Holiday Jello

This is another Burnham Classic. This was also my first time making this. I made a few mistakes with the jello and whatnot, so it's not as pretty as my mom's usually is. However, it still tasted amazing and was gone by the next morning (pretty much).

Ingredients

1 package orange jello

1 package cherry jello

1 package lime jello

1 cup pineapple juice

¼ cup sugar

1 package lemon jello

½ cup cold water
¼ cup butter melted
one package of graham crackers (One section from the box. So like, 8-10 whole graham crackers. I'm spit balling here.)
2 cups whipped cream

Day 1: Dissolve each jello package separately using 1 cup hot water and ½ cup cold water. Chill in separate pans. Bread pans work well.

Day 2: Combine pineapple juice and sugar, heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and dissolve lemon jello in hot liquid. Add cold water and chill until like egg whites. At least 30 minutes. Mix cracker crumbs and butter and press into 9 x 13 pan. Fold 2 cups of whipped cream into syrupy lemon mixture and beat slightly. Combine other jellos (which have been cut into cubes) with creamed mixture and pour over crumbs. Sprinkle extra crumbs on top. Chill about 8 hours.

This was so yummy. Just realized I didn't sprinkle crumbs on top. Would've been even better. Takes a few days, so you have to keep that in mind. But totally worth it. Yummy!

Turkey

Yes, the turkey. I made my first turkey.  I got the recipe from Alton Brown on Foodnetwork.com. It turned out awesome. A total success for a first time turkey. It was pretty darn juicy and tender and had a nice flavor. And for once, I preferred the light meat over the dark meat. Unprecedented.

Ingredients
1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
1 gallon heavily iced water

For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

2 to 3 days before roasting:
Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.
Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:
Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.
Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.
Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.
Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.

We did the first 30 minutes in the oven and then moved it to a roaster for the rest of the time. It took like 1 1/2 hours, or so. I don't remember exactly, but it cooked a lot faster than the intended time. And ours was like a 20 lb. bird. All in all, a good turkey, and a very successful recipe. I'd totally do it again.

Orange Rolls

This is a Burnham Thanksgiving Classic. Although it's no longer on my mom's menu, we will all remember it and many of us make it on our own. This was my first time making them and I made a few small mistakes in rolling them out and cutting them, so they ended up being huge. They still tasted great, they just weren't as elegant looking.

Ingredients
2 packages yeast
½ cup sugar
½ cup butter
¼ cup water
4 ½ cups flour
2 tsp salt
1 cup orange juice at room temperature
3 eggs
Butter
Brown sugar optional
Cinnamon optional

Day 1: Dissolve yeast in ¼ cup water. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs. Add yeast and orange juice. Add salt. Gradually add flour. Kneed. Refrigerate over night.

Day 2: 4 hours before serving, roll out on a floured board. Spread surface with 1 cube butter (and brown sugar and cinnamon if desired for a dessert rather than a dinner roll.) Roll up like a jelly roll. Slice 1 ¼ inches wide. Dip in melted butter and place in muffin pans sprayed with Pam. Raise for 3 hours. Bake at 400 for 10 to 15 minutes. They can be frozen after placing in muffin pans. It takes 5 hours to rise if frozen.

I've never tried them as a dessert, but I bet they'd be really good. I also think they' do well from some orange zest added in. But even straight from the recipe, they're amazing and an easy A+ at Thanksgiving, or whenever. Just remember, they can take up to 2 days to make.

Wassil

This has been in our Mom's Cookbook for forever and I've never had it. It's basically a fancy apple cider. It was really simple and pretty tasty. It was fun and we all really enjoyed it.

Ingredients
6 cups apple cider (I didn't have a jug of apple cider, so I just used enough apple cider mixes and water to make 6 cups worth)
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup honey
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 20-oz. can pineapple juice unsweetened

Heat cider and cinnamon stick in large pan. Bring to boil and simmer covered 5 min. Add remaining ingredients and simmer uncovred 5 min. longer. Keep hot ove rlow heat or heat in small batches.

I just did the whole thing in the crock pot. I heated the first ingredients til pretty darn hot and then added the rest and kept it on low. It turned out awesome.

Roasted pumpkins with bacon and brown sugar

This is another magazine recipe I found that sounded exotic and fun. In the end, I give it a B. We decided on one change for it that really would've made it better for us. But otherwise, it went over better than I could've expected. This is the sorta thing I would've gagged at last Thanksgiving, so for me it was a major success.

Ingredients
6 slices bacon, crisp-cooked and drain, dripping reserved (I baked it, which is shown here)
2 2-4 lb. pie pumpkins
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp. fennel seed, crushed (It's practically impossible to crush fennel seeds, so just buy them crushed. Yes, I tried to crush my own. Didn't work. If you buy them crushed, I'd just use 1 to 1 1/2 tsp. instead of 2.)
2-3 green onions, diagonally sliced

Preheat Ocen to 400. Cut of top 1/4 of pumpkins. Remove seed and strings; reserve 2/3 cup pumpkin seeds. Place pumpkins, cut side up, in foil-lined baking pan. Brush insides with some of the bacon dripings and sprinkle with salt, pepper and brown sugar. Replace lids and roast pumpkins in oven 20 minutes. Meanwhile, in skillet stir together pumpkin seeds, fennel seed, green onions, and remaining bacon drippings. Add skillet to oven during last 10 minutes of roasting. Remove pumpkins and seed mixture from oven. Sprinkle inside of pumpkins with seed mixture and crumbled bacon. To serve, use a large spoon to scoop out insides or use knife to cut into wedges.

Excuse the not so great photo. The only problem we had with this was the pumpkin seeds were too chewy. I realize they may not have roasted well because the skillet wouldn't fit in the oven with the door shut, so I think I had the door cracked, which may have kept the seeds from getting toasty. So, that might have done it. If the seeds had been crunchy and roasted, it would've been really cool. But even without the seeds it would've been good. The skillet mixture smells really good, so I think it was just a texture thing. The flavors were all there and in sync. So if you're brave, you can try this one on for size.

Crispy Deli Wraps

These came out so good! They were awesome! Also an appetizer. I was pretty excited for these guys and rightfully so. I'm glad I doubled the recipe. I could've tripled it and maybe had some leftover. They were great.

Ingredients
1 box (9 oz) frozen spinach
2 cups Bugles corn snacks (I'm sure other corn chips would do, I imagine. I did use Bugles.)
1/4 cup butter, melted
16 thin slices cooked ham or turkey (I used both)
4 sticks mozzarella string cheese
1 can crescent rolls

Dipping Sauce
1/3 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing (I used mayo)
1/3 cup Dijon mustard (mine was just plain jain mustard)
1/3 cup honey

Heat oven to 375. Remove spinach from container; place in colander. Rinse with warm water until thawed; drain well. Squeeze spinach dry with paper towel; divide evenly into 4 portions. Set aside. Meanwhile, place corn snacks in plastic bac; seal. Crush with rolling pin until crushed fine. Pour into shallow dish or plate. In another shallow dish or pie plate, place melted butter; set aside. Unroll dough; separate into 4 rectangles. Press each into 6x4 rectangle; firmly pressing perforations to seal. (I didn't make mine any particular size, but just used the rectangle in whatever size it came out as.) Arrange ham or turkey in 4 stacks. Top each stack with 1 portion of spinach, spreading spinach evenly over ham. Place 1 stick of cheese on one short side of spinach-topped ham. Roll up each stack. Place 1 filled ham roll on one long side of each dough rectangle. Fold sides of dough up over ham and roll to opposite long side; press edge and ends to seal and completely cover ham roll. Roll each in butter, then in crushed corn snacks to coat. Place seam side down on cookie sheet. Bake 20-28 minutes or until deep golden brown. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix all sauce ingredients with wire whisk. Serve warm wraps with the sauce for dipping.

These came out great. One of the eaters even let me know that they do not like spinach, but enjoyed them. After reading the directions thoroughly, I realize I constructed mine wrong. I would be sure to follow the instructions. It will just turn out the best possible way. Ours still tasted great, but the construction could've been easier if I'd followed the instructions. So read them well and then enjoy, because they're really yummy!

Spiced Pumpkin Butter

This is something I, again, found in a magazine and thought it sounded exotic and fun. It was super simple and I made it ahead of time. It was pretty darn good. As reference for the remaining Thanksgiving recipes, some were appetizers that we ate as we hung out and cooked turkey. Then there are the meal recipes that were for the actual dinner. This was an appetizer. (Unless you think this will be ravaged or you're having an extremely large group, I might half it.)

Ingredients
4 cups Pumpkin Puree, or two 15 oz. cans pumpkin
1 1/4 cups pure maple syrup
1/2 cup apple juice
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
Chopped hazelnuts (optional) (I went through tons of trouble to find these darn things and then forgot to take them to the event.)

In 5 quart dutch oven combine all ingredients except nuts. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cook, uncovered, over medium heat, stirring frequently., 25 minutes or until thick. (It was pretty much thick the whole time to me, so I just did 25 minutes.) If mixture spatters, reduce heat to medium-low. (Okay, this is like tomato sauce, it spatters no matter what, so just keep a rag handy and mop it up as you go along.) Remove from heat; cool. Ladle into jars or freezer containers, leaving1/2-inch headspace. Cover; store in refrigerator up to 1 week or freezer up to 6 months. To serve, top with chopped nuts.

Can serve on pancakes, muffins, or toasted bread. Can top with favorite cheese. We just had it plain on cut french bread. I would definitely toast the bread. Just a simple, tasty spread.

Mom's Homemade Mac and Cheese

I love a good homemade mac and cheese. Haven't you noticed? Here's another version. Quite delicious and if you grate your cheese beforehand, super easy.

Ingredients
6 cups water
¾ tsp salt
3 cups small elbow macaroni
3 cups sharp cheddar cheese
6 tbsp margarine
6 tbsp milk
Pinch paprika (I have big pinches)
Pinch white pepper (Black works fine. The original recipe called for white. I found it at Smiths.)
Pinch cayenne pepper

Using a large saucepan, bring salted water to a boil. Stir in macaroni and return to boil. Stir occasionally; boil for 4 minutes. Lower the heat to medium and continue to boil, stirring frequently for 7 minutes. (You may need to reduce the heat to its lowest heat the last 2 minutes to prevent sticking.) Add the remainder of the ingredients, stirring well until the cheese is melted.

Royal Round Steak

Well, this is a simple crock pot meal. It's really simple and tastes pretty good. To me, it was a bit too salty, but there's not much to edit to make it less salty. But with me, it could've just been that day. Aaron liked it so we're gonna keep it around. It was an all around easy and yummy dish.

Ingredients
1-2 lbs beef round steak or stew meat
1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 envelope (1 oz.) dry onion soup mix (maybe they make a reduced sodium version? And I didn't buy a nice brand, just the X-stuff. Maybe that would make a difference to salt and flavor issues.)
2 cans (10 3/4 oz. each) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
Hot cooked egg noodles
Chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Trim round steak and cut into cubes. Partially frozen meat makes for easier cutting. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown meat on all sides. (Do not need to cook through, just brown sides.) Combine dry onion soup mix and canned soups in mixing bowl. Pour mixture into crock pot. (I just mixed it in the crock pot. No need to dirty a bowl.) Add browned meat. Cover and cook on high 6-7 hours. Spoon over egg noodles. Sprinkle with parsley.

Fireside Chili

I made this for our ward chili/bake off. It was something I found from a magazine and it sounded exotic, so I went all out. In the end, I didn't really care for it. It's a specialty chili, I like to call it. It's got a real distinct and unique flavor. I think you either love it or hate it. I was missing one ingredient, but not a crucial one to flavor I don't think. Anyway, it's got a very smoked flavor. So if you like smoked, you'll probably love it. It also has a cumin polenta that goes with it. I forgot to try the polenta with the chili so I can't vouch for it. But I do imagine it's a good addition to the strong flavored chili, so I'll add it at the end anyhow. The picture is deceiving. With the flash from my camera, it came out very bright. This was a dark chili, not bright red. Be not deceived. And I put this in the Mexican label because it has fresh jalapenos and dried chile peppers. To me, that's in the realm of Mexican food. Oh, and despite me saying I didn't really like it, we brought the giant pot home almost empty. So it was getting eaten, no doubt. Which made me feel good, even though I didn't win the cook off.

Ingredients
1 recipe Chili Seasoning Puree (I'll list it further down)
1 1/2 lb. ground beef chuck (which I learned is just plain old ground beef. Why do they make this so hard?)
1 large onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 tbsp. smoked paprika (I think this gives it a majority of the smoky flavor. Smoked paprika is very, very strong.)
2 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/4 - 1/2 tsp ground cloves (This I didn't have. But it's such a small amount, I'm hoping it didn't ruin my chili not having it.)
1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes, cut up (I'd make the pieces about 1 inch or so)
1 1/2 cups water
1 14 oz. can beef broth
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
1-2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped (optional) (This is one of the things that drew me to this recipe)
1 1/2 cups dried plums or raisins, chopped (chopping dried plums is somewhat tedious. I'd do it before when you're not feeling rushed.)
Cumin Polenta (optional)

Prepare Chili Seasoning Puree. (listed below) In 6 quart dutch oven cook beef, onion, and celery until meat is browned, stirring as needed. Drain fat. Stir in Chili Puree, paprika, coriander, crushed red pepper, and cloves. Cook and stir 2 minutes. Stir in undrained tomatoes, water, beef broth, and tomato paste. Brign to boiling, reduce heat. Add chocolate and plums. Simmer, covered, 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Serve with Cumin Polenta.

Chili Seasoning Puree
2 dried chile peppers (There are tons of different types [from different regions] so just pick one.)

1 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

3/4 cup beef broth
5 pitted plums

Place chile peppers in a bowl. Add boiling water to cover. Let stand 30 minutes. Drain; remove stems and seeds. To remove seeds, cut off stem end. Cut a slit down one side and scrape out seeds with a spoon. In food processor or blender combine drained chile peppers, jalapeno pepper, broth, and dried plums. Cover and process or blend until smooth.

Cumin Polenta

2 14 oz. cans reduced-sodium chicken broth

2 tsp ground cumin

1 cup yellow cornmeal

1/2 cup whole milk (I do think using skim or otherwise will change the quality. I used skim cause it's all we have.)

1 tbsp butter

In large heavy saucepan combine broth and cumin; bring to boiling. Reduce heat; gradually whisk in cornmeal. Cook and stir until thick, about 6-8 minutes. Whisk in milk and butter, Season with salt and pepper. I was told by a friend that you should always stir the polenta in one direction only. It doesn't matter which direction, but you don't stir both directions or do figure eights in the polenta. Just pick a direction and stir it that way. She heard that from a reliable cooking source, so try it.

Pie Crust

This is the recipe I used with the Grape & Pear Pie. It's slightly different from my mom's (my preferred pie crust), but it was fine. If I make a pie during the Christmas season, I'll use the other crust recipe and post it as well. This one uses shortening and my mom's uses oil. I think the shortening crust is supposed to be flakier, but I prefer the flavor of the oil crust personally. But pie crust is a very personal thing, so do what floats your boat.

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening
8-10 tbsp cold water

In medium bowl stir together flour and salt. Using pastry blender, cut in 2/3 cup shortening until pieces are pea-size. Sprinkle 1 tbsp cold water over part of flour mixture; gently toss with fork. Push moistened dough to side of bowl. Repeat, using 1 tbsp water at a time, until all the flour mixture is moistened (8 to 10 tablespoons total). Divide dough in half. Form each half into ball.

On lightly floured surface, slightly flatten 1 ball of pastry. Roll dough from center to edges into 12-inch circle. Wrap pastry around rolling pin; unrollinto 9-inch pie plate. Ease pastry into pie plate, being careful not to stretch. Trim even with rim of pie plate. Pour filling into pastry. Roll remaining dough into a circle about 12 inches in diameter. Cut slits in pastry to allow steam to escape. Place pastry on filling; trim to 1/2 inch beyond edge of pie plate. Fold top pastry edge under bottom pastry. Crimp edge as desired.

I didn't follow the directions specifically with the water, mainly because it's tedious the way it's described. But it came out fine. Otherwise I did follow the recipe. I didn't do a plain pie topper though, as you can tell from the pie post. If you want lessons on making a weave top, I'll gladly teach how I did it.