Kielbasa Corn

It sounds so simple. Turkey Kielbasa and corn. Now I'm trying to figure out how I lived my life before it. I seriously stared at my computer for a few minutes trying to figure out what to call this. So act like it's something that sounds really delicious and measures up to the unbelievable yumyumness this has. Oo! Yumyumcorn. Kielyumcorn. Yumcornkiel. Kielbasayum!

My husband and I have been putting it on our menu almost every week since the day we first tried it and we obsess over the leftovers. He of course likes it more with onions in it.

That's the beauty of this thing, you can add whatever you want and it'll be great! P
robably not "whatever" you want, but nearly. Heck, take these two ingredients camping and wrap it in some tin foil together to cook over the fire!

I actually like my kielbasa browned a lot more than this, like almost burnt coloring. But I wasn't paying attention while I was shopping because my son brought "moo-moo" (his cow) with us and was mooing at me and demanding I stare at him instead of shop.

So, I grabbed some kind of sausage type stuff that wasn't turkey kielbasa and I didn't love the way it browned or tasted but....we can pretend it's the good stuff here.

What you will need:

• 6-8 ears of corn
• 2 turkey kielbasa 
• Garlic Salt
• Black Pepper
• Onions, peppers, etc. (optional)

Directions:

• Shuck and boil your corn for 10-15 minutes depending on the texture you like
• While that's boiling, slice your kielbasa into coins
• When it's done boiling, set your corn on the side and drain the water from your pot
• Dump your kielbasa coins into that same pot and start to brown the sides (if you're planning on adding onions or other vegetables, go ahead and toss those in for a bit before adding the kielbasa in)
• While the kielbasa is browning, cut the corn off of the cob
• When the kielbasa is browned, add the corn into the pot with the kielbasa and mix together with seasonings

Braised Potatoes

I didn't realize braised potatoes was a thing that was kind of frustrating to get "just right" until I watched an episode about them on Americas Test Kitchen. Turns out the trick is to boil them with the butter, so when the water evaporates, the butter that's left will sizzle and brown the bottoms. I thought heck, might as well give it a try!

PERFECTION!

Who am I kidding, though. It's from America's Test Kitchen. As if they'd give me a recipe that wasn't tested a bajillion times with ensured quality. 

You must try these! They are extremely easy and actually cook up pretty fast. I especially like them in the summer time as opposed to roasted potatoes so I'm not turning on the oven. The bottoms of the potatoes can be a darker brown than this when they're done, but these were great for me! (There's also no chives in this picture so they don't look very pretty)

What you will need:

• 12" non stick skillet (I've used non stick, giant pot and everything in between and it's all worked out great)
• Baby red potatoes about 1-1/2" in size, halved
• 2 C water (or enough to fill the skillet up until just the tippy tops of the potatoes are peeking out)
• 3 T unsalted butter
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme (made them without as well. Still great!)
• 3/4 tsp. salt

Directions:

• Arrange potato halves with cut side down around in the non stick skillet
• Add water and salt
• Add butter
• Add garlic cloves whole
• Bring to simmer over medium-high heat
• Once it's simmering, reduce heat to medium and cover with a lid
• Let it simmer some more until it's just tender (about 15 minutes)
• Remove lid and remove thyme and garlic to set aside
• Keeping the lid off, allow the potatoes to continue simmering back at medium high heat, swirling pan occasionally until the water has evaporated and you can hear a "sizzle" sound from the butter started to work its magic (this will take about another 10 minutes)
• When garlic has cooled, mince into a paste and mix with 1 tsp lemon juice, 1/4 tsp pepper and 2 T chives (or you can use whatever seasonings you have around that you want to try out!)
• Check the bottoms of the potatoes and when they're a deep golden brown color they're done! Toss them around with the garlic/lemon paste or whatever seasonings you've chosen

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

First, I just want to say how great these would be if you wanted to make a treat for Thanksgiving but aren't so good at the pie thing! Or even a treat to make and hand out around Christmas time for your neighbors. So perfect!

So, has anyone else seen that FB post going around with the peanut butter balls and the M&M's inside them?! Cause the second I saw them, I knew I was making them immediately. Their FB name is "Tasty" and there wasn't a website as far as I could see! But go look them up, such a fun page!!

I didn't use the m&m's, no one in my family really loooooves m&m's so I thought I'd try them plain at first. I did stick a few baking snickers in the middle of some just to test it out, but I didn't give myself any way of knowing which was which so I haven't come across one yet.

Here's the thing. My husband does NOT like chocolate. I know. It's a tragedy I have to relive every single day. But I discovered that if I have to melt chocolate for anything, all I have to do is add some butterscotch chips to melt with it and the flavor is changed just enough that he can't get enough. (think scotcheroo chocolate, that's the flavor we're talking about here. Just a little more mild since I didn't want it to over power the peanut butter in this).

The recipe doesn't say how many chocolate chips exactly, so I just used whatever I had lying around. It turned out to not be quite enough so the balls weren't coated all pretty and even or anything. But I'll tell ya what we cannot stop EATING THESE!!!!! My husband has eaten more than I have even. This is a miracle. He doesn't really like desserts in the first place, let alone one with chocolate. So this is huge. That's how good these are! And they are SO SO easy to make!

Someone in the FB comments said these were like pb cups on crack. They're definitely better than pb cups. Pb cups have a bit of a grainy, stale peanut butter feel and taste to me. These are so much better!!

What you will need:

• 1/2 C melted butter
• 2 1/2 C powdered sugar
• 1 2/2 C peanut butter
• Some chocolate chips (I'm gonna say at least 2 C will do it. If you want to add some butterscotch chips, toss in about 1/4-1/2 C)

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients but the chocolate together until well combined
• Roll them into equal sized balls and freeze them for about 20 minutes
• You can reshape them a bit after they're frozen and make them look nicer if needed
• Melt the chocolate
• Dip the balls
• Refrigerate or Freeze again until chocolate is set (that's what I did anyway cause I used regular chocolate chips so I didn't want to spend all day waiting for it to set at room temperature!)

Kiss Pies

So I tried to make some pie pops a couple weeks ago. It turned into a complete disaster. I was frazzled the entire time. I was suppose to make my pecan pie filling mixture, but went along not realizing I was making my 6 minutes caramels mixture. Once I realized that (and noticing the time crunch I was in), I was just a mess doing two things at once and didn't use my head at all!

That being said, I had some extra pie crust that needed to be used and just happened to scroll past this recipe from the Picky Palate that looked easy and perfect to do with my kids!

You can totally leave them plain but we definitely wanted to dust with some powdered sugar and drizzle with a chocolate/butterscotch drizzle for an extra bit of deliciousness. These would be adorable on everyone's plate at the Thanksgiving table.

What you will need:

• One roll of refrigerated pie crust rolled out pretty thin
• Hershey kisses
• Circular cookie cutter or a knife to cut a circle around each hershey kiss
• egg wash mixture
• Sugar
• 1/2 C Chocolate chips (optional)
• 1/4 C Butterscotch chips (optional)
• Powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350*
• Roll out the pie crust
• Place a Hershey kiss on the crust and cut a circle around the kiss
• Bring two ends of the dough together and pinch
• Bring the other two ends of the dough together and pinch
• Pinch each side
• Place them all on a baking sheet
• Brush them with some egg wash
• Sprinkle sugar on top
• Bake for about 23 minutes
• Let them cool while you melt chocolate & butterscotch
• Drizzle with the chocolate
• Dust with powdered sugar

Pecan Pie Bars

Today was Martin Luther King Jr. Day and I wanted to make a treat that was relavent for after our FHE lesson on MLKJ and diversity. I discovered one of his favorite desserts was Pecan Pie. I have never had Pecan Pie, and obviously have never made one. I resolved to try it out anyway and skimmed through some recipes. I found this recipe for Pecan Pie Bars. They just looked sooo good I HAD to try them!

And, since I always try to tie in our treats with our FHE lesson...

"Don't *pecan* anyone! We're all equal!"

("pick-on"...get it..?)

SOOO...it turns out I really really like the pecan pie flavor thing. These were so good! I'll definitely be making them again!

Apologies for the grainy picture :(.

What you will need:

Crust

• 2 C flour
• 1/3 C sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2/3 C cold butter, cut into chunks (10 2/3 T)

Filling

• 3 eggs
• 1 C karo syrup
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 2 T butter, melted
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 2/3 C pecans, chopped

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Prepare a 9x13 baking dish lined with tin foil
• Blend flour, sugar and salt in large bowl
• Cut in cold butter chunks until it forms into coarse crumbs
• Dump the crust mixture into the baking dish and pack it evenly throughout the dish
• Bake for 20 minutes
• While the crust is baking, whisk together eggs, karo syrup, sugar, brown sugar, melted butter and vanilla 
• When that is thoroughly mixed and smooth, add in the chopped nuts and blend
• When the crust is done baking, pour the filling on top of the crust (freshly out of the oven) and spread evenly over the crust
• Bake for another 25-30 minutes
• Allow to cool completely and cut into bars

Making Your First Turkey

With Thanksgiving around the corner, that means turkey time is around the corner. The turkey idea is kind of scary if you've never cooked one before. But it shouldn't be. This is a basic guide for your very first time, and as you get more comfortable with it, you can experiment and play! There are sooo many different opinions and ideas on how to cook a turkey. So I'm going to give you the easiest way with the best results possible. But do keep in mind that this is not the only way and you might be better off calling your mother-in-law because whether you want her advice or not you score brownie points.

Here's the thing. I've made a whole lot'a turkeys in my day. It's not a "just for Thanksgiving" kind of meal for this household. I plan for them rather often because their leftovers feed for days! :).

 Fresh or Frozen?

This really is up to you, but the "fresh" turkeys are usually not even technically fresh. Frozen turkeys are usually frozen immediately after being butchered, whereas "fresh" turkeys have been sitting around for many days after the processing, trucking to the store and then sitting in the store until purchased (although I am sure there are locations where you can buy an actual super fresh turkey, but they'll be cost a significant amount more.) I would suggest with it being your first time to save yourself the money and go with frozen.

To brine or not to brine?

With this being your first turkey, the stress and amount of work outweighs the results so I'm going to say no. I do not brine my turkeys. A lot of people insist that you need to brine your turkey the day before cooking. It is said to make a juicier turkey and bring out the flavors more. However, extensive studies have shown that turkeys that have been brined vs. turkeys that have just been salted before cooking, just turned out more watery and less flavorful. The salted turkeys were tender and juicy. Salting is not even completely necessary to create a juicy turkey, it can just be used as more of a buffer in case you over cook, but I have a psycho salt tooth so an excuse to go nuts with the salt is fine by me ;).

However I will say that if you feel that brining your turkey will indeed make a significant difference, I would suggest seeking out advice from Alton Brown. I'm sure he has a brining secret that will make you weak at the knees:).

Defrosting

Now about defrosting. You'll want to keep your turkey in the freezer up until about two days before you plan on cooking depending on the size of your turkey (consider this for your guide). Never defrost your turkey at room temperature. Instead, clear out a space in your fridge and place your turkey on a cookie sheet or something that will catch the juices. If you're planning on salting your turkey, apply a liberal amount of kosher salt over your turkey and lightly cover it with plastic or cheesecloth.

Preparing

Preheat your oven. Enough said?

TAKE OUT THE BAG INSIDE. This is so easy to forget. After you've taken it out, look inside to make sure it's cleared out in there. You'll want to make sure the neck and gizzards are removed (they're usually in the bag, but just in case they aren't...check).

The gravy packet. Most frozen turkeys come with a gravy. You'll want to use this later, and I'll post more about it below for the most amazing gravy you'll ever find anywhere ever ever.

Stuffing. You'll wonder if you should use a stuffing. Don't. The thing about stuffing is that the turkey tends to cook faster than the stuffing does and it soaks up all of the uncooked turkey juices. So you are left with the choice between overcooking your turkey to make sure the stuffing is safely cooked, or eating cold stuffing with raw turkey juices. Hmm..I'll take my stuffing on the side. Feel free to play around with it, but wait until you're comfortable handling a turkey first.

Butter. Butter butter butter. Paula Deen has kind of annoyed the heck out of me for years but the woman knows what she means about butter. Sometimes it just takes things to the next level. I've always just grabbed a stick of butter, cubed it up and shoved those cubes in all kinds of crevasses of that bird. I'll slide some underneath the skin, too. Salt and pepper it some more if you'd like.

Now, my little trick. But first an embarrassing story. One day I went about making a turkey (I hadn't had much experience) and thought multiple times about how it looked kind of funny. I cooked it anyway. When it came out I was like what the crap there is like no meat on this thing. And that's when I realized I'd cooked it upside down. Best mistake of my life! Cooking it upside down made all the juices flow down to the bottom and keep it all nice and moist. So having it upside down and then flipping it for the last hour or so for it to brown is my advise for you.

Covering. You can never use too much tin foil to cover that beast. I layer it and seal it tight like a mad woman! (If you plan on doing "the flip" make sure to keep it uncovered after you've taken the tin foil off for that last hour)

As for the gravy. There are 3 important parts to it. The gravy packet that came with your turkey (if yours didn't, your gravy will still be amazing without, don't worry), McCormick brand brown gravy (1-2 packages) and the cooked juices from your turkey. Heat up the gravy packet first and add in the first package of brown gravy mix. As it thickens up, slowly pour in the turkey juices until it has reached the desired consistency that you like. If you've added too much and it ends up watery, add more of the brown gravy mix. If it ends up too thick, just add more turkey juices. Find a nice balance between those. The finishing touch will be SALT. Nobody else that I know makes gravy this way and they wonder why their gravy is gelatin-ee, colorless, flavorless or all of the above. Trust me. Do it. You'll thank me later. I will post a separate recipe for this gravy soon, so until then rely on this as your recipe :).

So, aside from flipping it over when there's about an hour left, that's it. Salt and butter, baby. It will turn out great, no need for fancy shmancyness on your first turkey. Just get use it and then play as much as you want!