Thanksgiving 2006

Breakfast




Appetizers


Pepperoni Bread & Spinach Bread


Italian bread flown in from Philadelphia (thanks PES!)


Thanksgiving Table


Homemade whole grain baguettes and buttermilk biscuits


Stuffed mushrooms (two varieties)


Plate with all the trimmings


Dessert
We had three pies - Country Apple, Dutch Apple, & Pumpkin

Country Apple


Dutch Apple (shown with Ice Cream & Caramel)


Pumpkin Pie


Although right now I feel like I couldn't eat for a week, I'm sure I'll be the first one sneaking into the left overs tomorrow morning.

Operation Early Bird

I'm happy to say that my Thanksgiving shopping is just about done - yeah! (well, minus a few perishables) For me, fighting the folks in the supermarket is more daunting than actually cooking the meal! Sticking with the basics...

Homemade (sort of) Chicken Pot Pie

I'm never quite sure how many folks will be over on Sundays to watch football and have dinner, so I try and make something that can easily feed a crowd, but isn't too complicated. This week ... Homemade (sort of) Chicken Pot Pie.



Click Here for Printable Version

Ingredients:
3 split chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
1 potato, skinned & diced
2 carrots, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
2 cups chicken gravy
2 Pie Crusts

Roast Chicken
- Preheat oven to 375° F
- Place the chicken on a sheet pan and rub with olive oil, salt & pepper. Roast for 40 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- Once cool enough to handle, remove meat and discard skin. Shred or cut chicken into bite size pieces.

Prepare Vegetables
- Peel and dice potato, carrots, & celery.
- Blanch in salted boiling water for 5 minutes. Remove and set aside.

Assemble Pie & Bake
- Preheat oven to 425° F.
- Combine chicken, potatoes, carrots, & celery.
- Spray deep pie pan with non-stick spray and add lower crust.
- Spoon chicken mixture into crust-lined pan and top with gravy.



- Top with second crust; seal edge and flute. Cut slits in top crust.



- Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown. (During last 15 to 20 minutes of baking, cover crust edge with strips of foil to prevent crust from burning.)
- Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Butternut Squash Bisque

I was making this recipe up as I went along, so I don't have great measurements for it (sorry).

Click Here for Printable Version

1 butternut squash
1 potato
5 cloves garlic, unpeeled
sage leaves
1/2 red onion, chopped
chicken broth
salt, pepper, paprika, pepper seeds
optional: butter, sour cream



Preheat Oven to 400F.

On a sheetpan covered with foil...
Split the butternut squash in half, scoop out the seeds, drop the unpeeled garlic and sage into the hollowed squash halves, and then drizzle with olive oil.

On the same pan, place the potato (poked a few times with a fork) and put into the hot oven. After a half hour, add the chopped red onion, drizzled with olive oil, to the pan. Once everything is very soft (another 15-30 minutes), take the pan out of the oven to cool.

Into a large pasta pot (once everything is cool enough to handle), add the red onion, sage leaves, and flesh from the squash, potato, and garlic (discard all skins). Mash and add chicken broth to get desired consistency and then season with salt, pepper, red pepper seeds, and paprika. After that has cooked down for a few minutes, blend the chunky mixture into a smooth one. Add more broth, seasoning, and optional butter or sour cream.



Side Note...
I roasted the butternut squash seeds and they were very tasty! Here they are sprinkled with sea salt and paprika before going into the oven.

Marinated Grilled Chicken

Click Here for Printable Version

3 or 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced thin
Marinade:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup vermouth
1/4 cup lemon juice
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
fresh or dried thyme

Place chicken in a large zip-lock bag. Mix together remaining ingredients and pour into bag. Refrigerate for a few hours, turning bag occasionally.

Grill chicken for 4 -6 minutes per side (depending on thickness).

Final Harvest

With the temperatures dipping pretty low at night, it looks like we are at our final garden harvest. Guess I will be making cacciatore this weekend with all these peppers!

Shami Kababs

On my last grocery shopping trip I stocked up on the ground beef which was on sale. I wanted to make something last night with some of it, but not just the usual burgers, tacos, or meatloaf. I went searching online and came upon a few different varieties of Shami Kababs - spicy burger-like patties from Pakistan. Decided to give it a try. The menu...

Shami Kababs
Jasmine Rice
Homemade Naan

Click Here for Printable Recipe
Shami Kababs
Ingredients
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 c. chickpeas
1/2 c. mashed potatoes
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 large red onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 tsp. garam masala
1/2 tsp. cumin powder
1/2 tsp. ground ginger powder
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. cayenne
1 Tbsp. dried parsley
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. red pepper flakes
2 egg whites
Chop onions finely. Mash chickpeas from can. Mix all ingredients (except egg whites) thoroughly. Shape into round patties. Dip each round patty in well-beaten egg white, then pan fry until brown on both sides. Serve hot.

UPDATE ... We had some of the meat mixture left over and made them again this week. This time we breaded them like regular cutlets. We shaped the patties, dipped in beaten egg, and then in seasoned breadcrumbs.

14-16 Shami Kababs.

Chef Salad

We got home from the gym a bit late, so I just started grabbing stuff out of the fridge. The result - a chef salad including everything but the kitchen sink. Tasty & semi-healthy.

Geyser Peak Reserve Chardonnay

2003 Geyser Peak Reserve Chardonnay

The Perfect Balance... thats about as good as we can describe it.

Aroma:
Craig: Butterscotch.
Jenn: Granny Smith Apples

Palate:
Craig: Caramel Apples. A bit mineraly
Jenn: Apples, Almonds
Both: The wine had a perfect acidity and crisp finish.

Verdict: Not over-oaked. Craig thought this paired perfectly with our roasted chicken dinner (as did I), but I also thought I would have loved this wine alone or with just some nibbles of cheese and crackers.

Honey Roasted Chicken

I tried something a little different last night on the whole roasted chicken. I brushed a little bit of honey on the skin before seasoning and baking.



I didn't use too much, so the flavor was very subtle, but it gave the skin great color. (I won't go into how long it took me to take that photo of the honey)



Craig picked out a fantastic wine to accompany dinner - 2003 Geyser Peak Reserve Chardonnay.

Chicken stuffed with roasted peppers

Craig roasted a big batch of peppers, so I thought I would put together a recipe using some of them for dinner. Chicken Stuffed with Roasted Peppers was the result.



Not a very detailed recipe, but Click Here for Printable Version

Start by butterflying boneless skinless chicken breasts.



Cover each with salt, pepper, roasted pepper strips, shaved romano cheese, minced garlic, and fresh basil and oregano.



Roll up chicken. Tuck ends in, close with a long skewer, and coat in a breadcrumb/cheese mixture. Brown both sides in a pan with garlic and olive oil.



Once brown, put in a 400-degree oven for 20-30 minutes until cooked through.

That's It!

Football = Nachos

Easy Sugar Cookies

Last night I tried the sugar cookie recipe off the side of a bag of Publix sugar. Pretty good.



Click Here for Printable Recipe

Sugar Cookies
Source: Publix Apron’s Simple Meals

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

- Combine flour, baking powder and salt, mixing well. Combine sugar and butter in large bowl, with electric mixer on high speed, until well mixed. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Add flour mixture; mix well.
- Chill two hours until firm.
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Roll dough to ¼-inch and cut into shapes. Place on lightly greased baking sheet.
- Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely.

Mint Tea

Another recipe for a guy with a cold... tea with honey and a minty stirer from the garden.

No Fuss Beefy Soup

As usual, when we travel by air, one of us gets a cold. This time Craig was the lucky one. I decided to make a big pot of soup to try and help his throat. Craig isn't the biggest fan of soup, so I made one which was mostly broth with just a few ingredients and lots of black pepper.



CLICK HERE FOR PRINTABLE RECIPE

Sipala's No Fuss Beefy Soup
From the Kitchen of Craig & Jennifer Sipala

Ingredients

1lb beef, diced
2 carrots, cut into half moons
2 ribs celery, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 russet potato, diced
1 28oz can whole tomatoes
4 cups beef stock
2 cups water
1 bay leaf
Salt & lots of black pepper
Optional: barley, pasta, cannellini beans, chickpeas

Directions

- Dice beef, potato, carrots, celery, and onion.

- Over medium heat, sauté carrots, celery, and onion in olive oil until softened. Remove and set aside.

- Brown beef cubes and then re-add carrots, celery, and onion. Add beef stock and water and bring to a boil.

- Add potato cubes, bay leaf, and season with salt and pepper.

- Reduce heat to low - cover - simmer 1 hour

- Add additional ingredients and heat through before serving.

Open Faced Taco

Mmmm, tacos.

Yellow Tomato

On my last trip to the supermarket I found beautiful yellow tomatoes. I bought one not really sure what I was going to do with it. When I started making some pizzas for dinner that night, Craig suggested just slicing it and making a tomato and fresh basil pie. I'm not sure the photos do it justice... it made for a beautiful pie and tasted just as good!!

Are you ready for some football!

What else would we be having on this first Sunday of football but buffalo wings! Not much of a recipe. Seperate wings into two sections and then sprinkle with a little flour, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Brush with Texas Pete buffalo sauce and continue to baste while grilling.

Prepping four dozen wings...


Craig grills them to perfection!

Baby Back Ribs

For Labor Day we made baby back ribs. This was our first attempt at making whole racks of ribs. It was actually much easier than I thought it would be and they turned out very tender. I handled the first half of the recipe in the kitchen, then Craig took over outside on the grill. (He had the tough part since it started pouring rain as soon as we were ready to grill).

Click Here for Printable Recipe

Sipala's Beginner BBQ Ribs

2 Racks Baby Back Pork Ribs
24oz Beer (2 Bottles)
1 Small Onion, Sliced
18oz Prepared BBQ Sauce

- Cut each rack of ribs in half.
- Place ribs in pot, then add beer, onion, and cold water to cover.
- Over high heat, heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low - cover - simmer 1 hour or until almost tender. Drain, cover and chill until ready to grill.
- While the grill heats, coat ribs with BBQ sauce.
- Place ribs on grill over medium coals. Grill 20 minutes or until tender, brushing with sauce often and turning occasionally.

Marco Island Eats

Because of the threat of Hurricane Ernesto, many of the restaurants on Marco Island were closed, but we made due.

Pit stop at Steak 'n Shake on the drive down


Across the street from the hotel we found a small sports bar.


Rookies Dijon Horseradish Beef Sandwich


Craig checks out the wine list at Campiello's Restaurant.


We ate at Kurrents Restaurant at the Marriott two nights. On top of the great food, they offered valet parking (which saved us from running thru Ernesto's rain).

Dumpling Appetizer (the Wasabi Cream sauce was amazing... or as our waitress kept saying, it was "to die for")

The restaurant was pretty dark, so unfortunately most of my photos didn't come out very well. This was one of my entrees - it was their take on a Bento Box... each compartment had something different to taste - included tuna, shrimp, scallops, and the top right corner is Lobster Mac & Cheese!!