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

This recipe is really amazing and fast to cook, considering the fact that button mushrooms contain 17 different vitamins, the benefits from this dish increase dramatically.

This dish has a long history in my house, it was cooked without cheese and grapes, but I decided to add the sweet twist to it. THe bitterness of cheese and buttin mushrooms combined with sweetness ofgrapes and lemon basil make the combination very rich and the taste pallette wider.

Recipe serves: 2  

Cooking time:20 minutes

Preparation time :10 minutes

For the recipe you will need:

8 big button mushrooms

1/2 lbs of minced pork meat

1/4 of white onion peeled and finely chopped

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch of black pepper

8 leaves of lemon basil

grapes

2 pieces of provolone sliced cheese.

Step 1: Take the button mushrooms stalks away. Clean the mushroom from the inside peel the skin (optional), wash carefully.

Step 2: Chop the onion, mix with minced pork and seson very well.

Step 3: Take the washedbutton mushroom caps, put them near you, form the meatball out of the meat, put the meatball inside the button mushtoom cap.

Step4: Repeat with all 8 mushroom caps, set on a baking dish and set to bake at 350F for 17 minutes.

****Helen’s cooking tip*** Don’t forget to add water into the baking dish (1/2 cup)***

Step 5: While the mushrooms are baking take the cheese slices cut them in quarters and set aside. Take the seedless grapes,  cut it in slices and set aside. Wash the lemon basil leaves.

Step 6: In 17 minutes take your button mushrooms out of the oven, sover with cheese and set to bake for 3 more minutes.

Step 7: In 3 minutes, take the mushrooms out and decorate with sliced grapes and lemon basil.

Serve warm.

Enjoy!

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

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.

This recipe is inspired by classic deviled eggs plus spiced up by the deviled eggs seen on Food network.

It’s my combination of delicious deviled eggs that conquered the hearts of my family members.

I would be happy to see what your favorite deviled eggs recipes are.

You can submit the recipes by creating your profile ans choosing the  button Recipes to submit your recipe.

I will be happy to try your  deviled eggs recipes.

The preparation of the dish is usual.

You will need:

Hard boil the eggs. Then, take out the egg yolks, mash them and then add the shrimps (small, boiled in salt water), yellow mustard and mayo.

Mix everything very well, add pepper and salt.

Fill in your egg whites.

Voila!

Your delicious deviled eggs are ready. Decorate with basil and put in the fridge.

You can try these deviled eggs with Dijon mustard, I had yellow mustard at the time when I invented these and they were just fine.

***Tip from Helen** Deviled eggs should be served cold. So after preparing, put them in the fridge for an hour or two. The deviled eggs should be eaten within 24h.

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!

Tomato and avocado salad:

This salad is my #1 summer salad. I can eat it every day 3 times a day.

It’s very fast and simple to cook and as we all know avocado is very good for your health, so I try to eat it as much as possible. Read more

Tomato, Onion and Lemon basil vinaigrette:

Fast salad for dinner or lunch.

Minimum ingredients and maximum delight:-)

Will taste best with mashed potato and meat, or rice and fish. Something not s picy and not sour. Read more

Simple fast salad with romaine, tomato and pickles 

This salad is sweet and sour combines rich sweetness of tomato and balances it with sour pickles. Add some herbs to give it more rich flavor and you can either mix it with mayo or olive oil, will be very delicious anyway. Read more

Cabbage and honey smoked turkey with cornichones

Stuffed cucumber salad with apples , red pepper and cherry tomatoes

These two salads may be cooked separately and not be stuffing for a cucumber.  Cabbage and honey smoked turkey with cornichones is a delicous combination and works great as the independent salad, or as the stuffing for the cucumber salald of 1927.

Stuffed cucumber salad with apples and red pepper may be an independent salad as well.  The key to this salad is steamed red pepper that enhances the flavor of apples and tomatoes. Add some meat to the salad (as ham, turkey) and it will be more nutritious. Read more

This salad is my #1 summer salad. I can eat it every day 3 times a day.

It’s very fast and simple to cook and as we all know avocado is very good for your health, so I try to eat it as much as possible.

For this salad you need:

2 tomatoes

1 avocado

½ white onion

Pinch of salt

Pinch of pepper

2 teaspoons of olive or sunflower oil

Pinch of dry oregano

 Chop the veggies, season, add olive oil, stir well – DONE!

You know that I love cauliflower, I had the whole day dedicated to cauliflower in my ***good food*** section on Helen’s Cooking Facebook fan page. Cauliflower is very nutritious, easy to work with and Surprise! Surprise! It’s delicious. This is a signature recipe of my Mom, she cooks cauliflower this way very often. When I was a kid and had a special diet , she told me that it tastes just like fried mushrooms (which I Loved but weren’t allowed to eat). Since that successful introduction by my Mom I love the cauliflower and especially this one (fried).

It’s easy to cook and it will make a great appetizer.

For 4 servings you’ll need;

1 cauliflower head

1 egg

½ cup of water

1 tablespoon of salt

1 tablespoon of fresh ground black pepper

2 tablespoons of flour

5 tablespoons of cooking oil.

Take your cauliflower, cut the leaves , wash it and put aside. Set a saucepan with water (that will be able to fit in your cauliflower) on medium gas and as soon as the water will start boiling put your cauliflower in it for 5-7 minutes. Your cauliflower should be soft, but a little bit crunchy.

***Tip from Helen*** Boiling reduces the levels of these compounds, with losses of 20–30% after five minutes, 40–50% after ten minutes, and 75% after thirty minutes.^[14] However, other preparation methods, such as steaming, microwaving, and stir frying, had no significant effect on the compounds ***Tip from Helen***

Drain the water and let the cauliflower cool off. After it cooled off cut the cauliflower into flowerets (if they are big you can cut them in halves). Take an egg, beat it up with water and add the flower. Season the cauliflower, add salt and pepper to the egg-water-flour mix.

Set a frying pan on medium gas, add cooking oil; coat the cauliflower in egg-water-flower mix and fry on each side until golden brown.

Your cauliflower is ready, it’s good warn and when it’s cold from the fridge, it’s good with dips.

Enjoy!