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

Tortilla is a unique ingredient: every dish you incorporate it in is simple, easy to cook , yet very delicious.

These 3 recipes are my favorites when I am on the run and the family needs to have a snack.

Fried tortillas with beef

It’s good to take with you if you decide to go camping or travel by car at the long distances.

You can also cook this dish with fruit, berries, I sometimes use bacon and cheese, whatever you want.

For this dish you will need

Meat ( in my case beef) for 4 tortillas I used ½ pound

1 small onion

1 egg

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper Read full recipe 

Apple hot pockets:

Apple hot pockets are a great fall breakfast for a weekday. with Tortillas you can cook them in minutes in the evening and reheat in the morning.

For the recipe you will need:

4 medium apples;

4 tortillas;

2 tablespoons of sugar;

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil Read more 

 Burrito with sausage, cheese, tomato and basil.

Burritos should be spicy and meaty, but as my family loves burritos and doesn’t loce them too spicy I decided to invent mine.

(Honetly there’s nothing to invent) Just throw in together the delicious vinnagraitte of saucage, tomato, cheese and onion with herbs. Read more

This is a great weekday breakfast. It’s very easy to cook, it’s healthy and very delicious autumn treat.

If you like the cinnamon, you can add it as well, walnuts will also taste amazing in this simple dish.

When I cook it , sometimes, they don’t “live”  till morning family members hunt for them in the evening and at night.

(please note that the pockets in the picture are made of the homemade flour tortillas, so these are a little bit different looking)

For the recipe you will need:

4 medium apples;

4 tortillas;

2 tablespoons of sugar;

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil;

Wash the apples, peel them, then chop into mid sized chunks (take out the apple seeds ptip to chopping the apples).

Mix the chopped apples with sugar( add walnuts, cinnamon at this stage if you want to).

Preheat your oven at 375 F.

Take the baking dish, grease it with 1 tablespoon of oil.

Take your tortilla, put the apple mix on one half of it, cover with the second half and press firmly (BUT DON’T SQUEEZE TOO HARD).

Put your hot pockets on a baking dish, brush tortillas with the vegetable oil (optional), and set to bake for 10 minutes.

Your dish is ready in 10 minutes. (the tortillas will be crispy and light golden).

Enjoy!

Burritos should be spicy and meaty, but as my family loves burritos and doesn’t loce them too spicy I decided to invent mine.

(Honetly there’s nothing to invent) Just throw in together the delicious vinnagraitte of saucage, tomato, cheese nd onion with herbs.

Yes, I know it’s not traditional burritos , but who told we should be traditional?

WE eat what we love and what is delicious and healthy.

So for my healthy Burritos you will need:

4 flour tortillas (homemade is even better!)

1 sausage

1 big tomato

1/2 lb. of  cheese (shredded or shred yourself)

1/4 onion

1/3 lemon basil chopped

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of black pepper

1 pinch of red pepper

Wash and chop into mid-sized chnks the tomato. finely chop the onion, season and mix in a bowl. Slice the sausage. And now let’s gather the burrito: 

 Put the slices of sausage in the middle, add tomato and onion, put on top a lot of cheese and lemon basil.

Roll it in!

Press it all together. Repeat with the other 3 torillas and set to bake at 375F for 7-10 minutes.

Ready!

Enjoy your burritos:-)

I love puff pastry, do you? You can create literally hundreds of recipes with it and it’s ready in 15 minutes: Apple strudel, croissants, puff pastry baskets and puff pastry fish pie and much more. The recipe of this dough will help you create a lot of awesomely delicious dishes in minutes.

For the dough you’ll need:

2 sticks of frozen butter (unsalted), no margarine.

 1 cup of water

3 cups of flour

1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

For the filling:

2-3 apples

½ cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of cinnamon (optional)

½ cup of finely chopped walnuts (optional)

The batter prep takes some time and effort, but then you’ll be able to freeze it and use for 2-3 weeks easy.

So, Take your butter, cut the sticks in halves and put in the freezer for 15 min.

Mix: water, flour and vanilla sugar.

Put the batter in a freezer for 10 min.

Take out of the freezer ½ stick of butter and the batter.

Put the clear wrap on the surface you are gonna work on, using the dough roller roll the dough out until 1 inch thick. Shred the butter on the rolled out dough and fold in triangle. Put in a freezer for 10-15 minutes (cover it with clear wrap when putting in the freezer). In 15 minutes take another ½ stick of butter, take out the dough, and put the clear wrap on the working surface (the same you used before or new one). Roll out the dough until 1 inch thick; shred the butter, fold in triangle, put for 15 min in the freezer (cover with clear wrap). Repeat the same procedure with the rest 2 halves of the butter sticks. This dough takes some time and effort, but it really is delicious and the best. But, if you don’t have no time for messing with this dough, just buy the ready puff pastry dough. I normally cook this dough over the weekend, because then I can relax roll out my dough go watch TV then repeat, you know… just enjoy this dough preparation procedure…:-))

The dough is ready, when you shred the last 1/2 stick of butter and put it for 15 minutes in the fridge: take it out cut in 3-4 pieces. Use one piece to roll out your dough for the strudel , the other two you can use for the croissants:-) Keep the other parts of the dough in a freeser for as long as you ned. It’s a great dough to fix quick dessert or pie, or cakes, or roll…

But strudel is my favorite. Ususally it doesn’t live for more than 3 hours in my house, croissants may last for 24 h the most.

Enjoy and share with me your ways of using this recipe of dough.

Normally when we cook pizza we think it should take an hour, I saw some recipes where cooking pizza took 4 hours. I bet it comes out as a delicous masterpiece, but… guess what… we normally don’t have 4 hours to fix the pizza. It’s good, when we have 30 minutes. That’s why I decided to share my recipe of fast pizza  with bacon, ham nad vegetables. The stuffing can be pretty much any… the dough here, that’s what important to know how to cook.

For the dough you will need:

2.5 cups of flour,

2 tablespoons of olive oil (vegetable will also be good),

0.25 oz dry yeast,

1 teaspoon of baking powder ,

1 cup of hot water,

1 teaspoon of salt and

1 teaspoon of sugar.

Mix flour, yeast, baking powder,salt & sugar.Add warm water and vegetable oil(olive oil). make a dough.

Put it in a stove for 5-10 min (put the bowl with hot water under the dough).

Cut everything you want for you stuffing :

I did ham, bacon, onion,red bell pepper,corn,tomato, 2 cheeses.

 Roll out the dough. Should be 1/4 inch thin. Add: tomato sauce+oregano+salt+black pepper->cheese (1 type) -. then all the ingredients. preheat the oven at 375F. Bake the pizza for 15 min.

Take it out add the second cheese -> bake for additional 5-7 min. DONE!

 This amount of dough should make you 3 pizzas. (or 1 pizza and a bread loaf).

Remember: you can’t store the dough in fridge so you have to use it in 1-2 days…

Enjoy!

This chocolate chip cookies recipe was borrowed from Allrecipes.com website.

I have changed the ingredients list a little bit, but the best part of this recipe is that it’s very fast, very simple and may be cooked with your eyes closed. You kids will <3 these cookies, they are” crispy on the edges and chewy inside”, as the author Dora said in her description.

***Tip from Helen*** You can make these cookies with oatmeal and they will be fabulous! Just substitute chocolate chips with oatmeal. ***Tip from Helen***

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 25 minutes

Servings: 24 cookies (or more depending on the size you like)

Ingredients:

1 2/3 sticks of butter

1 cup of brown sugar

1 cup of white sugar (optional, but not a must they will be very sweet)

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 teaspoon of baking soda

2 tablespoons of hot water

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 (2) cups of chocolate chips

1 cup of coconut shred (optional)

2 eggs

2 ½ cups of flour (you can put 3 and your cookies will be more crispy.)

Take the butter out of the fridge, let it become soft. Cut the butter in small pieces and mix it with sugar.  Add vanilla extract and beat in eggs, one after another. Mix baking soda and hot water in a cup and pour into the egg-sugar-butter mixture. Mix very well, add baking powder and flour, stir well, then add coconut shred and chocolate chips (or oatmeal).

Preheat the stove at 350F. Form the cookies with a tablespoon and fingers. (Remember that they will grow 2-3 sizes larger, so leave enough space between your cookies). Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

 ***Tip from Helen*** If you don’t want your cookies to be very-very sweet add 1 cup of sugar. If you want your cookies to be more soft add less flour and bake them for 20 minutes until light golden brown.*** Tip from Helen***

Enjoy!

In loving memory of My Grandmother Maria.

This pie was a signature recipe of my Grandmother Maria, today would be her birthday , so I decided to bake this pie for the first time in my life. I ate it hundreds of times, but never thought that this deliciousness is so simple to cook.

You can use pretty much any filling : jam, fresh fruit, berries and nuts. (wallnuts add special twist to this pie)

I was baking this pie with cherries, so in my execution it’s sweet and sour shredded pie.

For this recipe you’ll need:

2 cups of flour

1 cup of sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon of sour cream or mayo

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 tablespoons of water

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 stick of butter.

Sift flour, add 1 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of baking powder, mix everything very well.

Shred the butter and mix it with the flour-sugar-baking powder. In a separate bowl mix: egg yolk,  2 tablespoons of water, 1 tablespoon of sour cream (or mayo), add vanilla extract. Form a batter, split the batter in proportion 2/3 and 1/3. Put it in a fridge for 15-20 mins.

Preheat the stove to 350F,grease the baking dish, take the batter  and spred 2/3 of batter over the baking dish. (as it’s  very tender I was spreading it with my hands)

Filling: take the filling you are planning to use, I’m using cherries, spread over the batter and shred the1/3 of batter over the filling. (So your pie would look like a curly pie).

Bake the pie for 20-25 mins untli the crust is golden brown.

Enjoy! (I enjoyed it a lot)

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!

Fast apple and apricot pie.

This pie disappears in your family members’ mouths as fast, as you cooked it.

Preparation of the dough for this pie takes 5-10 minutes, baking: 20 more minutes. Simple, fast and delicious. 

The main problem is that in another 30 minutes it may vanish completely out of the plate.:-))

So for this pie you’ll need:

2 medium apples;

2-3 apricots;

3 eggs;

1 cup of sugar;

1 cup of flour; (I recommend using self-rising flour)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla sugar;

Blend in a food processor: 3 eggs add gradually 1 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar, then add gradually 1 cup of flour.

Aerate (if you have this option in your food processor/blender). Let it stay.

Turn on your oven and preheat to 350F

Meanwhile: wash and cut the apples. Split in halves apricots.

Grease the baking dish. Cover it with apples and then on top put the halves of apricots.

Aerate you dough again (or just blend it again for minute or so). Pour the dough into you baking dish.

Put into the oven for 15-20 min.

Enjoy your pie! I surely enjoy mine! BTW: apricot is a secret ingredient. BUT you may cook this pie with any stuffing you like:-) Sorry didn’t get a chance to picture the whole pie: IT VANISHED!