Happy Pretend Thanksgiving!

Last night I was watching the Food Network Thanksgiving specials. This is dangerous for me. I saw so many yummy dishes that I wanted to make. Unfortunately, I am not cooking Thanksgiving dinner. We're going to visit our families, so no cooking for me. So I decided to have my own Pretend Thanksgiving. I made a turkey tenderloin (because heaven knows that I don't need a whole turkey for just the two of us, and it's kind of scary), dressing, mashed potatoes, and a new kind of cranberry sauce. Here's the recipes:

The turkey was a giant cheat. It comes pre-marinated in a package at the store. It's the Honeysuckle White brand turkey tenderloin that was in the "rotisserie" marinade. You do have to actually cook it because it's raw, not one of those "fully cooked" delights. I usually sear mine on both sides in a skillet and then pop it into the oven at around 400 degrees for the rest of the cooking. It usually takes it about half an our or so in the oven, but I don't pay attention. I just set the alarm on my meat thermometer to go off at 160 degrees (carryover cooking will get you the last 5 degrees), then I pull it out and let it rest a while before serving. The turkey was the least homemade thing we had, and oddly enough, it was our least favorite dish. Definitely decent, but not lifechanging.

The dressing was loosely based on this recipe from Tyler Florence that I saw last night on TV. I browned some sweet Italian sausage in a skillet, and then added a carrot and an onion that I had ground up in the food processor until it was almost a paste. I let that heat up and take the edge off the onion for a few minutes, then I added a teaspoon of poultry seasoning (because I couldn't find sage at the grocery store), about a tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary, a little salt and black pepper, a few teaspoons of minced garlic, and let it all mix through. C diced up some sourdough bread and tossed it into a buttered baking dish. We then tossed the contents of the skillet with the bread, and poured over it a combination of an egg, roughly 1/2 milk, and roughly 1 cup of chicken stock. I tossed the dressing around to make sure everything was equally moist. Then it went in a 375 degree oven for about half an hour. It came out toasty and crisp on top, and nice and moist in the middle! It was awesome! Might be my favorite dressing I've had so far. I think it would be great with some dried cranberries or pistachios (or both!) in it!

The mashed potatoes weren't really anything to write home about, so I'll spare you the details, but this cranberry sauce...oh man. I could have just eaten that! And it was about the easiest thing I made. You start with some cranberry juice, maybe 2 or 3 cups (I didn't measure), and bring it to a boil in a sauce pan. When it boils, toss in most of a package of dried cranberries, sugar (again, I didn't measure. Maybe 1/2 cup? It seemed like a lot.), and either a couple of cinnamon sticks or a couple teaspoons of ground cinnamon. Reduce the heat to a simmer, and let it do its thing until the cranberries start to plump up. At that point, add in two diced apples, and continue to simmer until the apples are almost fork tender. Then add a couple teaspoons of cornstarch or flour, heat for a few more minutes, then let cool. It's best if you can let it cook completely, even refrigerate it, but ours was still slightly warm, and it was still awesome. I think you'd just get a little more "jellied" sauce if it cooled completely. It was amazing. Definitely something that will be a holiday staple in my kitchen!

Roast for dinner!

I made a roast for dinner tonight. Not because I love roast, because I don't. My husband loves roast beef. And so I decided to see if I liked it any more if I made it myself (it's worked for several dishes that I've previously considered mediocre).

This morning I cut up and onion into nice big wedges, and added small red potatoes and baby carrots into the crock pot. I mixed about a cup or so of red wine with a couple of teaspoons of flour to thicken the sauce, and a teaspoon or so of fresh chopped rosemary. I poured that into the crock pot and tossed the veggies around in it.

For the meat itself, I bought a smallish chuck roast at the store and trimmed the fat and silverskin from the surface of it, best I could. I then poured soy sauce over the roast to season and moisten it and rubbed it in. I then mixed up about a tablespoon each of dried thyme, dried oregano, black pepper, and fresh rosemary and patted it onto the surface of the roast. Then I placed the roast in the crock pot on top of the veggies. I turned the crock pot on high for about six hours, and C turned it down to low for the last hour or two.

It turned out fantastic! So moist, with a nice herb crust on the outside. The veggies were perfect, and there was a great red wine au jus in the pot that I plan to use for French dip sandwiches tomorrow! I think by only adding a little liquid to the pot, it created a nice steamy moist cooking environment instead of drawing out all the liquid from the meat. I liked it, and C said it was the best roast he's ever had, and I earned by first 10.0 rating for a meal from him. I've had lots of 8's and 9's, but this was my first 10.