Sausage Stuffing

When I was a super sophmore in community college I asked my journalism professor to recommend some Cal State schools that had good journalism programs and were far away from home. He named Cal State Northridge, Cal State Long Beach, and San Francisco State; I immediately settled on SFSU because it was the furthest from home.

Once the holiday season rolled around, my parents wanted me to come home for Thanksgiving, but I did not want to make the long drive home, so I opted to visit a friend in Santa Cruz instead. Well, it's a good thing I didn't try driving home to my parent's house; my car wound up breaking down on a narrow windy road in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Thankfully, I had AAA at the time, so I called them for a tow, packed up my pumpkin pie, and was towed back to my friend's house in San Jose.

That was one the the best Thanksgivings ever. And my friend's mom made the best stuffing ever, filled with chunks of browned sausage.

Sausage Stuffing
Printable Recipe
Source: my friend's mom

Ingredients
1 pound raw sausage, casings removed (I use turkey sausge)
a bunch of bread
4 ribs celery, chopped
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, diced
1 stick of butter
4 cups chicken broth
a palm-full of chopped fresh sage
1-2 tablespoons dried sage
a palm-full of chopped fresh oregano
1-2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
2 teaspoons pepper
a sprinkling of garlic salt

Directions:
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, tear apart the bread into chunks. I used about 2 to 2 1/2 loaves of French bread. Stale bread works best, and don't be afraid to mix it up. I used a few pieces of chili-fleck sourdough bread, a chunk of whole wheat bread, a large loaf of French bread, and a long skinny baguette.

Cook the sausage on the stovetop, using a wooden spoon to break it into chunks. Once it is browned and cooked all the way through, add it to the bread.

In the same pan used to brown the meat, sautee the onion, celery, and garlic with the butter. Cook until soft and fragrant. Add it to the bread and meat mixture.

Season with all the seasonings and herbs. Use your hands to throughly mix everything together.

Move the stuffing into a greased 9 x 13" casserole dish. Pour the brother over the top. Turn the stuffing over a few times to ensure that it is well mixed.

Bake for about 35-45 minutes.

Note: I make this the night before Thanksgiving, so all I have to do is pop it into the oven for a few minutes and re-heat on the big day.

Watch out Flame Broiler!

I heart me some Flame Broiler. Teriyaki chicken, brown rice, a scattering of scallions, and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. Add a few dabs of hot chili sauce, and I'm content. But, I know I can make the same thing at home for pennies on the dollar, so tonight I challenged myself to do just that. 2 chicken breasts, a 1/2 cup or so of teriyaki sauce, some seasonings, brown rice, and there you go! This is really fast, just make sure you start the brown rice a good 30 minutes before the chicken; it takes forever to cook!

Teriyaki Chicken Bowls Printable Recipe Source: Me

Ingredients
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup soyaki (or your fav teriyaki sauce)
pepper to taste
a dash of salt
a dash of cayenne
1-2 teaspoons no-salt seasoning (its a mixture of various seasonings)
2 cups uncooked brown rice
chili paste to taste
1-2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Directions
Cook the brown rice in your rice cooker, starting about 20-30 minutes before you cook the chicken.

Chop the chicken into small, bite-sized pieces. Heat a large, non-stick pan over medium high heat and add the chicken once the pan is hot. Season with the salt, pepper, cayenne, and no-salt seasoning. Cook on medium-high heat. When you have about 2-3 minutes of cooking time left,pour the soyaki over the chicken and cook the rest of the way through, so that the chicken is no longer pink in the middle.

Serve the rice in a bowl, spoon the chicken on top, sprinkle with the seasame seeds. Dab a bit of chili paste on top if you like some heat! Drizzle an additional tablespoon of soyaki on the top and enjoy.
(note: I didn't have any scallions on hand, or I would have chopped a few up and added them on top of the chicken.)

Ground Turkey Stuffed Acorn Squash

This is a quick (30 minutes...45 including prep) and healthy that's great for a weeknight dinner. I can be pretty picky about veggies, but I've found that I really enjoy winter squash, including acorn squash and this is a fun way to serve the veg.

PS. I don't know why my pictures are coming out so yellowy lately. Ugh!

Turkey Stuffed Acorn Squash
Printable Recipe
Source: Me

Ingredients
1 acorn squash
1 pound ground turkey
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 onion, minced
5 large baby bella mushrooms (or whatever you like/have on hand), diced
1 tablespoon dried sage
2 teaspoons pepper (we like a lot of pepper. adjust to suit your tastes)
1 teaspoon garlic salt
dash chili powder
dash cayenne pepper
a sprinkle of salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Directions
Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the acorn squash in half and scoop out the seeds and goopy flesh.

Fill a shallow pie pan with a few inches of water. Place the acorn squash in the water, flesh-side down. Bake for 30 minutes, or until fork tender.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large non-stick pan. Sautee the garlic, onions, and mushrooms until fragrant.

Season the raw turkey with the sage, pepper, salt, garlic salt, chili powder, and cayenne. Using your hands, or a large spoon, mix the seasonings into the raw meat.

Add the seasoned ground turkey to the pan and cook, breaking into small pieces as it cooks. Drain the fat from the meat and return to the pan to keep warm.

Once the acorn squash is cooked, remove from the pan of water and lightly season with salt and pepper. Add a bit of butter if desired. Fill the cavity of the squash with the turkey mixture and serve.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

It's fall, which in the baking world, means time for pumpkin. I am not a huge Stabucks fan; I pretty much only order their black iced tea (no sweetener) or in the winter, their caramel apple cider. But I do love the pumpkin cream cheese muffins they bring out every fall. The big dollop of cream cheese in the middle is such a great contrast to the moist pumpkin. But at nearly $2 a pop, I can't afford to indulge in these treats very often, so I scoured the internet looking for a knock-off recipe. Ok, I didn't scour the internet; I pretty much just used the first recipe I found. But these muffins came out even better than the Starbucks original. They are dense, moist, spicy, and the cream cheese is perfect. I couldn't find any pumpkin seeds at my grocery store, so I omitted them, but if I had found them, I think I would have toasted them in butter and brown sugar.

These muffins taste even better a day or two after making them. The spicyness of the various spices really kicks in, giving these muffins a more pronounced tasted. That came out weird...they just taste better after a few days. I took a platter of these muffins to work and they were completely gone within an hour. I think that's a pretty good indicator of how great they really are!

The original recipe called for 1 1/4 cups of vegatable oil. I replaced the entire amount of oil with applesauce to cut down on some fat and calories. I also used neufchatel cheese instead of cream cheese; the grocery store worker told me they were interchangeable, with neufchatel cheese containing less fat than regular cream cheese. I didn't notice any difference in flavor. Also, the original recipe called for 2 cups white sugar, but I decided to use half white and half brown, just to change things up a bit.



Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
Adapted from Musings of a Mommy
Printable Recipe

Ingredients
For the muffins:
3 cups flour
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
1 heaping teaspoon nutmeg
1 heaping teaspoon ground cloves
4 1/2 heaping teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups canned pumpkin puree
1 1/4 cups unsweetened applesauce

For the cream cheese filling:
8 ounce package cream cheese (or neufchatel cheese), softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon brown sugar



Directions:
Pre-heat your oven to 35o degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the first 7 ingredients for the muffins. Mix together until just combined.

In a seperate bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the sugars.

Add the egg and sugar mixture to the dry ingredients. Add in the pumpkin puree and applesauce, and mix until well combined.

Spoon into greased muffin tins. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese, vanilla, powdered sugar, and brown sugar. Mix until well combined.

Spoon into a sandwich bag sized ziploc. Cut off the tip of one corner. Pipe the cream cheese into the muffin batter, pushing it down into the batter slightly.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin (avoid the cream cheese) comes out clean. Let cook 5-10 minutes before serving.

I miss you!

I know it's been a long time since I've posted; I went on vacation for 3 days and now I am currently house sitting, so I haven't had much chance to blog lately. But stay tuned--I've got some new recipes ready to blog, including pumpkin cream cheese muffins.

Chicken Noodle Soup

It seems like summer ended and the cold weather came in over night! What happened to Indian Summer this year? I am missing the warm, but not hot, southern California fall days we usually have in October? It is even going to rain this week! Ugh.
But the good part about this cold weather is that we can enjoy a big bowl of hearty soup. And that is exactly what this chicken noodle soup is: hearty, filling and delicious.

Chicken Noodle Soup Source: Adapted from How to Boil Water Printable Recipe

Note: this makes a huge pot, serving 10-12 people

Ingredients
3 carrots
3 ribs celery
1/2 an onion
3 cloves garlic
4 tablespoons butter or olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 handful fresh sage (about 6 large leaves), chopped
1 tablespoon fresh oregano
3-4 springs fresh thyme
12 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 package egg noodles
1 rotisserie chicken, skin removed
3/4 lemon, juiced
zest of 1 lemon
lots and lots of pepper

Directions

Peel the carrot. Slice the carrot, celery, and onion. Smash and peel the garlic. Chop into large chunks.

Heat the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the vegetables and cook until softened, about 8-10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the sage, oregano, and thyme (discard stems).

Add the broth and lemon juice and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and lemon zest and cook uncovered, just until the pasta is tender, about 7 minutes. Season with pepper. Meanwhile, shred the chicken into large chunks.

Add the shredded chicken and cook until the chicken is heated through. Season with pepper.

Serve with a hunk of French bread to soak up the broth.

Buffalo Potato Wedges

These are a great football snack. They do take about an hour, start to finish, but if you start chopping potatos during the pre-game shows, you'll have your snack by the end of the first quarter. They are spicy, so make sure you have a bowl of bleu cheese dressing and a beer handy!

Note: the following recipe easily serves 4-5 people. You can halve it if there are just two of you.

Buffalo Potato Wedges
Source: Adapted from Love Delicious
Printable Recipe

Ingredients
5 baking potatos
1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce
1/2 cup butter
salt
pepper
garlic powder
olive oil

Directions
Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Wash the potatos to remove any dirt. Slice into wedges (I prefferred thinly sliced, but thick works too), but don't peel the skin.

Place the wedges on a greased cookie sheet, in one layer. Spray or brush with olive oil (just a thin coating is fine). Sprinkle generously with salt, oepper and garlic powder.

Cook the potato wedges for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a bowl and then mix in the buffalo sauce.

After 30 minutes, remove the potatos from the oven. Now is a good chance to try one and see if it has enough salt, pepper, and garlic powder for your tastes. If not, season again. Then, drizzle the wing sauce and butter mixture over the wedges. If you like them really spicy, put a thick coating over each potato. Otherwise, a heavy drizzle will do.

Return them to the oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes. If your wedges are really thick (pver 1/2"), you may want to cook them for an additional 5 minutes.

Serve with bleu cheese dressing to dip, and an icy beer.

Touchdown!