Stuffed Pork Chops (Thanksgiving leftovers remake, take 2)

Even after using the leftover meat, potatoes, and gravy for the pot pies, I was still left with about two cups of stuffing. The first thing that came to mind was stuffed pork chops, something I love but had never made. Although I wouldn't say these were better than Thanksgiving dinner, it was a quick, tasty way to use up the last of the leftovers. Better yet, I put this together while the pot pie was baking, so I had dinner for the following night - all I had to do was bake the chops and steam some asparagus.

This is less a recipe than just a recounting of what I did - I would think you could adapt for as much or as little ingredients you have, pretty easily.

Ingredients:

• Prepared stuffing (I had about 2 C)
• Thick cut, boneless pork chops (the package I bought had 3)
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1/2 can milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Create as deep a pocket as you can in the side each pork chop, being careful not to cut all the way through.
3. Fill pocket with stuffing.
4. Season both sides of chops with salt and pepper.
5. Heat a little oil in a saute pan then brown chops on both sides.
6. Meanwhile, spread any remaining stuffing in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Mix soup and milk in a small dish and set aside.
7. When chops are browned, place in baking dish on top of stuffing. Pour soup mixture over chops and cover tightly with foil. (I then put the whole dish in the fridge and continued on the next night when we were ready to have them. Remember to increase cook time if you cook these from the fridge.)
8. Bake for about 25 minutes, until pork is cooked through and stuffing is hot.

Game Hen Pot Pie (Thanksgiving leftovers remake, take 1)

Without exaggeration, I think this pot pie was better than our actual Thanksgiving meal. It's by far the best meal I've ever made with leftovers and one of my favorite things I've put together from scratch.

It was definitely easier to put together - and even more delicious - because we had left over hen breast meat (it's hard to pick dark meat off those little wings and drumsticks!), mashed potatoes, and gravy. It tasted just like the best of Thanksgiving - only a little bit better!

I didn't have enough gravy left over for the pie, so I made a pan gravy when I sauteed the vegetables. I also took a tip from some recipe reviews I read for apple pies and galettes, about brushing the bottom crust with an egg wash and baking it for a few minutes before filling the pie plate - and the bottom crust came out perfectly crisp and not the last big soggy...success!

As beautiful on the outside...



...as it was delicious on the inside!


Ingredients:

• 3 stalks celery, finely diced
• 2 carrots, peeled and finely diced
• 1/2 sweet onion, finely diced
• 1 T butter
• 1 T garlic olive oil (Regular olive oil would work fine, too - but I used this great garlic infused olive oil we just got from the Newburyport Olive Oil Co. and you could really taste the garlic. If you use plain olive oil, I'd add a clove or two of garlic to the veggie saute.)
• 1/2 C cooked green beans
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 T flour
• 1 C low sodium chicken stock
• 1 C left over gravy
• 1 lb. cooked game hen (or chicken), large diced*
• 1 C left over mashed potatoes
• 2 prepared pie crusts
• 1 egg, beaten

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. Place 1 pie crust in pie pan, fitting closely to the pan. Brush with some of the egg wash.
3. Bake for 10 minutes or until starting to brown.  Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly. Press mashed potatoes onto bottom of pie crust. Set aside.
4. Meanwhile, warm butter and oil over medium  heat until melted.
5. Saute celery, carrots, and onion until crisp-tender. Fold in green beans.
6. Sprinkle flour over pan and cook to remove raw-flour flavor, about 3 minutes.
7. Slowly stir in chicken stock and cook until starting to thicken, about 5 minutes.
8. Stir in gravy and chicken and combine well. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
9. Pour chicken and vegetable mixture into prepared pie pan. Cover with second crust, sealing edges well and creating a few slits for steam to escape. Brush will remaining egg wash.
10. Place pie pan onto a rimmed cookie sheet and place in preheated over. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes, until very golden brown.
11. Allow to rest 10 minutes or so before serving.

*We had a lot of meat left over because all of the recipes I read for Cornish game hens called for one hen per person. Both times we made them, each person only ate half.  At Arnold's, you can buy them individually; at Big Y, they come two to a package (and were buy one, get one free right before Thanksgiving).  The ones from Big Y were bigger and I think a little tastier.

Cornish Game Hens with Garlic, Lemon & Rosemary

Brian and I were so excited to host our very first Thanksgiving this year!  It was far from our first Thanksgiving "together," but it was our first together in our house. My very good friend, Jean, accepted our invitation for dinner and we were on our way to a party!

Because there were only three of us, and because Brian doesn't love turkey, we weren't sure what to make for dinner. I'd been wanting to try Cornish game hens, found what sounded like an easy, tasty recipe, and had a successful "dry run" of them with Brian's mom and aunt - game hens it was.

I wasn't even sure what a Cornish game hen was, so Jean looked it up after dinner. They are actually domestic to America; are chickens who's "growing spans" (otherwise known as "life spans") are about 28 days vs.the traditional 42 days for a regular chicken; and can be either female or male. In other words, they are neither Cornish, game, or necessarily hens...but they are delicious!

In addition to reading others' comments on a recipe, I also check to see how many times a recipe has been reviewed and its average rating. This recipe had nearly 600 reviews with an average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 - and they were right on. The first time, we served the sauce as instructed in the original recipe. We prefer a more traditional gravy, though, so that's what I did on Thanksgiving - I've included that here, too.

Cornish Game Hens with Garlic, Lemon & Rosemary

Ingredients:

• 4 Cornish game hens
• 1 lemon, quartered
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• 24 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 T butter, room temperature
• 2/3 C white wine
• 2/3 C low sodium chicken stock
• salt and pepper

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 450.
2. Remove giblets from hens, wash and pat dry. Season the inside of cavity with salt and pepper. Stuff each hen with 1/4 lemon, a sprig of rosemary, and a clove of garlic.
3. Arrange hens in heavy roasting pan. Smear each with a 1/4 of the butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Scatter remaining garlic cloves around hens in pan.
4. Roast for 25 minutes.
5. Reduce heat to 350. Add wine and chicken stock to roasting pan. Roast for an additional 25 minutes or  until juices run clear and hens register 165 degrees in thickest part of meat. Baste every 10 minutes with pan juices.
6. Remove hens from pan and let rest 10 minutes.
7. When ready to serve, split hens evenly along backbone and arrange on platter. Garnish with additonal lemon wedges and rosemary sprigs, if desired.

Garlic, Lemon & Rosemary Gravy

Ingredients:

• Strained liquid from roasting pan
• 4 T butter, room temperature
• 4 T flour
• salt and pepper

Method:

1. Strain liquid from roasting pan into large measure cup - you should have about 2 C of liquid.  Discard solids.
2. Melt butter in heavy saucepan over medium high heat. Whisk in flour, a tablespoon at a time, until a golden rue forms.
3. Slowly whisk in reserved liquid, whisking constantly, until gravy thickens.
4. Reduce heat to low and simmer. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add additional liquid to desired consistency. I started with about a cup and added an additional 3/4 C, for a total of 1 3/4 C.
5. Serve hot with roasted hens.

Pumpkin Roll

My second Thanksgiving dessert was a much smoother process than the apple galette, and it was a nice alternative to pumpkin pie. I had never made a roll, so had no idea how easy it would be to put together.

Things go quickly once the roll comes out of the oven, so I don't have any photos of getting the cake out of the pan and rolling it up in the towel, but the original post on The Italian Dish has some if you want to check them out.

I often learn as much from the reader comments on a recipe as I do from the original cook's post, and so always make a point to skim through them. I am so glad I did - one of the gals who commented on this recipe gave a tip for a less messy way to get the finished cake onto the tea towel. I've incorporated her comments in my instructions below.

Ingredients:

Pumpkin Roll

• 1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on baked roll)
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup pumpkin puree

Cream Cheese Filling

• 1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
• 6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Powdered sugar (optional for decoration)

Method:

 

Pumpkin Roll

1. Preheat the oven to 375° F.
2. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with parchment or wax paper. Grease and flour paper.
3. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan.
4. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. (If using a dark-colored pan, begin checking for doneness at 11 minutes.)
5. Immediately run knife around sides of pan to loosen cake and dust cake liberally with powdered sugar. Cover cake with clean tea towel. Place another cookie sheet (upside down)over towel. Holding everything together, flip over.  Lift off the jelly-roll pan; because of the parchment paper, the cake should just fall right out. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.

 

Cream Cheese Filling

1. Beat cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth.

 

Assembly

1. Carefully unroll cake. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Re-roll cake.
2. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour.
3. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

Unroll cake...

...spread cream cheese filling...

 

...re-roll, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until ready to serve.

 

Apple Galette

I wrote recently about my challenges as a baker. Case in point:  I made this dessert twice on Thanksgiving - not because I needed two of them, but because in the first attempt I underestimated the value of using parchment paper, as instructed. My blunder left me with too-few apples for a second attempt - thanks to my neighbor Maria for coming to my rescue with a couple of apples she had on hand!

The second time was a charm, though, and this was a quick, easy - but equally as tasty - alternative to a traditional apple pie. And it was beautiful! 

This was the first attempt - notice the lack of parchment paper. It stuck like glue to the pizza stone - and I was so sure the stone would make the bottom perfectly crisped, etc. It looked beautiful (and tasted delicious, I have to confess), but couldn't be removed from the stone with anything but a large spatula and a lot of scraping. Not good.

For a dessert, this was my kind of recipe - the woman who wrote it used terms like "about," "around," "some," and "sprinkle." I didn't measure carefully, but this is what I did...

Ingredients:

•  4 apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
• sprinkle of cinnamon
• 2 T brown sugar
• Peel of about a quarter lemon
• Juice of about a quarter orange
• Pinch of salt
• 2 T butter, small diced
• 1 egg, beaten with a splash of water
• 1 prepared pie crust - I used Pillsbury
• Sugar, for sprinkling
• Parchment paper!

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Toss apples in a large mixing bowl with next 5 ingredients, through salt.
3. Line a large rimmed cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
4. Roll out pie crust to about 1/8" thickness.
5. Place pie crust on parchment lined cookie sheet.
6. Pile apples on top of crust.
7. Dot with butter.
8. Fold crust up over the apples - you will not cover all the apples. No need to be fancy, just fold the crust onto itself until all is pulled up.
9. Brush crust with egg mixture and sprinkle all over with sugar. Bake about 35 minutes or until nicely browned.

This is my second attempt right before it went into the oven...again, notice the parchment. 

Chicken Noodle Soup

We eat a lot of chicken, and it's fun (and sometimes a little frustrating) to find new ways to prepare it. Who knew that Nov. 12 was Chicken Soup for the Soul Day?! Not me...but I had a package of chicken and everything I needed to make soup.

I love chicken noodle soup but haven't had much success with it in the past - no matter what I did, it just didn't seem to have much flavor. In an effort to make a soup that didn't just taste like chicken broth, I made two additions this time that made all the difference - lemon zest and a jalapeno. Delicious!

Ingredients:

• 3 carrots, finely diced
• 2 stalks celery, finely diced
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 1 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, finely diced
• 1 T canola oil
• 1 tsp. dried dill
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• zest of one lemon
• 1 lb. chicken, cooked, cooled, and diced
• 2 quarts low sodium chicken stock
• 1/2 bag egg noodles

Method:

1. Heat oil in stock pot over medium heat.
2. Saute carrots, celery, onion, and jalapeno until softened, about 10 minutes.
3. Stir in dill, zest, and pepper. Add chicken.
4. Add stock and bring to boil. Add noodles and cook according to package directions, about 7 - 9 minutes.

Jalapeno Popper Dip with Bacon Breadcrumbs

This dip is similar to another that I've made a few times, but is so much better in so many ways! Fresh roasted jalapenos, bacon, three kinds of cheese, creamy filling, crunchy topping...what's not to love?!

It is spicy as written, but you can adjust the heat level easily by removing all the seeds or using fewer peppers. It was a huge hit at a get together this weekend and has definitely made it into the "make again" folder.

Fortunately, I thought to prepare a small dish with enough for just Brian and me, which we had tonight. Nice way to start a festive week!

To roast the peppers, toss them with a little olive oil and roast at 425 until they begin to char and soften, about 15 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 10 slices bacon, diced and crisp cooked
• 3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 1 T bacon grease, slightly cooled
• 2 8 oz packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup shredded mexican blend cheese
• 1 cup plus 3 T grated parmesan cheese, divided
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 10 large jalapenos, roasted and diced (seeds removed from all but one)

 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Add bacon, panko and bacon grease to a food processor. Process until bacon is approximately the size of the breadcrumbs. Stir in 3T of parmesan and set aside.
3. Mix together all other ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Place in a pie plate. Sprinkle with bacon breadcrumbs and bake for 20 minutes, or until breadcrumbs are golden brown and dip is heated through.

Source: The Wicked Noodle