thanksgiving Archives | wit wisdom and food

bacon & brown sugar green beans

November 11, 2015 by anne Leave a Comment

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.

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

Courseside

Servings

4 people

Cook Time

15 minutes

Servings

4 people

Cook Time

15 minutes

bacon & brown sugar green beans

Courseside

Servings

4 people

Cook Time

15 minutes

Servings

4 people

Cook Time

15 minutes

Ingredients

1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed
1 small onion, diced
4 slices bacon, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces
salt & pepper

Servings: people

Instructions

Cook bacon in pan, over medium-high heat until fat starts to release from bacon.
Saute onion and garlic with bacon until aromatic
Add beans and cook for 5 minutes. Pour in chicken broth, season with salt and pepper and cover. Cook for 10 minutes.
Uncover and add sugar, Worcestershire sauce and cook until sauce reduces by half.
Add butter pieces slowly and stir until combined.
Serve immediately

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turkey buying guide

November 9, 2015 by anne 2 Comments

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.

how to cook a turkey in 90 minutes

December 5, 2014 by anne Leave a Comment

I love the idea of Thanksgiving but I hate the stress of trying to figure out how to get everything on the table at the same time. In years past I have been really bad at it. I am going to blame part of it on the cheap oven in the house I was renting. I was always so stressed by the end of cooking that I didn’t enjoy the meal. After an entire day in the kitchen you should at least enjoy the meal you cooked!

I solved both problems this year.

Dinner was on the table at the same time, I wasn’t stressed and enjoyed the whole meal!

We are still staying at my parents so I had the use of their double ovens and I slightly deconstructed the bird so it only took 90 minutes to cook.

No joke it was 90 minutes in the oven and 30 minutes resting to get our Thanksgiving bird on our plates. The double oven also helped immensely by allowing me to cook a lot of dishes at the same time.

Maybe you think there is a catch to cooking a turkey in 90 minutes, but I assure you there is not. It is a simple process called spatchcocking. If you have been reading the blog for a while you have already seen my love for this method. I have covered a chicken in proscuitto and cooked one on the grill, both with amazing results.

The reason you can cook a turkey in 90 minutes is you remove the backbone and flatten the bird which provides more surface area and a faster cooking time. See, no catch and it isn’t even that complicated. Though I admit it sounds intimidating at first.

Here is how you do it:

With a good pair of kitchen shears it is extremely easy to remove the backbone. Simply cut down both sides of the backbone with a little force. As a bonus if you keep the backbone you can add it to the neck and giblets and make stock later in the week.
Once you have the backbone removed flip the bird over on a cutting board and press down hard on the breast bone to break it and flatten the bird.
Let the turkey sit on the counter for 30 minutes
Meanwhile, prepare your roasting rack by putting a cut up onion, 4 carrots and 4 celery stalks in the bottom. Add some sage, rosemary, thyme and a little garlic. Add a cup of water or broth to the pan and place the turkey on top. You can either put it on a rack or directly on top of the veggies.
Salt and pepper the bird and drizzle olive oil over the bird and rub it in.
Place the bird in the oven and cook for 30 minutes at 450 degrees. After 30 minutes reduce the heat to 350 and cook until an insta-read thermometer reads 165 degrees, about an hour longer.
While the bird is cooking at 350 degrees baste the bird every 20 minutes with a little more olive oil.
Remove the bird from the oven when done, tent with foil and let it rest for 30 minutes. This 3o minute resting time will allow you to get one more dish in the oven.
To carve, remove the legs and thighs and then carve the breast as you would if it was a whole bird.

If you need pictures or videos here are some links that will take the fear out of spatchcocking.
How to spatchcock a turkey -Bon Appetit I used their cooking method for my turkey and it worked well. I don’t love the way they carve the turkey breast because I like my pieces thin and ready for sandwiches
How to spatchcock a turkey-Martha Stewart No videos in this one, but the detailed pictures are very helpful.
How to spatchcock a turkey-Mark Bittman He says it takes 45 minutes which seems a little unbelievable but I had a bigger bird than he did, so maybe. He doesn’t mention a lot of details on cooking time in the video but you can find those on his recipe posted on Serious Eats.

I would love for you to share your favorite turkey story with me in the comments.

pumpkin pie chia pudding

November 14, 2014 by anne 10 Comments

It is time for dessert and I have you dairy free, gluten free, paleo peeps covered. Well paleo people you are covered if you can deal with a bit of maple syrup.

Of the 3 recipes this week I am most excited about this one, since I found nothing similar and actually went through the process of kitchen testing this. That turned out to be 7 versions. Let me tell you that 1-4 were horrible. The exact words were “That tastes like eating a wet tea bag”. I think he was trying to say that it is earthy and not at all good please try again, but his version really is more descriptive. Want to know what changed from version 4 to versions 5-7?

I heated up the ingredients before I added the chia seeds. Do not skip this step.

I repeat, do not under any circumstances skip this step.

Heating up the coconut milk, pumpkin, maple syrup, vanilla and spices gave the flavors a chance to blend together. It also cooked the pumpkin just enough to not be raw and earthy. The ah-ha moment came one night when I was thinking about pumpkin pie and the differences from what I was doing and how you make a pumpkin pie. When it hit me that the biggest difference is mine isn’t cooked I knew I was on to something. Pumpkin pie filling, after all, isn’t like cookie dough you don’t just grab a spoon and eat it raw.

During the taste test of the cooked versions Tom even went back for a second taste and declared one good, instead of, well I guess it is edible.

I was skeptical of chia pudding the first time I had it, but was surprised to find it very similar to pudding and imagine the amount of Omega-3’s and fiber I get from this that I am not getting from the Bill Cosby version.

Trying to stick with Whole 30, paleo or any other diet during the holidays is a challenge for even the strongest will power. I hope this gives you a good option. I personally think it makes a great breakfast and I will be having pie on my Thanksgiving.

I have loved participating in the Blogsgiving Dinner and I hope you have found some great recipes through the week. Here is to a happy holiday for everyone and let the Christmas decorating begin in, count ’em, 13 days.

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 20 awesome blogs sharing 52 recipes.

The idea is based on the old-fashioned progressive dinner party, in which you’d eat each course at a different guest’s home. Each blogger is bringing one or more dishes to the party on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of this week, so be sure to stop by each one and get some ideas for your own Thanksgiving meal. Today’s bloggers have recipes for dessert and after-dinner drinks, as well as ideas for eating leftovers.

We’ll be posting to social media with the hashtag #blogsgivingdinner. Hope you can join us!

Dessert
Grandma’s Pecan Pie from The Wetherills Say I Do
Pumpkin Sheet Cake with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting from My Cooking Spot
Gluten-Free Apple Berry Crumble from Twin Stripe
Paleo Pumpkin Pudding from Wit Wisdom Food
Cranberry Almond Coconut Bars from Love & Flour
Torched Marshmallow Pumpkin Pie with Olive & Sinclair Chocolate from The Local Forkful
Poached Pears with Salted Maple Caramel Syrup from Home at Six
Sweet Potato Pie from Think Fruitful
Nutella Pumpkin S’mores Tart from bethcakes
Gluten-Free Acorn Squash Spice Bars from I Cook. I Eat. It’s Life.
Drunken Pecan Pie Bars from The Speckled Palate
Butter Pecan Cupcakes from The Speckled Palate