate chips. Stir until just combined. Pour batter into a greased 9x13 inch pan.
Bake in a 350 degree F (175 degree C) oven for 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and let cool. While cooling, you can drizzle some of the marachino cherry juice over the cake to soak in.
Combine frosting, about a teaspoon of the cherry juice and about 1/2 teaspoon of the almond extract to taste, being careful not to make the frosting watery. Frost the fully cooled cake. Drain the cherries and decorate the top of the cake with them. Eat within a day as the marachino cherries start to release their juice after a while.

Baked Crab Rangoons

Happy Valentine's day to all. Or in my case, a Happy "Girls Night In" Day. The boy will be back in a bit, but for tonight I was without him, so I used the opportunity to make a thank you dinner for one of my single gal pals. Did I just say "gal pals"? Forgive me, must be the strawberry margaritas speaking.
Anyway, I made a 3 course thank you dinner. It started with these baked crab rangoons. Followed by a Chinese chicken salad with a home made sesame soy dressing and ending with a brookie (brownie cookie, aka cookie in a brownie). While all parts were good, I think the crab rangoons were best. I made 13 rangoons and the 2 of us ate every last one.
These guys are SO easy too. Mix, place in won tons in muffin cups, bake. Done.

I was really afraid that these would be really gross once I opened the can of crab meat. I have never used canned crabmeat before, so I was shocked to open it and find that it smelled a little like canned tuna. Not what you want in your crab rangoon. After I drained it and mixed it with the other ingredients though, it tasted nothing like that smell, and was really good. Just make sure to drain it.

Also, I think this is a great base recipe for a crab dip. Add old bay, maybe replace the green onion with regular onion, add some cheese and bake in a casserole dish and it should be great. Just a thought from a girl who loves crab dip a little too much (what can I say, I am always a Marylander at heart).Baked Crab Rangoons

Ingredients

• 1 (170 gram) can crabmeat- drained well
  
• 125 grams (a little more than 1/2 package) Brick of Cream Cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
• 1/4 cup Mayo (I used the olive oil based mayo as it is all I buy nowadays)
  
• 12 wonton wrappers
• Optional: Sesame seeds and/or green onions for garnish
  

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix crabmeat, cream cheese, onions and mayo.
2. Spray 12 muffin cups with cooking spray (not too heavily). Gently place 1 won ton wrapper in each cup, allowing edges of wrappers to extend above sides of cups. (I realized it is best not to try to bend the middle parts onto themselves to make it flat, let the insides be bumpy, it firms up better) Fill evenly with crabmeat mixture.
3. Bake 18 to 20 min. or until edges are golden brown and filling is heated through. (I then placed them on paper towels for a few minutes to absorb the extra oil and firm up) Serve warm. Garnish with chopped green onions and sesame seeds, if desired.

We'll call them Franken-Muffins

I found this GREAT post a while ago on tastespotting. It was a basic muffin formula that you adapt for whatever type of muffin you wanted to make, and it gave some suggestions for combinations. But really, give me time to peruse the grocery store and I can come up with my own combination rather easily. And that's just what I did. Introducing, the delicious and rather healthy Franken-muffin. OK, so the name may not work, but my combination of ingredients did!

Here is MY Version:
Dry ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp spice cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Wet ingredients
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
scant 1 cup white sugar
1 egg, beaten
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cups grated zucchini
3/4 cups grated apple

PROCEDURE
Preheat oven to 375˚F.
Grease a muffin tin (12 count- I needed about 14 muffin cups if they had all been full size, or 12 regular muffins and 12 minis) with grease spray or butter.
Get two big bowls. In the first bowl combine the dry ingredients except the dry muffinhancers.
In the other bowl combine yogurt, sugar, salt, melted butter, egg and extract. Mix it all up until it’s good and smooth. Now mix in both the wet and dry Muffinhancers and stir to distribute.
Make sure your oven is set and the muffin tin is greased up before you combine the wet and dry. It’ll need to happen pretty quickly.
Pour the dry mix into the wet bowl and fold gently with a spatula while you count slowly to 15-20. The result should be a very lumpy batter, with frequent dry floury spots. It’s better if it’s not a smooth batter.
Now use an ice-cream scoop or just a big spoon to fill the muffin tray evenly. Fill it up almost to the top of the tray. Bake for 20-25 minutes (about 13 minutes for the minis). When they are done, turn it over onto a clean tea towel to let them cool.

And here is the basic formula:
Dry ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp spice (cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, ground ginger, ground coriander, etc)
1 cup of dry Muffinhancers (can be chopped nuts, dried fruits, toasted coconut, chocolate chips, etc)

Wet ingredients
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup melted butter (or vegetable oil)
1 cup white sugar
1 egg, beaten
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups of wet Muffinhancers (can inc: mashed banana, grated zucchini, grated carrots, grated apple, frozen berries, mango puree, chopped up orange, etc)

PROCEDURE
Preheat oven to 375˚F.
Grease a muffin tin (12 count- I needed about 14 muffin cups if they had all been full size, or 12 regular muffins and 12 minis) with grease spray or butter.
Get two big bowls. In the first bowl combine the dry ingredients except the dry muffinhancers.
In the other bowl combine yogurt, sugar, salt, melted butter, egg and extract. Mix it all up until it’s good and smooth. Now mix in both the wet and dry Muffinhancers and stir to distribute.
Make sure your oven is set and the muffin tin is greased up before you combine the wet and dry. It’ll need to happen pretty quickly.
Pour the dry mix into the wet bowl and fold gently with a spatula while you count slowly to 15-20. The result should be a very lumpy batter, with frequent dry floury spots. It’s better if it’s not a smooth batter.
Now use an ice-cream scoop or just a big spoon to fill the muffin tray evenly. Fill it up almost to the top of the tray.
Bake for 20-25 minutes (about 13 minutes for the minis).
When they are done, turn it over onto a clean tea towel to let them cool.