Thanksgiving in August

Its a cool, rainy day here in New York. Despite the fact that it is August, autumn decided it wanted to show us Yankees what is waiting in the wings for us come September.

And speaking of weather, I am home sick today under it.

I still needed to make something for dinner and was not in the mood for anything strenuous despite craving comfort food. So, I took out my Crockpot and decided to make something that reminds me of Thanksgiving dinner (one of my favorite dinners each year). I have been taking cookbooks out of the library all summer and one I am currently reading is Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes. The author, Beth Hensberger, adapted the gravy for this dish from a Marcus Samuelsson recipe, and that is why it also caught my eye. It also caught my eye because I am a huge fan of sweet and savory together.

Turkey Cutlets with Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:

For the gravy:

One package of turkey gravy mix

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup dry white wine

3/4 cup whole berry cranberry sauce

2 tablespoons half and half

1/4 cup dried cranberries

For the meat and vegetables:

3 medium-size sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/3 inch thick slices

4 ounces of French green beans (fresh), trimmed

2 garlic cloves, sliced

1 pound turkey breast cutlets

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1) In a small saucepan over high heat, combine the gravy mix, water, wine, and cranberry sauce, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and whisk until thickened and the cranberry sauce has melted. Stir in the half and half and dried cranberries. Set aside.

2) Spray the inside of the crock with nonstick cooking spray. Arrange the sweet potato slices in the bottom of the crock. Then add the green beans and the slices of garlic. Salt and pepper the turkey cutlets and then roll up each cutlet, placing them in a layer on top of the vegetables.

3) Pour the warm cranberry gravy over the cutlets and vegetables. Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours, until the turkey and the sweet potatoes are tender.

Summertime...and the Livin' is Easy

Its not that I haven't been cooking this summer.

In fact, I have week's worth of back posts to add here between now and September!

Being on the lam of this blog was both good and bad. I am having an amazing summer and the days have been filled all the goodness that is summer. However, I am disappointed in myself for not sharing all the good summer eats with everyone.

I sense that fall is in the air as the sun goes down a little sooner and the vegetables in the garden have all peaked for the most part. The air was cooler here in New York this weekend, so I took advantage of that and decided to throw together a summertime roast of chicken and vegetables on this lazy Sunday.

This is definitely one of those Mark Bittman recipes where you can interchange the vegetables and herbs depending on what you have in your summer garden. I have so much oregano that I am definitely going to be drying a good deal of it once summer ends. Rosemary would also work nice with this dish, as would dill.

Greek Style Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil

juice of one lemon

1 pound of chicken thighs

1 onion, cut into thick slices

1 green pepper, cut into strips

handful of baby carrots

6 baby red bliss potatoes, scrubbed

1 clove of garlic, whole pieces peeled

1 lemon, sliced

fresh springs of oregano

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 300 degrees

- Salt and pepper the chicken and vegetables

- Combine all ingredients in a bowl except the lemon wedges and mix

- Place ingredients on a shallow roasting pan and cover with lemon wedges

- Cook for 3o minutes - take pan out and discard any watery juices

- Cook for another 30 minutes or until vegetables are fork tender and the onions have started to caramelize

- You can take the whole roasted garlic cloves and spread it on bread to have with the dish

You Say Potato

I admit I have a preference in the pecking order of potatoes.

Mashed potatoes are first, followed by latkes, with roasted potatoes and scalloped potatoes tying for third. After that I like baked potatoes and my least favorite form of Solanum tuberosum is the french fry (though I admit a good steak frites is wonderful from time to time at a bon bistro). I could easily enjoy sweet potatoes in any of the aforementioned forms, and am eyeing a scalloped sweet potato recipe with apples that I am wanting to try before the weather gets to warm and the only potatoes I am making will be chopped up into a salad.

The red potatoes at the supermarket looked inviting to me, so I grabbed a bag and came home and looked up some ideas for the scarlet spuds. I found a great recipe from Bon Appetit, tweaked it a little, and the result was probably the best roasted potatoes I have ever had. The onions tasted like candy...sweet and caramelized. The potatoes were perfectly crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. This would pair well with any rich chicken or beef dish.

Once you read the recipe list, its pretty clear what ingredient made this dish shine. As my friend Lime says, onion soup mix makes everything taste better!

Roasted Onions and Potatoes (adapted from Bon Appetit)

Ingredients:

2 pounds of red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into wedges

2 yellow onions, cut into chunks

1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons of butter, melted

1 envelope of onion soup mix

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 450 degrees

-Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and toss to coat onions and potatoes

- Spread out on a baking sheet

- Bake until potatoes are crisp and golden brown and , stirring occassionally, about 30-35 minutes

- Sprinkle with pepper to taste