Turkey, Mandarin and Poppy Seed Salad

Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)

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According to the National Turkey Federation (www.eatturkey.com ), this recipe was No. 1 on their website in 2009 for using turkey leftovers. It's a great use of turkey year round, too. If you don't have red leaf lettuce, use whatever lettuce you like or have on hand. You can also use fresh oranges or clementines in place of the canned mandarin oranges. Makes 4 servings.

 

• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1-1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1-1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds
• 1-1/2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 5 cups red leaf lettuce, washed, dried, chilled and torn
• 2 cups baby spinach leaves, washed, dried, chilled and torn
• 1/2 pound cooked turkey breast, cut into 1/2-inch julienne slices
• 1 can (10.5 ounces) mandarin oranges, drained
• 1 teaspoon orange zest

 

Dressing: In a small bowl, combine orange juice, vinegar, poppy seeds, oil, mustard, and fresh ground black pepper.

Salad: In a large bowl, toss together lettuce, spinach, turkey and oranges. Pour dressing over turkey mixture. Garnish with orange zest and serve immediately.

 

 

 

Autumn Fruit Cornish Hens

Cornish game hens are not that commonly served, but they make a spectacular presentation when arranged on a turkey platter on top of Wild Rice Pilaf, garnished with something like pickled kumquats around the edge of the platter.  While this is more of a 'Tuscany' style dish, when you walk in bearing the platter, it's reminiscent of the medieval feasts when the serfs come in bearing huge platters of food .... except your guests won't be grabbing these Cornish hens and eating them without utensils! This recipe is beautiful, smells incredible while baking, tastes fabulous and is  ....

from Julee Rosso & Sheila Lufkin (creators of The Silver Palate Cookbooks)

"Small hens marinated in an unusual combination of ingredients - a variation of our most often complimented recipe."

Note:  You do not have to wait until you have 8 people who can come over for dinner to make these Cornish hens. The recipe ingredients are easily halved (4 hens) & then halved again (2 hens).

Ingredients:

8 Cornish hens (between 1 & 1-1/2 pounds)                            
12 large cloves of garlic, peeled and finely minced                 
4 tablespoons dried oregano                                                    
Salt & pepper to taste
1 cup red wine vinegar   
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup pitted prunes                                                              
1 cup dried apricots                                                    
1 cup pitted green olives                                                         
1/2 cup capers, plus a bit of the juice                                       
8 bay leaves                                                                      
1 cup brown sugar                                                        
1 cup dry white wine                                                               
4 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley                                     

Directions:

1. Clean hens well under cold water. Pat dry.
2. In a large bowl, combine hens, garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, vinegar, oil, prunes, apricots, olives, capers with juice, and bay leaves. Cover & refrigerate overnight to marinate.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
4. Arrange game hens in 1 or 2 shallow roasting pans. Spoon all the marinade over the hens. Sprinkle evenly with brown sugar and pour wine around them.
5. Bake for 1 to 1-1/4 hours, basting frequently, until golden. Juice should look clear when thigh is pricked with a fork.
6. Transfer hens, with fruit, olives and capers to a serving platter. Moisten with pan juices and sprinkle with parsley.
7. Pass remaining pan juices in a sauce boat.

Serve with Pecan Wild Rice Pilaf (you can use Uncle Ben's Wild Rice in a pinch, too)

Roasted Chicken Salad with Sour-Cream Dressing

"The sour cream dressing can be made up to four days in advance & refrigerated in an airtight container. Keep the chicken salad in a cooler when serving it at a picnic." (Printed in RTD)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pecan halves (about 3 oz.) broken in half lengthwise
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• Course salt & freshly ground pepper
• 1 whole roasted chicken (about 3 lbs.) skin removed
• 8 scallions, white and light-green parts only, trimmed and thinly sliced
• 2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
• 5 tablespoons golden or dark raisins
• 1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh oregano leaves

To Assemble:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spread pecans in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet.
Toast in oven until fragrant, about 10 minutes.
Remove from pan, let cool immediately.

Meanwhile, make dressing.
Whisk together mayonnaise, sour cream, and vinegar in a small bowl.
Season with salt & pepper & set aside.

Pull chicken meat from the bones and cut into 1/4 inch pieces (discard bones)
Transfer to a medium bowl
Add pecans, scallions, celery, raisins & oregano
Season well with salt & pepper
Add dressing & stir to combine

Chill covered until ready to serve.

Ultimate Chicken Casserole

"This is a great comfort-food recipe that is easily put together. The original recipe calls for curry powder, which adds a really distinct flavor." (Reprinted in the RTD, from Betty Crocker's Living with Cancer Cookbook)

Ingredients (makes 8-10 servings):

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 pounds chicken breast tenders (not breaded)
• 2 (10 oz.) packages frozen broccoli spears, thawed and drained
• 1 (8 oz.) can sliced water chestnuts, drained
• 1 (10-3/4 oz.) can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 cup reduced fat mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon curry, if desired
• 1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese (2 ounces)
• 1/3 - 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
• 1 (1.8 oz.) can French-fried Onions
• 1/4 cup slivered or sliced almonds

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken tenders, working in batches if necessary, and cook chicken 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until chicken is lightly browned and no longer pink in the center.
3. In an ungreased 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish, layer broccoli spears, water chestnuts and browned chicken.
4. In a mixing bowl, combine soup, mayonnaise, lemon juice, milk and curry powder. Pour mixture over chicken and broccoli. Sprinkle with cheese, bread crumbs, onions and almonds.
5. Cover and bake 30 minutes. Uncover and bake about 15 minutes longer, or until broccoli is tender.

Cook's note: To make ahead, cover baked casserole with aluminum foil. Freeze no longer than 2 months. To reheat, remove the casserole from the freezer one hour before baking. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake in covered baking dish for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 to 15 minutes or until hot.

Turkey or Baking Hen - How to Cook

This past Thanksgiving, I found myself with the task of preparing The Turkey. Believe it or not, this is the first whole turkey I've ever baked and I was nervous .... really nervous. Fortunately for me, my Aunt Helen has been raving for years about her daughter-in-law's turkeys. Here's a direct quote from the recipe she wrote out for my mom:

"This is an unbelievably delicious recipe obtained by Esther's mother when Reynolds Aluminum foil first became available. The turkey/hen will be nice and moist (from the steam). Esther said she always buys the cheapest turkey on the shelf in the grocery store".

So, armed with this recipe and after obtaining a very large, incredibly cheap ( on sale for 39 cents a pound!!!) 20 lb. turkey and a box of 18" Heavy Duty Reynolds Wrap Foil, I set out to cook The Thanksgiving Turkey. Did I mention that I was nervous .... really nervous? I decided to make sure I was doing it 'just right' so I went online and checked for any instructions Reynolds might have posted and sure enough, they had a video. The video demonstrated leaving openings in the foil for the steam to escape ...... hmmmm, this was confusing. Very confusing.

Fortunately for me, Esther was in town for Thanksgiving Day and I managed to catch her by phone just before she left for church, at 9:00 in the morning. She assured me that the turkey should be completely sealed in the foil ..... no escape vents for steam.

The final result of using Esther's method of cooking the turkey was an absolutely delicious turkey in 3.5 hours. When my brother went to carve it and grabbed a leg, the leg fell off in his hand. I forgot to open the foil the last 20-30 minutes and the turkey was golden brown anyway. Since I have no idea how this happened, I would suggest following the directions from Esther! I used butter to rub on the skin. The stuffing was baked separately, not in the bird. I did cut an apple in half and placed both halves in the turkey cavity for extra moisture - I read this tip somewhere and they also suggested putting in a stick of butter with the apple, but that seemed like overkill on grease.

Finally, here's how to do it ....

Esther's Recipe for How to Cook a Turkey or Baking Hen

 (via Aunt Helen)

Totally defrost turkey/hen

Bake at 450 degrees - open heavy foil the last 20-30 minutes to brown.

Lbs.             Bake Time
6-8            1.5 - 2.0 hours 
8-12          2.0 - 2.5 hours
12-16         2.5 - 3.0 hours
16-20         3.0 - 3.5 hours
20-22         3.5 - 4.0 hours

To Prepare:

• Mix stuffing the night before and refrigerate
• Wash turkey/hen in cold water
• Wipe with paper towels
• Rub skin with margarine, salt and pepper - place empty margarine wrappers on wing tips
• Use HEAVY DUTY foil (2 large sheets put together by french seam in middle). Totally enclose turkey and fold foil (french seam again) so steam cannot escape. Note: I modified this instruction so there was no doubt there should not be any 'venting' of steam going on.
• Follow cooking times in chart.

On a rating scale of 1-5, I give this recipe a "10"!!

Chicken Casserole (with Rice & Stuffing)

This recipe came to our kitchen via a recipe from my sister-in-law's mother, Janet.  My mom raved and raved about how good that "chicken and rice casserole" was until she finally got the recipe, but she had never tried to make it.

A couple of weeks ago, everybody had a rough day and mom decided she wanted this casserole for dinner (note: in my opinion, this dish qualifies as "comfort food"), so I set out to make it happen. We had all the ingredients and it was a very easy casserole to put together; although, it's more "adventurous" than you would expect because there are no quantities listed for some ingredients - you more or less have to wing it.  You can either go on a safari through the bush on your own with this recipe, or you can check out my notes (at least what I remember .... it's been a while) below the recipe for what I did when I made it.

The casserole turned out just great and we ate about half of it when it came out of the oven. The rest was put in the fridge for dinner the next night. We ended up with company the next night and I pulled out the leftover casserole, poured maybe 1/4th of a cup of chicken broth over the top of the stuffing to add a little moisture, then covered it with foil and re-heated it in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. It came out really hot .... and it was still delicious.

Here's the recipe ..... it's a good one to make ahead and freeze or for feeding a crowd:

Chicken Casserole (with Rice & Stuffing)

(Janet)

Use 9 x 13 pan
Freezes well
Serves 6 - 8
Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken or 4 chicken breasts
• Onion
• Celery
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 small package of Pepperidge Farm Dressing
• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup milk
• white instant rice (brown 'instant' rice also works great)
• chicken broth

Directions:

1. Cook chicken in celery & onions.
2. Cut chicken into small pieces.
3. Cover the bottom of the dish with one layer of instant rice.
4. Pour 1 cup of broth over rice.
5. Put chicken over rice.
6. Mix the soups and milk together and pour over rice/chicken.
7. Melt butter and with some broth, mix with dressing, enough to make it moist.
8. Cover the top of the casserole with dressing.

Cooking notes for quantities I used:

• 4 chicken breasts - frozen ones that we thawed
• 1 whole small-medium onion
• 2 stalks of celery
• We didn't have white instant rice, but we had brown and that turned out just great. I covered the bottom of the dish nicely with it.
• I used more than 1 cup of broth over the rice - I felt like I should use enough to assure that all of the rice was 'sitting in broth' ..... the last thing I wanted was dry, hard rice in the casserole.
• 1 (16 oz.) package of Pepperidge Farm Dressing which made more than enough to top the casserole and I just added broth until I liked the consistency of the stuffing - it wasn't too soggy, but I didn't want it to be too dry, either.