Mistakes to avoid when cooking holiday dinner

This entry is part 1 of 7 in the series Holidays

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:

 

Weight Total

Roasting Time
8-12 pounds 2 to 3.5 hours
12-16 pounds 3 to 4 hours
16-20 pounds 4 to 5 hours
20-25 pounds 5 to 6 hours
25-30 pounds 6+ hours

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

 

Apple, cinnamon and walnut rolls + cream cheese crispy rolls!

This is the simplest recipe of rolls in the world. The dough is very easy to cook and it’s very tender, almost melting in the mouth. This is also a very good dough for cookies.

For the dough:

1 stick of butter

1 cup of sugar

1.5 cups of flour (sifted, self-rising)

1 teaspoon of baking powder 

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 egg

1 tablespoon of sour cream

2 tablespoons of water

 

For the filling:

3-4 apples

1 teaspoon cinnamon powder

1 tablespoon of sugar

½ cup of chopped walnuts

 

The dough:

Cut 1 stick of butter (or shred), mix it with 1 cup of sugar and  mash the butter with a fork or knife until it will turn into butter crumbs.

Add 1.5 cup of flour, mix very well with butter and sugar.

In a cup mix: 1 egg, 2 tablespoons of water +1 tablespoon of sour cream. Pour into the butter-sugar-flour mixture and knead the dough. The dough will be very tender and fragile. Form out of the dough two balls and put the dough into the freezer for 10 minutes.

Filling:

Wash, peel and chop the apples into the midsized chunks, add sugar, cinnamon and walnuts.

Set aside.

Forming the rolls:

Take out the dough. Take one ball and gently (!) roll it out with the dough roller. Don’t press too hard this dough is fragile. Cut the dough layer into two halves. (This will be your two big rolls that you will cut into the small bite size rolls) on one half of the dough put the apple filling. Put not too much of the filling and put it in a row. Then roll the layer with filling in and cut into the small bite size rolls crosswise.

Put the small rolls roses on a baking dish 4-5 inches away from each other as they will become bigger while baking.

Repeat the same procedure with the second half of your rolled out dough and with the second ball of dough.

 ***Tip from Helen*** I used for the second dough ball cream cheese filling. The filling is very simple to make ¾ of a cream cheese pack and 2-3 tablespoons of sugar mixed. When you mux the cream cheese and sugar spread it on each dough layer and roll it in as I wrote before. The rest of the procedure is the same.***

Baking:

Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Which version to choose?

I honestly can’t decide which rolls are more delicious: with apples and cinnamon and walnuts or with cream cheese. So bake the two versions usually.

It’s very delicious, simple and warm fall dessert.

Enjoy!

Top 3 Tortilla Recipes: 10 minute healthy recipes.

This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series Fast and simple dishes

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

Homemade hot pockets with apples. (healthy breakfast in 10 minutes)

This entry is part 3 of 6 in the series Breakfast fast!

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!

5 fast and delicious summer salads

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

Fast and simple baked chicken with apple and strawberries

This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series Delicious Chicken

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!

Stuffed cucumber salad (old recipe from 1927 newspaper)

This entry is part 5 of 11 in the series Salad

This is a recipe of salad from 1927, very extraordinary in implementation I would say.

You all remember this newspaper menu of the 1927 family that I posted on my Facebook page: 

I decided to experiment with the filling , as we don’t really eat celery in my family.

The result was astonishing, my fiancee, who doesn’t eat cucumbers ate this salad and really liked it!

I took one cucumber and  pared it  as it was said in the newspaper. Then I invented my fillings:

For cucumber 1:

Finely chopped cabbage

Honey Smoked Turkey

Pickled cornichons

Lemon basil

Dill

Cucumber 2:

Cherry tomatoes

Red apple

Red bell pepper (boiled for 2-3 min)

Dill

Lemon basil

Salad for Cucumber 1:

Finely chop the cabbage, cut in thin strips the turkey, slice pickled cornichons and finely chop the dill (use half for the other salad). Add the mayo, mix well. Put the salad into the cucumber 1 and decorate with the lemon basil.

Salad for Cucumber 2

Put the red bell pepper in boiling water for 2-3 min, then drain and cool it off.

Cut in the apple in quarters (I used ¼ of the apple, take out the apple seeds, slice the apple, then cut in cubes)

Clean the seeds of the red bell pepper, (I used the half of it) slice, and then cut the pepper in cubes.

Cut the cherry tomatoes in halves. Mix: cherry tomatoes, apples, pepper, dill and add mayo.

Put the salad in cucumber 2 and decorate with lemon basil.

Enjoy!

Warm apple salad with chicken breast, tomato and romaine.

This entry is part 4 of 11 in the series Salad

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!

Apple and carrot delicious 2 minute salad.

This entry is part 2 of 11 in the series Salad

This is 2 a minute salad: 2 minutes to cook – 2 minutes to eat. It doesn’t matter how much of it you cook, it will evaporate in the air at the same speed.

Apples and carrots is a match made in heaven, and, if the apple is sweet, you don’t even need a sugar in this salad. (or you may substitute with honey).

All in all a perfect breakfast-lunch-dinner-late night salad – if you are dieting or just hungry.

For this salad you need:

1 big apple

1  big carrot

2 tablespoons of  sugar or honey (may be excluded)

Carefully wash a carrot and an apple, peel, shred, mix. (add sugar, honey if you like)

You may also add walnuts, if you like, but it’s good without them as well.

Eat!

This salad is so simple -  even your kids can cook it. And trust me it’s better than pancakes (and faster)

Enjoy!

Helen.

 

Chicken with caramelized apple sauce

 

I love the combination of apples and chicken, I love it in salads and in main dish, so this is one of my favorite recipes adapted years ago from one newspaper.(Don’t even remember the name) The dish is very flavorful and playful, and is great  to cook for family dinner, as well as the date night etc.  It requires minimum ingredients and is easy to cook.

So for the recipe you’ll need:

4 chicken drumsticks

4 tablespoons of olive oil

2 red apples (medium)

1 medium shallot

3 cloves of garlic

1 teaspoon of coriander

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon of honey

2/3 cup of dry white wine

½ teaspoon Red ground pepper

½ teaspoon Black ground pepper

Salt

At first we need to prepare marinade: mix mustard, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, pepper and coriander, add salt (1 tablespoon is what I add).  Chicken drumsticks: wash carefully, dry off with paper towel and then put in the marinade, leave for 1 hour.

Preheat oven for 350F, put the chicken in your baking dish (greased) and  bake the chicken for 25 minutes (or as soon as the chicken turns golden brown from one side) turn on the other side and bake for 20-25 minutes more (or until chicken is cooked).

Meanwhile peel the apples, shallots .Take away the apple seeds and slice the apples.  Cut the onions and garlic into slices, put the frying pan at the medium heat and preheat the olive oil (2 tablespoons). Add the shallots and garlic, fry for 2-3 minutes, add the apple and white wine and braise for another 5 minutes.

When your chicken drumsticks are ready, serve them with apples and sauce that you just cooked. You can decorate the dish with fresh basil leaves for more flavor and aroma!

I also, normally serve this dish with my easy baked potatoes. (But it will work fine with pasta, mashed potato etc.)

Enjoy!

Helen