For the broth:

• 1 turkey carcass with some meat still attached, quartered
• 2-3 quarts water
• Vegetable trimmings (carrot and potato peels, celery bottoms and leaves, onion ends and peels, etc.) or:
  • 1 onion chopped roughly
  • 2 celery stalks, broken in half or thirds
  • 2 carrots, chopped roughly
• 4-5 whole black peppercorns
• salt to taste

Add the turkey carcass, trimming (or vegetables), peppercorns and salt to the pot of water. You may also add any fat or gelatinous material to the pot and bring it to a boil. Boil for 1-2 hours until you have a rich, flavorful broth. Drain the broth through a fine-meshed strainer or a colander lined with cheesecloth or, if nothing else, just a colander. Pick all the meat from the bones and save them for the next part of the recipe. Make sure to let the bones cool first, though.

For the soup:

• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2-3 carrots, chopped
• 2-3 ribs of celery, chopped
• 1/4 c flour
• 2-3 medium potatoes, chopped
• 1 can of diced tomatoes, drained (or 1-2 medium tomatoes, diced)
• 1 can corn, drained (or 1 c fresh or frozen)
• 1 can peas, drained (or 1 c fresh or frozen)
• turkey broth (see above)
• 1 pint heavy cream
• 1 c milk
• turkey meat, picked from the bones, chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh or 1/2 tbsp dried rosemary
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In the same pan you made the broth in, melt the butter. When the foaming subsides, add the onions, celery and carrots, and saute them until translucent. Add the flour and continue to saute until the flour turns brown, about 1 minute. Add the rest of the vegetables and broth and simmer until the potatoes are tender. Add the remaining ingredients and let it simmer a few minutes until it is thick.

Spinach, carrot, cucumber and apple

• 1 large carrot
• 1 cucumber
• 2 small handfuls fresh spinach
• 1 palm full sliced white onion
• 2 small apples
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• ground cumin

I started with a bed of spinach with which to lay everything upon as I prepared the produce. If you know have a technique or a tool for slicing things very thin, almost as thin as what a peeler would produce, use it here on the carrot. Otherwise, this could end up slightly dry. Arrange the carrot slices across the bed of spinach and feel free to overlap them. If you want to get fancy, place the carrots in overlapping groups of three and that will make the final product come out in sections.

The cucumber doesn’t need to be sliced as thin, here. Slice your cucumber and arrange in a layer on top of the carrots. Follow the same rule of threes here as you did with the carrots.

If not prepared correctly, the next step could cause the salad to look unappetizing. Apples tend to brown quickly so as we are slicing our apple wedges, approximately one-eighth-inch, we are going to have a plate of lemon juice ready. Gently rub each side of the apple in the lemon juice before placing on top of the cucumber. At this point sprinkle a light layer of cumin on top of the salad. I’ll describe the dressing next.

A single serving would ideally be three slices of carrots, three slices of cucumber, some bits of onion and a quadrangle of apple on a small bed of fresh spinach.

Creamy spice dressing

The dressing is almost as simple as the salad but with a couple twists. I honestly didn’t pay attention to the amounts of each ingredient I used so you may have to experiment until you reach the desired flavor.

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup apple cider (juice will work just fine)
• 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 2 pinches marjoram
• 2 dashes black pepper
• 1 pinch coriander seed
• 1 pinch cumin
• 2 tablespoons milk (half and half or cream would work as well (not whipping))

This will be a sort of creamy vinaigrette. Start with your oil and add your spices. This will allow the oil to take on some of the flavor of your spices. Feel free to crush up the coriander seed just slightly so the flavor can leech into the oil. After a few minutes mix the apple cider and vinegar together in a separate container and whisk into the main dressing. Whisk the milk or cream next and splash the dressing generously onto the salad. This is a light dressing and compliments the salad perfectly.

Here’s a closer look at the salad. You can’t really make out the spinach or the carrots but it was prettier when eating. I added some crumbled dried bread to the top.

Closer look

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 9 slices bacon
• 6 oz bleu cheese
• 1 onion, minced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 c toasted bread crumbs
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 milk
• 2-3 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1 T dijon mustard
• salt and pepper
• buns
• toppings (ketchup, mustard, onion, lettuce, more bleu cheese and bacon, etc.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Sautee onion and garlic till translucent. Place in a large bowl. Fry bacon and add half of it to the bowl with the onions and garlic. Add the rest of the ingredients except buns and toppings and mix thoroughly.  Form into 6 large balls and place on a baking sheet.  Make a large dent in the balls and add bleu cheese and  remaining bacon to each, pinching ground beef around the hole to close. Flatten, taking care not to let any of the filling to get out.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour or until well done. Serve on buns with your choice of toppings.

You will need:

1 pint heavy cream
1 pint whole milk
1/3 c. spiced rum OR 1 T. rum flavoring
6-8 large egg yolks
1/2 c. sugar
fresh nutmeg
2 tsp. vanilla extract

A heavy saucepan
A wire whisk
Large metal bowl or pitcher

Bring milk, cream, and rum to a low simmer, just until bubbles form on the edges, in your saucepan. In the meantime, whisk egg yolks and sugar together in the large bowl or pitcher. You want it to be looking a lighter shade of yellow. SLOWLY dribble a small amount of your warmed milk mixture to the egg mixture, whisking quickly. (This is called tempering your eggs, adding a little of the warm to the egg keeps it from scrambling the egg.) Add it all in very, very slowly; don’t stop whisking. After it’s all combined, add in your vanilla. Grate fresh nutmeg over the top. Set in the freezer to start cooling. Move to the fridge after about half an hour. Leave it for at least 1-2 hours for best taste.

Totally did not intend for that to come out the way it did but it happened so this will be a short post.

I had some celery that was getting ready to go out the door. To give meaning to its existence, I started frying some in butter. I used about two stalks of celery and one tablespoon of butter. I didn’t have a plan in mind. Sometimes I just start cooking an ingredient and make up my mind as I go. Maybe I can call it Jazz Cooking.

The smell of the celery cooking inspired me as I was pecking through my cupboard. Shallots would go nicely with whatever was going to happen with the celery. At this point I was really getting hungry so I decided to boil some shell macaroni while the celery and shallots were softening. I didn’t think that a capful of vermouth would hurt at all. Along with the vermouth I added about two cloves of garlic. Garlic and shallots go good together. Especially on noodles, which were about done boiling.

I wanted something smooth and creamy so I added just enough milk to barely cover my ingredients, minus the shells. Whenever I have something creamy I always crave black pepper so I liberally shared my pepper grinder with the ‘sauce’ that was now forming. If I had white pepper I think I would have used that for this meal instead of black.

Now it was just a simple matter of tossing the shells with the yummy sauce I had just cooked. I got about three servings out of this meal and it was worth it. Especially when I topped it with some asiago.

We had three items:

• Brazilian Baked Trout
• Macaroni and Cheese
• Creamy Celery

The recipe for the trout was taken from a cook book called Cooking With Wine from the editors of Sunset Magazine and Sunset Books. It was delicious. I’m sure the recipe called for skin-off, but I really enjoy cooking fish with skin and all.

Macaroni and Cheese was from the same. Just some shells tossed with cheese melted with Chablis. The best part was crumbling the Cheddar Beer Kettle Chips on top.

Creamy Celery was found in my Google Reader through my Amateur Gourmet feed. This consisted of thinly sliced celery softened in butter, tossed in flour, gradually added milk and then peppered and dashed with a bit of brandy as a substitute for sherry.

*update-got the pics figured out. Now I need to get the borders right.

–More details to come as soon as I figure out how to share the pictures.