Month: December 2018

Fa-who, Fores, Da-who dores, Welcome Christmas, bring us ideas. What’s that, a 3-decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich?

Yes.

with arsenic sauce.

Lauren, you’re a genius!

First things first, I’ve never made a double, triple, any kind of decked out sandwich ever. Nor have I had the stomach capacity to eat one. It’s a pretty impressive sight. Why do you think burger places sell quarter-pound double and triple cheeseburgers? It’s a huge but pretty picture! After all, they say you eat with your eyes first.

Let’s break down the ingredients. Sauerkraut is just pickled cabbage with a straw color. We just used a pre-packaged bag of the stuff from the grocery store. We covered it in our Oktoberfest review last month. Now, for the toadstool, that boils down to mushrooms from the produce section in our world. “Toadstool” is only said if it’s poisonous and/or inedible. We chose a big fat portabella so the end product won’t have bits and pieces slipping out from in-between the slices. I never liked having to go back afterwards to scoop up the last few bites. Portabella mushrooms are used commonly in sandwiches and burgers in place of meat anyhow. That’s what we call learning from others’ successes.

 

There are a few other things we added on in spirit of the Grinch. If he really did have garlic in his soul, why not put it in the sandwich? So we did! We used a small clove and a half and divided it up among the 3 layers. I divided it all as evenly as I could putting the rings and cloves from largest to smallest moving inward towards the center.

Jeremy, you are so handy at the cutting board. It helps to have a man of science in the kitchen if you want super accurate cuts. That, or there’s a producy called the “OCD cutting board” found online here…or at ta-da in Clifton Park NY.

We threw in some extra garlic powder for luck and stench. I mean, come on, the man was rubbing it under his armpits for goodness sake!

Speaking of layers, ogres have layers because they’re like onions. The Grinch was eating an onion in the live-action version as we would eat a small apple. It’s stinky like him. Hey, he’s the one who rubbed garlic under his arms like a stick of deodorant. We liked the idea. So we took the onion lying around and put it to good use. Half a red onion went into our little monster. We wanted to dye the bread green to match the approved color of the Grinch, or even those moldy purple tomato splotches but we were plum out of dyes. Oh, well. We did our best with what we had. We ran out of tomatoes to slice in there too. Like I said, we can add it in next time they’re in season.

Type 1 diabetics and health-nuts take caution: As for eating this monster, it’s super filling and packs a ton of carbohydrates.  By the way, we just realized, it’s totally vegetarian! No meat in there at all. Depending what recipe was used for the bread, you could pass it off as vegan!

Arsenic is actually elemental crystal, the 33rd element on the periodic table usually found in combination with metal and sulfur. We’re not interested in poisoning ourselves, so Lauren left this part to me due to my vast experience with hot sauce. Let’s just say I call “The Pepper Palace” in Boston my spice-rack away from home. I can take a pretty high spice tolerance. Lauren, not nearly as high. She can only go to a medium salsa. We cooperated on a BBQ sauce with spicy brown mustard and a few drops of Tabasco. The BBQ we kept to a minimum. This notes to his tiny heart. The rest we mixed in until it was just right for us to get some heat but not need to chug a shot of eggnog.

I must advise this, if you want to kiss your Martha May Whovier after having this for lunch, you might want to pack along a toothbrush or some peppermints. This one you can smell coming from across the kitchen.

What can I say? You make a mean sandwich, Mr. Grinch.

Thanksgiving is over and done. I bet you’re tired of the same old feast again and again day after day, but you REALLY don’t want to dump all of that turkey out in the garbage. Who else’s father besides mine said, “Starving people would be happy to have that.”?

Did you know that turkey is totally halal if it’s prepared by a company like Halal Pastures Farm, Midamar Halal or Simply Natural Halal. For kosher Jews on the other hand, it’s a debatable issue which you can read here…https://www.kashrut.com/articles/turk_part5/  

If any of you have substitutes for turkey, comment it to us on this page! The most popular one will be featured in January 2019!

Well, we all know about the countless ways to cook a turkey. But what about the leftovers? Waste not, Want not. We’ve made a countdown of our favorite ways to polish off the rest of the bird.

1. Thanksgiving Day sandwich- It’s an easy favorite. Take everything you loved at Thanksgiving dinner and put it in the sandwich with gravy on top. Yes, I mean EVERYTHING before dessert. Brie? Put it in. Stuffing? Put it in. Green beans, cranberry sauce, mashed potato, corn casserole…yes, put it in the sandwich! Seal it between 2 pieces of bread and boom! Lunch or dinner is satisfied. This one has the Jayne seal of approval. It’s pretty much the first thing for leftovers.

 

2. Turkey Salad- It’s not that far from tuna salad. You’ll need celery, onion.,mayonnaise, a squeeze of lime and seasoning. It makes a great spread for sandwiches. (See above if you’re feeling particularly crazy or super hungry)

 

3. Turkey Pizza- Well, any kind of meat works on a pizza, right? My mother does chicken in a pizza once or twice so why not turkey? BBQ using turkey is just as mouth watering. Actually, I’ve taken leftover turkey, slipped it under the cheese of leftover pizza and nuked it in the microwave at work. It beats trying to maneuver through the frozen section for a TV dinner and eating processed sauce with possibly freezer-burned cheese. 

 

4. Turkey Croquettes- Imagine, turkey rolled up inside of mashed potatoes and then FRIED. We just used the Air Fryer to make these. There was no oily drip, no burning, just heavenly fist-sized balls of deliciousness. I just had some at Lauren’s house after we came home from watching Creed 2. (Excellent movie by the way. Well done, Stallone!) This one shows that it’s all about getting the right method for the right job. I’m getting this appliance myself for Christmas since it makes junk food healthier without losing what we love about fried foods. Who wants extra oil and more messes to clean anyway? Air-frying is the way to go for easy cleanup and yummy dinners.

 

5.Turkey chow-mein- This one is my personal favorite. My great grandmother even had a secret ingredient…leftover gravy! You fold it in with the meat and vegetables so it can flavor and thicken the pot at the same time. No turkey ever goes through this house without gravy. Just mix the fat and turkey juice into your usually gravy mix. number 5 on the list mentions my Noni’s use of gravy in other dishes. Why not add some to a stew, dip your fries into it like in France, or if you prefer classics, pour it over your mashed potatoes? If you need a meat-flavored sauce and don’t mind the fat content, I say, go for it! Chow mein with noodles is my favorite way to spend the bits and pieces.  It pairs best with a cup of green tea and a fortune cookie from La Choy or Hapi Snacks. (An easy-find in the Asian section of the grocery store.)

 

6. Turkey Hash- This one is one of Ralphie’s turkey losses in the movie, “A Christmas Story”. Grinch watchers, you may remember “the last can of Who-Hash”. It’s probably more common in western and mid-western areas. It’s hard to come by in our neighborhood other than Cracker Barrel. If anyone has a recipe for hash, please speak up! We’ll include it in our next breakfast post!

 

7. Turkey Soup- This is usually the end of the trail of turkey. Once you get down to the bones, you really have done ALL you can with it. Let’s put those last bits and bones into the soup pot and let them simmer with the seasonings. Local toy/joke shop “ta-da” even has a few funny shaped infusers for your tea and soup like that one shaped like a bone we saw yesterday. It makes a great stocking-stuffer for the cook in the family.

 

8. Turkey pot-pie- This is an old-fashion classic. Is anywhere famous for it? My family loves it. Maybe because all you need is pie-crust. (Home made beats store-bought because it hasn’t been frozen all that time) This is a great chance to use more of that leftover gravy, potatoes, and carrots. Throw it into the oven until you have that warm inviting golden brown color. If you’re a pie-lover who doesn’t want the guilt about all of that sugar, or ran out of pie but need a flaky fix, I say this one is perfect. I’ll gladly take this recipe and make use of my leftovers than buy one of those frozen pies where the carrots turn to mush any day.

 

9. Turkey Sliders- These miniature burgers are so cute and fill you up like nothing. Sometimes, I use biscuits and eat them for breakfast. If people can have turkey burgers, why not shrink them down so you can have more? They are THAT good, especially if you have a favorite way of prepping a burger.

 

10. Turkey a la king- I‘ve tried this one before back when I was a kid. My aunt Teresa made it once. I haven’t had it since, but I remember it was very good. It’s similar to Seafood Newburg. Rice, turkey, celery, onions, mushrooms and a little bit of pepper. 

Yeah, a little, not a handful like when we first cooked macaroni and I found salt like a diamond mine in the bowl. 

Sorry! 

I forgive you. It’s fun to remember the fiascoes 1 year later so we can laugh our heads off! Look how far we’ve come since then with our Greek chicken, scallops and octopus.  I’m really impressed with our progress.

Kiss-kiss make up?       You know it!