So many ways to use a turkey… But it’s winter, and comfort food is in order. Carbs, cheese, AND tryptophan, all in one dish! This casserole is loosely based on turkey tetrazzini, and was made with shredded turkey meat picked off the bones after making turkey stock. Of course, I used some of the stock, too.
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I’m not much of a New York style pizza fan. Sorry. In the regional pizza battle, I fall squarely in the Chicago camp (the deep dish, not the thin crust. Chicago offers two powerful indigenous pizza styles…). But this week, as part of my triumphant turkey tribunal, I at least made a pizza based on a “sandwich” named after one of New York’s five boroughs: the Turkey Manhattan.
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Turkey is one of the best protein values. It was nearly the National Bird of the United States. It is one of the healthiest as well. Yet it is often relegated to a once-a-year feast, where its novelty and size make preparation a challenge. That’s sad, because, turkey is a great everyday food. I usually buy one or two after the holidays, when the price drops to a mere fraction of the regular price.
The only real down side (once you know what to do with them)? They take up a lot of space in the freezer. Our remaining personal turkey had migrated to the farm‘s freezer. But, we had lambs to pick up from the butcher, and needed all the space we could get. So, time to talk turkey!
So, really, how much can you do with one turkey?
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This beef short rib and noodle soup is perfect for winter. It’s rich, savory, and full of comforting umami. It is braised for hours, filling the kitchen with the wonderful hygge we so long for during nesting season. Yet a healthy dose of ginger gives it a pop of brightness during the season of dark grey. It is also full of collagen, elastin, and chondroitin, to help support our joints – always appreciated in the cold days of winter!
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If you bought into the media hype, you knew winter storm Elliot was going to kill us all. Comparisons to the blizzard of ’78 were flying everywhere, and I understand there was nowhere nearby to get eggs, milk, or bread. In reality, we only got about an inch and a half of snow. But the cold. The cold meant doing everything possible to stay inside! With wind chills approaching -40, traveling any further than the sheep barn was not in the cards for us.
But, Xenia had foraged some winter oyster mushrooms ahead of the storm, and I had some old, leftover Neapolitan style pizza dough. It was really too old to make good pizzas, and since the pizza oven is an outdoor only appliance, I wasn’t going to be making pizzas anyway. But, a savory onion, mushroom, and cheese roll for breakfast? That sounds perfect for a cold day next to the wood stove!
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I didn’t realize I hadn’t posted my Grand Marnier Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies to the blog. What an oversight! They’re only the best cookie in existence!
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This week, I decided to get a little meta with the pizza. French Onion Pizza: essentially deconstructed French Onion Soup on a Neapolitan style pizza crust. Different. Yummy. Would do again.
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Gingerbread. It’s for more than making houses and teaching kids the dangers of hubris, overconfidence, and ignoring the advice of others. It also tastes good. At least when made like this. So, put away the royal icing, the gumdrops, the candy canes. Open up the spice rack instead, and wrap your taste buds in true holiday yum.
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Like most folks, we’re struggling a bit financially right now. But we also want to eat well, with some comforting winter food to tide us over the dark months. Stoups – thick, hearty one-dish meals that fall somewhere between a stew and soup – are among my favorite winter concoctions. They’re delicious, comforting, and fill the house with wonderful aromas while they cook. They also play well with improvisation. This time, I improvised a smokey, somewhat spicy, chipotle chicken and wild rice soup.
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