Cooking With Your Kids

I really love discovering new Italian dishes that use tomatoes in ways that I’ve never use them before. A few weeks ago, I discovered a chicken penne arrabiata recipe, but I was out of chicken and didn’t have any red pepper flakes on hand. So I changed the recipe to be a vegetarian one and added a few additional vegetables—like onions—to give the pasta a little more bite. It turned out very delicious, and I’ll be making it again.

If you want to add some meat to it, add turkey sausage, cut up into bite-sized pieces. Add it alongside the tomato sauce and diced tomatoes.

I recommend using organic cans of tomatoes from your local grocery. This recipe serves about four. It’s perfect for a quiet night at home. It’s also one that your kids can become heavily involved in. Let them chop, pour in the tomato cans, and stir.

Vegetarian Penne Arrabiata

Ingredients

1/2 package penne pasta
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 bulb garlic, peeled and sliced thinly lengthwise
2 medium sweet onions, chopped coarsely
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 (16 ounce) cans diced tomatoes (with roasted garlic)
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon dried basil
Salt, to taste
Parmesan cheese, to taste

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the desired amount of pasta and cook for 8-10 minutes, or until the pasta is tender. Drain and set aside.

In a skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the sliced garlic and onions. Sauté until they are fragrant and cooked. Add the ground black pepper and garlic powder and sauté for another minute or two. Add the cans of diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and dried basil to the skillet. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, making sure the bottom of the pan does not burn.

Add the cooked penne pasta. Simmer for an additional 5-7 minutes before taking off heat. Add desired amount of salt, according to your taste.

Serve and top with desired amount of parmesan cheese on top.

Happy shopping everyone! How many of you spent early this morning waiting in line at your favorite store, holding your breathe and hoping that the store doors would open, so you’d get out of the cold? *holds hands up* I did! I do this every year. I wake up at the crack of dawn, sometimes before (3 or 4 am) and hurry down to my favorite electronics store and hope that there’s still a good deal when I get there. I’ve gotten great computer/laptops/digital camera deals in the past, and today was no different. It was a wonderful morning.

For lunch, let the kids help you put something together. Broccoli salad is scrumptious and you really don’t even need anything else. It’s a meal in itself and very good. It’s easy and quick, and now that Thanksgiving is over, it’ll give you that cool off you need!

This serves about 6-8 people.

Broccoli Salad

Ingredients

1/2 lb turkey bacon, cooked and crumbled
4 cups broccoli florets
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1 red onion, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 cup Miracle Whip
2 tablespoons white vinegar
6 tablespoons sugar

Directions

Cook your turkey bacon slices. Crumble them and set in a large salad bowl. Add the broccoli florets, cheddar cheese, raisins, almonds, and onion pieces. Toss well and set aside.

Make the dressing: Mix together the miracle whip, vinegar, and sugar. Pour over the salad and toss.

Chill and enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you’re having a wonderful holiday. I’m looking forward to seeing my entire family gathered together for dinner. We’re  having about ten people over, and it’s going to be amazing…

We’re having the traditional turkey (brined method), oyster stuffing, regular stuffing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, glazed carrots, and mashed sweet potatoes. Our stomachs will be so fully when dessert rolls around. Instead of the traditional pumpkin pie (the recipe can be found here), I’m making pumpkin flan.

This is very early in the morning for me, but I wanted you to have the chance to try it out at your Thanksgiving meal… Or at the very least, try this recipe before Christmas rolls around! This recipe yields 12 servings, and it’s very delicious!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Pumpkin Flan

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup white sugar, divided
1/4 cup water
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
6 eggs
1 cup half and half
1 cup heavy cream

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place a medium-sized baking dish into a larger baking dish; fill the larger dish with hot water.

In a heavy saucepan, dissolve half of the sugar and 1/4 cup of water over low heat, stirring continuously, until the syrup is golden brown.

Pour syrup into medium-sized dish, working quickly to make sure the syrup covers the bottom and sides of the dish.

In a mixing bowl, beat the remaining sugar, canned pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, and eggs together. When it is well-blended, beat in the half-and-half and the heavy cream. Pour over syrup mixture.

Bake for one hour, or until the middle is cooked. Test with a toothpick or a knife.

Take out of the oven, remove the dish from the water, and let cool on the counter top for 15 minutes. Chill in the refrigerator for 3 hours before serving.

What family doesn’t have green bean casserole on their dinner table? This is a dish that we make every year, and it’s always delicious. We don’t eat any other time of the year except during the holidays. I think there’s something about the warm toasty taste of it that fills us up.

I figure… turkey is going to make you sleepy, so why not have a great, filling meal before you fall asleep? I hope you’ve found some of these dishes helpful. Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday! (And if you have time tomorrow, come back and check out a pumpkin flan recipe. I’ll post it bright and early at 6:00 a.m. Central time, so you’ll have all morning to make it!)

For this green bean casserole, you can make the filling the day before and keep it in the fridge. On Thanksgiving day, top the mixture with French-fried onions and cook in the oven.

Traditional Green Bean Casserole

Ingredients

2 cups fresh green beans, sliced
3 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup sour cream
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
Sea salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
French-fried onions, to taste

Directions

In a pot, combine the chicken broth and fresh green beans together. Cook over medium-high heat for 10 minutes. Drain.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, combine the cooked green beans, sour cream, mushroom soup, and desired amount of salt and pepper. Mix well and pour into a greased casserole dish. Top with the French-fried onions.

Bake for 30 minutes until lightly browned.

Can you believe it? Thanksgiving is only two days away. I hope you and your family are busy in the kitchen or at the grocery store, preparing for the big day… or even better, you’ll be off to someone else’s home for Thanksgiving!

Have you started preparing some of your side dishes? Thawing your turkey? Or even starting the brining process? Whatever you are doing, I hope you are spending some quality time with your kids. They grow up too fast… and it’s so nice to them when they’re nice and young and hang on to your every word.

Today’s recipe is glazed carrots. This is always a side dish that we prepare in my family. We don’t normally eat cooked carrots during the rest of the year (we prefer them raw and in salads), but for Thanksgiving, the kids just love this dish. Everyone gobbles it up and it’s completely gone before dessert rolls around.

The recipe yields 8 servings.

Glazed Carrots

Ingredients

2 (16-ounce) package baby carrots
1/3 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Directions

In a large saucepan, combine carrots and enough water to cover them. Cook them until they are tender, about 10 minutes. Drain. Set aside.

In another pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar, Dijon mustard, ground ginger, and salt. Cook until all the sugar is dissolved.

Pour the glaze mixture over carrots. Mix thoroughly before transferring to your serving dish.

 There’s nothing better on Thanksgiving than making your own gravy from scratch. You can’t make this ahead of time because it uses real turkey drippings, but it’s delicious and you’ll be glad you did it. (The turkey gravies that you get at the store are okay, but this tastes superb!)

Pour it over your mashed potatoes or your turkey slices. Yum! Make this gravy while you’re waiting for the turkey to cool.

Enjoy! This recipe yields 12 servings.

Homemade Giblet Gravy

Ingredients
1/2 cup cooked turkey giblets, chopped finely
6 tablespoons turkey drippings
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 cups turkey stock
1 teaspoon dried sage
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Sea salt, to taste
1 teaspoon cornstarch (optional)

Directions
Cook and finely chop the giblets. You can also use a food processor, if you have one.

Over medium heat, add the turkey drippings to a skillet. Slowly add flour and stir until mixture is golden.

Whisk in the turkey stock until the mixture is blended and smooth. Stir in the giblets, sage, black pepper, and sea salt.

Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes or until it thickens. Add a little bit of cornstarch, if you want a thicker sauce.

Everyone in my family absolutely adores stuffing. It’s seriously the tastiest stuff ever—but we don’t like the box stuffings. They are okay for regular dinners. But for Thanksgiving meals, you want to go above and beyond regular stuffing. The problem is that Thanksgiving is such a busy time. We don’t always have time to cook very thing homemade.

I, personally, never put stuffing in a raw turkey. If you do, you have to increase the cooking time because you want to absolutely make the stuffing healthy enough (and no e.coli) to eat. You can also just wait to stuff the turkey, when it’s already cooked. You’ll still get some of the juices, and the stuffing won’t be too salty.

Today’s recipe is a slow cooker recipe. Slow cookers are the best! You just do the basic preparations, and the slow cooker takes care of the cooking, letting you prepare the other dishes that you want to prepare.

You can start this recipe in the morning, and it’ll be ready by the time dinner rolls around! This recipe yields 12 servings.

Slow Cooker Traditional Stuffing

Ingredients
1 cup butter
2 cups chopped celery
2 cups chopped onion
1 lb fresh white button mushrooms, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 tablespoon dried parsley
2 teaspoon garlic powder
12 cups white bread, cut into cubes
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons sage
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
2 eggs, beaten
3 cups chicken broth

Directions
Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Saute the celery and onions until they are soft. Add mushrooms, dried parsley, and garlic powder until mushrooms are soft. Remove from heat.

Spray the slow cooker with olive oil. Combine the bread pieces and sauteed vegetables. Add the rest of the seasonings, and mix together. Add the beaten egg and chicken broth.

Cover and cook on high for 40 minutes. Reduce the slow cooker’s heat to low and let it cook for an aditional 6-8 hours.

Serve and enjoy as a side dish to your Thanksgiving dinner!

I think cooking the turkey is one of the most time-consuming parts of a Thanksgiving Dinner. You can order a pre-cooked Thanksgiving Turkey, delivered to you on Thanksgiving Day, from local grocery stores near you, but it’s not as fun as making it yourself. OK, it’s not exactly “fun.” It’s more time-consuming and tiring, BUT the end result is a delicious fresh from the oven, you cooked it yourself with your kids- main dish! And you know exactly what you put in it, so no worries about nasty preservatives getting in your body!

I’m posting this recipe today instead of closer to Thanksgiving Day, so you can decide if you want to go with my method or not. Be warned: it is time consuming and brining is involved. Make extra room in your refrigerator for the turkey as the brining process takes place overnight.

The recipe is for a 15-18 pound turkey.

Moist and Delicious Turkey

Ingredients

For Brining
1 gallon vegetable broth
1 cup sea salt
1 tablespoon crushed dried rosemary
1 tablespoon dried sage
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 gallon ice water

For Turkey
1 (15-18 lb) whole turkey
1/2 stick of butter, melted
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
2 red apples, chopped
2 large onions, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken stock

Directions
You’ll need to start the brining process 12 hours before you plan to cook the turkey, or overnight. I’d prepare it on Wednesday afternoon or night.

Fill a large pot with the vegetable broth, salt, rosemary, sage, and thyme. Bring to a boil, stirring often to dissolve the salt. Remove from heat and let it cool.

Take the turkey out of the refrigerator. Remove all the innards. Wash and dry the turkey. Lightly rub the inside and outside of the turkey with extra sea salt (not too much).  Set aside.

When brining mixture is room temperature, stir in the ice water. Place the turkey into the brine; breast down. Double check that the cavity is filled with the brining water. Place in refrigerator overnight, letting the turkey soak in the brining mixture for at least 12 hours.

The next day, remove the turkey from the pot, draining the excess brine. Pat the turkey dry. Discard the brine mixture. Let turkey sit in refrigerator for 1 hour while you chop the vegetables.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Brush the turkey with the melted butter. Place the turkey on a roasting rack, breast-side up. Stuff the cavity with thyme, bay leaf, apple, and all of the vegetables. Cover the turkey with the white wine and chicken stock.

Roast uncovered for 3.5 to 4 hours or until the meat thermometer reaches 180 degrees. Let the turkey cool before carving.

Serve. Happy Thanksgiving!

No Thanksgiving meal is complete without a bit of red—Cranberry Sauce! No one in our family is really fond of cranberries by themselves, but every Thanksgiving, we always make cranberry sauce. It was the first side dish I ever cooked by myself when I was little at one of my American grandmother’s houses.

We’re Vietnamese, so we didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving until I was about 10. I remember the thrill that I got to wash those fresh cranberries, pour the water, and sugar in and watch everyone enjoy eating. It was a very memorable experience.

Now that I’m older, this recipe is one that hits my heart. I hope you allow one of your little ones to help you prepare the cranberry sauce this Thanksgiving. You can make it ahead of time, and it’ll still be just as delicious.

This recipe yields about 2 cups of sauce.

Traditional Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 cup water
4 cups (or 1 12-once package) fresh cranberries

Directions
Wash the cranberries in cold water. Discard any bad cranberries.

In a saucepan, add the sugar and water. Turn heat up to high and bring the mixture to a boil, constantly stirring to dissolve the sugar.

Add the cranberries to the pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until cranberries burst.

Remove from heat and let cool at room temperature. The sauce will thicken as it cools. If making it ahead of time, store in sterilized jars in the refrigerator.

Thanksgiving is only a week away! Just in time for the holidays, I will feature a number of delicious holiday recipes on this blog. From now until Thanksgiving, it’ll be a great assortment of side dishes and of course, the turkey, that you can prepare for your family get-together.

Hopefully, you won’t be the one doing all the cooking… but if you are, Thanksgiving is a great time to get your kids involved in the kitchen. Don’t cook everything at once, on Thanksgiving Day, spread it out and prepare things what you can ahead of time.

If you’re making casseroles or pies, prepare the filing and refrigerate or freeze it ahead of time. That way, on Thanksgiving Day, you can just pop it in the oven and you’re done. Same with any breads or doughs that you plan to make.

Today’s recipe is simple. It’s an appetizer you can serve (and make) ahead of time, while everyone is waiting for the turkey to be finished cooking. This recipe yields 12 servings, but you can double the amount if you have more guests coming.

Brown Sugar Toasted Pecans

Ingredients
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water
1 pound pecan halves

Directions

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Grease a baking/cooking sheet.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the brown sugar, sea salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a small mixing bowl, combine egg white and water. Whip until mixture is foamy. Add the pecan halves to egg mixture, and toss until evenly coated.

Remove pecans and toss them in the brown sugar mixture until well coated. Spread the pecan halves on the baking sheet.

Bake for 1 hour, mixing/turning nuts over every 20 minutes.