I am feeling all domestic now that things are cooling off and the weddings have wound down….So okay what do I end up doing? Watching the Food Network TV Shows while I am designing albums! But you can only watch for so long then you gotta get some of that for yourself!
I have let alot of recipes kinda steep in my brain lately taking note of what goes good with what and tonight I wandered into the kitchen thinking UGH another night of WHAT TO MAKE for dinner syndrome!
So folks, I just made and ate a yummy recipe that I threw together and I feel like I ate a mini Thanksgiving Day Dinner without all the work and mess and defintiely within alot less time!!!!
I wish I had taken a picture… DUH! but we were so hungry that we just dug in and ate it all!
No fear tho I just quickly jotted down the recipe if it sounds good to you feel free to make it your own!
I have to say my favorite cooks are, Ina Garten ( Barefoot Contessa), Paula Deen and Sandra Lee. I have picked up some tips and great ideas from them! I love Paula’s down home cooking and she is a HOOT! Sandra Lee’s semi homemade ideas are such TIMESAVERS…and Ina is just a laid back easy to follow great cook that I just really love to watch.
So I took Sandra’s guiltless idea of using pre made items to help make cooking quicker and easier.
I grabbed a fully cooked turkey breast ( the kind in the plastic boat that is all hot and ready to eat that you can find under the heat lamps at the big grocery stores. That is the semi homemade part.
I pulled out my cast iron skillets and all the items below and made a very tasty dish!
I think I will call this:
Thanksgiving Casserole
Here is what you need:
Turkey breast pre cooked from the grocery store
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Hot water
3-4 stalks celery
1 onion
1 tsp fresh chopped rosemary
1 tsp fresh chopped basil
1-2 tbs. corn starch
1 cup chicken stock
salt and pepper
2- 3 cups cooked pasta noodles I used a small bag I bought from Trader Joes that is short and flat
1 cup peas
Here is what you do with it:
Start a pot of water for pasta
Oil the bottom of a heavy pan with 4 Tbs EVOO ( Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
Chop celery and onion
Sautee in oil and cook until the onions are nicely transparent but the celery is still crunchy or whatever your taste is
Add 1 tsp each of fresh chopped basil and rosemary this is where your kitchen starts to smell really good!
Put your pasta into the water to get them started.
Put your frozen peas in the microwave and heat up
Place the whole turkey breast on top of the celery onion mixture and cover with heavy lid let it heat the turkey through. After you heat it through take the lid off and let it sizzle on both sides letting the turkey absorb the rosemary and sage and onion flavor.
Take the turkey out and cut into bite size pieces set those aside and keep warm I didnt even use all my turkey so I cut about half and saved the other half for another dish later.
Now make a gravy with the turkey celery onion stock using the corn starch, and bullion and salt and pepper.
To do this:
Make a mixtue of the hot water and bullion and add to the pan drippings from the turkey, oil, onion and celery.
Stir it all in there with the skin that is stuck to the bottom get it all up off there.
Then make a mixture of the corn starch and water I used about 1 cup of hot water with 1 Tbs of corn starch and stirred it until there were no lumps.
Then I added that to the onion celery mixture still bubbling on the stove. This is going to be your gravy keep it stirring. Add any water you might need to keep it from being too thick. Do it a little at a time so you dont over water it and have to add more cornstarch.. Just keep a good watch on it. You will know when it has the consistency of gravy.
Drain your pasta and set aside
Cut the turkey into pieces and add to the gravy add the peas that have cooked in the microwave
Fold it all together into a casserole dish and serve quickly
Add some crunchy french bread spread with butter season with some Italian seasonings
Whala! To make it more Italian you could top it off with Parmesan Cheese as you serve it!
I think I will add Paula’s Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle to this meal next time for the dessert!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_29116,00.html
Now go get the recipe! It looks YUMMY!!
Enjoy!!!
Kerri
Print this off and check it out! It took me less than 30 min to make this and wow it was so good!
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