Roast Turkey

So today is New Year's Eve and I'm in the kitchen cooking up a storm.  I woke up early this morning and first thing I did was make my famous White Chocolate Apricot Rugelach cookies and I followed the recipe exactly.  They turned out beautiful and delicious.  Then I made my Beef Salad because without it, it just isn't  a holiday.  This took a while to make but my husband helped me out a bit.  But this post is about roast turkey, I don't make it that often, so I can't say I'm a pro, but it did turn out great.  For this you can use a turkey of any weight really, it all depends on how big your family is, I'm using one around 15 lbs.  Here's what you'll need:

• Raw turkey
• one onion cut in 4
• one garlic bulb
• 1 carrot carrots cubed
• parsley
• 2 celery tops
• salt and pepper to taste
• oil
• rosemary
• thyme
• 1 cup of chicken stock

Wash the bird really well on the inside and outside, and make sure you take out the gizzard bag and neck. Pour some oil over the turkey and massage it well all around the turkey.  In a bowl mix the onion, garlic cloves, parsley, celery tops, salt and pepper and oil, rosemary and thyme, you may add lemons too if you wish.  Salt the turkey really well on all sides and add pepper as well.  You can put some butter pieces as well all over the bird.  Put the bird in your turkey pan and pour the chicken stock in the pan.

Preheat oven to no less than 325 degrees.  Cover the bird with aluminum foil and bake it for 1.5 hours with aluminum foil.  After this time, remove the aluminum foil and baste it with the juices from the pan. Then back in the oven for 2 hours (depends on size of bird) until nicely roasted.  The turkey will be done when the temperature in the thigh reaches 165 degrees. Take it out when it reaches this temperature, take the bird out of the pan and cover it with aluminum foil and let it sit for about 20 minutes.  This is important, do not cut the bird right away, because if you do all the juices will come out of it, and you'll end up with a dry turkey.

I will be serving this with a side of mashed potatoes but you can serve it with any side dish you prefer. Enjoy.

Masterbuilt 20010109 Butterball Professional Series Indoor Electric Turkey Fryer

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

I received this chocolate chip cookie recipe from a business associate and I think I will try and make them this weekend. I like chocolate chip cookies, but I'm not a real big fan, I prefer other type of cookies like my White Chocolate Apricot Rugelach cookie.

Anyway here's what you'll need:

• 1 cup of butter softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups of chocolate chips or chunks

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line cookie sheet with parchment paper or leave ungreased.  Cream the butter with the sugars and eggs, and add the vanilla in a large vowl until light. Beat in the baking soda and salt.  Sitr in flour to make the dough stiff. Blend in chocolate chips/chunks. Drop down by rounded teaspoon full 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets.  Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until just barely golden.  DO NOT OVER BAKE. Remove to wire racks to cool.

This makes about 5 dozen cookies.  Keep in airtight container.  Enjoy!

Famous Amos- Chocolate Chip Cookies, 36 Pouches

Stuffed Peppers (Ardei Umpluti)

People always ask me what are some of the ethnic Romanian dishes. Well I don't know how Romanian stuffed peppers are, but it's one of the dishes I grew up eating and are very popular in Romania.  Now, of course there are many different variations of stuffed peppers.  You can practically stuff them with anything, if you're vegetarian you can just stuff them with rice, but for us meat lovers we usually stuff them with ground pork and sometimes we mix ground pork with ground beef.  Again just like with cabbage rolls and meatballs, they seem to taste better with pork, maybe because pork is fatter so when you cook the stuffed peppers they don't come out dry and are nice and juicy. As for what type of pepper you can use bell peppers work just fine, but normally they are done with Hungarian yellow peppers which are not as thick as the bell peppers.  Here's what you'll need:

• 2 lbs ground pork
• about 5 to 10 peppers, depends on the size of the peppers
• 1/2 cup long grain rice
• 2 onions finely chopped
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• parsley finely chopped
• dill finely chopped
• salt and pepper to taste and other spices you may prefer
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 cups of water

Clean out the insides of the peppers and wash thoroughly.  Saute the onion until tender.  To the ground meat add the rice, the egg, parsley, dill, salt and pepper and mix and mix until it's all mixed well. Now you can stuff really well each pepper and arrange them nicely in a big pot.  Now it's time to make the sauce, you can saute another onion for the sauce if you wish, otherwise just mix the tomato paste with the water and the sour cream and pour over the peppers.  Add more water if needed, it should cover the peppers. Add the bay leaves. Bake at 375 degrees for  2 to 3 hours.  You can also cook these on the stove top, but I find they just taste better baked.  Serve these with a bit of sour cream on top.  Delicious! Enjoy!

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Live at Slane Castle

Romanian meatballs (Chiftele)

Forget all other meatball recipes, this recipe is to die for!  You can use these meat balls for your spaghetti, you can make a tomato sauce with them, or you can just plainly eat them by themselves with bread.  You can fry these, or if you're watching your weight, you can bake them.  I simply just love these.  Here's what you'll need:

• 1 1/2 lb of ground pork
• 2 onions finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 3 potatoes grated
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• salt & pepper to taste
• parsley finely chopped
• dill finely chopped

In a pan with a little bit of oil sautee the onions and garlic until tender and add the grated potato for a few minutes until it becomes tender.  Let this cool.  Add the onion mixutre to the pork, add the egg and breadcrumbs, salt and pepper, and other spices you may wish, add the chopped parsley and chopped dill and mix well.  You can form these into balls, or traditionally they are formed into small patties.  As I said, you can either fry them or bake them, though they are juicier and tastier if fried. Enjoy!

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Jo's Favorite Banana Nut Bread

I make banana nut bread a lot, mostly because whenever we buy bananas we buy more than we end up eating and we end up with very ripe bananas that nobody likes to eat.  This is a banana nut bread recipes that I always use and it's great.  Easy to make and you don't even need a mixer, just mix everything by hand.  Here's what you'll need:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs beaten
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 or 4)
• 1 3/4 cups white flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. This is really easy, just mix all the wet ingredients first then add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Do not over mix. Add in your chopped walnuts.  Pour the batter in a buttered loaf pan and bake for about 40 to 50 min or until done.

You can change this recipe easily by adding chocolate chips, or blueberries, strawberries, etc.  Enjoy!
Easy Banana Bread Recipes. Basic, Low Fat, Healthy, Moist, Nut Bread Recipe Cookbook and more.

Beef Salad (Salata de boeuf)

Now this is an interesting salad and I can't say I've had this anywhere else or seen it on any menu.  But it is the most traditional salad in Romania for all holidays.  If we didn't make this, it just wouldn't feel like Christmas, or Easter or whatever.  Growing up I was always in charge of cutting up all the meat and vegetables.  It was my favorite thing to do.  It is very delicious but I would imagine somewhat high in calories because of all the mayonnaise.  My mother always used to make it with turkey though, even though it's called a beef salad, she just doesn't like beef, but ever since I got married, I only make it with beef and I must say I like both versions. Now normally when I make this salad I don't use a recipe with exact quantity for each ingredient, so it doesn't really matter if you're exact.  Here's what you'll need:

• about 2 lbs of beef (or turkey)
• 1 cup of frozen peas
• a jar of pickles, once it's all chopped you'll need about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of diced pickles, the more the better
• 2 lbs potatoes
• 1 lb carrots
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup of mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup of mustard

Boil the beef for about 3 hours, or use a pressure cooker to finish faster.  It needs to be very tender.  Boil the potatoes and carrots.  Let everything cool and start dicing everything.  They should all be small pieces about 1/2 cm by 1/2 cm.  Make sure you drain all the juice from the diced pickles.  Mix everything together in a big bowl, and add the mayo and mustard, you can add salt and pepper to taste if you wish.  You will end up with a big bowl of salad, traditionally we smooth out the top of the salad with a knife and spread more mayonnaise and smooth that out.  Cover with plastic wrap and you can refrigerate it for weeks.  Serve salad cold, do not warm it up.  

For more salad ideas try this book Simply Salads: More than 100 Delicious Creative Recipes Made from Prepackaged Greens and a Few Easy-to-Find Ingredients.

Savory Cheese Pie (Placinta cu Branza)

This is such an easy savory cheese pie recipe.  I don't think cheese pies are as popular here in North
America as they are in Europe and especially Turkey.  There are so many variations of cheese pies, but I found a very easy way for me to make these.  Whenever I make them. my husband and I fight over them, that's how good they are.  For these you can use any puff pastry you can find.  I do not make the puff pastry so that's why this is the easiest recipe ever.  Ingredients you'll need are:

• 2 cups feta cheese
• 500 ml ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 4 pieces of puff pastry
• fresh dill (optional)

Grate the feta cheese in a bowl and mix with ricotta cheese and egg.  The reason I add ricotta cheese is so that the pie doesn't end up being too salty, so the mixture is half feta and half ricotta.  Roll out your puff pastry and spread 1/4 of the cheese mixture then roll up the dough.  Repeat with remainder of puff pastry, brush with egg wash and poke holes in each pastry with a fork. Bake in the oven at 375 for about an hour or until deep golden brown.   Note, you do not have to butter the baking sheet, the puff pastry has plenty of butter in it so it will not stick.  Enjoy!

White Chocolate-Apricot Rugelach

I must tell you, these are one of my favorite cookies ever! They are perfect for breakfast with coffee as well as an after dinner treat.  You can choose your favorite flavor of jam, you do not have to use apricot, I've tried these with raspberry jam, or strawberry jam and they are all delicious.  I've also made them with nutella, and boy are they good!! This is yet another traditional cookie that I make during the holidays.  Here are the ingredients you'll need:

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cold butter or margarine
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup apricot jam or raspberry jam
• 1/2 cup white chocolate finely chopped
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)

This will take you about 45 minutes to prepare and 25 min to bake.  This makes about 36 cookies.

Place flour in a mixing bowl and with 2 knives cut in the butter or margarine till the mixture resembles small peas.  Stir in the sour cream and vanilla till the dough holds together.  On your floured work surface knead the dough about 10 times.  Divide the dough into 3 pieces and wrap in plastic wrap.

Roll one piece of the dough at a time into 10 inch circle.  This is like making pizza.  Spread the dough with 2 tbsp of jam and sprinkle with one third of the chopped white chocolate.  Using a pizza cutter cut the dough into 12 wedges.  Starting at curved edge, roll up each wedge and place point-side down, on an ungreased baking sheet.  Repeat with the remaining dough.

In a small bowl stir together the sugar and cinnamon if desired and sprinkle over each cookie.  If you are trying to cut back on sugar, you can omit this step.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 min or until light golden brown.  Enjoy!

Cheese sticks

Another one of my favorite traditions is to make these cheese sticks at Christmas time.  There isn't a Christmas that doesn't go by that I don't make these.  They are fairly easy to make and boy do they go fast.  Everybody loves them, and trust me they go very well with beer.  Here are the ingredients you will need:

• 250 gr (8.93 oz) ricotta cheese
• 200 gr (7.14 oz) plain yogurt
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 egg for egg wash
• 200 gr (7.14 oz) butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 25 gr of fresh yeast or 1 tsp active dry yeast
• 500 (18 oz) gr all purpose flour
• Parmesan cheese
• caraway seeds

 In a large bowl mix the yeast, yogurt, ricotta cheese, melted butter, salt and the egg yolk together, basically everything except the flour.  Now add the flour and mix well, you can use a mixer if you wish.  Put in fridge over night.  Flour your work surface and roll out the dough.  You can cut them in any shapes you want, but traditionally they are cut into long sticks as you can see in the picture above.  Make sure the dough is about 1/4 inch or 1/2 cm thick.  Brush with egg wash, and sprinkle parmesan cheese and caraway seeds on each stick.  Bake for about 20 min at 375 degrees or until golden brown.  They are simply delicious especially if you're a cheese lover.  Enjoy!

Walnut Bread (cozonac cu nuca)

Oh let me tell you this is a treat. Again this is a favorite at every Christmas or Easter.  This is my mother in law's recipe and it is the best. It may seem like it's a lot of work, but trust me when I tell you it is worth it.  This recipe makes 3 loaves. It will take you about 4 hours to make and that includes the time it takes for the dough to rise.  This recipe works best with fresh yeast, again here in Calgary I find it at Superstore, but you have to go to one of the bakers and ask them for fresh yeast.  Here are all the ingredients you will need:

• 60 gr of fresh yeast
• 250 gr of chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1 kg white flour
• 300 gr sugar
• 5 eggs
• 500 ml milk
• 250 gr butter
• vanilla extract or vanilla powder
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup of oil
• zest from one lemon

I usually start by adding the sugar to the milk and the lemon zest then I warm it up.  Do not boil it, it just needs to be hot.  Meanwhile, I take the yeast and mix it with 2 tbsp of warm milk, 2 tbsp of sugar and 1 tbsp of flour and mix it well.  Let it rest, if the yeast is fresh you will see the mixture rise.  Leave it for about ten minutes.  In a big bowl add the flour and if you're using vanilla powder add it to the flour otherwise add it to the milk mixture.  Add 5 egg yolks (the whites will be used for the pecan cream) to the milk mixture and mix well.  Next I usually use my kitchen aid mixer with the dough attachment.  Add the flour to the bowl of the mixture then the milk mixture and add the yeast mixture as well and add the melted butter.  Mix well for a few minutes.  In the old days you'd have to knead this by hand for at least half hour.  The  more it mixes the fluffier the dough will be.  Add the raisins and mix well.  Let the dough rise for an hour or two until it doubles in size.

In the meantime, in a food processor add the pecans or walnuts, add 5 more tablespoons of sugar and the 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder and mix.  In the mixer put the egg whites and mix until stiff then add the pecan mixture and mix.  Put this mixture in the fridge.  After the dough has risen, divide it in 3 pieces. On a big surface where you can work the dough, oil the surface, we will not use flour here, oil works better.  Take one piece and roll out and then add a third of the pecan mixture to the dough and roll it out.  Put each roll in a buttered bread pan and let rise again until doubled in size.  Next make an egg wash and wash each bread with egg then sprinkle some sugar over each loaf.  Bake at 350  degrees for about 35-45 minutes.  Let cool completely before cutting into this.  Trust me all this work is so worth it.  Not only will it look beautiful but it will make your house smell wonderful.  Enjoy!

Romanian cabbage Rolls (sarmale)

Here's my tried and true cabbage rolls recipe that is a must have for every Christmas. First of all, the big difference between Romanian cabbage rolls and others are that we make them with sour cabbage.  You can find sour cabbage at pretty much all grocery stores, here in Calgary, we always find them at Safeway or any Polish store.  With sour cabbage you have to be careful because it is pretty salty, so what I usually do is a few hours before actually assembling the rolls, I put the cabbage in a big pot with water, so some of the salt gets out of it. Here are the ingredients you'll need:

• 3 lbs of ground pork (or whatever meat you prefer)
• 1/2 cup of long grain rice
• 1-2 onions
• 2 sour cabbages
• parsley
• dill
• 2 tbsp of oil
• 1 L of tomato juice
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:  Chop the onions and fry them in the oil until tender.  Add the dill and parsley and rice and 1/4 cup of water.  Cook until rice absorbs the water.  Add onion and rice mixture to ground pork and add your salt and pepper and mix well with your hands.  Now it's time to assemble the rolls.  Remove all the cabbage leaves and cut each leaf in half.  Romanian cabbage rolls are traditionally smaller than the Polish cabbage rolls, so that's why I recommend cutting each leaf in half, otherwise you can use the entire leave for one roll.  Fill each half leaf with a big tbsp of the meat mixture and roll.  Put all the rolls in a big pot and add the liter of tomato juice over the rolls.  Add more water if needed, the juice should cover the rolls entirely.  Cover the pot with aluminum foil and bake at 375 degrees for about 4 hours.  After 2 hours remove the foil and put back in the oven.  Serve hot with a bit of sour cream on top.  Delicious! Enjoy!!