Happy New Year!

I am working on my kitchen on this New Year’s Day.  I have attacked my spice cupboard, and decided to inventory everything!

After doing so, I found out that I had plenty of poppy seed, cloves, allspice, bay leaves, curry powder, turmeric, sesame seeds, ground mustard, cumin, cream of tarter, garlic powder, and chili powder.  No need to buy any more of that!  Now my goal is to determine if these spices are still good and what is the best way to enhance my food flavor with them.  Here is a handy article from Spark People that does just that.  I will be pinching and sniffing my spices to determine if they are still good next!

Herbs and Spices to “Spark-Up” your Food

I also created an Spice Inventory Template in Google Docs — give it a try to jump start your spice inventory.

Every year, my dear friend Kelly has a massive cookie party.  You need to understand that this is NOT a cookie exchange.  She bakes dozens of different kinds of cookies, then invites her friends over to eat cookies — and then take a plate home!  Her husband serves up some to-die-for chili and appetizers.  I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the Christmas season!

From Kelly, I learned the importance of three cooking tools:  the thin cookie turner, the cookie drop, and parchment paper.  I did not used to like to bake cookies, until Kelly introduced me to these tools!  Now cookie baking is much more fun.

I have invited Kelly to join me in my blog so she can share her talents with everyone.

Welcome, Kelly!

This year was a bit different for our holiday Thanksgiving meal.  We were doing “off holiday” celebration with the in-laws which means that we needed to do something on Thanksgiving Day with our family.  Because of mom’s failing health, I decided to order the whole dinner from our local grocer, Hy-Vee.  My plans were to take it to her house for dinner there.  Unfortunately, plans changed after I had ordered the dinner, and we found ourselves “stuck” with a complete Thanksgiving dinner with only a few to eat.  We made the best of it, and everyone had their fill.  However, we had lots of turkey left over, what to do?

Here was how we got rid of the left over turkey.

1.  Hot Turkey Sandwiches — one of my favorites!  Just place once slice of whole wheat bread on a plate, top with turkey, gravy, and potatoes (all leftovers, too).  Pop in the microwave for 30 sec (check temp — repeat if necessary).  Serve with left over veggie and cranberry sauce.

2.  Turkey Tetrazzini – this one was new this year!  Take cut-up turkey, leftover gravy, and Cream of Chicken (you could use Cream of Mushrooms — but I don’t like mushrooms!), 1/2 can milk, and heat in microwave or stovetop.  Serve over whole wheat noodles.  This was the end of our leftover gravy!

3.  Turkey Piccadilly – this one was also new, too.  I had a recipe to follow, but I didn’t have a few of the ingredients so I made lots of substitutions.  What resulted was a dish that was complimented, and that was even better warmed over for lunch the following day!  Start with browning some onions in a little oil in an electric skillit (you could also use dried onions, or leave them out entirely!).  Take that final leftover turkey, add 1 can of stewed tomatoes — my can had basil and Italian spices, add 1/2 c raisins.  Keep stirring, adding water as necessary to keep from burning.  This was a quick dinner, but I needed something to serve this over.  Rice was going to take too long — I only had the long grain/long-cooking kind, so I made couscous instead.  Delicious!

Welcome to Delicious Decisions

Through the BetterU program from the American Heart Association, I came across this site called Delicious Decisions.  Besides a great recipe database, it offers plenty of other tips.  I was particularly interested in the ones on managing stress!  Take a look at their site as a step to improved health!

Do yo have the proper knifes?  Are they safe?  Are they sharp?  Leanne Ely of Saving Dinner lets you know that a sharp knife is a safe knife in this short video on “all about knifes.”  I think it is time to find the knife block, sort out all my knifes, and get them sharpened!

Knife Skills | SavingDinner.tv