I’m a fan of using leftovers, but in a family our size, if we ever have leftovers, it’s not enough for a whole meal, so we have to get creative. We picked up some chicken strips last weekend from our favorite, local fast-food chicken restaurant, and there were only about 6 left. So, I chopped them up into chunks the next day and mixed the chunks in a bowl with a can (drained) of mixed veggies and the leftover country gravy from the chicken meal, plus a little sprinkle of poultry seasoning just because I love it.

My 9yo and I smooshed out canned biscuits as flat as we could get them with our hands and lined a muffin tin with the dough circles. We filled the biscuit cups with the chicken/veggie/gravy mix and baked at 375 for about 20 minutes.

The result was a smashing success! The whole pan disappeared, and they’ve already asked when we can make it again. It certainly isn’t a low-carb option, but the kids enjoyed it.

The spaghetti squash & green beans are sprouting! We are so excited & can’t wait to start planting our seedlings in the outside garden. Spaghetti squash is sometimes $2+/lb, so it would be awesome if we could grow our own! We tried planting some seeds directly in the garden last year, and they didn’t take, but the seedlings are off to a terrific start!

Most of the seeds that we are nurturing under lights indoors are ones that we’ve gathered from fruits & veggies that we’ve eaten, like bell pepper, eggplant, strawberries and spaghetti squash. Some are attempts at starting new plants from cuttings, like potato eyes and onion tops. Some are from seed packets, like basil, green beans, lettuce, tomatoes and pumpkin. We have quite a variety – even some apple seeds, though I have no idea where we’d actually plant an apple tree!! Perhaps we could get it started in a pot and then sell it.

Speaking of selling our produce, we have a plan for the spring/summer. My eldest and I are planning to go to Brazil with our church for a construction/Vacation Bible School project, and we need to save up to pay our way. We have been thinking of some ways to set aside money, and then the other day, No. 2 shared a great idea. I was watering the seedlings and made an off-hand comment that we might actually have enough produce from our garden this year that we could take some to the Farmers Market to sell.

In one of those why-didn’t-I-think-of-that moments, No. 2 said, “Mom, why don’t we just give our extra stuff away, instead?” So, we talked about it and decided that if we grow enough fruits & veggies to sell the extras at market, then we’ll use those proceeds for missions — either our Brazil trip fundraising or just our regular missions offering. With that kindhearted idea of his in mind, I’m praying for an abundant harvest! What a wonderful hands-on way to get the kids involved in ministry!

Speaking of the Brazil trip, I’ll share more as we get closer to the time, but we got our passport pictures yesterday, and we have an appointment later this week to turn in our paperwork. We are so excited!

I was in the mood for something crunchy, so I thumbed through my favorite low-carb cookbook to see if I could find something to curb my craving.

Dana’s recipe (p. 135) called for sunflower seeds and shredded cheddar cheese, but I had pistachios and shredded colby jack on hand, so that’s what I used.

In a food processor, chop up about 1.5 cups of nuts, then pulse in 1.5 cups of shredded cheese. Add 1/4 c. water while pulsing to blend it all together. When it starts to pull away into a ball, it’s ready to mash.

This was the fun part! One of my 8yos helped me spread the dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. We put another sheet of parchment paper on top of the dough and used our fingers and a small rolling pin to smoosh it out as thinly as possible. We got it to the very edge of the parchment paper and tried to make sure it was evenly smooshed. I didn’t measure the salt; I just lightly sprinkled the flattened dough. Pistachios are already kinda salty to me, so I didn’t want to go overboard.

Dana’s recipe says to score the crackers before baking, to make them easy to separate later, but I completely forgot that step, oops! I baked them at 325 for about half an hour, and as soon as I took them out of the oven, I remembered that overlooked step. So, I used a pizza cutter and gently scored the batch into about 6 dozen crackers. Thankfully, the dough was still somewhat soft & didn’t crumble.

The crackers tasted delicious, and my little sous chef gave them a big thumbs-up. Next time, though, I think I will halve the dough and make two batches that I can really thin out, because some of the crackers in the center weren’t as thin & crispy as I would have liked, but we didn’t have any more space to smoosh the dough.

Sauteed Swiss chard with garlic & onion

I was buying some fresh spinach the other day and noticed that Swiss [red] chard was on sale, so I decided to try it. Like other leafy greens, chard is chock-full of good stuff like Vitamins A, C & K, not to mention fiber and even some protein.The stalks are a brilliant red that reminds me of rhubarb, and the leaves are deep green.

I’ve seen chard before but never knew what to do with it, so I looked up some recipes. I modified and combined a few tips here and there, based on ingredients I already had on hand, and this was the yummy result:

First, I sauteed about 1/4 white onion, coarsely chopped (one of the recipes suggested red onion, but oh, well) with about 2 Tbsp minced garlic in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.

Swiss chard soft tacos

As the onion and garlic perfumed my kitchen, I added a couple of dashes of salt and a few heavy sprinkles of pepper. One of the recipes I found called for nutmeg, so I threw in a couple of dashes of ground spice, too.

I added 3 leafy stalks of Swiss chard, coarsely chopped, then splashed in about 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar. I sauteed it for 3-4 minutes until the chard was somewhat wilted.

At first, I was just going to eat it straight from the plate, as shown above, but then I decided to wrap it in a warm corn tortilla. Wowza! That’s good stuff! The three younger boys eagerly tried it and wanted second bites. No. 2 said it was “ok” and thought I should add paprika. No. 1 tried it grudgingly (it had green stuff, after all), and he declared it “not terrible, but not great.” Alas, coming from him, that’s a pretty good compliment! 😉  Post-fast, I might add grilled chicken or pulled pork, but I thought it was yummy in veggie version, too.

If you aren’t sick of my Thanksgiving play-by-play yet, I wanted to let you know that the turkeys turned out great! The boys and I each tried a small bite as I sliced them up last night, and everyone agreed that they were yummy. My 11yo even said that I could win a turkey-cooking contest. Coming from an aspirant Food Network chef, that was high praise! 🙂

I was a little concerned that the meat might dry out overnight &/or during reheating, so I added the broth from the drip pans to the storage containers. The one we were taking to church went into a large, plastic click-top type of tub, but the one for family went into a new aluminum pan wrapped snugly in plastic wrap. I knew we’d be reheating that one in the oven, so I arranged large pieces of the roasted skin over the sliced meat to help insulate it and keep it moist. I just replaced the plastic wrap with foil for reheating, and it worked out great.

Even my cousin (who normally brings the turkey and is known for speaking his mind) said that I’m now nominated to do the turkey for the next, oh, 30 years. haha! 🙂  I appreciated the kind compliments, and I’m glad it turned out so yummy!

Hickory chips soaking in bourbon

The cooler worked out great for brining; the turkeys were still very cold this morning and ready to prep for the smoker.

I started the charcoal and put some hickory chips in a tub with a very inexpensive bourbon (not wasting the pricey stuff on wood chips!) to soak while I tended to the birds.

I put carrots, onion, celery and garlic in drip pans and rubbed the outside of the turkey with olive oil, sage, salt & pepper (poured into little bowls ahead of time, so I didn’t contaminate the spice jars with my fingers that had been handling raw meat). The older two boys helped chop apples to stuff inside the turkeys (one per bird), along with 2 cinnamon sticks and 6-7 cloves.

Seasoned & ready to cook!

I tried to tuck the wings under, as best I could figure out how, so they wouldn’t burn too easily. I probably should have used larger aluminum pans, because it was a tight fit. I put them in the smoker uncovered for about an hour to sear them, and yum – they look so good!

Seared & ready to cover with foil

After an hour, I covered them with foil rotated them (so the one nearest the firebox doesn’t burn) and set my alarm for another hour to rotate them again. So far, so good! 🙂

If I played my cards right, then the turkeys should be ready before I need to go pick up the younger three from their No School Fun Day program. Then, I’ll let the birds cool a bit before I slice and package them for transport: one to the church first thing in the morning and the other for our family meal at my great-aunt’s house.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My dad gave me a smoker for Christmas last year, so I’ve been practicing with chickens & brisket. The boys were complimentary of my grilled ribs, steak & asparagus, too. Lest I sound too braggadocios, I must admit that not all of my efforts have been successful; I scorched a chicken and destroyed some eggplant, but for the most part, nearly everything has turned out pretty good.

So, I decided to try my hand at smoking a turkey. Our church is doing Thanksgiving meals at our inner-city mission community, so I signed up to make a turkey for that. I figured while I had the smoker fired up, I might as well make another turkey for our family meal. No pressure, ha!! 🙂

Brining, Step 1: The spices smell wonderful!

I found a couple of great recipes for smoking and seasoning turkeys on my favorite grocery store website, so I devised a combination of the two. This morning, I started the brining process. I wasn’t sure if my cooler would be large enough, but it worked out fine. Since I’m doing two turkeys, I didn’t quite double the brining recipe, but I did use more than the original recipe called for.

I started out with about a gallon and a half of water in my largest stockpot (the recipe called for 2 gal, but my pot wasn’t big enough). Some of the adaptations I used include ice cream salt instead of kosher salt (Alton Brown might cringe, but good grief – the price difference was atrocious!) and dried spices instead of fresh sprigs (due to price/availability).

Brining, Step 2: Turkeys chilling out before their big debut

The brine solution included 4 c. of rock salt, 4 c. of sugar and 2 Tbsp each of rosemary, sage & thyme. I also used about 1.5 c. peppercorns and 2 garlic bulbs. The recipe also called for apple cider to add to the cooler in the next step, but it was more expensive than plain ol’ apple juice, so I threw in 1 Tbsp each of cinnamon & nutmeg to compromise. I heated the spice/water mixture to a low boil and stirred till the salt & sugar dissolved. The kitchen smelled heavenly! I took it off the heat and let it sit a bit to cool down while I prepped the cooler.

I tossed 8 small oranges (halved) and 6 apples (halved) into the cooler, then put the turkeys breast-side-down and poured 2 gal apple juice over them. I added the saucy solution and 2 bags of ice. I will check it throughout the day and add more ice, as needed. It’s supposed to stay at 40 degrees for 24 hours.

Tomorrow morning, I will pat the turkeys dry and proceed with the next steps: soaking the hickory chunks in bourbon, firing up the smoker, seasoning the birds, rotating the birds in the smoker every hour for even cooking for about 7 hours and drinking some bourbon & diet. 😉  Should be yummy (the turkeys, too)! I’ll keep you posted.