Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Ideas

Chinese Turkey Dinner

Cut up leftover Turkey into bite size pieces. Add some fresh blanched green beans and some chopped green onions. Heat wok oil in a wok or a large saute pan. Add turkey and vegetables. Pour in some Ponzu sauce, Sweet Chili Sauce for Chicken, and Szechuan Spicy Stir-Fry Sauce and saute until heated through.

I served this with a version of the following recipe and store bought egg rolls. If you haven't tried Pho soup before, you are in for something tasty, especially on a cold winter day or if you have a cold.

Vegetarian Pho (Vietnamese Noodle Soup)  You can find Pho noodles at the local Asian Markets or the WalMart Supercenter in Bentonville.

Tonight, we will be having Barbeque Turkey with red kidney beans and fingerling potatoes topped with Breakstone Sour Cream - which just made it's appearance in the WalMart Supercenter in Fayetteville by the Mall. This is the best sour cream I have ever tasted - not runny at all, and great on a tortilla.

Smoky Chili Crackers

These crackers were adapted from the Smoky Chili Crackers in the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion.

They are really good as a snack with guacamole and salsa while watching a football game. To get them truly crispy you have to roll them out really thin - the ones abover were a little too thick - but the texture and flavor gets better with age.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons tomato powder or 1 tablespoon tomato paste*
1 tablespoon nonfat dry milk
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon Splenda
1/2 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
1/4 cup shortening (I was out, so I used lard, politically incorrect, but in stock)
scant 1/2 cup water - I needed quite a bit more

*Do not know where in Northwest Arkansas you can find tomato powder, but you can find tomato paste in a squeeze tube at the WalMart Supercenter in Bentonville. If you can find the powder just add it to the dry ingredients below.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, dry milk, cumin, baking soda, salt, Splenda, and chipotle powder. Cut in the shortening and tomato paste, then add enough water to make a workable dough. Gather the dough into a ball and divide into two pieces.

Working with one piece at a time, roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness - remember to roll as thin as possible. Cut it into whatever shape you like and bake the crackers for 20 minutes. Remove and let cool before storing in an airtight container.

Since we are trying to eliminate refined sugar from our house, finding recipes that can be adapted by using Splenda are great.

Yield - 6 dozen - I got less, closer to 4 dozen

Best Source of Sugar Free Products in NWA

For my sugar free cheesecake, I went on a search for brown sugar substitute and sugar free chocolate wafers. I found them at the Harps at 265/45, along with a lot more sugar free items than I anticipated. They have sugar free devil foods cake mix and also chocolate fudge icing in a sugar free form - who would have thought.

Gearing up for Turkey Day

Thanksgiving Dinner starting to come together

Salt roast turkey with herbs and shallot-dijon gravy - This will be the third consecutive year I have made this for Thanksgiving. The turkey is coming from Richard's County Meat - they bring in fresh turkeys this time of the year. You just need to place an order with them around the 1st of November - and if you are feeling lazy, they will cook it for you. The true star of this dish, aside from the turkey, is the gravy, especially if you take the time to make the roasted turkey stock from scratch.

Southern cornbread dressing - sticking with tradition

Cranberry balsamic sauce - this will be with fresh cranberries and I think I will make up a recipe for this one as I go - if it is as tasty as I hope it will be, then I will post the recipe later.

Roasted carrot parsnip and potato coins - this is a great fall/winter side dish that should balance out the rest of the meal with its combination of cardamom and coriander.

Bobby Flay's "Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pomegranates and Vanilla-Pecan Butter" from the Thanksgiving Throwdown the other night - will have to make the Pomegranate Molasses from scratch, don't think you can get it around here, but the recipe is very interesting and according to some of the reviews on Food Network from people who were actually at the Throwdown in Oklahoma should be a standout.

Refrigerator rolls - Mom's recipe (Gotta love smelling yeast in the refrigerator for a few days to get you ready for this treat)

Tiramisu Cheesecake and Sugar-Free Cafe Mocha Cheesecake, both found on the following website.
http://www.best-cheesecake-recipes-ever.com/

Hint Water Review

At the Pinnacle Station Local Market - the one inside the gas station, they carry Hint Water - has no calories, no sugar, nothing but natural flavors. I tried the Lime Hint Water - the smell was of lime, but the water tasted like stale club soda with no other flavor. Even though it is probably crazy, I have to try the Cucumber water to see what it is all about - supposed to be unique, but not in a good way. Looking at reviews on the web, there are a lot of people who swear by this drink. I had to dig deep to find people who thought the same as I. To each his own.

Eureka Springs Winery

Keels Creek Winery in Eureka Springs offers a wine tasting of 6 of their wines for $5.00 and you get to keep the wine glass (the glass is somewhat small). The winery prides itself on being local, with the grapes being grown within 30 miles of the winery. It is more in the French style of wine than what is usual around these parts - most of the other wineries are in the German, sweet vein.

Some of the more interesting wines are the Chardonell - which has a very distinct smoky flavor, and the Vignoles - which tastes like banana.

What was interesting in the tasting was 2 of their wines were arrived at by mistakes - like realizing that they misplaced a wine cask and letting it age longer than intended and the other accidentally had 2 different grapes mixed when it came to the vinery. Gotta love a winery that is only 4 years old and can admit when they had an oops.

They are known for their Chambourcin Reserve 2006 but it is not available in the tasting because they only have a few bottles left.

The price range for the bottles of wine are $13.95 through $25.95.

Naan Breadstick Recipe

One of the biggest mistakes I have made while using a recipe found online has turned into a true winner - Naan breadsticks were born.

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
1 tbsp. oil
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup yogurt
1 beaten egg

Mix dry ingredients (except for cumin). Heat oil over low temperature. Add milk, yogurt, and egg to the oil and heat until luke warm. Pour into dry ingredients and stir until it forms a ball. Add cumin seeds. Put a towel over it and place in a warm spot and let sit for 1/2 hour.

Turn oven onto high broil. Pull some of the dough off, dusting with flour if sticky, and roll into a snake/breadstick. Place on pan and broil until brown spots appear on top. Turn over and broil until brown spots appear. Remove and serve with cucumber yogurt.

New India Supermarket Coming to Northwest Arkansas

There is a new India Supermarket opening soon in Bentonville. It appears to be 3 times as large as the one in the gas station on Hudson. It is located in the same shopping center as Dink's Barbeque and WellQuest. Can't wait to check it out - so far the shelves are stocked, but the coolers have yet to be turned on and filled.

Great Easy Pickles

The simplest pickle recipe I have stumbled upon - just slice some cucumbers and place in the juice left in a jar of hamburger dill pickles. Let sit for about a week and they taste better than what you can get at the store - if you like yours with some texture to them.