SonicChicken blog

I was just making the stuffing for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving feast. I noticed that the recipe, (which I wrote down over 20 years ago), is becoming illegible and doesn’t include the changes we’ve made over the years. So I decided to record our current recipe here. Hats off to my mother and grandmother for the original recipe!

• 1 c (1/2 lb) butter
• 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
• celery, including leaves, chopped (about twice the volume of the chopped onion)
• 1 c raw cranberries
• 1 tart apple, cored and chopped
• ½ to 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 Tbsp thyme, sage, and/or marjoram (or use poultry seasoning)
• 1 tsp pepper
• 12 (yes, twelve) c bread cubes
• ½ recipe cornbread
• turkey stock

Presumably you’re going to stuff a turkey with this recipe. I like to make the stuffing the day before we roast the turkey. (Otherwise, you’re shoving warm stuffing into the uncooked bird, contrary to safe food handling practices.)

Two days before roasting the bird, chop up the bread and leave it out overnight. (Alternately, you can toast the bread in the oven, but that’s a lot of bread!) The bread needs to be a bit dried out for this recipe.

We also make the cornbread now–one less thing for us to do on Thanksgiving Eve.

One day before roasting the bird, (usually Thanksgiving Eve):

1. Chop the apple, onion and celery. (I prefer the leafy celery stalks, especially the inner ones, but you need some solid celery ribs for texture.) Keep the leaves and stalks separate.
2. In a very large (at least 8 qt) pan, melt butter.
3. Saute the celery stalks for about a minute.
4. Add the chopped onion and cook until the onions and celery are just softening, maybe 3-5 minutes?
5. Add the celery leaves, cranberries, chopped apple, and cook for just a minute.
6. Add ~half of the salt and all the other seasonings, mix.
7. Add as much of the bread as will easily fit in the pan. (Now you know why you need a big one!) Toss to coat.
8. Find a large bowl, perhaps 12 qt. Dice the cornbread up into 3/4″ cubes and spread them out on the bottom of the bowl.
9. Pour the celery/onion/bread mixture over the cornbread.
10. Place any remaining bread cubes in the saute pan and stir them around to pick up any of the butter, herbs, etc. Pour into the bowl.
11. Toss together everything in the bowl. Adjust seasoning and salt to taste.
12. Cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator.

The stuffing is usually a bit dry when it’s time to roast the bird. Add some turkey stock to moisten the stuffing. It should just hold together when you mix it.

Stuff the bird, roast it, and enjoy!

From the movie What’s Cooking?

Ingredients

• 1 c flour
• 1/2 c butter
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 c sugar
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1-2 dashes ground cinnamon
• 6 granny smith apples

Pre-heat oven to 375°.

Crust

1. Bring the butter and cream cheese to room temperature.
2. Place the flour, butter and cream cheese into a bowl and hand mix.
3. Divide into two equal portions.
4. Roll out the bottom crust and lay in a pie pan.

Filling

1. Peel and wedge the apples.
2. Pour sugar over the apples.
3. Add lemon juice.
4. Sprinkle w/ cinnamon.
5. Hand mix.
6. Pour filling into crust.

Roll the remaining dough and cover the pie.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the top is golden.

I’ve been battling a cold since the weekend, and last night was the worst of it (I hope)! I slept poorly (if at all), so I was feeling exceptionally miserable this morning. This calls for the ultimate “comfort food” breakfast–oatmeal!

I foraged in the pantry for a while, looking for the familiar cylindrical container but couldn’t find it. Barb took pity on me and pointed my bloodshot eyes in the right direction before she left for work. I forgot we’ve been buying oatmeal in the bulk section lately, so it was in a plastic bag–with no recipe. Ack! To the Internet, Batman!

A quick search for “oatmeal recipe” returned about a zillion pages for all kinds of recipes, none of which were simply oatmeal. Searching for “how to cook oatmeal” was more effective, but none of the recipes I found sounded just right. By this time, I had finished my first cup of coffee so I was feeling a bit better–well enough, in fact, to do a little creative cooking.

I had just read about a dozen different oatmeal recipes, and one of them included cinnamon and nutmeg. That sounded particularly good, but we don’t have nutmeg in our spice drawer. (It’s probably in one of the many boxes we still haven’t unpacked.) I did find pumpkin pie spice, which contains cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. What the heck, here goes!

Ingredients:

• 2¼ c milk
• ¼ tsp (less?) salt
• 1 c rolled oats
• ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
• ½ tsp vanilla
• maple syrup to taste

Mix the pumpkin pie spice with the oatmeal, or the spice will clump up when you add it to the milk. Heat the milk over medium heat until just boiling. (Careful! Milk can burn. You can use water instead and add some milk later.) Turn the heat to low and add the salt, oatmeal/spice mixture, and vanilla. Cook until the liquid is mostly absorbed and the oatmeal is done to your liking. (Depending on your stove, pan, and which oatmeal you use, this can be anywhere from 1-10 minutes.) Sweeten with maple syrup.

Reactions: This is a lot of oatmeal, probably two full servings. The cooking aroma of the spice and vanilla made an immediate improvement in my mood. The ginger added a nice little zing, but I don’t think I would like it if I wasn’t sick. Next time I’ll try this with cinnamon and nutmeg, perhaps ½ tsp of each.

Caira had Qiana, (one of her friends), over for dinner about a month ago, and they decided to make stuffed mushrooms for us. They were delicious, but I didn’t have a chance to write the recipe down at the time. Tonight, Barb and Caira tried to make them from memory. Here’s the recipe:

• 4 portabello mushrooms
• 1/2 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled
• ~12 oz. hot Italian sausage, ground (or links–just remove the casings)
• seasoned bread crumbs
• Italian seasoning
• garlic salt
• ground black pepper
• crushed red pepper
• 1 egg yolk, whisked
• Parmesan cheese

Wash the mushrooms. Break off the stems and set them aside. Scrape the underside of the mushrooms into a mixing bowl. Lay the mushroom caps upside down on a baking dish. Put the mushroom stems, onion, and garlic in a food processor, chop, and add to the mixing bowl. Add the bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, garlic salt, ground black pepper, crushed red pepper, and egg yolk. Mix thoroughly, then put 1/4 of the mixture into each mushroom cap. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake in a 350° oven for 35-40 minutes.

Hooray! Holly posted the recipe for the dish she was cooking with a blowtorch on Thanksgiving. Sounds like it would warm up the kitchen, a welcome bonus considering that we have no heat right now.

The coconut creme brule recipe is available on epicurious, and copyrighted, so I won’t be posting it here. But once I figure out some improvements, I’ll post my own version of it.