The 18 were stuffed like a Christmas turkey….

Well Christmas has come and passed, all that planning, prepping, cooking, stressing is over and I am almost at a loss without so many people inside my tiny little house. We had 18 people on Christmas day and what a day it was. I was SUPER stressed however for the first Christmas in my life I DIDN’t have a melt down. (Call the guinness book of world records, it is a date in history!!) I had a lot of help from hubs, my sister in law, my kids, thier kids, mom, dad, and probably even the cat!

It. was. amazing.

I am so grateful to have a great and supportive family and what made it even more awesome is I don’t think I said “Oh Sh*t!” once while cooking dinner…. but don’t quote me on that one. 🙂

Not all of it went down as smooth as ice however it went over pretty good. What helped was a few days before company arrived I cooked my “Clint Eastwood Style Chili (which mom aptly named “Chili for wimps” <– mom I have changed the recipe) and for the FIRST time ever it did not burn my face off. (Are you calling Guinness yet? There is another one for the history books)

Secondly ALL the help I had: My sister in law helping me cut, chop, prep, season, stir, mix, advise, check, double check, fix, refix everything I was doing. It saved my life. My mom doing Christmas baking so I would have enough cookies to go around, she even blessed us with her butter tarts AND melt in your mouth shortbread (I love you mom). My dad bringing over the extra stuff I decided I needed on Christmas day ON Christmas Day (a toaster oven, meat thermometer). Both my folks for helping me with the vegetarian dishes, turns out we had LOTS with what I added to it. The kids for helping stir, sort, organise, clean, check and recheck & smash things for baking. As well as clean up like taking out the gabages and dishes and so forth.

Thirdly and most importantly: The whole family having balls (and stomachs) of steel for being willing to eat something I had never attempted before.

For those about to rock (eat) we salute you.

So what did I make??

December 24 after dinner myself, my S.I.L. and kids from all families helped me do my Christmas baking…. 5 hours of it. (I am a slow one in the kitchen, mom will never let me forget!)

• Gingerbread CupCakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
• Double Chocolate Brownies with Chocolate chips
• Apple Pie
• Pumpkin Pie (x2) made with ice cream

December 25 (the big day for the 18!)

• Hors ‘d’ouvres –>Vegetarian Samosas, vegetarian spring rolls, spinach & feta spanakopia, mini meat balls, sausage rolls, chips and dip, veggies and dip, crackers with cream cheese and spicy red pepper jelly, assorted cookies and treats (homemade and store bought) Artichoke & Asiago cheese puffs (care of my sister)
• Turkey – approx 7.6 kg. Cooked over root vegetables, fresh herbs and some broth. I also put an onion and more fresh herbs up its bum to add more flavor.
• Stuffing – not from scratch. From a box.
• Mashed potatoes
• Corn, Carrots, Peas, beans.
• Buns
• Broccoli Casserole (Care of mom)
• Roasted Veggies (Care of mom)
• Fresh Gravy (made from the broth and drippings (not droppings!) from the bird)
• Cranberry jelly

Dessert:

• Pumpkin Pies (x2)
• Apple Pie
• Gingerbread Snaps (care of Sister)
• Sugar Cookies (Care of Mom)
• Gingerbread Cupcakes
• Double Chocolate Brownies
• Ice Cream – Vanilla and Stawberry

And that is how you stuff 18 people like a Christmas turkey!!!!

There were plenty of leftovers, so we could have fit about 4 more people at our table and had them well fed as well. I should mention 4 of the people at our table are older teens/young adults (male) with hearty appetites as well as all the members of the families having healthy appetites. So having left-overs and in the quantities there were is amazing.

We had a big setback, we  planned dinner for about 230 pm however I don’t think we ended up eating until past 4 due to the bird. Not sure what went wrong as everyone said they had never seen it happen before: One leg and part of one side of the bird did not cook on time so we had to keep taking it out and putting it back in again. We don’t know if it was an element, the way I cooked/positioned it in the oven, or if it was the oven itself (its not convection). Luckily we had enough nibbles to keep the hungry monsters at bay. A lot of patience and several people inside who knew a lot about cooking turkeys. A good back up plan is to get the Barbeque ready. Speaking of BBQ the one thing I defrosted and prepped for turkey dinner were ribs and cornbread however time and oven space dictated they be removed from the menu. Good thing we did or we would have been screwed for table and stomach space.

Other things I learned: I learned what a turkey baster was, what it does and how to use it. Yes I am 28 years old and had NO idea what that was. I also learned what the neck, heart and giblets look like from inside the turkey (I nearly fainted, I have an aversion to birds…cooking them… mostly because all I can see are them strutting around outside when I am trying to cook them). I also learned how to get the most out of your turkey thanks to advise from mom, the S.I.L and the people over at Stirr for posting on thier facebook page how to make Turkey Soup. But it was a big thanks to HUBs for making it. I don’t think I could have made it as the carcass was grossing me out.

This is what he did (I helped with the veggies):

What you will need:

• leftover turkey carcass, GIGANTIC pot, stove, water. Anything you want to toss into the soup for flavoring.

He put the carcass in a HUGE pot of boiling water and just boil the meat off the bones. He had it on there for hours (I am pretty sure) remove the carcass and any fallen off bones.

Next add what you like for flavoring here is what we did:

• leftover roasted root vegetables (carrots, celery, parsnips, onions)
• leftover regular vegetables (carrots, peas, corn, green beans)
• leftover gravy
• added 4 more carrots, 1 parsnip, a turnip, and an onion
• One outside Rind of Fresh Parmesan Cheese
• a sprig of fresh rosemary (just toss it in, the leaves will fall off in the cooking process)
• a sprig of fresh thyme (again, toss it in the leaves will fall off and you can pull the stick out later)
• one bay leaf (remove before consuming)
• a sprinkling of Montreal Vegetable seasoning
• a squished clove of garlic

Let this bubble for a while (30-40 minutes or until the veggies soften) then you can serve (this makes TONS OF SOUP) or what I did was I put aside a HUGE container of the soup for a healthy meal in the future and then put some in single serving dishes and froze for lunches. With a lot still left over I reserved the rest in a smaller soup pot and placed in the fridge which has given us several lunches and dinners of turkey soup.

What is great is there was no loss of nutritional value as everything was cooked with itself, nothing was strained or drained (granted the saturated fats are probably up there but so is the value of the good stuff) and it made the dollar value of Christmas dinner become VERY economical. So really it is an all around win.

Now with all the visiting relatives gone, I am missing everyone DEARLY. It is like the house (as small as it is) is empty. It really made me see how much I love and care about my family members.

I hope all your Christmas’s, holidays, festivities and food adventures are full of wonderful things.

 

From my table to yours, happy eating.

 

xoxoxo

 

Down to the wires

Having a gourmet dinner last night (and by gourmet I really mean canned spaghetti and creamed corn) gave me some “food for thought.” As of late I have been stressing, shopping, cooking, stressing, adding, subtracting and then adding in some more stress over the big day coming. I keep telling myself “everything will be fine, don’t worry so much” and then my insecurities get the better of me.

Here is the main reason I am so stressed out. It is the first time I will have ever cooked for 17+, not to mention a BIG holiday. My nerves are shot and I am getting glitchier as each day passes, not to mention the big TO do list has very few check marks on things completed (don’t get me started on the gifts OR the stocking stuffers…even the stockings themselves!). I am still pondering how I am going to fit 17 people around a table that will fit 12 plus a highchair. Not to mention the plates, cutlery and dishes being served. I guess now is the time to announce that I don’t even have a menu planned out. All I have in my deep freeze is a turkey, and I don’t even think it is big enough. I bought the turkey when I thought we would be having 12 people for dinner even though I KNEW that we would have a minimum of 15. I must have filled my brain with extra air that day. I will probably make it up by Barbequing some ribs and putting something in the crockpot (well I should say “hubs will barbeque some ribs” as he is the master of the ribs in our house)

Talk about “flying by the seat of my pants“, I do this so often I have to wear long johns. I am definatly NO goddess in the kitchen and despite being marginally organized, nothing in the world have gotten me to get my act together for this Christmas. Thankfully I am cooking for family and they are much more forgiving than any food critic, foodie or celebrity chef (side note: I
most recently criticized a catering job for not cooking their vegetables long enough, the potato salad tasted like engine oil & the bean salad tasted like diesel exhaust) however their (the families) opinion is paramount in my world so I really do want to watch them enjoy dinner rather than make the “mmmm” face whilst stifling the gag reflexes.

All this makes me realise how much my mom went through when she put on Christmas dinner and then Boxing Day dinner for the extended family. I always liked Boxing Day dinner because mom, her sisters and their families would bring all their left overs to the hosting families house and it would be samples of everyone’s cooking, baking and other goodies and as a “win-win” it helped decrease the amount of left-overs in everyone’s fridge so there wouldn’t be turkey sandwiches for the next week. Plus it also meant another gift from “The Aunts”, in our family they are famous for their woollen creations which are treasured. As a teenager it gave me extra time to look moody and sullen however once the deck of cards came out for the family game of “Combination Rummy” all bets were off and within no time it was a table full of smiles and laughter. My fondest memories of my Nana always “chanin’!” suits mid-game thus sending my Granddad into a bit of a tizzy as he was always trying to help her out and count cards at the same time. Playing cards after dinner was always such a treat, something I am hoping to bring into my own family tradition.

This time of year always pulls me closer to home, reminds me of Christmas baking, Christmas cooking and Christmas bells softly ringing inside my head as I mozey about my day.

I’ll have to write down what I end up serving and the final result of all my stressing. I am thinking it is all going to turn out fine. I just need to relax.

HA who am I kidding?! I looked like a crazed banshee whirling about the earth without a week’s sleep!

From my family to yours “wishing you all the best this yuletide season“

Did you say “ribbed”??? and saying “Thanks”

Again it has been a while since my last posting here on burned cornflakes however I assure you I have been creating in the kitchen from delicious homemade soups, to chilli experiments and discovering how hard it is asking for help. Quite frankly when I get the help (whether asked for or not) I realise now just how awesome it is to have it. I broke my hand just 2 weeks ago, it has been a learning curve to get things done one handed and asking for help on the simplest of tasks and I have been dealing out gratitude by the truck load. Some of the many things I needed help doing have been cutting, slicing, grating, turning lids, pulling lids off, holding the plate/pot/misc item still while I work which probably looked a tad ridiculous….. Which is why sometimes the task was simply lifted from my fingers, which I gotta admit, is kinda nice.

So I have a recipe for you that hubs has recently perfected, taste tested by the family and has an overall 5 star rating for ease, simplicity and yumminess. It is a pork rib recipe I was taught by my cousins and hubs nailed the new cooking process.

This is how it goes:

Kitchen stuff you will need: sharp knife, cutting board, large bowl, tongs, grill, large pot, stove top (possibly hot plate depending on its heat abilities)

Ingredients:

• Pork back or side ribs (bone in)
• water
• Fresh Ground Sea Salt to taste
• Lemon juice (hubs used juice from 7 lemons)
• Fresh Ground Pepper (if desired)

Directions:

In a large pot bring ribs to a boil and bubble on med-high heat for 45 min

During the last 5 (or so) minutes preheat your BBQ to high (about 500 degrees)

Remove ribs from pot and take out to your hot grill, cook 10 minutes per side for a total of approx. 20 min.

On cutting board slice ribs to individual pieces and place in large bowl. Douse in lemon juice and salt (and pepper), toss and mix (careful these will be hot)

Place on table and bask in glow of awesomeness as the “mmmmm’s” and “nom nom nomming” start rolling in!

I recommend serving with corn, green beans and mini potatoes.

Happy Eating!

Inspirations and Tribute.

It has been awhile yet again since my last post, I haven’t had any real food plunders so I thought I’d just touch on some things I have been thinking about. First off, we picked up the barbeque and it cooks everything EVENLY which is awesome and it is real purdy. We christened it with microscopic hot dogs of which I had to gobble down in about 1 bite due to the fact I had a meeting that night. So now we look like Barbeque snobs as we have 2 barbeques lined up on our patio though one looks like broken down Bessie and the other looks like shiny shenanigans. Photos will be posted when I charge the batteries on my new camera charge my phone or get batteries for my old camera. (I am THAT person who has every electrical device on the planet lacking in either battery charge or actual batteries. I am starting a petition to bring back the ol’ winding process.)  Last night we used the newbie again and made sirloin tip steaks and they were cooked to perfection. It was fabulous, hats off to hubs for being the BBQ king. Well I have only had one go at barbequing and let’s just say instead of making burgers I made tasty bits of charcoal on a bun.  I do have a recipe book on grilling but it is surprisingly lacking in rubs, sauces and other such ways to bbq things. It is more so “put your meat on the bbq and do the rest in the kitchen.”  I’ll take any pointers just throw them my way peeps! Side note: I actually have a gingerbread smore cake you make on a cast iron skillet on…. You guessed it! A BBQ! How cool is that? Sadly I have lost the guts to perform such a feat on the bbq since my briquette burger disaster!

Speaking of recipes, things I want to try and learning how did this all start for me? Well as you may know from my home page I wrote about my family and having to learn how to cook real fast and for large #’s which is hard because I have to look at each recipe and figure out what ingredients need to be doubled, tripled or just multiplied by 1.5 in order for the recipe to work. I didn’t start learning THIS process until I stopped cooking out of “the box” which is grabbing a box of shake n bake and tossing miscellaneous meat in there and cooking it. Sure I had my staple recipe’s down pat, a shepherd’s pie (which has now been modified so much it doesn’t even resemble the original), lasagna which was basically cook the meat toss it with a can of sauce, add noodles, bake and presto! Dinners done! Don’t get me wrong there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with those kinds of dinners, they are my favorite meals.

 I got my real start in cooking just over a year ago, I was on mat leave working out of Betty Crockers “Good and Easy” recipe book as well as “Clueless in the Kitchen” a cookbook for teens which both have good recipes in them but I was losing my inspiration and fast. Everything in them was “add a can of this soup” or box of this “miscellaneous processed item” and I was getting a little saddened by all the additives I was adding into my cooking.  I was watching the Food Network daily and seeing these great dishes put together with fresh ingredients, and simple ingredients to boot but there was NOTHING like that in any book I had laying around the house so I started to experiment. I was watching some cooking show with this guy who looks like he is living in Italy somewhere and he made these meat balls with several different kinds of cheese, one of which was cooked right in the balls themselves… I thought “I could do that” So I grabbed my wee baby, bundled her up and went on an adventure in the grocery store. I found this “Ricotta” cheese I had never used nor tasted before, fresh parmesan (seriously?! it doesn’t always come in a oddly shaped canister!!! Shocking! *gasp*) and one other cheese that was related to Parmesan. I picked these up, and concocted a delicious Italian meat ball recipe out of my head!!!! Everyone loved it and I surprised myself so I immediately told mom about it and she was very happy for me.

Then I started calling her whenever I started trying something new and it actually turned out pretty good, she was shocked to discover I was cooking…. Eggplant?! That weird purple, funny skinned, oddly shaped thing I always saw in the supermarkets actually has a taste to it!(Please note I have YET to master cooking such a vegetable (?) and have been avoiding it since I tried 3 times to cook it (one dish being Ratatouille’). So one day Mom was in WalMart and picked up Rachel Ray’s Big Book of 10 which has mounds and mounds of great dinner ideas and said “I have a family gift for you” She stopped by and handed it over and I started looking through it. I have since made MANY things out of this book and screwing up about every single one that I have tried (though admittedly I never told mom about the things I missed, added too much of or completely screwed up all together…. Nor does she know just how often I talk to the food while I am preparing it, cooking it and sometimes yelling at it or walking out on it.) but for some reason cooking seems to be something that is fairly fail safe but not immune to the odd disaster or two which I laugh about later……. Sometimes.  Now mom asks me what I have been cooking lately and she is always surprised at how “adventurous” I have become in the kitchen. I have a great desire to master, barbequing, the art of grilling, cooking duck, becoming less frightened by the critters that float, swim or walk around in the sea (like sea scallops, they just laze about in their shells so I suppose they would be the “bums” of the ocean!), also becoming less frightened by whole chickens and peeking inside them, I want to try leeks though they too scare me, so do artichokes, I want to make lamb burgers (bo peep has ordered a hit on me! HA), and try Cornish hens though I haven’t the foggiest idea where to get them and I want to get more vegetarian dishes on the table to cut down on meat consumption, and show that I don’t have to cook meat in order for a dish to be delicious as well as be open to trying different things like lentils in place of meat. My sister has also been inspiring me to get more organic foods into our foods which add a whack of flavor as well as less “additives, preservatives and hormones”. A personal choice which everyone seems to enjoy as I pick and choose what to add that is organic, sometimes I don’t have a choice as it is the only thing left on the shelf/display because the un-organic stuff is all gone, though that doesn’t bother me one bit.

What I have learned is how to scrutinize the produce, meat and grocery shelves for those obscure ingredients (eggplant?! Abodo what?! Corn relish?? Is there really such a thing??? {yes} you can make creamed corn WITHOUT opening a can?? *gasp*!! GET OUT!!!! *slap*) and mostly how to improvise when I miss something, forgot to pick an ingredient out and just plain wing it. So far no one has been sick *knock wood* and I have yet to make anything inedible.

 I owe all this to having a mom who never used a recipe when cooking, always told stories of what she ate when she was a kid, nagged me about not knowing how to cook (LOVE YOU MOM), watched loads of cooking shows, never ate the same thing twice at a restaurant (Dad ALWAYS had the same thing), having a sister who is always making the best choices for her health and body who is always learning new things about food, having a huge wonderful supportive family and kids that despite all the swearing, banging, and sometimes odd smells or odd looking ingredients coming out of(or into) the kitchen still (bravely) come and sit down at the table, try whatever it is I have concocted (AND finish it), and for having the best man at my side, helping me along, cheering me on, finishing when I give up, manning the barbeque because I am too dang afraid of setting the neighborhood on fire, loving me even when I screw up, calming me down when I get too stressed out about food (yes I do), always having faith in me especially when I don’t, eating the food I make and LOVING it. Thank you babe, without you I wouldn’t be doing ANYTHING I am today.

 I am one lucky person with one great group of people surrounding me family and friends and now blog readers and supporters.

Thanks for reading and cheering me on. I’ll keep the burned cornflakes a’comin’!