Sunday-After-Thanksgiving Meal

After eating our fill of turkey on Thanksgiving, on Friday and on Saturday, it doesn’t seem possible that anything with turkey would be appetizing on Sunday, but this dish made with extra-rich turkey gravy/broth is highly anticipated by my family on the post-Thanksgiving Sunday.   I found this recipe for Creamy Turkey Tetrazzini in a Philadelphia Brand Cookbook in 2004 and we have been enjoying it ever since. The secret is to use the best turkey broth/gravy you can salvage from the holiday meal.

CREAMY TURKEY TETRAZZINI

• 1/4 cup margarine
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/2 cup finely chopped celery
• 4 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced thinly
• 10 oz. good turkey broth/gravy
• 8 oz. cream cheese, cut into small cubes
• 1 cup chopped cooked turkey
• 2 Tblsp. chopped pimiento
• Salt/pepper
• 1 oz. grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Saute onions and celery in margarine over medium heat for about 10 minutes.  Add sliced mushrooms and continue cooking until mushrooms are cooked through.  Add broth and cream cheese, stirring over low heat until cheese is melted.  Add turkey and pimiento.  Taste before adding salt – it will depend on how your gravy/broth is seasoned.  Grate some black pepper over the top.  Pour into a 1-1/2 quart casserole dish.  Top with grated cheese.  Bake @ 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile cook 7 oz. of spaghetti or fettucine according to package directions.  Drain pasta.  Serve hot chicken mixture over pasta.

Yield:  4-6 servings.

For dessert today, I made my version of Tiramisu, developed about 15 years ago when we had enjoyed the dessert at a restaurant but I had no idea of how it went together.  We all like my version which uses low-fat versions of some ingredients and 1/2 cup of Kahluha.

MY FAIRLY LIGHT TIRAMISU

• One package Italian lady fingers (about 12 lady fingers – I use Alessi Biscotti Savoiardi)
• 4 oz. light cream cheese (Neufchatel), softened
• 15 oz. light ricotta cheese
• 2 cups light Cool Whip whipped topping
• 1/2 cup Kahlua (to pour over lady fingers)
• One small block of Ghiaradelli chocolate (I like milk chocolate)

In a large mixer bowl, beat together the cream cheese and ricotta cheese until smooth.  Fold in Cool Whip whipped topping.

Place half of the lady fingers in layer in bottom of 9×9″ pan.  Pour half of the Kahlua (1/4 cup) over the lady fingers.

Spoon half of the cream cheese mixture over the top of the lady fingers.  Repeat with the remaining lady fingers, 1/4 cup of Kahlua and remainder of cheese mixture.

Grate the Ghiradelli chocolate over the top of the dish.  Refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.

Yield:  8 servings

We all agreed that it was a good meal and a little bit different even if the entree did include turkey!

Best Light Bread

Many of my childhood Thanksgivings were spent in my Grandma’s kitchen where she cooked a big family dinner on a woodburning stove.  I cook for my grandchildren now, gratefully using all the latest conveniences.  My favorite yeast rolls for Thanksgiving are made from a recipe adapted from one that appeared in Better Homes & Gardens Country Cooking magazine (1982-83).  The original recipe called for the more conventional method of proofing, mixing, and rising, but I converted it to a quicker way with fast acting yeast.

I won blue ribbons at the Hamilton County Fair (Cincinnati) and the Ohio State Fair using this recipe in the 1980s.

BEST LIGHT BREAD

• 6 to 7 cups of all-purpose flour
• 2 pkgs. fast-acting dry yeast
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 cup hot milk (130 degrees F)
• 1 cup hot water (130 degrees F)
• 1/2 cup margarine, melted
• 2 beaten eggs, room temperature

Place 2 cups of flour, yeast, sugar and salt in the large bowl of an electric mixer.  Add the hot milk, hot water and melted shortening and beat for 3 minutes at medium speed, using the paddle beater.  Mix in the eggs.  Insert dough hook and continue to knead dough for another 6-1/2 minutes, adding flour as needed.

Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.  Punch down and form into rolls.  Place on greased baking sheets, cover and let rise for 30 minutes.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Bake rolls for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.  Let cool on wire racks.

For Thanksgiving, I like to make the rolls large – the better for making turkey sandwiches.

Depression Vegetable Soup

My parents married as teenagers during the Great Depression.  For the first three years they lived with family but after my father got a job with the WPA, he moved his wife and two young daughters to a one-room apartment on Elm Street in downtown Cincinnati.  My mother had never cooked for a family before and knew nothing about it.  My father drew on his experiences of traveling around with his father and younger brother from one fairground and racetrack to another where they did horseshoeing, grooming of horses and my father picked up drives in harness horse races.  They did their cooking in barns and tack stalls on a small electric hot plate and my father knew all about making dishes like pancakes with fried eggs, chili, and a hearty vegetable soup – on the cheap and as quickly as possible.

Our first apartment was about three blocks from the large Cincinnati Sixth Street Market where every conceivable kind of food was sold.  Each morning my father would hand my mother the correct amount of money to cover the ingredients for the day’s supper.  We didn’t have an ice box in that first flat so the three-block-long walk had to be made every day with my mother carrying my year-old sister and with me at three years old walking alongside, hanging onto the shopping bag.  My father gave my mother instructions on how to cook what she bought and he made it clear that supper was to be ready on time – no excuses of a crying baby or obstinate toddler.

This soup was a weekly menu item during the 1930s and beyond.  When I was married in the 1950s and on a strict budget, it became a regular meal for my family.  Like everything my mother cooked, it was frugal, filling and only contained items that my father liked (so, no carrots or green beans or barley or noodles, etc., etc.)  It’s still my favorite soup, thick and hearty – even better the next day.

DEPRESSION VEGETABLE SOUP

• 1/2 lb. of stewing beef, cubed*
• 2 cups of diced potatoes
• 1 cup of diced onion
• One 14 oz. can of tomato puree
• One 14 oz. can of peas
• Salt & pepper to taste

Place all ingredients except peas and seasonings in a large pot.  Cover with 3 cups of water.  Let cook for about an hour and a half on medium heat, stirring occasionally and adding a small amount of water if the mixture is getting too thick.   Add the can of peas, including liquid, and allow to cook for 10 minutes or so longer until peas are heated through.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with saltine crackers.  Yield:  4 servings

*My mother would have used the cheapest cut of beef available but I like to use chuck or round steak with all of the fat removed and then cubed.

Another Pattern from Amish Country

My favorite vacation destination and my favorite place for buying quilting items is the Amish country of Holmes County, Ohio.

I bought this pattern a couple of years ago at one of the area’s many quilting shops and thought it would make a nice Thanksgiving wall hanging.

The pattern#97010 is called Grandma’s Kitchen by Pine Meadows Designs, Connie D. Roys, 975 Hickory Grove, Medina, OH 44256. It’s all done in fusible applique with invisible zigzag stitching.  I changed the views a little bit to personalize the piece.  It’s not difficult to make up your own applique pieces.  I added a potholder and calendar, a pumpkin pie with cream and some pumpkin cutouts, printed out the actual recipe for my pumpkin pie to go in the cookbook, etc.

It was a fun piece to do and makes a nice holiday wall hanging – another happy reminder of time spent in Holmes County!

A Good Autumn Meal

One of my favorite meals in the autumn or any other time of the year consists of marinated pork tenderloin, sweet potato patties and Spinach-Mushroom Casserole.  I marinate 3/4″ thick slices of pork tenderloin in Italian dressing for about four hours, then cook on a range-top grill.   Sweet potatoes are microwaved until tender, allowed to cool, then peeled and mashed with a little salt and pepper.  The potatoes are formed into patties and browned in olive oil.

The Spinach-Mushroom Casserole is based on a recipe for Mushrooms Florentine from a wonderful Cincinnati Junior League cookbook, I’ll Cook When Pigs Fly. I changed the ingredients a bit  to reduce the fat and to have more spinach and less mushrooms.  It makes a great side dish.

SPINACH-MUSHROOM CASSEROLE–Reduced Fat

Preheat oven @ 350 degrees F

• 1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 1 Tblsp. olive oil
• 1 lb. bag of fresh spinach
• 2 Tblsp. dried minced onions
• Butter flavored spray
• Sprinkle of salt and pepper
• Sprinkle of garlic salt
• 4 oz. low fat Colby cheese

Saute mushrooms in oil.   Place spinach in a sprayed large flat casserole (mine is about 10″ square).  Spray the spinach with butter flavored spray and sprinkle the onion, salt, pepper and garlic salt.   Sprinkle grated cheese on top.

Bake uncovered @ 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.

Serves 6 to 8.