It’s cheeseception. I wanted to try that cheesy beer bread in some grilled ham & cheese sandwiches… and I needed some soup for the side, right? Why not up the cheese level with my old broccoli cheese soup or my potato soup? I thought the fiber from the broccoli may be beneficial. 😆
Roasted Broccoli Cheddar Soup and a Cheesy Beer Bread Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwich
I probably should have stuck with a traditional tomato soup to combat the absolute decadent richness, but this soup was pretty damn good. I want to try to make a roasted butternut squash soup eventually too… but not sure that would pair well with this sandwich?
I did spice-up my original broccoli cheese soup recipe. This could be a full meal, or a side to a nice turkey or roast beef sandwich. Recipe down below. That’s what I did this time. I’ll probably make it slightly different next time. Everyone does that, right?
As far as the sandwich, I just cooked some lunchmeat ham for a few seconds on the panini grill, sliced up the cheesy bear bread, buttered the outsides with softened butter, and stacked it with some individually wrapped cheese slices… cooked on high on the countertop grill to sear & melt it all at once. I should have gotten a side view, but I was hungry.
Fresh real bacon would be incredible here, maybe more of it… or even bits of cubed ham.
You could skip the beer & do 1½ cups of water with the ham bullion or Better Than Bouillon. I like to use Straub Amber to cook too.
I wonder if a red bell pepper would be good in this too?
This makes a large pot, so hope you like leftovers.
My apologies to vegans, the lactose-intolerant, and the dairy-allergic.
🥦🧀🥣
OK, so how would you make your broccoli cheddar soup? Can I call this broccoli cheddar when it also includes other kinds of cheese? What are your thoughts on the roasting? Would you try this? Do you have a broccoli cheese soup go-to recipe? How about any tips & tricks?
I love to put together a holiday meal, especially thanksgiving. I have it down pretty good to corral the chaos.
Turkey in the electric roaster!Thanksgiving Dinner Plate!
First prepping the turkey & stuffing…
I do the bird in the electric roaster, stuffed, for 15-ish minutes per lb. @ 325° Farenheit. I roasted in the preheated pan on full for about 45 minutes at the start before turning it down. I inject the turkey in a few sports with a mixture of melted beer, butter, & spices. I usually rub some softened butter on top and toss on lots of seasoning there too. I usually pour a bottle of beer and a box of turkey broth in the bottom, & include some carrots, celery, & an onion.
Don’t worry about samonella with a stuffed bird. Take it to 165°. Always use a food thermometer. Some of the dark meat of the turkey will be overcooked but it will still be juicy & delicious. I haven’t killed anyone with my turkey yet.
The extra stuffing can be made into stuffing balls, but I put it in the crock pot. You just have to stir it, & maybe add extra turkey or chicken broth if needed or it will stick to the sides a lil’ burnt.
Do the math, & time it so you’re pulling the turkey out about a half an hour before you want to serve it.
I cut up the butternut squash first, & put it in the fridge for when I needed it.
I peeled & quartered the potatoes, let them sit in cold water (& turkey broth).
Cut up & prep the brussels sprouts & carrots, you want to pop them in about 45 min before you plan to eat.
Prep the squash & put it in right after the brussels sprouts.
Turn on the potatoes, by the time they cook & you do your thing… it the other stuff should be ready to go.
Others brought even more sides… cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, deviled eggs, & rolls!
If I make green bean casserole, I pretty much use the Campbell’s recipe or French’s Fried Onions recipe… sometimes with an added can of mushrooms, fresh green beans, & maybe even some bacon pieces or ham.
I made some ham n’ bean soup. I liked it more this time than last time. Here’ the recipe…
Every once in a while I get hungry for this. I make it slightly different every time. This time was pretty god, so I may replicate it. Or at least attempt to.
Ingredients:
2 freezer bags of leftover ham from Easter, cubed.
2 globs of Irish butter using a tablespoon.
Spanish onion, diced.
A stick of celery, chopped
Shredded carrots, chopped even smaller
1 red bell pepper, cubed
1 tsp. of minced garlic
7 cans of beans. I used the Giant Eagle brand. I got butter beans, black beans, pinto beans, navy beans, kidney beans, great northern beans, & cannellini beans. I thought about garbanzo beans and black eyed peas.
I’m impatient so I didn’t use dried beans and soak the overnight while standing on my head facing east while reciting a mantra about not farting after eating this soup or whatever you have to do to do all that properly. Ain’t nobody got time for that. I did drain & rinse them really well. I’m sure this would be fine with ham steaks but the roasted ham from Easter was delicious.
The Method:
I dumped all the beans into a colander and mixed them, then rinsed them pretty good with cold water. I set that aside on a bowl for a minute.
I globbed the butter into the stock pot, put it on a burner, and cranked that shit up to medium-high.
As the butter was melting, I added the onions, and let them sautée a bit. I added some onion powder, garlic powder, and a bit of salt here.
I added the carrots, celery, & bell peppers, then sautéed a little more.
This is where I added the rest of the spices to taste. Use whatever floats your boat. I added the minced garlic last so it didn’t burn.
I tasted this before I did anything else and did so by setting aside a spoonful to cool while I moved on to the next step. I could have eaten just this.
I dumped the canned potatoes along with the water into the mix.
I dumped the beer into the mix.
I got 8 cups of water into a giant mixing cup & added the “better than bullion” and soup base stuff. I went a bit lighter than the directions specify because I always end up making the soup too salty. I also didn’t use a measuring spoon. I used regular spoons & serving spoons. What is this, baking?
I added all the beans, and 4 more cups of water.
I added the ham last as I cubed it. I think at some point I cranked the heat down to medium.
After adding the ham, I brought it to a boil on high, then let it boil on medium-low for 20 minutes, lid off, then pulled it off to rest.
If you’re worried about the taste, take a bite way too soon, scorch your tastebuds, and it won’t matter anyway.
This was pretty tasty. I would only maybe add bacon? Manybe peas or something? What would you add? Would you switch anything out? I’m sure chicken bullion or broth would be good here too.
I like to serve this with some buttered rolls, or even a sandwich. Maybe cornbread would be good too?
I’ve made a few different soups before, but never really tackled one with a creamy base. I like my soups pretty simple. I probably used more ingredients here than I needed to. Generally at this point with soups or chili, I just throw a bunch of stuff in a pot and see what happens. I read a few different recipes at the top of a Google search, and went from there. I am really bad at measuring stuff. I just throw in an eyeballed amount.
AiXeLsyD13’s Broccoli Cheese Soup | This was my first attempt. It wasn’t bad!
Tools you’ll definitely need:
Stock pot
Cheese grater
Spoon
Spatula
Ingredients:
1½ sticks of butter
¾ cup of flour
½ cup of shredded carrots
¼ cup of diced celery
½ Spanish onion
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
½ tsp. ground mustard
½ tsp. paprika
½ tsp. onion powder
½ tsp. garlic powder
salt & pepper to taste
1 cup buttermilk
32 oz. box of chicken stock
32 oz. box of chicken stock
32 oz. box of vegetable broth
2 bundles of fresh broccoli (chopped up into spoon-sized pieces)
¼ cup of bacon pieces
7 oz. block of extra sharp cheddar cheese (grated)
7 oz. block of white cheddar cheese (grated)
½ cup of parmesan cheese
1 lb. block of Velveeta (cut onto small chunks)
2 cup bag of shredded “mac & cheese blend” cheese
1 cup instant mashed potato flakes
Method:
Melt butter on medium heat in the bottom of your stock pot, add celery, carrots, onions, & sautée for a bit.
Mix spices with the flour, add to pot to make a roux and let it get a nice color brown.
Add minced garlic at the end… sometimes it burns easily.
Add 3 boxes of stock, then the buttermilk while it’s still cool to prevent curdling.
Add broccoli & bacon pieces, bring to a boil, simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes.
Turn heat to low, stir in all that cheese.
Add mashed potato flakes to thicken. (I think I poured in a bit more buttermilk in here too.)
Notes:
Obviously, you can use your preferred onions, cheeses, stock, etc. You could use heavy cream instead of buttermilk.
I would say next time I will make more roux & use one less box of broth for a thicker soup. Maybe a bullion cube would add flavor without the liquid? I could cook it longer to get it thicker too. I like a ridiculously thick soup.
I like to use beer in ham soup, I bet it would go great here. Maybe I could sub that & a bullion cube for a box of broth next time?
I read that the bagged pre-shredded cheese doesn’t melt as easily, but it seemed to incorporate just as well as the rest of the stuff.
So, that’s it. I would be very interested in your suggestions, tips, tricks, & “secrets” in the comments. Have you tried this recipe? Did you put your spin on it? Let me know in the comments.
I thought about putting this in a bread bowl, but I opted to make my take on ham & cheese oven sandwiches. Maybe I’ll get into baking next time, or just buy some bread bowls pre-made.
🥦🧀🥣
If you liked this recipe, maybe check out these ones:
The wife & daughter are under the weather so I offered to make some home made chicken-noodle soup. Not much is more of a classic and traditional comfort than chicken-noodle soup, right? Around here, the stuff like Eat ‘n Park serves is a comfort-food staple. I love those style noodles. I make soups slightly differently every time, but this seemed to come together quickly and it was very flavorful. I’d definitely do it this way again.
I posted photos to Facebook & Instagram, & thought I’d share the recipe here too. I like to have leftover soup. Here’s what I posted on social media, maybe slightly edited;
This was the cheater method, but these frozen noodles are awesome. I made A LOT of soup. Ha ha. This could easily be halved.
I started with grilling chicken tenders on the panini grill, added a pretty good amount of “rotisserie chicken” spices. Two competing name brands happened to be in the spice rack, so that’s what I used.
I sautéed some shredded carrots, half a Spanish onion, and some celery stalks in a few pats of butter on the bottom of the stock pot.
Then I added some minced garlic (yes, the stuff from a jar soaked in olive oil because I am lazy), & some fresh parsley from the garden. I didn’t measure any of it.
I also used poultry seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder, white & black pepper, salt, & a shake of cayenne.
I de-glazed a bit with some chicken stock, then added the rest… 2 boxes of chicken stock, 1 box vegetable broth, 1 box low-sodium chicken broth (because vegetable broth usually has a much higher sodium content), 1 box bone broth. I ended up with 3 different name brands… just to get the mix of slightly different liquids.
I have used chicken bullion cubes in the past to save all kinds of money and use beer in my ham soups all the time.
I brought all that to a boil.
I added 2 bags of the frozen Reames egg noodles, the grilled chicken (that I cut up while it was boiling), and brought it back to a boil, simmered for about 20 minutes as per the directions on the noodles.
This almost overflowed my stock pot, but stirring kept it from boil over. Ha ha.
I have used regular dry noodles or Amish noodles, and even home-made noodles… but the Reaves ones really do taste fantastic and require zero work. Ha ha.
I like the taste of the grilled chicken in the soup. I left it just long enough to get grill lines. I have made it from scratch, using rotisserie chicken, made my own broth from a roasted chicken… I’d put this up against any of those methods and it’s super quick.
(Not-even-remotely-a-)Pro tip… For lunch the next day, all the noodles had soaked up all the liquid. Gonna put some chicken bullion cubes in some water in the stock pot, then add the soup to re-heat. It’s honestly good as-is re-heated in a bowl in the microwave.
If you make this, or your own version, tell me what you think in the comments! What are your favorite shortcuts for making tasty chicken noodle soup?
Someday I may try to make this (probably cut in half) in the pressure cooker, if I can get over how it wronged me on chili.
🥣🥣🥣
Stuff you need:
Countertop grill
Stock pot (and a stove, too I guess.)
Tongs
Spatula
Large Spoon
Ingredients:
(2) small packs of chicken breast tenders
Extra Virgil Olive Oil (I keep some it in a spray bottle and use it to coat the grill)
Rotisserie Chicken Seasoning (or your favorite Season-Salt or Mrs. Dash’s or whatever) – I don’t measure, I just shake it on.
(3) pats of butter
(1) cup (ish) shredded carrots
(1) cup (ish) chopped celery
(½) Spanish onion (I think they’re sweeter than sweet onions, but you’re cooking, so use your favorite onion.)
(1) tsp. minced garlic (the lil’ stuff from jar, or be difficult & use fresh)
Fresh parsley – A small unmeasured & finely chopped bit, I pulled mine from the garden.
(2) 24 oz. bags of frozen egg noodles
(2) 32 oz. cartons chicken stock
(1) 32 oz. carton vegetable broth
(1) 32 oz. carton low-sodium chicken broth
(1) 32. oz. carton chicken bone broth
Spices, I don’t measure any of these… I just shake it in:
So, I have always wanted to make wedding soup, but have never tried it. Until now. Skip to the end if you just want the recipe and none of my shenanigans.
Wedding Soup à la AiXeLsyD13
Wedding soup recipes abound on the internet. Some people are vehement that theirs is the “right” way. Apparently the inclusion of pasta is a beans-in-chili-like debate. I would guess that it depends on your region, heritage, and family traditions. I have none of these ties. I’m just a yinzer that likes food. I did reach out via Facebook to see how others do it. I wanted to try to make the soup because of the tiny pasta, I think. I may have also made some other “controversial” decisions.
Pasta. Even though real Italians apparently don’t include pasta in their soup, I am not Italian. Not remotely, even. Seriously. My wife got me the DNA thing for my birthday a few years back and I’m apparently super English, Scottish, Welsh, & Irish with a bit of Scandinavia and the Iberian Peninsula thrown in. I had to Google the Iberian Peninsula. So, as a Yinzer I am making a stand with pasta in the wedding soup because that’s how I have seen it. Orzo looked too much like rice,and rice in soup is gross. (I know, it is an entirely different consistency. Just accept the fact that rice in soup is gross, you’re wrong if you disagree, and read on.) I did most of my shopping at Aldi, but they had no tiny pasta… so I went to Giant Eagle and got Acini De Pepe. I could have also easily gone with what Barilla calls Pastina (neat tiny stars!) and apparently is not even a thing or it’s a generic thing.
If I would sub out cheese tortellini/farfalle for pastini/acini de pepe in the wedding soup, I could get all my ingredients at @AldiUSA. #fb
I chose to make the meatballs myself, because I like making meatballs. They’re big-ass meatballs because I have poor portion control and couldn’t use the mellon-baller to effectively help reel it in, and who wants a little tiny meatball anyway? I used beef, because cows are tasty. I typically don’t do the lamb/veal/pork mix in any meatballs or meatloaf, so why start now? I also opted for ground beef in lieu of chicken or turkey, because beef. Sheep are for making blankets, not eating… unless you like eating meat that tastes like wool blankets.
In my meatballs, I use Kraft Roasted Red Pepper Italian dressing & crushed seasoned croutons. I also tossed in some extra spices (onion & garlic powder, salt, pepper, and whatever “Italian Seasoning” is), two eggs, and parmesan/romano “shake cheese.” (Does anyone else call it that?) I generally crush the croutons with my hands, but since I was apathetically trying to make smaller meatballs and my 3yo was my helper, I put some in a sandwich baggie and smashed to crap out of them with the shake-cheese bottle. Why use bread crumbs when you can smash stuff? I could totally skip the dressing & toss in whatever spices… but I tried this one time with meatballs to go with spaghetti or lasagna and we liked it, so it stuck. We cooked them in 2 frying pans, because it seemed quick. I like to bake meatballs sometimes too. This really could be a 7-day damn project of soup.
A lot of wedding soup recipes call for shredded chicken. I never really noticed it in the wedding soups I had eaten until at a recent wedding where they left the chicken in sizable chunks. Maybe it was an accident? I have no idea, but I liked it. I felt like I was taking a bite of something instead of creepy little chicken strings being used as a garnish. Also, I decided to cheat and not make stock… or I probably would have roasted then boiled the shit out of a chicken carcass and produced some shredded chicken as well as tasty stock. I grilled the chicken in the manliest way possible outdoors over an open flame like our cavemen ancestors. OK, I cooked it on a counter-top panini grill and attempted to give it some nice criss-crossed grill lines before letting it cool and cutting it into “cubes” with less knife skills than Stevie Wonder. I wanted to know I was eating chicken. I probably put some season salt on it.
I made a mirepoix, I think. I put some butter in the bottom of the soup pot, and heated up some finely chopped carrots, celery (stalks and some of the leafy top), onion, & a bit of parsley and the lazy-people chopped-up-already in a jar garlic. Did those last two mess up the mirepoix? Salt and pepper went in there too, because the Food Network says to season every step or something like that.
Then I added some random boxes of stock & broth from Aldi. Really. I couldn’t decide. So, I got lowfat (that’s all they had) chicken stock, chicken broth, and low sodium chicken broth. They were all those creepy giant juice-boxish containers that no doubt every chicken aspires to reside in someday. I almost bought a vegetable stock, but didn’t. How do you get vegetable stock anyway? Isn’t that just broth? Isn’t the difference between stock & broth the inclusion of bones?
After that, I added the meatballs and chicken and let it boil for a bit. Maybe on like 7 or 8? I hate when recipes say “medium-high” heat. Give me a number, damnit. There are numbers on my oven. Are they there for no reason? How long? I don’t know. Long enough to chop up the “fresh” spinach.
I went for the fresh spinach in a plastic box at Aldi. I didn’t see any with the produce, didn’t catch it in frozen, and bought a can as backup just in case. They didn’t have any endive or escarole that I noticed. I wasn’t sure about Kale but may try that next time. I probably could have added the canned spinach too… it could have used a bit more maybe? Although, my meatball helper who crushed about 4 or 5 meatballs after we cooked them wasn’t a big fan of the soup itself because “big kids don’t like spinach sometimes.” She will eat pasta, grilled chicken, carrots, and meatballs all day every day. But the spinach was a no-go I guess. I think I added about 4 cups of water and 2 chicken bullion cubes in there somewhere.
I added the spinach and the box of acini de pepe at the same time. I let it go for the recommended 9 minutes. I know I had been advised to not do it that way. Cooking the pasta separately first then adding the rest of the soup over it in a bowl would be the level-headed thing to do. I was ready to eat by that point though, so in it went.
It was delicious on the first run if I do say so myself. Upon having leftovers, the acini de pepe swelled to ridiculous proportions. Ha ha. Next time I will cook the pasta first or only use half of a box. Or, I will do it the same way and have wedding pasta. Your soup means nothing to me! My total meat and carb domination can not be culled.
Well, on to the recipe if you even made it this far:
Non-Italian Wedding Soup Recipe:
This is not your ordinary recipe. I don’t measure much. I just throw stuff into a pot, especially with meatballs and soup. Obviously, use whatever you have on hand. Make substitutions. This is a recipe in the loosest sense of the word. This is how I did it this time. I may do it different next time. There probably are some good details above that I neglected to mention down here.
The Meatballs:
3 lb. Ground beef (I think it was 80/20?)
Seasoned Croutons (grab your favorite)
Kraft Roasted Red Pepper Italian dressing
Seasonings
2 eggs, beaten.
Parmesan/Romano “shake cheese”
One day when making meatballs, I grabbed the dressing & croutons because they were on the counter. We were probably having salad with our spaghetti or lasagna. It’s just breadcrumbs & oil with some seasonings in it. I usually smash the croutons by hand, but crushed some of these with a plastic sandwich bag & the Parmesan cheese container since I was trying to make smaller(ish) meatballs. I added some more spices (see below) with the beaten egg, and mixed the meatballs by hand. I used a fancy mellon-baller with an ice-cream-scoop like trigger mechanism that my mom had given me for a few of them, to measure… but they got out of hand easily and I had my 3yo helping. So, they were probably bigger than they needed to be. How much dressing and croutons? Eye it. I do. I like meatballs that are mostly meat, not bread.
The Soup:
A few handsful of Carrots (I started with the baby-cut ones because the kids snack on them.)
Maybe ⅓ of a bunch Celery? (I chopped up the stalks & some leaves.)
An Onion
Fresh Parsley
Spinach – I got a box of the “fresh” stuff from Aldi.
Grilled & poorly diced Chicken Breasts (I did mine on the panini grill)
Home-Made Meatballs (…or use frozen ones from the store.)
3 creepy juice-box-like broth/stock containers. I literally got 3 different kinds of chicken broth.
4-sh cups water
2 chicken bullion cubes
Minced garlic in Olive Oil (because I’m lazy & don’t want to mince my own.)
Butter (enough to cover the bottom of your soup pot when it melts)
Parmesan/Romano “shake cheese”
Shredded Parmesan (Aldi had a fancy little container.)
De Cecco Acini De Pepe
I started out with the butter melting on the bottom of the soup pot, then added the carrots, celery, onion, & some parsley. I sauteed that for a bit, then dumped in the 3 weird juice boxes of chicken broth/stock over top of that and brought it to a boil. I reduced the heat a bit, and added the chicken and meatballs. I let it get back to a boil and added some of the shredded Parmesan & Parmesan/Romano shake cheese to the broth. I let that simmer for a bit and eventually added -ish more cups of water and 2 chicken bullion cubes. (Maybe beef bullion would have been cool here?) Once that boiled again, I added the pasta & spinach & boiled for another 9 minutes. It was tasty. I burned my tongue. Let it cool. Be patient.
Spices…
Season All
Paprika
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Crushed Black Pepper
Sea salt
White Pepper
Crushed Red Pepper
Italian Seasoning
Parsley Flakes
When I refer to seasonings or spices, it could have been any combination of these. I just grab & shake whenever.
Please, let me know if you tried your own inspired by this one. Let me know if you do your own a totally different way. Let me know what I did right, or let me know what I did “wrong.” Thanks for reading!
So, I made some really easy turkey noodle soup yesterday. It turned out to be pretty delicious, and I lucked out because a lot of the ingredients were on sale.
My cell phone takes absolutely terrible photos, but trust me... this was delicious.
In the morning, I popped 2 turkey breast cutlets into the crock pot, piled on top of chopped baby-cut carrots & celery. I added some a cup of water with a chickenbullion cube… and piled on some spices; Poultry Seasoning, Season All, black pepper, garlic, sage, and parsley. I should have probably added an onion, but I forgot.
8 hours later, I boiled some wide noodles in 2 cans of turkey broth, 2 cans of vegetable broth, and 2 cans of low sodium chicken broth. When the noodles were cooked, I chopped up the turkey boobs, and dumped the contents from the crock pot into the boiling pot of noodles for the soup… I added a little more water, another bullion cube, and simmered for a while.
Result? Rather effortless yet delicious soup.
I found myself wondering if the broth & noodles would have cooked well in the crock pot. Will noodles cook well without the boiling & just the saturation? Would they eventually fall apart if over-cooked?
I’ve also done something similar with a rotisserie chicken… I’ll sauté the carrots, celery, & maybe garlic & onion with some butter in the soup pot, then add chicken and/or vegetable broth, boil the noodles, & add chicken.
How do you make chicken or turkey noodle soup?
How do you make your other favorite kinds of soup?
Have any secret ingredients?
I generally put in cayenne or something else hot… but I’ve been told to cool it with the spices for a while thanks to G.E.R.D. lately. Sometimes I add beer to soups… just because I can. I dunno if it’d go well in chicken or turkey noodle though?
I can’t wait to make stuffing again. It’s ridiculously tasty. I love the carb overload. Maybe I will get those goggles, and I need to pick up some Yuengling. A week from tonight, I should be in the process of creating this awesomeness.
I’ll show you my stuffing recipe if you show me yours.
Maybe this year, I’ll try to make some Potato Filling too. There are a bunch of recipes for it out there. Maybe stuffing balls would be good… Now I’m hungry.
Stuffing has got to be my favorite Thanksgiving food. I remember Thanksgivings past where my dad & I would fight over the stuffing bowl like it was filled with gold, diamonds, and (for me) guitars. The stuff is perfect. Alone, with turkey, with gravy… the decadent amount of carbs is ridiculously awesome.
Last year was my first ever attempt at making stuffing… and my grandma told me that it tasted just like hers. Is there a compliment better than that? I had used as a guide an old recipe that my grandfather & grandmother had both used when making holiday meals. My mom lent me the old cook book with my grandfather’s notes last year, I collected some others, and I made scans for myself (Updated URL).
I say “guide” because it’s not always an exact science when doubling/tripling recipes… and there really aren’t any cooking directions… it’s just a guide to make the stuff. Also, I tend to do a lot of “oh, that looks about right” and a little bit of “hey, let’s add a little of this” in the kitchen, as most people comfortable there usually do.
A lot of times I see stuffing recipes online, on TV, or in the little books by the cash register at the grocery store… and they include sausage, apples, raisins, (yuck!) nuts, or even peppers, carrots, or mushrooms (all of the latter of which I’ like to try some time). The philosophy behind this recipe seems to be a K.I.S.S. one. I like that. It’s a very simple accompaniment, and the taste that my mind goes to every time I think “stuffing”.
This year, it was definitely a two person effort. I don’t know how I would have done it without Bethany and all four of our hands. We made a lot of stuffing. Sadly, I didn’t think to chronicle the thing with photos like I sometimes do with new recipes… but I did want to make a guide with my own notes, so when I do this next year, I remember what I did differently this year. I know I altered things slightly last year, but the details were a little fuzzy. I figured that if I’m going to do it for myself, I might as well share, right? Plus, we got compliments from two moms, two grandmas, and an aunt… all excellent in the kitchen themselves!
I did take a photo today, because really, what’s a food blog post without a photo? Perhaps I’ll see if my mom got any with her camera and amend the post later.
This year’s effort was delicious, if I do say so myself.
This is my first time really writing out a recipe… so pardon me if it’s a little convoluted or long winded. I don’t want to miss anything, and I hope to get it all in the right order as well as make it an entertaining read.
Here’s what you’ll need to do it the same way I did…
Food:
5 loaves of bread (equaled 56 cups once cubed)
1 bundle of celery (3 cups, chopped – the rest can cook w/ the turkey or be a snack)
Monday night, get your loaves of bread, open the bags, and put the loaves on cookie sheets before dinner. Leave ’em out on a table or counter while you do your thing.
Right before your favorite prime time TV shows come on, set up a station on the coffee table in front of the couch with the cookie trays of bread, some cutting boards with knives, and the pans out of your electric roaster. Cube the bread and fill the roasting pan. When I say fill it, I mean fill it. It will be ridiculously full.
Cover it with paper towels, and set it on the kitchen table that you only use when company comes over anyway. Over the next few days, stir it a few times a day, whenever you think of it. This will get it nicely & slightly stale. If you’re going to be doing anything that smells, like using cleaning chemicals, put it in the oven… but don’t turn it on. It’s nice & warm & dry & not stinky in there. The bread will absorb that stuff and the stuffing will taste like Mr. Clean made it.
Wednesday night, get out your turkey… and pull the disgusting papery bag of giblets out of the neck cavity, and the neck out of its butt. (Why exactly do they put the neck in the butt, anyway? Who’s idea was that?) Boil the giblets in your can of vegetable broth, or just use plain water… or even turkey or chicken broth. I thought the vegetable broth would add a nice flavor. I boiled them for a nice long time, and let it cook down quite a bunch.
Finely chop up your celery & onions… or use the Magic Bullet, like I did. I’m not real big on chunks of slimy or crunchy stuff in bread-like consistency foods. I probably had half of each chopped finely, the other half rendered to near-paste by the genius little piece of equipment that list the Magic Bullet. I’m sure any food processor would work.. but this one is easy to pot pout of storage, use, and clean when you’re done.
Then I popped out the electric skillet to sauteé the onion & celery mixture… probably in some Country Crock & a bit of extra virgin olive oil… adding some of the spices mentioned above, and maybe even some paprika… although, they don’t come the totals listed above. These are the aforementioned “oh, that looks about right” and “hey, let’s add a little of this”. You’ve sauteed stuff, you know how it works. I love this step because it turns the onions from gross into awesome… especially the Spanish onions. The sweet onions are oddly enough not as sweet to me when cooked.
Next time, I’m totally getting a pair of swimming goggles or those glasses that I’ve seen at Bed, Bath & Beyond for when I chop & pulverize the onions. I was crying like a little girl who just watched a car run over a kitten.
I popped the onions and celery into separate containers for the ‘fridge to save for Thursday morning.
Next, I pulled out the giblets and chopped them into tiny pieces, & put them with the reduced broth from cooking into a 3rd refrigerator bound container to be used on Thursday morning.
Go to bed. You have to get up early.
Thursday get up about an hour before your turkey needs to go in the roaster oven, and start to mix all this crap together.
Add the dry spice ingredients to the now stale-ish cubed bread. Good luck not getting any on the floor.
Chop the fresh parsley.
Nuke your butter in a microwave safe bowl, add it to a large mixing bowl, crack open the 10 eggs, and whisk away.
Add the fresh parsley to the buttery gooey egg mixture.
Add 2-3 cups of the broth from the giblets, and the finely chopped giblets to the now even gooier butterier egg mixture.
This is where I got the bright idea to dump in some Yuengling. It wasn’t a whole bottle… but I had it out & only needed about ½ cup for my butter/garlic/beer turkey injection/baste, so I dumped some into the gooey buttery gibletey mixture, and drank the rest… all before 8:00 am.
Dump the celery & onion concoction on to the bread, mix around, and then dump on the gooey buttery gibletey Yuenglingey mixture. This is where it was imperative that there were two of us. Bethany opted to use her hands to mix while I poured. The mixing gets easier when it’s wet, as it goes down a little. You should probably wash your hands before you do this. Not that I think you’re stupid or anything… but there are signs out there all over the place… so someone somewhere must need reminded. Use soap, and hot water.
Now, this needs to come out of the roaster so the turkey can go into it… and you should be doing this around the same time as turkey prep… so stuff what you can into the turkey carcass’ various cavities, and put the rest in the crock pot. I had Bethany scoop it into a bowl small amounts at a time as I stuffed it into the bird, so I wasn’t touching raw poultry and the stuffing that wasn’t going into the bird. She made it clear that she wasn’t touching the raw dead bird, or sticking her hands into it.
I sewed up the turkey and popped it into the roaster to cook, and then put the stuffing in the crock pot on low to cook for the same amount of time.
Everyone told me last year that stuffing + crock pot = bad idea. This is where I say that you could not be more wrong. It was perfectly moist and heated well throughout. I did break the cardinal cock pot rule by removing the lid every hour or so and stirring a little so it didn’t stick to the sides or burn. This worked well, except that I didn’t get the bottom well enough. You could add more liquid throughout if t looked necessary… or not stir if you like the crusty part as much as the other part. If you use the crock pot enough, you get to know what works for yours. Pop it on to warm or off a while before you eat.
When the turkey’s ready, the stuffing’s ready. Stuff yourself silly, send people home with leftovers, and eat for breakfast, lunch, & dinner the next day.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the process, and I’m sorry for jumping tenses. I think I did anyway. All over the place. Maybe Dave and Kristin can give me some pointers on that.
I’d love to know what you think of this recipe, and how you do your stuffing. I’m always up for trying things new ways… and I’m always up for eating stuffing. In fact, even better — make some, and invite me over for dinner!
World (and Lunar) Domination 