Happy Birthday Peggy!

It's my mother-in-law Peggy's birthday today, and due to scheduling conflicts she'll have to settle for this lovely looking cyber-cake. Here's to a happy birthday, and many, many more. Enjoy!
Photo by Flickr user MShades

Pecan and Apricot Sourdough Bread Stuffing - All Stuffings are Dressings, but All Dressings aren't Stuffings

Sorry about that S.A.T. flashback. It's not easy to post dressing recipes this time of year, because of the annoying fact that they have two names - dressing and stuffing. They're the same recipe, except stuffing gets cooked in the turkey, and dressing bakes in a casserole dish separately.

I fear that if I call it a Pecan and Apricot Stuffing, then someone searching for a delicious dressing recipe won't find it, and visa versa. I tend to go with stuffing since dressing is also something we put on salads, and that adds another level of confusion. Thus concludes my stuffing and/or dressing rant.

By the way, I'm going to repost this video recipe in July and remind you that dressing/stuffing is a great and easy side dish, and there is no reason to only eat it at holiday meals. Think of all the stale bread that goes in the trash in an average year. I estimate it to be about 570 pounds per person (this is just a guess and could be a little off). Enjoy…and not just at Thanksgiving!

*Please help support free video recipes, and visit my new sponsor, MOZO Shoes. Find out why chefs (like me) are buzzing about their great shoes!



Ingredients:
1 loaf (1 pound) sourdough bread
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter
1 cup diced onions
1 cup diced celery
2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon rubbed sage
1 teaspoon herb de provence (or other dry herb blend)
4 oz dried apricots, diced
1 cup toasted pecan halves, chopped
1 egg, beaten
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Rickey Galloway's Bread

Looks like friend of the site, Rickey Galloway, had some great results with the no-knead bread recipe! If you make it, please send in a photo (or link) and I will make your loaf famous also. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Michele! I'd like to Make a Toast...

It's my wife Michele's birthday today, and this is a photo of her pumpkin bread French toast breakfast. If you think the pumpkin bread looked good, wait until you use the leftovers for French toast! Unreal. This would make the perfect day-after-thanksgiving breakfast before you take off for the mall to not spend money.

We're off to celebrate, and the San Francisco weather could not be nicer - we are having an unusual fall heat wave and it's going to be in the seventies today! Enjoy your weekend, and just in case you missed it, below you will see my patented method for the best French toast ever. Enjoy!



Ingredients:
6 thick slice of French bread (or homemade pumpkin bread)
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
butter for frying
maple syrup?

Read original post here!

Holiday Pumpkin Bread - You Want It, But You Don't Knead It

I may never knead bread again, ever. I'd heard about this mythical no-knead bread method for years, but never got around to trying it. Like many cooks, I just assumed that how in the world could any decent bread be made without kneading. It just didn't make sense. Then, a few weeks ago, a commenter sent me a link for a no-knead video done by Mark Bittman. As the sender promised, it blew my mind.

The only thing I didn't like about the technique was the way it was finished by baking in a red-hot Dutch oven. I figured there had to be a way to make this work by just baking on a pan as per usual. As I say in the video recipe, there is no trick photography, or editing to make this look easier than it is. It's the kind of recipe someone who has never baked before could master the first time.

Since the holiday season is almost upon us, I decided to replace a bit of the water with pumpkin puree. The results were quite stunning. The flavor is very subtle, just a slight earthy undertone, and the tiny dash of spice is perceivable only to the nose. For plain bread, just use all water, and follow the steps the same way. Make this bread. Enjoy!



Ingredients:

1/2 cup plain pumpkin puree (use water for plain bread)
1 cup water plus 1 tablespoon
1/4 tsp dry active yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt
3 cups flour
cornmeal as needed

Bumblebee Soup - A Hearty Bacon, Black Bean and Corn Chowder

No actual bees were harmed in the making of this delicious soup. Whenever I do a recipe that's going to have a long name, like Bacon, Black Bean and Corn Chowder, I try to come up with some short name that will fit in the video's subtitle frame. This time the yellow and black highlights inspired the bumblebee moniker.

One great thing about this chowder is the thick, rich texture isn't dependent on any blender action. I always cringe when I read a recipe that has the reader pour the soup into a blender and "blend until smooth." All I see is scalding hot liquid flying out the top of the blender at 500 RPM (been there, felt that).

As you'll see, this soup is thickened with a safe, simple, and gentle mashing in the pot, with a potato masher. The other great thing with this bumblebee soup is that it tastes like it was cooked for hours, but is actually relatively quick - perfect if you're busy as a, well, you know. So, make this for your honey, and enjoy!



4 strips bacon
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 quart chicken stock
1/2 tsp chipotle pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
2 (15-oz) cans black beans
2 cups frozen corn, thawed
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

How to Cook a Turkey: Part 2 - All About the Gravy

Gravy is the lifeblood of any real thanksgiving feast. It will moisten the driest turkey, and saturate the most solid stuffing. Lumpy mashed potatoes are no match for its slow-moving seduction. I like gravy, I like it a lot.

This is Part 2 in the How to Cook a Turkey miniseries. We join the turkey in progress, with about an hour left to cook. As you'll see, the foil is removed, the turkey browns beautifully, and then it’s time to get our gravy on. I hope this video recipe leads you to a nice boat of gravy at your holiday table, and even though your turkey will be moist and tender, you'll have this liquid love on hand just in case.

A few words for you advanced turkey chefs. These video recipes are intended for the novice chefs among us, which is why I tried to use a minimum of steps. There was no brining, frying, injecting, smoking, bagging, or upside-downing. That's not to say I don't appreciate all those techniques, and the endless quest for turkey perfection. So, enjoy your turkey no matter what you did to it.



Gravy Ingredients:
3 cups cooking liquid from turkey pan (fat removed)
4 cups turkey stock from the neck
1/2 cup cooked onions from pan
*2-3 tbsp turkey fat
*1 tbsp butter
*1/4 cup flour
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp chopped sage
*double for thick gravy