Get Sauced for Turkey Day

It's Thanksgiving!  That means cooking!  And that means more blog entries!  Yay!!!

Also, I hadn't thought about blogging my dishes for Thanksgiving until a coworker mentioned it today, so lucky for all you out there reading this that he reminded me.  So thanks SZ!

So let's talk Cranberry sauce.  What's a sauce?  According to various sources around the internet, and my dictionary, sauce is defined as a thick liquid served with food.  When someone says sauce, what comes to your mind?  Mine, tomato sauce.  Oh how I love tomato sauce.  I never, ever get it, because my children have decided it's the food of the devil (not really) and won't eat it, ever.  My oldest gags and pretends she's dying even if I ask her to take the tiniest taste, and this includes pizza.

But, back to cranberries.  I couldn't find why it's called Cranberry sauce (in the short span of me writing this) as most cranberry "sauce" recipes are actually a jam, or jelly, or relish.  If I had to categorize today's recipe, I would say mine is a Cranberry Jam just based off it's consistency and ingredients, and the definition in the link I provided.

I never use to like homemade cranberry sauce.  Growing up, our Thanksgiving dinners had both the cranberry jelly out of a can, and my mom would make her own.  No one ever touched her homemade sauce except her.  It had bits and pieces in it, and no one wants to chew their cranberry sauce.  Back then, as a child, it's a texture thing.  So I don't get offended when my kids won't eat the homemade cranberry sauce on our table tomorrow.  We serve them side by side.  At our family Thanksgiving dinners you will find our perfectly popped out, unblemished jelly form from the can, right next to my homemade cranberry jam.  And for the record, my mom's recipe, straight from Joy of Cooking.  My kitchen Bible.  I can't stress enough if you do not have this book, you must buy it. And the older the version, the better.  Here's some history, and here's why the version is important.  I have the 7th edition and love it.  Would really like to get my hands on the 6th.

Ah yes, but cranberries is what we're talking today.  Now, most cranberry sauces are of the same base recipe.  Cranberries, sugar and water.  And when you search on the internet you get a couple variations and additions.  Most people add oranges and orange juice, a few add cinnamon sticks.  Last year, on a whim, I added an extra flavor, that I personally feel, made this cranberry sauce just POP.  I improved on it again this year, adding yet another layer of awesome.   So now, when you place a spoon of this cranberry sauce in your mouth, you get that initial zing of cranberry, and underlying tones of orange, cloves and almonds.  That's right, you read that correctly... cloves and almond.  You ready?  Let's play.

Ingredients:

• 1 bag cranberries
• 1 navel orange
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 cup fresh squeezed juice from an orange
• 2 teaspoons orange zest

 Prep Time:

Clean and sort the berries!

Remove any berries that are squished or turning into shrivels

Remove stems, search carefully, I have missed a few in the past

Get Sauced:
 

^^^My Young K2 sous chef!

Zest the Orange for 2 teaspoons
Juice the orange for 1/2 cup, strain pulp/seeds
Add to 6qt sauce pan

Add 1.5 cups sugar
Add 1/4 cup honey
Add 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Add 1/4 teaspoon almost extract

Add the berries, stir well
Put on Med-High heat and bring to boil

Gellin' Time:
As the sauce boils, the berries will start to pop.  This is fun to do with kids, because they can hear and see the berries pop open.  The sauce goes from a light orange, to pink, to red, to maroon.  The science behind how cranberries have a natural pectin is explained real well in this recipe by Scientific American

Below are the three stages I have found when making cranberry sauce.

1. Once the cranberries start to really pop open the sauce is a deep purple you have more of a "mash."  And that's pretty much what I start doing with it.. I mash the cranberries into the side of the pan.  Crush them up using your spoon. 
2. Then, the sauce will really start to thicken.  And as you're stirring, it won't just slide off the spoon or down the side of the pot.  You'll start to see it leave a trail behind.
3. Then it will start to really clump and become heavy.  It's at this point it's ready.
4. Turn off the heat and move to another area to sit and cool.  And as it cools, you'll start to really begin to gel.

 And when this sauce is complete, you'll have a beautiful deep maroon sauce.  I like to this sauce the day before you want to serve it.  Gives it a real good chance to congeal and bring the flavors together.

Having a Ball for Thanksgiving

I've not been cooking much lately to be honest. With three kids constantly on the run between dance, piano and girl scouts, by the time we get home the most I can muster is dialing for take out or telling the kids there is cereal in the cabinet.

And when I do cook, it's pasta, or one of my staples from this blog like "Whatsa Matta..Chicken Picatta" or it's redo "Picatta more better dish" and other quick meals I should be blogging about... But it happened last week. I cooked.

It appears that blogs such as this are a thing of the past and going by the wayside.  Being replaced by short 30 second videos on Facebook or Twitter, or some other popular social media site of the minute.  They're videos by Tasty or a quick article by Buzzfeed regarding the latest Top 10 something or another.  Or maybe it was a Pinterest pin.  And thing is, it's catching on.  People are saving them.  People are trying them.  It's getting people cooking.  It's also to get people to click their stuff, and earn money.  And so I've tried a few Tasty recipes.  They've been complete and utter failures.  I've had to tweak, or change, or cook them often much longer than they say to.  So, when tonight's recipe showed up in my Facebook feed as a Tasty video, I knew I wasn't going by the books.  But do I ever?  And man I'm so glad I changed this recipe.  It's so much better to play.  I present to you, Thanksgiving dinner... meatball style.

Ingredients 

• 2lbs Ground Gurkey
• 1 box Turkey Stuffing Mix
• 1-2 Garlic Cloves
• Salt & Pepper
• Parsley
• Basil
• Thyme
• Chives
• 1 Egg
• Splash of Milk

And per usual, you're going to ask, so how much of everything?  And that's really up to you.  How much garlic do YOU like?  Or in my house, how much garlic can I get away with?  Picture to the right shows you how much of everything I dumped in for spices.

So, place all the spices into your bowl, drop in the ground turkey, crack open and put in one egg, then a splash of milk.  If I had to estimate, I would say I put in about 1/4 cup of milk.  The first time I ran this recipe, the meatballs were a tad dry, so I will be considering altering it next time with either more milk, or the original amount of milk plus a splash of chicken stock.  Thing is, turkey is a very wet ground meat, so making meatballs is sticky.
Next up, you have to crush your stuffing down a bit.  I liked having large pieces and crumbs.  So open your bag of stuffing and dump into a plastic bag.  Grab your rolling pin and crush away.




You'll need to add about 1.5 cups of stuffing to your meatball mix.  Go by look and feel as you start mixing your meat.  I prefer to mix by hand, you're able to incorporate all ingredients faster.  If you think you need more stuffing then add more.






Once it's all mixed, start making your meatballs.  I was able to make 20 balls out of the 2 pounds this mixture.  The meatballs were slightly larger than a golf ball.  I wanted something you had to cut into, but also not so large it took forever to bake, and couldn't be considered a meatloaf.








Any leftover stuffing I had, I sprinkled it on top and around the meatballs in the bottom.  Adding additional texture to the plate, not wasting food, and besides the fact that extra stuffing is always a plus.  Into your pre-heated oven they go.  They should bake for about 30-45 minutes on 375 degrees.  I like to turn mine about half way through so that you can an even cook throughout.  If you have any doubt they're not done, you can and should, always take their temperature with a meat thermometer.  Pull them out and let them rest a bit.




While the meatballs are in the oven, it's best to start cooking your sides.  This isn't a blog about how to cooks sides today.  Come back some other time.  So, I made mashed potatoes, peas and gravy.  And honestly, whatever the best looking rolls on sale were that day.  No one has time to bake their own bread anymore, and if you do, I'm all kinds of jealous.  I made real mashed potatoes, not box as these deserved better and I actually had time that day, but I did cheat on the gravy.  What? I never said it was going to be perfect.

I served my kids separate gravy from potatoes from peas from meatballs.  Cause we all know their foods can't touch.  But this was truly plated with the meatballs placed on a mound of potatoes, smothered in gravy.  Peas and roll on the side.

Not the most beautiful plating in the world, I blame the phone and the rush to the table because we were all hungry.  I'd be afraid to send this to Gordon Ramsay's Twitter feed for fear of what he might call it.  But regardless of what it looked like, it tasted AHHHMazing.

Results

• The almost 2 year old picked at it. What's she's two.. and had already snacked all afternoon.
• The 6 year old gobbled it down well enough.  
• The soon to be 10 year old gave me a 9.5/10 points.  When asked why the 1/2 deduction, I was told "just because" although I suspect it was because she doesn't like gravy.  Weirdo.  <3
•  The husband made it disappear pretty damn fast.
• Safe to say, this will be returning to our table.  Kids even had leftover meatballs for the lunches the following days.

Also, what kind of Thanksgiving meal would this had been had I not served cranberry sauce/jelly?  Served correctly, perfectly popped out of the can.


Enjoy!