When life gives you tomatoes...

or should I say, when your garden gives you tons of tomatoes... make tomato sauce.
I mean, you could make tons of other things too, or give them away (both of which I have been doing a lot of lately), but this week I decided to make sauce.
And, since I finally remembered to take pictures of what I made, I decided to post them on here.
So, without further ado, here's my sauce, made with fresh tomatoes, basil and zucchini from my gardens.

This one is real easy!
All I did was cut everything up, toss it all in a roasting pan with some onion, a little olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and oregano, then roast it all at 425* for about an hour and a half.

I used both red and yellow tomatoes, as well as both green and purple basil.

And I added half of a zucchini, just because I had it in the fridge. 

Aren't these veggies so pretty!!!

Into the oven they went. Every half hour I stirred them, then popped them back in. 

After about an hour and a half I pulled the veggies out, and got to breaking them down with my hand blender.If you don't have one, you can use a regular blender, but you;ll have to do it carefully, and in small batches.

Oh, and some people like to strain out all the peels and seeds and chunks, but I like to blend it all up. Gives the sauce a nice thickness and great flavor.

When it was all blended, it looked like this. Now, you may be thinking "that looks kinda orange-y", but remember... I used a Lot of yellow tomatoes. So, that explains it.

Now, I decided to start this project on a Monday night after work and after picking all these from the garden, so by the time I was done blending, I was tired. So I packed the hot sauce into a casserole dish, covered it, and put it in the fridge. Figured I'd finish it the next night...

Well, the next night came, and I decided to make a meat sauce out of it. So, I tossed some hamburg and Italian sausage in a pan...

...broke it all up into small crumbles while it cooked...

...then added the sauce to it once it was done.

Next, I let that cook over medium heat for about an hour so that it would thicken a little more. I also added a little more salt, pepper and garlic until it tasted just right.

Oh, and please note: if you make sauce like this, from fresh tomatoes, the longer you let it simmer, the thicker and darker and yummier it will get.

When it was ready, I just tossed it onto some pasta, sprinkled a little fresh grated cheese on top, and Voila!

Dinner.

Delicious!

See you soon... xoxo

Turducken

First off, I need to apologize for taking an almost 3-month break between posts. What kind of a blogger does that?!?!? Anyways, I am back, and as you can tell by the title of this post, I am making up for my brief hiatus with a real doozie of a dish: Turducken.
Yep, you hear me right: Turducken.
Don't you just love saying it?
Turducken.

Now, for those of  you who do not know what this is (are there actually people who don't?), it is a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck, then stuffed into a deboned turkey (Turkey + Duck + Chicken = Turducken- get it?) and I made one for Easter. Yes- I said Made. No I didn't order one online like everyone else, throw it into the oven and take credit for just cooking it. I actually made one. From scratch.
I've actually been waiting a long time to do this, so I finally decided to tackle it. And, although I only had 4 people over for Easter, I still wanted to do it.

So, without further ado... here's my first ever Turducken!

Let's begin:
First step- buy a turkey, a duck, and a chicken from your local grocer or butcher.
Then, before you start, lay out all the tools you could possibly need before you go and get yourself elbow-deep in poultry guts. Here's what I had on hand:

• An Apron, and clothes that you don't mind getting poultry "juices" all over.
• A bowl of hot soapy water in the sink (for rinsing your hands in)
• A large strainer in the sink (for all the bones and guts)
• many dish rags
• many paper towels
• your kitchen trash barrel
• 3 large bowls or dishes to put the meat into once you have deboned the birds
• a couple good,small, SHARP knives (I Highly recommend this knife that I get from my local Outdoor Store).
• a large cutting board that is safe to put raw poultry on

Oh, and if your birds are frozen, make sure they are thoroughly (and properly) defrosted before you begin!

First up- the chicken!
(*disclaimer: if you are grossed out by graphic pictures of poultry, you should not go any further!!)

Now, deboning a bird is not as hard as you think. Trust me. I mean, there aren't a lot of bones in it, so you just need to make a few cuts, then pull the bones out. But, if you want to do some research before you begin, there are plenty of videos out on the interweb if you want to watch a few before you try this.

To start, clean out the cavity, rinse the bird, then pat it dry with paper towels.
Then, cut out the spine.
Once that is out, snap the joints connecting the wings and the thighs from the body, separate any meat from the rib cage, then remove the chest cavity.
Now all that is left to remove are the legs and wings.
To remove the wings, you first need to cut off the wing tips (if they are still on the bird).
Then break all joints with your knife, and carefully pull out the bones.
When you are done, you will have a completely boneless bird. Just meat and skin.
Here's what that whole process looks like, as step-by-step as I could get:

When you are done with the chicken, pop it in the fridge to stay cool, then get the duck out and repeat the same process.

When the duck is boneless, pop it back in the fridge with the chicken and start the turkey.
This process is a little different though, because all you need to remove from the turkey is the rib cage. Not the legs or wings.

When the turkey is done, get the other birds, as well as your stuffing (which should be uncooked and COLD!) and get ready to assemble the beast!

Lay out the turkey, and put a thin layer of stuffing down.

Then remove all the duck meat from the skin, lay that on top of the turkey stuffing, then lay another thin layer of stuffing on top of the duck.

Repeat with the chicken, being sure to remove the meat from the skin (you do NOT want all that skin inside this thing!)

Once all the layers of bird and stuffing are layered, it's time to tie this thing up. Literally.
I used poultry ties, but next time I will just use a ton of twine to tie it all up. That would have been a lot easier than what I did.

Once its all tied up, its time for the oven!

Now, normally I do not use oven bags, but I had a LOT of food to cook in my oven this day (after all, it was Easter), so I used a bag to speed up the process.

Then I popped it into a preheated 375* oven for about 2 hours (without the bag it can take up to 4 hours), or until the internal temperature reaches 160*.
 

After you remove the beast from the oven, let it rest for a little whole before carving it. 

Once you are ready, get a nice sharp knife and slice away!

This is about the point in my day where I needed my hands for food instead of pictures, so I don't have too many, but here are a couple I snagged with my phone before I put the turducken on the table. 

Now, I know mine doesn't look as perfect as others you may have seen on the Internet, but considering this was my first time making it, I think it looks pretty good.

Anyways, that's it! Turducken!

Hope you enjoyed this post. And again, my apologies for it being so late. Hopefully my next post doesn't take so long.

Until then... happy cooking!

Oh, and here are a few more shots of the entire Easter feast.

Turducken, spinach and mushroom quiche, fruit salad, pastries, scalloped potatoes, home fried potatoes, asparagus, butternut squash, and cranberry sauce. And gravy. And Peeps.

xoxo

Salmon with beet risotto

A few weeks ago I went out to dinner and had the most amazing salmon with beet risotto, and I haven't been able to get it off my mind! So I decided to make it.
Now, at the restaurant they served it with leeks, sauteed baby bok choy, and roasted beets, then finished the dish with mint oil. I would have loved to recreate the entire meal, but my market was out of baby bok choy, and I didn't have time to roast fresh beets. So instead, I decided to keep it simple and easy, and just make salmon with beet risotto and sauteed asparagus.

Here goes....
Salmon, Arborio rice, beets (yes, they came from a can. I told you- I had no time to roast fresh ones), mint, oil, asparagus.

Start the risotto fist because it takes the longest to cook. The package should have the recipe, but basically you sautee chopped onions (I keep a bag in the freezer) in a few tablespoons of butter. Then add the rice, sautee for about 2 minutes.

Then add a cup of liquid (water or broth will do) and continue simmering until absorbed, stirring often.
The whole process takes about 35-40 minutes, so you can prep the rest of the meal while it cooks. But don't forget to keep stirring this!

Ok, while the rice cooks, you can chop the beets.
These little suckers are full of color and juice that will turn everything purple, so be careful.

Once the beets are done, it will probably be time to check the rice and add more liquid to it. So go check that, then come back and make the mint oil.
All you have to do is add put some fresh mint leaves and oil in a dish, then puree. I used a ramekin, which my hand blender fits right into, so that made this step really easy.

Ok, now check the rice again, then get a pan ready for the asparagus.
I just tossed then into a hot skillet with a couple drops of oil, then covered them to steam.
After about 5 minutes I tossed them around, put the salmon in the pan (skin side down), then covered it to let everything steam.

While the asparagus and salmon cooked I added the beets to the risotto, stirred them up until all the rice was purple, then turned off the burner and covered the pan to keep it warm.

When the fish was about done, I flipped it over, removed the skin (this is very easy once its cooked), then flipped it back over to finish. The flipping also added a nice sear to the top of the fish.

Ok, now that everything is done, it's time to plate the dish.
I used a measuring cup to scoop the rice onto the plate, so that it would be a nice, pretty little mound.

Then I placed the fish on top, put the asparagus on the plate, and drizzled the mint oil over the top.

And, voila... dinner is served!!!!

Enjoy!