This stuffing “lives” in my family for decades. I remember my grandmother cooking it since I was a little child.

Preparation time: 5 minutes.

Cooking tome: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

4 apples (peeled and cored)

1/2 of white onion

1 carrot

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of pepper

1 pinch of cumin

1 pinch of oregano

8 prunes

1 tablespoon of olive oil

2 tablespoons of prepared honey mustard

Step 1. Peel carrot, apples and onion.

Step 2. Cut the apples in quarters and cut the core with seeds.

Step 3. Shred the carrot and  Finely chop the onions.

Step 4. Wash the prunes.

Step 5. preheat the frying pan at max heat. Then turn it to medium, add the olive oil, put the apple quarters, cover with shredded carrots and onion. Braise for 5 minutes at medium heat.

Step 5. in 5 minutes add the salt, peppel and spices. mix everything, add the mustard and braise for another 3 minutes.

Step 6. 2 minutes before turning the heat off add your prunes, mix everything and braise for another 2 minutes.

Done!

This stuffing may be used for any bird. It will be good with duck and chicken and with turkey. It may be cooked overnight or the day when you plan to roast your bird. Just  remember to not use too much stuffing in your bird!

Have a great holiday and  a great time with your family!

Easy sweet and sour marinade for the turkey, chicken or pork chops. You will never buy marinade after you try this recipe. it’s so simple, flavorful and everything is under yourcontrol: the amount of herbs and garlic, the sweetness, the sourness…Enjoy!

1 cup of olive oil (good for one 12 lb hen turkey)

½ cup of fresh lemon  basil  leaves;

½ cup of fresh chives;

½ cup of parsley (optional)

2  oranges

2 lemons

2 cloves of garlic (large, optional)

1 tablespoon of dry oregano

1 tablespoon of  dry paprika

1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning (optional)

1 tablespoon of cumin

2 tablespoons of white wine and herbs mix (optional).

Mix olive oil and lemon and orange juice. Whisk in dry herbs and freshly chopped chives, lemon basil and parsley.

Let the marinade stand for 15-20 minutes.

Then marinade your turkey or chicken by at first rubbing in the mix and then pouring it on top of the bird and turning it in the marinade couple times.

Don’t forget to turn your bird every 4-5 hours, this way the meat will absorb more juices.

Don’t use not boiled marinade in other dishes as it may be dangerous.

If you want to incorporate the rest of the marinade in the other dishes boil it first.

It’s almost turkey time and his means that a lot of newbies will attempt to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for the first time. I, myself, will be cooking a pumpkin cheesecake, the cake that I have never attempted to approach before. SO when cooking a Thanksgiving dinner, especially when cooking it for the first time, PLAN EVERYTHING AHEAD!

Tip #1. Write down all the necessary ingredients and plan where you will buy everything.

TURKEY:

Tip #2. When buying a turkey keep in mind “how long will it take to thaw it?” Remember, that normally, you won’t be able to thaw a turkey in 24h. You need at least 24h per 5lb. of turkey. So if you have a 12 lb turkey it may take up to 48h to thaw it in a refrigerator. It’s not recommended to thaw a turekey ourside of the fridge.

Tip #3. If you plant to marinade the turkey, give it up to 24 h for marinating! Don’t forget to turn your bird , so that it would be marinated from both sides!

Tip #4. NEVER! Stuff the turkey a night before cooking, this may cause food poisoning!

Tip #5. Cook your turkey at 350F, calculate the time according to the chart given below:

Tip #6. It is suggested to roast the turkey for the first hour on its breast. This will ensure the even distribution of color of roast.

Tip #7. Check the temperature of the turkey in thickest part of the leg and breast. Use a meat thermometer for best results. When done, all parts of the turkey should be 165°F. (It is sold at Wal-mart , Target and doesn’t cost a lot of money)

Tip #8. Let your turkey rest for 30 minutes before carving, thus the juices will be evenly distributed in your bird and the carving will be easier.

Side dishes:

Tip #9.Prepare the inexpensive food for the side dishes: like corn on the cob, green beans, carrots and bean,devilled eggs, sauteed vegetables, stuffed mushrooms

Tip #10. Remember corn on the cob is in season now, but it tastes really delicious with mashed potatoes and other veggies, as well as with turkey. And mainly it doesn’t require a lot of efforts to cook, Just what you need!

Tip #11. Keep in mind that if you cook deviled eggs, they should be refrigerated at least 2-3 hours before serving. Find the simplest recipe here.

Tip #12 If you have a vegetarians in your family don’t forget to braise cabbage or  vegetable variety for them. It takes 5 minutes to wash and chop the veggies.

Pies:

Tip # . Prepare the dough in advance. You can store it in the refrigerator overnight. It is safe and saves you tons of time.

Tip #10. Use fresh stuffing of pumpkin and apples this will make your pie unforgettable.

Tip #11. If you have only 15 minutes for the pie preparation use this apple pie recipe and it will always be perfect.

Tip #12. When the pie is almost baked, Turn the heat off and let it sit in the oven fr additional 15 minutes. This the dough and the stuffing in your pie that rose will not fall.

Tip #13. To serve the pie warm put in in the oven 15-20 minutes before serving. (if it’s still warm after your turkey and pie adventures!)

Tip #14. If you wish to avoid dough this holiday, try and bake healthy apples with walnuts and honey recipe. You just need to core the apples and stuff them with walnuts mixed with nuts. The recipe is here.

Finally, cooking a Thanksgiving dinner for the whole family is challenging, but if you will plan everything in advance and split the responsibilities you will be done in no time and enjoy a great time with family!

HAVE A BLESSED HOLIDAY!

Helen

I love this combination for its rich flavor and tenderness, the dish melts in your mouth. I serve it with brown rice or mashed potato, both are good. It’s a very extravagant recipe with very ordinary ingredients.

Serves 4 people

For this recipe you will need:

1 lbs of boneless chicken breasts

1 onion

2/3 cup of pineapple chunks (raw or canned)

1 teaspoon of curry

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of black pepper

2 tablespoons of sour cream

2 tablespoons of mayo

2 tablespoons of cooking oil

Wash the chicken and cut the fillets in chunks about 1 in X 1 in  (length and width). Season with salt, pepper and curry and let the chicken marinade for 15 minutes (optional), if you don’t have time just throw them on a frying pan (add cooking oil before).

***Note from Helen*** If you don’t like curry, the dish tastes ok without it as well, so just omit this ingredient***

Peel, wash and chop the onion (1/2 of it)

Fry the chicken for 5 minutes, at max gas, then add the finely chopped onion and braise at medium heat for another 5 minutes. Add sour cream, mayo and pineapple and braise for another 5-7 minutes.

Ready!

Serve with brown rice or potatoes!

This recipe was overlooked at Restaurant impossible TV program, I added my personal touches to it and it came out great. To define great I will explain: my fiancé, who doesn’t like chicken, was consuming it, as if it was his favorite sausage, not a chicken…

I used cornmeal here, because I love adding it to my pies and muffins, but have never added to my main dishes.

So here it goes:

3 boneless chicken breasts

½ cup of all-purpose flour

½ cup if corn meal

1 teaspoon of salt (better sea salt)

1 teaspoon of black pepper (fresh ground)

3-4 teaspoons of vegetable oil.

Wash the chicken , cut in halves lengthwise (mine were huge), then cut in halves (or three parts) crosswise.

Season very well: salt, pepper. Pepper should be fresh and I used a lot of it. You can add paprika (smoked), I didn’t , as I didn’t have the smoked paprika at home.

Let the chicken stay for 4-5 minutes.

Mix flour and corn meal. Before frying your chicken, put it in flour-cornmeal mix and then fry it.

Preheat frying pan, add the vegetable oil and fry it until golden brown, you can turn it two –three times until you will reach the necessary color. Serve warm (although they are good when cold as well). Taste BEST with mashed potato!

Enjoy!

 I was searching the internet for some time to find if this dish is prepared on North American continent, the closes I got was a recipe from allrecipes.com by Jana, but based on name I can say that the author is either from Europe of has roots from European countries. Please help me, if you know how this dish is cooked in North America. The potato baked with zucchini (squash), red bell pepper, onion, carrot, garlic and some meat is popular in Eastern Europe. (It’s cooked in Poland and Hungary, in Ukraine and Czech Republic) In each region it has different twist though. Even in my family it’s cooked differently. I like to experiment. I cook it with meatballs and sometimes with meat (beef, pork or chicken); I cook it even with bacon.

The beauty of this recipe that it’s impossible to spoil, seriously, if you aren’t the perfect cook or if you are just short of time (and guests are about to arrive) this dish will just save you.

For the recipe you’ll need:

6 big potatoes

1 red bell pepper

1 white onion

1 mid-sized zucchini

2 mid-sized carrots

2 cloves of garlic

½ cup of dill

1/3 cup of parsley (optional)

3 tablespoons of sour cream or mayo

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of pepper

¾ cup of sliced bacon

¾ cup of shredded cheese

1 cup of water

2 tablespoons of cooking oil.

Now: potatoes, red bell pepper, onion and carrots are the base of this recipe. Everything else – is a mix and match. You can substitute zucchini with squash or eggplant. You can put any meat or sausage in the pots, you can even cook it without any meat. It’s a win-win recipe.

Servings: 6 small pots. One pot for one person (It is one full plate of this summer deliciousness per each person)

Preparation time: 15 minutes.

Cooking time: 45 min -1 h (depending on your oven)

Preparation:

Peel potato, carrot, garlic and onion. Take the seeds out of pepper.

Wash all the veggies: carrot, onion, zucchini, potatoes, garlic and dill (parsley).

Shred the carrot, chop the onion and pepper, cut in mid-sized pieces potato, zucchini, chop the herbs

Set ½ of onion and carrot aside

Mix everything else: onion and potato, zucchini and carrot, herbs. Add salt and pepper.

Slice the bacon. (If you put the other meat: pork, chicken, beef- prepare it).

Take your baking pots: put bacon (or other meat on the bottom), then add your veggies.

Remember you set aside the onion and some carrot. Take it and braise it for 5 minutes in a frying pan. In 5 minutes add some sour cream / or mayo/ and add 1 cup of water, pinch of salt and pepper, braise for 2-3 min.

Pour the sauce you just cooked into the baking pots. (If you want to add the meatballs instead of bacon or any other meat put them on top of the veggies)

Preheat the oven at 375F. Set your pots to bake for 30-45 minutes. (Occasionally check the potato if it’s ready and check if there’s enough water in your pots).

15 minutes before taking the pots out- finely chop the garlic and put a little bit of garlic in each pot. When you turn the oven off add the cheese on top of your baked dish and close the lids let the cheese melt.

Be careful when taking the pots out as they are hot.

I serve the dish directly in the pots, but give the guests a spoon and a plate, if the guest wishes to eat from the plat and not the pot.

***Tip from Helen*** You can cook this dish in a baking dish, but I like separate small baking pots more, they are just more authentic and fun!

Enjoy your summer delicious baked veggies!

This is my invention: apples give the chicken sweetness and honey flavor, strawberry adds bit of acidity to this combination.

You can have this this dish ready literally in 55 minutes. Preparation takes 15 minutes, cooking about 40 – depending on if you marinated you chicken in advance or just before cooking.

4 servings

4 chicken thighs (chicken drumstick will be good as well)

2 medium onions

2 apples

½ cup of strawberries

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of black pepper

1/3 cup of lemon basil

2 tablespoons of mayo.

Prepare the marinade: mix salt, pepper, mayo and onion rings, throw in the chicken thighs. Leave for 5-10 min (depending on how much time you have, if you are short on time, just start baking your chicken immediately).

Preheat your oven at 350 F. Put the chicken to bake for 40-55 minutes.

Bake for 20 min on one side, then for for 20 min on the other side.

15 minutes before taking the chicken out: wash and peel the apples, slice the strawberry. When turning the chicken thighs around, put under them: apples and on top the strawberry. Bake for another 15 minutes. Check with the toothpick for the readiness, there should be juice in your chicken but it shouldn’t be too juicy (because this will mean that the chicken is raw, mind the color of the juice out of your chicken, it should be transparent)

If you want to serve your chicken with potato, just wash the potato, don’t peel it, cut in rings and put baking together with the chicken. The potato will be golden brown and crispy.

Enjoy!

This pie was invented some time ago it’s fast and simple to cook, and filling can be pretty much anything: mushrooms, braised cabbage, spinach, eggs and herbs, meat… you name it.

For the batter:

1 cup of cultured buttermilk;

1 teaspoon baking soda;

1, 5 cups of self-rising flour;

1 egg;

Pinch of salt.

Filling: anything you want /have in your kitchen, refrigerator

(BTW it’s not as good with sweet filling: fruit or berries. I don’t know why)

Mix buttermilk, baking soda, egg and salt. Add flour. Mix very well. There should be no flour balls (when the flour isn’t mixed properly). You should be able to pour the batter into the baking dish (it should be liquid, same consistency as my apricot and apple pie batter).

Preheat you oven at 350F. Put a baking dish inside for 5 min. Take it out, grease the dish with butter, so that your pie wouldn’t stick. Pour the batter into your baking dish; add your filling on top. I used: braised cabbage and 2 boiled eggs. When it was almost ready (2-5 min before taking it out) I added tomato and lemon basil.

Set to bake for 15-20 min. (or when ready, depends on the oven)

When the pie is ready it should have golden brown crust.

Enjoy!

The pie is good warm and cold!

I bet you love chicken wings and roasted potato. The recipe is inspired by necessity to cook something fast and easy. Roasted potato is a recipe of my Italian friend and wings’ recipe is borrowed from one diner.

It’s literally more efforts to eat than to cook. (Just remember if you want them even more delicious marinade the wings overnight)

Cooking time: 50-60 min

Active Preparation: 10 min

1 lb. chicken wings

1 lb. potato

3-4 tbsp. olive oil

2 tbsp. fresh ground pepper

1 tbsp. Italian seasoning

2 tbsp. salt

1 tsp. paprika (optional)

3-4 tbsp. honey BBQ sauce

Wash chicken wings, cut the wings into 3 parts (optional, I don’t)

Mix 1 tbsp. salt,1 tbsp. black pepper, paprika and BBQ sauce in a big bowl.

Add chicken wings to the bowl with sauce and stir well. (Leave for the night for better marinating, optional).

Wash potato very well (don’t peel), cut in quarters lengthwise, put your potato in a big, deep bowl. Add into the bowl with your potato:  1 tbsp. pepper, 1tbsp. salt, 1 tbsp. Italian seasoning, 2 tbsp. olive oil.  Mix very well; rub the spices into your potato.

Preheat your oven to 450F.

Take a baking dish (preferably 10-12 inch long, 8-10 inch wide and 5-7 inch deep)

Pour on one side of your baking dish potato, on the other side- chicken wings.

Roast for 40-50min.

When the potato is golden brown and the wings are dark brown beautifully roasted,- your dish is ready.

Enjoy!

This recipe was adapted from one of the restaurants I loved to have lunch back in Kyiv.

It’s really simple, warm in colors and flavors, but mainly fast to cook! Your family will love it and there are different variations of how it can be cooked.

You can use chicken breasts, chicken liver and today I tried chicken gizzards. (It was good with gizzards as well, although their meat is too tough for this recipe, my personal opinion).

Serving(s): 1 plate (in the picture I show you 2/3 of the salad I cooked. I show the salad with chicken gizzards in this pic)

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 25 minutes (gizzards 30-35 minutes)

So for the recipe you will need:

1 chicken breast (or 1/2 lbs. of chicken liver/ gizzards)

3-4 Romaine leaves

1 tomato

1 big green apple

1 medium tomato

1 medium white onion

Pinch of salt

Pinch of pepper

3 tablespoons of cooking oil (or  2 tablespoons of cooking oil, 1 tablespoon of butter)

You may add herbs.

Step 1: Carefully wash your chicken, and cut into small pieces, add salt fresh ground pepper, mix well. Set the frying pan on medium heat, add the cooking oil and start cooking the chicken.

Step 2: Wash tomato, romaine apple. Peel apple, onion.

Step 3: Chop the onion and add to your chicken after it’s been cooking for 5 minutes. Cook 10 more minutes (the gas, may be turned down to a minimum after the chicken’s been cooking for 10-12 minutes)

Step 4: Cut the apple in quarters, remove the apple seeds.  Cut the apple quarters in halves lengthways and then slice the apple crosswise.

Step 5: Set the second frying pan. Add butter or cooking oil and start caramelizing your apples at medium heat. (5-10 minutes, until soft and flavorful)

Step 6: Cut the tomato (same as you were cutting apple: quarters then quarters in halves lengthways, then cut the tomato crosswise)

Add apples to your chicken and onion and turn the gas off. Add your tomatoes.

Put the romaine leaves on the plate(s) and put the salad on top.

Your salad is ready! It’s flavorful and delicious! You’ll LOVE it!

Serve warm, because it loses its charm when cold:-)

Enjoy!