Thanksgiving Menu Plan

SMOKER - husband
1. Smallest turkey money can buy, or perhaps if one of our backyard mother cluckers really makes  
    me mad...
2. Prime Rib cause that's we all really love the bestest anyway

ME
3. Pork Wontons, Mother in law's recipe
4. Wild rice, farro, and tangerine salad
5. Gravy
6. Green Bean Casserole
7. Grilled Brussels Sprouts with Chanterelles
8. Pork Stuffing, Mother in law's family recipe

SISTER
9. Green salad
10. Mashed or somehow processed Potatoes


DESSERT:
Chocolate-Caramel Cake with Sea Salt
Apple Pie
Bourbon Caramel Pumpkin Pie

DRINKS:
Pinot noir
Moscato
Martinelli's Sparkling Cider
Decaf Coffee
Milk

Weekly Dinner Plan #8

Thanksgiving leftovers feature heavily, uhduh.

Sunday:
     Sour Cream Noodle bake. Well f#ck me, I've chosen to believe all these years that my mother somehow birthed this recipe, but honestly that was silly.  My whole family or like three of us know this recipe by heart.  So it occurred to me to try and find a link somewhere rather than do work and write it out for you.  Who should pop up in my search results at #1? Pioneer Woman.  So here it is, my only modification is you can feel free to dump in spaghetti sauce from a jar if you don't have canned tomatoes or if you just prefer.
Sour Cream Noodle Bake


Monday: Chicken legs and whipped carrots, butternut squash and potatoes and spinach salad

Tuesday: Chili and corn bread

Wednesday: Ham and Cheese Waffles, Fried eggs

ThursGiving: Menu

Friday: Turkey Noodle Soup

Saturday: Steak Salad

Chatting with Sue about Salad

This grownup-girl child is Sue.

She is, among many other things, auntie extraordinaire, running training calendar administrator, and most importantly for this post - salad coach.

Last week she gave me two very important lessons which I am now sharing with the world/you 5 people who read this.

1) You can keep lettuce and other leafy greens like 4 times longer in the fridge if you pack them in a container with a lot of water, like immersed in water.  For reals, it worked.  Tonight our salad is made of CSA butter lettuce from 17 days ago.  SEVENTEEN DAYS AGO.  It's fresh and green.  wth?!

2) Green salad dressing is the bomb.  Just as delicious as that bacon fat dressing I've linked to somewhere on this site.

It's a tweak-as-you-go affair so here is what I did under her guidance:
Toss in a blender or a food processor:
1 handful of Kale
2 stalks of green onion
1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar (any vinegar)
1/4 cup of avacodo oil (any oil)
1 tbsp mustard
salt
pepper

depending on quantity, thickness, taste for vinegar, tweak it.

Weekly Dinner Plan #7

Sunday: Pasta with Butter-Roasted Tomato Sauce

Monday: Oven roasted Chicken legs,  brown rice, with kale, carrot, tomato salad

Tuesday: Roasted red potatoes and butternut squash with poached eggs

Wednesday: Dinner out (Mitsuwa grocery - Japanese Saimin)

Thursday: Pasta Carbonara with Charred Brussels Sprouts

Friday: Smoked Pork Enchiladas and salad

Saturday: Sweet potato and red potato leek soup and crusty bread

Weekly Dinner Plan #6

Monday: African Chicken Peanut Stew and rice

Tuesday: Pork Wontons and fried rice


Wednesday: Lentil Potato Pie and salad

Thursday: Crazy Easy Pumpkin Soup and seasoned puff pastry squares

Friday: Persimmon Latkes and Chicken Apple Sausage

Cheater's Pumpkin Risotto

All that healthy somewhat gritty brown/wild/black rice you have left over?  Drown it in creamy thick pumpkin sauce and stir in a lot of parmesan cheese and everyone is happy.

Pumpkin sauce (a lot like the soup I posted, but thicker):
Saute onion, and garlic, curry square
One can of pumpkin puree, can of coconut cream

Immersion BLEND.

Warm it up, pour over the rice in a casserole dish, stir in 10 oz of parmesan cheese.  Bake for 15 minutes at 350.

Crazy Easy Pumpkin Soup

One medium onion, chopped
3 or 4 garlic cloves, chopped
Salt and pepper

Sautee in avacodo oil, or whatever you like

Once onions are golden, add a square of curry from a Vermont Curry box (the MSG-full one I think ;) one can of pureed pumpkin and about 8 oz of broth and a can of full fat coconut milk.  Use your IMMERSION blender because it's the BOMB.

Let it all warm up.  Taste and add more salt and pepper probably.  Because it is canned pumpkin you are going to need to up your seasoning.

Serve with a bit of heavy cream poured in a circle with sprinkled dukkah on top.

Serve with crusty bread or what I did which was puff pastry with goat cheese/mascarpone spread, baked with caramelized onion and garlic topping.

Lentil and Potato Pie

4 red potatoes, chopped and microwaved in a bit of water for 4 minutes
1 17 oz package of pre-cooked lentils (TJs)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 small onion, chopped
4 oz goat cheese, 6 oz mascarpone, 2 tbsp heavy cream (enough to make it easily spreadable, almost pour-able)
5 or 6 sheets of phyllo from the freezer - thaw phyllo in fridge overnight.


Saute the onion and garlic in any kind of oil you want - I used bacon fat.
Once the onions are translucent add the softened potatoes. Season with salt, pepper and dill to taste.
Saute until the potatoes are looking golden brown on a couple sides.
Add the pre-cooked lentils.
Stir till all warmed up.

Prepare a small-ish baking dish with the phyllo sheets according to package directions, about 2 on bottom with spray oil between layers.  Pour the lentil and potato mixture in, cover with the goat cheese mixture, top with 3 or 4 layers of phyllo with spray oil between sheets.

Bake for about 15 minutes at 350, until the phyllo looks golden and parts are crisping and getting darker around the edges.