Winter cooking

Lots of cooking lately! Here's an assortment of recipes that I remembered to write down.

Main Courses

Beer-Roasted Turkey
turkey, defrosted
beer
butter
chicken, turkey, or veggie broth

Arrange turkey in deep roasting pan. Put pats of butter on top of turkey, drizzle with beer, beer and butter inside turkey. Do not cover the turkey.
Bake 20min at 450, then lower to 250.
After half an hour or an hour, add some more beer to the pan and add about a third or quarter cup of broth.
Periodically baste turkey with beer/butter/brother mix in roasting pan.
Cook until thermometer pops out.

The meat from this recipe turns out deliciously moist and flavorful, and the drippings are surprisingly sweet - and delicious. Be sure to make gravy from the liquid remaining in the roasting pan.

Gravy: drippings, some wine, some boiling stock, whisked in flour.

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Shepherd's Pie
Combine:
butter
onions
celery
carrots
broccoli
curry powder
salt
broth
rosemary
thyme

Simmer until veggies are slightly soft.
Whisk in some mashed potatoes to thicken.

Add:
frozen corn
frozen peas
shredded turkey

Pour into pie pan.

Mix together:
mashed potatoes
green onions
greek yogurt

Cover top surface with this mixture.
Bake at 350 until mashed potatoes brown on top.

This freezes very well.

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Tilapia Not-Actually-Ceviche
zucchini, chopped fine
onion, chopped fine
tomato, chopped fine
lime
sour cream
cooked tilapia (microwaved is quick and easy)

Combine all ingredients and mix well to coat.

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Corndog Loaves
small loaf pans, roughly the length of the hot dogs
Hot dogs/sausage (this is pork and cheddar)
1 c self-rising cornmeal
1 c white whole wheat flour
1 c milk + 1 T white vinegar (pseudo-buttermilk - let sit for a few minutes before mixing in)
1.5 T honey
1/2 c olive oil
2 eggs
Cheese

Blob into pans, add hot dog, blob more on top. 1 recipe makes 3 little pans
Bake at 375-400 for 35 min or until tops are browned and knife comes out clean. Serve topped with cheese.

Ratio of corn to dog was a bit too high. We ate one each on baking day, then froze the rest. They reheat quite well. I have a sneaking suspicion that mixing shredded cheese into the batter would be even more delicious.

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Frittatalets
eggs, beaten
finely chopped veggies (we used tomatoes and green beans)
garlic
crazy salt or other savory spices

Combine all ingredients. Spray muffin tins or mini muffin tins with olive oil. Spoon mixture into muffin tins. Bake at 350 for 20 min or until eggs are set.

We ate these with rounds of rosemary-olive bread. They freeze very well, easy to pop out and reheat for breakfast.

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Desserts

Red wine simmered peaches
fresh or frozen peaches
red wine
vanilla ice cream

Combine peaches and wine in a small saucepan and simmer until peaches are soft and wine has thickened a bit. Lovely on its own, amazing with vanilla ice cream.

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Blueberry French toast bake
4 eggs
1 1/2 C milk
allspice
vanilla
french bread rounds, unpleasantly dry or toasted
blueberries
maple syrup

Beat eggs, milk, vanilla, and allspice together. Add french bread rounds and let soak until the rounds are a little bit soft. Add blueberries and arrange in pan.

Bake at 350 until custard bit is set. This one took 35 minutes. Serve drizzled with maple syrup.

(For a more dessert-y, sweeter recipe, mix a tablespoon or two of maple syrup in with the milk and egg mixture.)

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Emergency Peach-Berry Pie
frozen peaches, broken into small pieces
frozen pureed mixed berries
blueberries
whatever other fruit is available

Combine ingredients. Pour into pie shell. Bake until sufficiently set or until pie shell browns.

This actually turned out to be very, very tasty, despite the lack of added sugar and/or gelatinizing ingredients. No picture because we ate it too fast.

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Lazy Man's Bananas Foster
banana, cut into rounds
rum
maple syrup
almond bits, raw or toasted

Combine in bowl and microwave ~30-50 sec. Stir well and add ice cream if desired.