Delicious. Healthy. Food.
On February 2, 2017, Punxsutawney Phil declared another six weeks of chilly winter weather. I groaned when I heard the news. By February I’m counting down the days until Farmers’ Markets, salads with spring peas, and charred meat on the grill. The good news here is that 1) Punxsutawney Phil is only right 39 percent of the time, and 2) I still have a bit of time to share with you my favorite cold-weather red wine braised beef stew.
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I love football season! It starts with crisp sweater weather and ends with my second-favorite food holiday of the year. You see what I did there? I referenced clothes and food and conveniently avoided mention of my favorite players or teams. That’s because while I adore an opportunity to frequent a hip craft brewery and eat elevated pub food, I tend to get more excited about the loaded pretzel nuggz than the winning run…or touchdown…or goal…or whatever.
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It’s been 292 days since I hit you with a new recipe. My apologies. 2016 was a hell of a year. For me, for you, for our country, for the world. A lot of beautiful things have happened too. Since my last blog post I married my best friend and ate an amazingly moist marbled wedding cake with salted caramel filling and chocolate ganache icing. I traveled to Mexico and tasted the smoothest tequila ever to cross my lips (a far cry from the handle of Jose I glug into my margaritas). I toasted my three best friends with bubbles and triple crème brie at another epic installment of Dip Day. And I found my place of peace in the kitchen experimenting with fresh ingredients and creating new staples at our table, including a new personal favorite, a super simple creamy, dreamy cauliflower soup to keep you warm all winter.
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Ever notice there’s an inverse correlation between the number of days ‘til Christmas and your stress level? The presents, the food, the parties…your diet’s disappearing act. To make things worse you’ve got Pinterest taunting you; a daily reminder that there are people in the world, maybe even down the block, who are making multi-tiered Christmas Jell-O shots and wreath-shaped Stromboli.
Ain’t nobody got time to compete with Martha this time a year, but that doesn’t mean you don’t want your friends and family to rave over the dish you brought to the party. When my life gets busy, I usually find that simplicity rules the day, especially when it comes to cooking. I like to choose a few really good ingredients and let them speak for themselves.
This year I hosted my very first party in Louisville, toasting the holiday season with an Ugly Sweater fete of epic proportions. Of course my friends came through with some truly heinous ensembles, but the food spread was really the highlight of the evening. My dining room table was no match for the dozens of tasty treats that ranged from scallion crepes to vegan buffalo “chicken” “cheese” dip. My contribution to the festivities was a baked brie with cranberry compote number…because who doesn’t love rich, warm, oozing cheese?
This recipe is super easy, fast, and most importantly, delicious. When party goers realized there was a wheel of brie baking in the oven, my friends migrated to the kitchen to wait for its debut. While I realize the congregation in the kitchen had nothing to do with my cooking prowess and everything to do with the power of French cheese, you’ll feel like a bad ass too when your friends follow you in single file from the oven to the table.
A couple of notes about the ingredients: as I mentioned above, choose quality ingredients when you’re making them the star. I’m a huge fan of Costco in general, but they really go above and beyond in the cheese department. For less than ten bucks you can get an entire wheel of authentically French brie cheese and enough cranberries to get you through Thanksgiving and Christmas. Throw in some Breton’s wheat crackers, you know the ones that have a subtle sweet, gingerbread-y flavor, and your friends and family can’t help but feel fancy.
Bust out this dish for your Christmas party, New Year’s celebration, or any cocktail merrymaking, and I promise, you’ll get invited back again and again.
INGREDIENTS:
1 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup maple
1/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 tablespoon bourbon
1/2 teaspoon thyme, finely chopped
DIRECTIONS:
Heat water and orange juice in a large sauté pan on high heat until boiling. Add cranberries and bring mixture back to a boil. Cook 2-3 minutes at a rolling boil. Turn heat down to medium-low, add the bourbon, and simmer for 4-5 minutes until thickened slightly. Turn off the heat and allow to cool. Transfer mixture to a storage container and cool in the refrigerator until completely chilled. This recipe will give you more cranberry sauce than you can pile on top of one wheel of brie so I recommend saving the leftovers and adding them to ice cream or oatmeal or yogurt or a pork chop or turkey sandwiches…really, put it on an old shoe, it’ll taste delicious on anything.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place wedge of brie on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake the brie for 30 minutes or until the skin of the cheese begins to soften. You may see some of the cheese begin to ooze out of the skin. Remove from the oven and transfer to serving tray. Top with chilled cranberry sauce and scatter chopped thyme. Serve with crackers or French bread.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, even when it involves creamed corn and canned cranberry sauce. But when you replace those things with 10 pounds of bacon-y, cheesy mashed potatoes, a deep-fried turkey, and my dear, weirdo friends, I’m in heaven! Thanksgiving is the one day a year everyone else becomes as food obsessed as I am. No one thinks it’s strange when you devise (and obsessively revise) your Thanksgiving menu, hunt endlessly for gobbler themed table decorations, or spend three days chopping vegetables and making pies…if it’s Thanksgiving. This is my day people, it’s the essence of who I am, and this year, our Friendsgiving feast was one of my all-time favorites.
I’ve moved a lot, I work a lot, I travel a lot…and I live nowhere near my family. Thanksgiving takes on a depressing air when you’re roasting a turkey breast for two and your Grandma’s not asking when you’ll give her another great-grandbaby. This is my second Thanksgiving in Louisville, and I’m sad to report that my first resembled the scenario described above (plus a bottle of champagne for one). This year, however, was the Thanksgiving of my dreams. My boyfriend and I starting collecting all manner of lonely, familyless guests in October. When the big day finally arrived the kitchen was swelling with laughter and delicious aromas and everyone had a drink in their hand. And my heart was bursting with gratitude and love (sorry for the cheese)!
Apps on apps on apps on apps: cheese plate with lemon-thyme goat, Stilton blue, and cranberry cheddar and green olive and pomegranate dip.
Although our Friendsgiving table looked very different from the one of my childhood memories, it was full of mouth-watering, perhaps more sophisticated versions of the staples you’d expect. The mashed potatoes were livened up with (four pounds!!!) Parmesan cheese, bacon, and chives; the cranberry sauce was made festive with orange zest and bourbon; and the centerpiece of the meal, the turkey, was injected with Creole seasoning and deep-fried. Now feels like an appropriate time to bust out with a little confession: maybe it’s because I now live in the South or because I’ve always secretly held a special place in my heart for deep-fried poultry, but I really can’t eat another turkey if it hasn’t been submerged in hot oil for hours. Grams, I’m going to have to insist you and Grandpa invest in a turkey fryer, please and thank you.
The bird! I know it looks like the turkey from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, but it was delicious! Next to it is an update on a green bean casserole with the traditional can of mushroom soup swapped out with a blue cheese cream sauce.
Caramelized sweet potatoes, recipe courtesy of my boyfriend’s mom, and THE mashed potatoes. I’ve talked about them ad nauseam, no need to go there again.
Missing from our festivities were crying babies, nagging moms, and in my case, Fox News, but let me assure you, weirdness still abounded. One of our friends was in the middle of a seven-day juice fast and showed up to help with dishes, take the less sober among us to the gas station for more firewood, and gracefully sip a vat of juice that resembled pond water. Another one of our guests thought it was totally appropriate to unbuckle his belt and unbutton his pants at the dinner table mid-meal. And it was. Because it was Friendsgiving. There was no air of politeness or sophistication and that’s just the way I like it.
My boyfriend’s brother, Greg. He likes mashed potatoes like whoa. Also, my hero, Conchi with her Thanksgiving feast, green juice.
Evidence of the damage: belt unbuckled and head in hands. SUCCESS!
Now to the reason you’re here. How about a recipe Amy?! Okay, okay, I’ll stop gushing about my friends and get to the food. Everyone has a dish that absolutely must make an appearance on the Thanksgiving table. For me, it’s stuffing. There are just not enough occasions to enjoy this carb-bomb throughout the year, so when I get the opportunity, I go haaaard. And you all agreed. When I asked my Amy Burns the Recipe Book followers on Facebook which dish should be featured as this blog’s first, the result was overwhelming: STUFFING!
This recipe is salty, moist, herb-y and contains both sourdough and cornbread. There’s a little bit of bacon mixed in because you know what they say about bacon. You’ll likely be whipping up another round of stuffing for your Christmas feast, and this recipe is the one you’ll want on your holiday table. I’d also implore you to incorporate stuffing into your meals more throughout the rest of the year. This recipe would be the bomb with a pork loin roast for Sunday supper. Moral of the story: eat more stuffing!
Ingredients:
1-pound loaf of sourdough bread,
3 cups cornbread
4 slices bacon
10 ounces crimini mushrooms, sliced ¼-inch thick
3-4 stalks celery, chopped in ¼-inch dice
3 carrots, chopped in ¼-inch dice
1 medium onion, chopped in ¼-inch dice
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
8 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves stripped from stems and chopped
4 sage leaves, rolled and cut into ribbons
2 sprigs of rosemary, leaves stripped from stems and chopped
4 cups low-sodium chicken stock
3 tablespoons butter, plus more for greasing the pan
Salt and pepper
Directions:
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 13 baking dish and set aside.
Cut or tear the sourdough and cornbread into 1-inch cubes and spread it evenly on a large baking sheet. Toast the bread in the oven for about 20 minutes until completely dry and beginning to crisp and brown. Remove from oven and set aside.
Arrange the bacon in a single layer in a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven. Cook the bacon on medium-low heat until extra-crispy, about 10-12 minutes. Set the bacon aside on paper towels to drain and then chop into small pieces.
Isn’t this a beautiful sight?! Be sure to get the bacon extra crispy. No one likes limp, fatty bacon in their stuffing. And don’t worry about the brown bits at the bottle of the pan. Scrape them up when you sauté you veggies; that’s the best flavor you’ll create in any recipe.
Use the grease leftover in the pan from frying the bacon to sauté the onions, garlic, mushrooms, carrots, and onions. No need to clean it out, all of the fat and brown bits add flavor. Season the mixture with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the mushrooms have given up their liquid, the onions are translucent, and the carrots and celery are tender, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes.
This is a soffrito, folks. Just a fancy word for carrots, celery, and onions. I beefed mine up with garlic, mushroom, and oh yeah, bacon fat! This is the base for so many recipes; get it down, stat!
Add the bread mixture and herbs to the vegetable mixture in the Dutch oven. Stir well to combine. Add the chicken stock a cup at a time until the bread mixture is moist. I like a very moist mixture and added all four cups, but if you like a dryer final product, reduce the chicken stock to three cups. Add the bacon crumbles and taste. Add salt and pepper to your liking.
The mixture will seem a little more wet than you think it should. Don’t worry, you want all of the pieces of bread almost completely saturated with stock, otherwise you’ll wind up with dry, hard to swallow stuffing and nobody wants that. To the right you’ll see little, beautiful squares of butter dotting the casserole. They’ll give the finished product a crispy, brown top.
Transfer the stuffing to your greased pan and top with the butter, diced into 1/4-inch pieces. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes and then remove the foil and let brown in the oven for another 10-15 minutes.
Taaa daaahhh!! Whatta beaut, if I do say so myself. Pardon me, I’m going to the kitchen to make more stuffing. I find my pants often fit too loosely this time of year….
