Thanksgiving: Stuffing Edition

Oddly enough, I have never made a dish to bring to Thanksgiving. It wasn't until a few years ago that I really started to get into cooking and it's just never come up. This year Thanksgiving is my holiday to work and we're all bringing something to share, so I chose one of my favorite parts of the feast: stuffing. I think I enjoy stuffing so much because I really like bread. Bread and I have had a love affair for years. I also like the variety you can put into stuffing. In the interest of having enough to go around I chose to make two varieties, classic sausage and cranberry pecan.

I got smart and realized that I could make one in the crockpot and the other in the oven, thus cutting the prep and cook time in half. Genius!

Let's start with the cranberry pecan. I will thoroughly admit that for both of these recipes I cheated and bought prepackaged stuffing. I know, I know. But it's a lot more cost and time effective. One day I'll make it completely from scratch.

You will need:

1 14oz bag of herb seasoned stuffing
1 cup of diced onions
1/2 cup of dried cranberries
1/2 cup of golden raisins
1/2 cup of chopped pecans
3 cups of chicken broth
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp of ground mustard

Mix the first five ingredients in your sprayed crockpot. Then in a medium bowl whisk the chicken broth, eggs, salt, pepper, and mustard together. Pour over the stuffing mixture, mix, and cook on low for 3-4 hours. Easy as can be!

The second stuffing is a little more involved but still extremely easy. Sausage stuffing is served pretty routinely at my family Thanksgivings and one of my favorites. No worries if you're a vegetarian, simply leave out the sausage. It tastes just as good without it.

You will need:

12 oz pork sausage roll (I used sage, you can also go with plain)
3/4 cup of diced yellow onion
1/2 cup of diced celery
Coarse salt and black pepper
1 14oz package of herb seasoned stuffing
2 14oz cans of chicken broth
3 tablespoons of melted butter

To start, brown your sausage on the stovetop over medium heat. Once done empty into a large bowl and reserve about a tablespoon of grease in the pan. Saute your onions and celery until tender, then add them to the bowl with the sausage. Add in the package of stuffing, then cover with the chicken broth and melted butter. Mix well.

Spray a medium sized baking dish with cooking spray, then coat with the stuffing mixture being sure to spread evenly. Dot with a few pats of butter and bake at 400 for 25 minutes.

The result? Savory, crunchy delicious stuffing. I really like the extra kick the sage in the sausage gives it. You can add whatever you want to this stuffing, the options are endless!

For this Thanksgiving I'm headed to my aunt's house before work for dinner number one. I'm going to try not to eat too much so I make it through the night! I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday. What are some of your favorite holiday dishes? Please comment, I would love to hear!

Petit Louis Bistro

On Sunday I met my MOH and one of my best and oldest friends Caroline for brunch/lunch at a place called Petit Louis Bistro in Columbia. This find also came courtesy of the magazine I have and I was excited to learn that it was right next to the mall because I have been extremely good about shopping for months and was looking forward to wandering around.

Petit Louis Bistro, as the name suggests, is a French restaurant. It has two locations, one in Roland Park and the one that we chose to visit. If you've been to Columbia you know that the goal of the town is to make things as nondescript as possible, so if it wasn't for the blue, red, and white striped awning I don't know that we would have been able to find it. You can enter the restaurant through their grab-and-go bakery, the comptoir, or head directly into the dining room.

Brunch is served until 4:30pm on Sundays so we both ordered mimosas and settled in for some girl talk and good food. Our server brought us warm bread with butter and since we ordered the mussels as an appetizer he strongly encouraged us to save our bread to dip in the broth. The mussels were plentiful and served in a fragrant and vibrant yellow saffron broth with small chunks of what I think may have been potatoes. So so so delicious. I had been tempted to order the escargot because I have always wanted to try it but I wasn't sure if Caroline would like it. Turns out she does so next time I'll have to be adventurous and get them! I apologize in advance for the shadowy pictures, my back was to the window.

I chose the Croque Monsieur for my entree, a traditional French sandwich with ham, comte cheese, and Dijon mustard, served on brioche and with a side of pommes frites (fries). The sandwich was really good. The cheese was oozing out of the sides and the bread had a French toast-like quality to it. Also, if you feel bad about eating butter then this sandwich is not for you.

Caroline chose the ceufs sur le plat, otherwise known as fried eggs, smoked bacon, and roasted potatoes. Her food looked great and she said it was delicious. The only reason I was left with food at the end was because the sandwich and side of fries were so big I had to take some home.

I recommend this place if you're new to French food and are unsure if you're going to like it because they have the traditional offerings mixed with a lot of things that are commonly on menus in the United States. Plus if you are feeling adventurous you know it's coming from an authentic place!

Crockpot Thai Chicken Soup

On Friday before I took my nap for the afternoon for night shift, I decided to make a soup in the crockpot that I could cook while I was asleep. I found this recipe for crockpot Thai chicken soup for which I already had most of the ingredients in my fridge.

You will need:

2 tablespoons of red curry paste
2 12 ounce cans of coconut milk
2 cups of chicken stock
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of peanut butter
1 1/2 pounds of chicken breast, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced into 1/4 inch pieces
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 heaping tablespoon of fresh ginger, minced
1 cup of frozen peas, thawed
1 tablespoon lime juice
Cilantro for garnish
Cooked white rice (optional)

To start, add the first 6 ingredients to the crockpot and whisk to combine. Then add in the chicken, onions, pepper, and ginger and mix well. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours.

After 4 hours add in the peas and cook for another 30 minutes. Add in the lime juice and stir to combine, then serve garnished with cilantro and lime wedges. You can eat this on it's own or over rice.

Hodge Podge

Today's post is a quick catch up on a few small places I've been over the last few weeks. Two weekends ago my mom, dad, and I took a trip over the Bay Bridge to visit some wineries including one for which I had purchased a Groupon. Our first stop was Crimson Pizza and Wine Bar in Chestertown, MD, owned by Salisa Winery. Salisa does not have a tasting room but you can taste and purchase their wines at their restaurant. This seemed like the perfect place to go for lunch and to check off another Maryland winery. Salisa is a husband and wife pair and the husband is 100% Italian, so I was hoping that the food would be fantastic,

When on the Eastern Shore it's a must to order seafood so my mom and I split a white pizza with scallops and bacon. Oh my Lord this was amazing. My mom had never had pizza like this and couldn't stop raving about it. My dad chose the pulled pork sandwich and said it was very good. As for the wine, you can purchase a tasting flight for $5, a glass, or a bottle. Salisa is a boutique winery with mostly reds, which I can be iffy on, so my mom and I thought that we would each take home a bottle of rose. What we didn't realize was that they have both a light and dark rose, and the owner was kind enough to let us taste a little of both without purchasing the tasting flight. What we both discovered was that we actually like the dark better. It's sweeter and had a slight fizz to it as well. This is a winery I would like to go back to to get more of that wine! Our other stops for that day included Crow Farm and Vineyards, Tilmon Island Winery, and Cassinelli Vineyards. All were great!

This is a picture from Cassinelli. The Groupon I had included a tasting with chocolate crabs. Yum!

The other place I'd like to talk about is Cunningham's Bakery and Cafe in Towson, MD. Cunningham's is also a restaurant by the same name located just above the bakery. We haven't been there yet but a few people we know have and have said it's great. I discovered the bakery while I was looking at the main restaurant's page one night at work. I'm always looking for somewhere to get a good breakfast and was excited when I realized this place existed. I stopped in one Friday after work and ordered the quiche of the day, mushroom and swiss, along with a carrot cake cupcake. Cupcakes at breakfast? Yes please!

I really loved the quiche. It was like cutting into butter and creamy. They also didn't skimp on the mushrooms. It's served with a small side salad with a balsamic vinaigrette. I thought this was a little weird for breakfast but hey, it still worked. I ate the cupcake later in the day and it had a great spice flavor and was moist. The frosting was authentic cream cheese but it was dense and there was a lot of it. I think a little less would have made it perfect. This is somewhere I want to go back to to try their omelets, breakfast burritos, and habanero hot chocolate!

Family Meal

Yesterday afternoon found us walking the streets of a cold and damp Frederick, perusing the local shops for me and a fancy trim and shave at a newly opened barbershop. Citizen Frederick is one of Justin's favorite clothing stores and they're taking a foray into the art of a classic shave with a straight razor and a relaxing, styled haircut. He raved about his experience (which includes hot towels and hot coffee) so if you're a guy and looking for somewhere good to go check them out!

 

We wouldn't be us if we didn't stop somewhere for dinner and my finger landed on one of our all-time favorites, Volt Family Meal. Now before you think Volt, how the heck could you two afford that a second time? let me clarify. Volt is just one of several restaurants owned by chef Bryan Voltaggio, and Family Meal is his answer to comfort cuisine at family-friendly prices.

 

This would be our third visit to the joint and I couldn't wait. Each and every experience here so far has been stellar.

 

We got to the restaurant at about 4:30, early by dinner standards but the place was already filling up. We aren't old fogies and ate dinner this early because we were tired, I woke up around noon from night shift and Justin had only had protein shakes all day so we needed sustenance.

 

The meal kicked off with a round of cocktails and Family Meal has some seriously good ones. I ordered the Gingered Blossom with tangerine vodka, cranberry, and ginger. Justin chose the Manhattan-ish with smoke maple bourbon, port, and bitters.

 

Appetizers here tend to be condensed versions of comfort food classics with a bit of a twist. I picked the Chicken Pot Pie Fritters. Oh my Lord, these were fantastic. You bite into a crunchy shell and are immediately greeted by the creaminess of a pot pie mixed with the savory chicken and vegetables. Justin chose the Cream of Pumpkin soup with maitake mushroom. We also both really loved this. It was the right amount of thickness and the mushrooms were the perfect complement.

 Family Meal has an option to do breakfast for dinner, something that I have never done at this place so I decided to do it on this visit. I picked the Omelet with goat cheese, caramelized onions, and home fries. The omelet was a good size and didn't skimp on the goat cheese, unlike the mac and cheese I had on Saturday. The sweetness of the onions went well with the tartness from the cheese and can we talk about those home fries? Delicious. Crunchy and seasoned with salt and pepper and fresh garlic, they were amazing.

 Justin picked the Meatloaf with fork crushed potatoes and mushroom gravy. A few bites of this were delectable. The meatloaf was sitting in just enough gravy that you got some with each bite, along with the mashed potatoes that adorned the top. It also wasn't too salty, as meatloaf tends to be.

 We usually don't order dessert when we go out, oddly enough, even with my penchant for sweets. However, Gingerbread Donuts with a lemon glaze, white chocolate, and poached seckel pear were calling my name, especially in light of the cold weather and now sleet outside.

 Like everything else at this restaurant, I don't have anything negative to say about dessert. At first we thought the ice cream on the side was a stick of butter but a taste test confirmed otherwise; we think it was pear. Lemon with the donuts works well and these were warm and crunchy on the outside, soft and doughy on the inside. The pears were also warm and sitting in what I believe was graham cracker crust.

 

If you're in Frederick you must try this place! Voltaggio also owns Lunchbox, Aggio, and Range in the Baltimore and DC area, and we can't wait to visit those in the future.

Water for Chocolate

This past Saturday a friend and I headed into the city for lunch to a place that has long been on my bucket list to try, Water for Chocolate. It's a little hole-in-the-wall in the Butcher's Hill neighborhood and only has about seven tables, so if you go be prepared to wait a bit. When we initially arrived we were told that the wait was about 25-30 minutes, but I don't think we waited more than 10 minutes.

The menu is described as "sexy comfort cuisine" and lots of Southern staples are present such as shrimp and grits and catfish. You can also order breakfast all day or pick from sandwiches and entrees with a generous offering of sides.

I had my sights set on the goat cheese mac and cheese, one of the sides, so I ordered the tilapia filet with the mac and cheese and brussels with bacon. I did enjoy the flavor of the mac and cheese, however I would have liked a little more of the goat cheese. You could definitely tell it was there but it's usually such a standout and I didn't get as much of it as I would've liked to. The brussels were fantastic. They put their own spin on them with small cubes of roasted red pepper, an interesting addition that worked. The tilapia filet was rubbed with spices and topped with roasted red peppers and was very good.

Keegan ordered the pulled pork with parmesan grits and also the goat cheese mac and cheese. The grits were to die for, extremely cheesy and melted in your mouth. I didn't try her pulled pork but she said she liked the flavor. Keegan's only critique was that while the flavor was there in everything she tried, her entire plate was a little cold.

Overall the experience here was great and I will definitely be back to try some more things!

A Sassamanesh, Ibimi, Atoqua, Crane berry, a what?

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, now that it's November, I wanted to make something with cranberry in it, an ingredient that is essential to one of the biggest dinners of the year. The names in the title of this post are some of the original names for cranberries, the first three being Native American, and the last comes from early settlers, due to the cranberry plant's flower appearing like a crane. Learned something huh?

Photo courtesy of Google Images

Since we always have copious amounts of chicken in the house, this was the obvious choice on which to experiment. A quick search of Pinterest yielded many recipe results so I picked something that was going to take me the least amount of time.

 

You will need:

 

3-4 chicken breasts

1 14oz can of whole cranberry sauce

1 small bottle of Catalina dressing

1 package of dry onion soup mix (I used Lipton)

1 package of chopped pecans

Salt and pepper to taste

To start, preheat your oven to 350 and spray a baking dish with cooking spray. Place your chicken breasts in the dish and season with salt and pepper. Spread the cranberry sauce over the chicken, then the onion soup mix and chopped pecans. Top with the Catalina dressing. **The recipe says to use the whole bottle, I thought that was a bit excessive so I drizzled on what I thought was appropriate**

Bake covered with foil for 45 minutes, then uncovered for 15 minutes. Remove and serve.

 

As I side I made asparagus. There are many different ways you can jazz up this veggie. This recipe for Roasted Garlic Asparagus with Feta was a nice twist on a classic. I also really, really like feta cheese. I mix it in with my scrambled eggs all. the. time.

 

You will need:

 

2 pounds of trimmed asparagus

1/4 cup of EVOO

4-6 cloves of minced garlic

1 teaspoon of fresh lemon zest

1 teaspoon of dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup of crumbled feta cheese

1 lemon

 

In a saucepan heat the EVOO, garlic, lemon zest, oregano, and red pepper flakes over low heat until fragrant and garlic begins to brown. Remove from heat to cool.

Preheat oven to 425. Once EVOO has cooled, pour over asparagus and toss to coat. Place asparagus in a single layer on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with feta cheese. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Once done season with lemon juice and fresh parsley. I have this awesome white dish from Kohl's that is designed with what else, asparagus! I have been dying to use it so I busted it out for this dish. So cute!

Salted Caramel Apple Hand Pies

Baking those cupcakes a week ago has me bitten with the baking bug. I don't want to attempt anything too crazy but when I found this recipe for Salted Caramel Apple Hand Pies I couldn't wait to make them. This recipe calls for homemade dough, but because I made them before work one morning I cheated and bought some from the store. Shh don't tell!

You will need:

2 cups of small, diced, and peeled Granny Smith apples
2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons of all-purpose flour
8 store-bought soft caramels, roughly chopped
Large flake sea salt
Egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon of water)
1 pack of 2 pie crusts

To start, lay a few pieces of wax paper on a large, flat surface and dust with flour. Open one packet of pie crust and lay out on the surface. Dust a rolling pin with flour and roll out your dough, being careful not to thin it so much that it breaks. Take a 3 inch pie cutter or the bottom of a drinking glass and cut as many circles as you can into the dough. Pick up any scraps and roll them out to make more circles. Repeat the process with the second pie crust. You should have at least 28 circles.

Set the circles aside and preheat the oven to 425. Once you've prepped your apples and caramels, make the filling. In a small bowl combine the apples, lemon juice, cinnamon, sugar, and flour.

Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or other silicone liner if you have one (if you don't get one! They're the best things ever) and place 8 circles down. Spoon the filling into the center, being careful to leave a border. Top with a few pieces of caramel and a pinch of sea salt. Grab 8 more circles to place over the top.

Crimp the edges of your pies together with a fork, cut two to three small slits in the top, and coat with egg wash. Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown. Repeat with any remaining dough.

Once out of the oven these slid right off the baking liner and don't take long to cool. I took them to work to share and they were gone only a few hours into the shift! These are great to bring along to holiday parties this month and next!