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Archives for November 2015

bacon & brown sugar green beans

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Three years ago I proclaimed everything is better with Pinterest. I made this proclamation after trying bacon wrapped green bean recipe that was all the rage in 2012. I made the recipe for 3 years but always had the same complaint. The beans never cooked evenly. The ends wilted and the inside was crunchy, the bacon never really got crispy and they weren’t that easy to eat. They tasted so good, though.

bacon wrapped green beans

I was thinking about making them a few weeks ago when a trick from culinary school and another recipe popped in my head and gave me a solution to my wilted green beans. Stop cooking them in the oven. Cook them in a pan and make a sauce. After a few tries and some adjustments, I came up with a great recipe. If you are tired of green bean casserole these beans will make an excellent substitution this year.

They cook quickly and the sauce is easy to make. One tip, use cold butter at the end to make the sauce. The cold butter melts slower and will give your sauce a nicer thickness as well as a glossy finish that you might have noticed on restaurant sauces.

Now you have one recipe picked for Thanksgiving. If you need more and some handy checklists to make your Thanksgiving holiday less stressful you can sign up for my mailing list and get my 27-page guide to help with all your Thanksgiving prep.

We will be having these for our Thanksgiving dinner and if I could meet up with my blog friends for Thanksgiving this is certainly the dish I would bring. Check out the other great recipes this week from the 60 bloggers participating in this years Blogsgiving Dinner.

Thanksgiving is all about family, friends and delicious food. Luckily, the food blogging community is all about these things as well. To celebrate the holiday, Meghan from Cake ‘n Knife and Susannah from Feast + West are hosting Blogsgiving Dinner. There are more than 60 blogs sharing recipes this week!

The idea is based on an old-fashioned potluck dinner party. Each blogger is bringing one or more dishes to the party, so be sure to stop by each one and get some ideas for your own Thanksgiving meal. We’ll be posting to social media with the hashtag #blogsgivingdinner, but you can see all the whole menu in Part 1 and Part 2 of the recipe round-up.

bacon & brown sugar green beans
Print Recipe
Servings
4 people
Cook Time
15 minutes
Servings
4 people
Cook Time
15 minutes
bacon & brown sugar green beans
Print Recipe
Servings
4 people
Cook Time
15 minutes
Servings
4 people
Cook Time
15 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: people
Instructions
  1. Cook bacon in pan, over medium-high heat until fat starts to release from bacon.
  2. Saute onion and garlic with bacon until aromatic
  3. Add beans and cook for 5 minutes. Pour in chicken broth, season with salt and pepper and cover. Cook for 10 minutes.
  4. Uncover and add sugar, Worcestershire sauce and cook until sauce reduces by half.
  5. Add butter pieces slowly and stir until combined.
  6. Serve immediately
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turkey buying guide

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There are so many steps to getting Thanksgiving dinner on the table. The decisions, and possible stress and anxiety start at the grocery store. Buying the right bird for the right price isn’t as easy. There are so many choices, and terms it can be a bit overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be though. You can navigate this with the tips and vocabulary in this turkey buying guide.

How big should the bird be?

How much turkey you need for the amount of people you are having should be your starting point in turkey buying.

Standard wisdom is 1 pound per person or 1 1/2 pounds if you want leftovers.

We always go a bit over that because there are two of us and we really love the leftovers. For your average 8 people for dinner you need an 8-pound - 12-pound bird. Those aren’t always the easiest to find so go for the smallest you can find. Remember to adjust your cooking plan accordingly based on the size of turkey you are getting.

If there aren’t many of you looking for a turkey breast instead of a whole turkey is also an option, but I vote for leftovers every time.

Will my turkey fit in the oven?

A question only you can answer. If your oven is older it might be on the smaller size and fitting a 20+ pound bird in there is going to be tough. You are trying to get a bird that fits in the oven comfortably so it cooks evenly and isn’t too close to the heating elements.

To figure this out, you might have to measure the height of a bird at the store. Set up your roasting rack and add the height of the turkey to see how it will do in the oven.

If the size turkey you need won’t fit in your oven you have a couple of choices. You can consider roasting two birds or spatchcock the bird and guarantee it will fit in and cook quickly.

Fresh vs Frozen

Fresh turkeys probably aren’t as fresh as you think unless you picked it up at the farm. Fresh usually means the turkey wasn’t frozen. It was instead kept at a low temp, never below 26°F. If you remember elementary science, 32°F is freezing so 26° is below that. Why do you care? When something is at those temperatures ice crystals from. As the ice crystals thaw and refreeze they affect the meat. Giving you a bird that doesn’t taste as good as it should.

So if ice crystals are bad why would I ever consider a frozen bird? The way most birds are currently frozen is a flash-freezing process that limits the amount of ice crystals that form. This helps maintain the integrity of the meat.

I have purchased “fresh” turkeys for the last few years and have been happy with the quality. I am sure a truly fresh bird would taste even better. I haven’t had a frozen bird in years, but they are frequently less expensive.

Regardless of how you bird was stored before it gets to your house there are a few terms you might see on the labels or advertisements that you need to know about. Read through them and as always buy the best bird you can afford.

Self-basted - This will probably be your cheapest bird, but it is also your least natural.This bird has been injected with a solution to help it stay moist during cooking. Sounds great, no? The solution is fat, broth, oil, spices and likely some chemical preservatives. Apparently, it also makes the meat a little water-logged but I have no recent experience with this to tell you one way or the other.

Brined - This bird has been soaked in a solution to help season and lock in flavor. Brined birds are tasty and moist. It has the same effect as the self-basted bird above, but it is a natural solution, usually water, salt & sugar. It doesn’t make the meat water-logged, just moist and delicious.

Natural - This is a tricky one. It would seem like this means the bird was raised in a specific way, nothing was added and it is as close to off the farm as you can get. While that might be the case it isn’t a guarantee. The only requirement for using the word natural is that now artificial or chemical ingredients were used during processing.

Organic - There are two parts to raising an organic turkey. First the bird doesn’t receive chemicals or antibiotics. Second, the bird is fed organic feed. This makes the bird more expensive though it might taste better.

Kosher - Kosher birds are killed according to Jewish dietary guidelines. The big points being that the bird is salted and rinsed in cold water. Because hot water isn’t used in processing the birds, the feathers are harder to remove. When you get a kosher bird be prepared to remove some of the smaller pin feathers when you get it home. However, because it is salted it has effectively been brined giving it a great flavor.

Heritage - This one you need to really plan for. You will have to find a farmer, put your order in months in advance and cook it differently than a traditional bird. Heritage birds are raised completely outdoors and are allowed to conceive naturally. They are allowed to live longer so they are bigger birds with more meat. The meat is leaner and the dark meat is gamier than your grocery store birds which changes cooking method and carving. This turkey will break the bank. A 20lb turkey could run you $200.

If you want more tips for making a Thanksgiving dinner with less stress sign up and download my free guide to a complete Thanksgiving dinner.

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Kitchens of the great midwest

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I finished, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, weeks ago and I can’t stop thinking about. I spend a lot of time thinking about food and how it connects people so the fact that I am enamored might not be that surprising given the title. The topic certainly is a big reason the book keeps popping up, but it is the writing style that I keep coming back to.

The book is written from various points of view and each chapter doesn’t necessarily have the main character in it directly. It threw me for a loop as I was reading it, but I grew to love it and I was so impressed by it at the end of the book. I can’t wrap my head around how he pulled it off. Like a complex meal that you can’t imagine cooking blows you away and impresses you with the artists skill, this book had the same effect on me. I am just in awe of his ability to tell a story in such a unique way. I give him kudos for the food part too. He obviously has done his research or has a passion for food that made that a fun back story. He knows his midwest and especially his Minnesota cuisine and hot dishes.

I found out about the book in an article that was heralding great new books. I wish I could remember the articles so I could check out the rest of the books. It turns out I am connected in a six degrees of separation, actually it is 2 degrees, in this case, with the author. He is the childhood friend of one of my favorite people. I knew that while I was reading the book, but this made it even more fun. Added excitement while reading was recognizing my friends favorite bands, places in Minneapolis he talks about and seeing his last name used for a character in the book. If seeing my friends names in the acknowledgments was super cool for me I can only imagine how they felt seeing it in print.

While you won’t have the added excitement of seeing your friend’s name in print, you will get a sweet story centered around food. You can’t go wrong picking up this book.

If you love food, you should read this book.

If you love good story-telling, you should read this book.

If you are breathing, you should read this book.

 

What book is on your wish list right now, or have you loved recently?

*This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase after clicking on the link.

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