So we decided on Friday to make home made pizza on Saturday and what a great decision to make!!!!

Margaret helped by emailing me pizza sauce recipes at work for me to piece them together to find out what I wanted. Thankfully pizza sauce is easier to put together than spaghetti sauce. The difference between the two you might ask? One has all the goody’s in the sauce while the rest is put onto the pizza (ex. sausage, onions, etc…).

So after a hearty breakfast of biscuits and gravy and a spell of being out in the snow we were ready for pizza. Margaret made the perfect crust. It wasn’t thick or thin, just nice and bubbly. The sauce I think was perfect, because it wasn’t sugary or overly spicy. After all was said and done we got the best tasting pizza we’ve ever ate. Yes, I said it best ever!!!

Surprising to all, there were no meat goody’s on it. Not because we don’t like pepperoni or anything, we went cheap. It was veggie city and boy was it good.

Welp, I’m off to eat rice crispy treats!!!

I’m just happy to use up a 14lb turkey before we move. This week will be many turkey sandwiches and maybe turkey breakfasts (if I don’t pack up the spices accidentally).

Anwyay, quick update.

Later kids!

Good Eats Roast Turkey

1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey
For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
1/2 tablespoon candied ginger
1 gallon iced water
For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.

A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.

Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil.

Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.

I was interested in trying a baked omelet of sorts and this morning I took the plunge. With Margaret’s help we were able to slap together all the ingredients in record time. The longest part of the whole process was it being the first time we made it. Next time it will be more stream-lined.

I culled a few recipes and put together what I thought were the basics and then expanded from there. It turned out great and we get left overs.

If anyone’s interested I posted the omelet recipe below… Enjoy

Thaden Family Omelet

Ingredients : ¾ cup milk, 1 lb bacon, 2 bell peppers, 1 ½ cup diced onion, 4 cups diced potatoes, 1 ½ cup sliced mushrooms, 16 eggs, 2 cups shredded cheese, 1 medium tomato, black olives, salt & pepper to taste, (optional : 1 lb hot sausage)

Directions : Preheat oven to 400°.

Prepare all veggies prior to cooking.

Cook bacon until crispy

Fry the potatoes in the left over bacon grease until almost done.

Crack all 16 eggs in a bowl and whisk until completely mixed up.

Add veggies, meat, cheese & milk to eggs and mix.

Pour mixture into glass casserole dish and place in oven.

Cook until done (brown on top). Let rest for 5 minutes before cutting.

I made some guacamole last night (damn good batch too for a white boy) and I got a little hungry. So I went ahead and grabbed some tortilla’s and smeared some of the guacamole on it and it was pretty damned good.

Next thing to try is heating it up in the oven with loads of cheese and maybe some green enchilada chili sauce on top and we’ll see how it goes. I know spinach enchilada’s look rather tempting, so why not the guacachalada?

btw, I claim the founder of the new word “Guacachalada,” along with arstocate.

 
Guacamole Dip
Ingredients: 4-5 avocados, juice of 1 lime, 1/3 – ¼ cup onion, nice big bunch of cilantro, ½ – 1/3 tomato, 2 cloves garlic, salt to taste.

Directions : Mix all ingredients together in a med bowl and chill in the refrigerator until time to eat.

**take a tortilla and load it up with guacamole. Roll it up, eat it, and enjoy**

1.) Sift together 1 3/4 flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

2.) Cream together butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy, using electric mixer @ medium speed. Add eggs, one @ a time, beating well after each addition.

3.) Add dry ingredients alternately with bananas to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition using electric mixer @ low speed.

4.) Stir walnuts into batter.

5.) Pour batter into greased 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

6.) Bake @ 350 for 1 hour or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

7.) Cool in pan on rack 10 mins. Remove from pan and cook on rack

8.) Wrap in aluminum foil. Let stand overnight. (Loaf will slice better after standing).

Not sure we’ll be able to do the last instruction. I can already smell it, and it’s making my tummy grumble. I’ll let you know how good (or bad) it tastes.