Mariannes Motifs

Easy Peasy Turnip Green Soup

easy peasy turnip green soup.

Start with 1 small onion chopped, sauteed in olive oil. Add 1 package frozen turnip greens, 1 can black eyed peas, 1 can chopped tomatoes, and 1 tetra pack of chicken stock. Season with Tabasco and garlic powder.

 

Crock Pot Bain Marie Overnight Steel Cut Oats

I've been admiring people who make steel cut oatmeal overnight in their crockpot.  My mom and brother both have small crock pots they use primarily for oatmeal.  Since I don't have a small crock pot I never tried doing it.

Then last night @smartbitches posted on Twitter a link to a method I'd not heard of before - using a bowl inside the crock pot for the oatmeal and putting it in a water bath (bain marie in French culinary terms).  So I promptly followed the bain marie overnight oatmeal instructions from Ann Kroeker and went to bed.

This morning we had lovely creamy chewy oatmeal that the kids and I ate up.  (Hubster hates oatmeal so we left him alone).  It was delicious, easy, and the bowl didn't even have stuck on oatmeal to clean off.

Thanksgiving Menu

Crudites - relish tray with cucumber, radish, carrots, green and black olives, and roasted almonds

 

Trader Joes Brined Fresh Turkey - I plan to cook it with salt, pepper, herbs, and stuff it with apple and lemon.

Home made Turkey gravy (supplemented with Trader Joes gravy)

Stuffing a la Jeanette

Mashed Taters

Green Bean Casserole

Maple Sweet Potatoes (got cubed sweet potatoes from Trader Joes)

Cranberry Relish (TJs)

 

Dessert

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Something else TBD

 

 

 

Shopping List -still need

 

Twine

Radishes

Merlot

soda pop

Beer

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies, Y'all!

Today's fun with the new oven was Toll House cookies.  I used the classic recipe but I used Giridelli milk chocolate chips.  Yummy!

 

The new oven's Convection bake setting in addition to using parchment paper made for the most even cooking cookies and no cleanup.  I am so in love with my new oven.  (Which by the way is a Kenmore Gas range with true convention.)

Beer Can Chicken, Y'all!

Now that I have a fancy schmancy new convection oven I have been dying to make some "Beer Can Chicken."

First got an all natural no hormone chicken from Publix - their GreenWise brand. I got some Shiner Bock beer.  (It came in a 6 pack box of the right size cans.  Since we don't really tend to drink a lot of beer I didn't want to get a big 12 or 24 pack and I wanted to try something new.  You have to drink 1/2 the can - (It's in the recipe, I had to do it!) so its good to get a beer you will like.  Shiner Bock seems to be a sort of halfway beetween an ale and a dark beer.  It has a light taste, but you can taste the hops and yeast.  Very nice.

I have a cheapie beer can chicken cooker thingy I got from Big Lots last year.  It basically helps hold up the can - nothing fancy.  I put it all in another oven proof pan so I could use the drippings to make gravy. Oh god that was some good gravy.

I washed and dried the bird, then I rubbed a mix of kosher salt, Hungarian paprika, garlic powder, and different kinds of fresh ground pepper all over it.  I set the oven to convection bake at 425 and when it came up to temperature I put in the chicken with a meat thermometer in it.  I like having the meat thermometer because it takes the guesswork out of when your bird is done.  A meat thermomter is a cheap item that is useful over and over and doesn't take up much space in your drawer.

In my new oven, the chicken cooked in just over an hour.  It came out so yummy!  I made a simple gravy with the pan dripping - just adding some corn starch, a buillion/seasoning packet from Trader Joes, and some water. Easy peasy.  I served up this lovely tender chicken with rice and green beans.

New Years Eve Brisket

For New Years Eve I cooked up some of the famous "My Mother's Brisket."  That's the name of the Epicurious recipe, not my mother's actual recipe.  (Although me and my mom do both make it this way!)  I made about 5 pounds of brisket and it was pretty much all gone the next day.  I pretty much follow the recipe but after I brown the meat and do the onions I then cook it in the slow cooker instead of the oven.  Since my oven was broken at the time that was handy.

Pickled Green Tomato Relish

Here's my haul - 5 pints!  It was a lot of work, but I am pretty proud of myself. I used this recipe but I substituted some red and yellow bell pepper for some of the green tomatoes. 

Southern Living - Green Tomato Pickles

 

 

What to do with Green Tomatoes?

After some web searching and deliberation I am going with this recipe:

Green Tomato Pickles

www.myrecipes.com

I went to Walmart yesterday and picked up 12 pint jars, and a little kit with a jar lifter, funnel, etc.  I picked up all the extra ingredients.  I already have a dishwasher with sanitize setting, and a huge pot so I think I am ready to go!  Now off to clean the kitchen.

Tomato Haul

Here is today's tomato haul. I paid the kids to go out and pick them.  I don't think they got them all either, so I will have to motivate myself to crawl around and get the ones tangled up in the bushes.  Its quite a jungle back there.

With all this vitamin c I won't need any Wholesale Insurance.

Pressed Glass Crudite Plate in Action

I decided that in addition to addng grill marks to the hot dogs, I would cut up some veggies to go along.  I had bought some radishes last shopping trip, I have plenty of cherry tomatoes from the bushes growing on the side of the house, and I had carrots and celery on hand. 

Wait, I thought, this is the perfect opportunity to use the pressed glass crudite plate I picked up at Goodwill!  Voila, what was once fresh raw vegetables has now become.... Crudité.  Isn't that an awesome divided plate?  I snagged that right up when I saw it.  I love old pressed glass.