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Ginger-Curry Carrot Soup

What a surprise this was… our problem was reserving enough carrots from our garden to eat instead of putting it all into this soup for freezing. This is just a taste delight, and I don’t often say that about really anything. Curry? And ginger?!? Really? Yet it’s awesome, and can’t deny it.

Casserole

Classic Green Bean Casserole

This is a basic dish, tasty, and easy to make.

Chinese

Fried Rice with Egg

A simple Chinese food staple.

Baking

Turkey Lemon and Leek Pot Pies

This is a great use of leftover turkey, which is in abundance when there are only two in the house. We make these into little pot pies with our pie maker so they are meal size, but obviously you can make a full size pie as well.

Turkey Lemon and Leek Pot Pies

Comfort food for the dead of winter. Quite simple to make, beginning with sautéd leeks and garlic and adding flour to make the roux. Once there, whisk in the wine and chicken stock, and add the peas and turkey.

8 cloves garlic (Minced garlic in oil works also)
3 medium leeks
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup white wine (optional)
1 tbsp` tarragon (fresh chopped) (or 1 tsp dried)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp lemon rind
1/4 cup heavy cream (or coffee cream )
3/4 cup peas
4 cups (approx) turkey – shredded

Gather your ingredients. Chop the turkey up, wash the leeks, dissolve your chicken stock cube in hot water, etc…
Melt the butter in a large sauce pan, then add leeks and garlic. Sauté until tender, about 3-5 minutes, then stir in flour by sprinkling over top about half, mixing, and then the other half. Add butter if needed.
Slowly add chicken stock, mixing all the while, then the wine (if using), tarragon, lemon juice, and rind. Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and add the cream. Simmer for another 5 minutes until thick and glossy.
Add peas and turkey, mixing thoroughly, Season with plenty of fresh ground pepper, and salt to taste. This may depend greatly on whether your turkey was brined prior to cooking or not.
Adjust texture with wine or lemon juice as needed.
From here you are on your own. We make little pot pies with our mini-pie maker. You can also fill a baking dish and cover with a layer of puff pastry, or small ramekins as well. It’s up to you!

What you decide to do with the concoction once it is thrown together is up to you. It can be frozen as is for use later, or made into pot pies. We have made little pies with our pie maker, and also frozen them for later.

Baking

Italian Mini-Meatballs

After many bouts of recipes that required spicy Italian sausage, we found that some of the sausages we bought tasted a bit “off”, and were probably composed of meat that was on the edge of turning, but with the comment of “picking toenails out of my food” met my ears…. well, the decision was made to make our own.

The first requirement was a satisfactory spice mix to use, and the second requirement was learning how to make the meat mixture.

The meat mixture we used was a one to one mixture of lean ground beef to regular ground pork. Our first attempt used a pound of each, with our own spice mix, to which was added 1 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper to get the “spicy” dialed in.

Spicy Italian Sausage Spice Mix

General spice used for sausage, or meatballs as it were.

Spicy Italian Sausage Mix

1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1 Tbsp basil
1 Tbsp oregano
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp onion powder
1 Tbsp paprika
2 tsp black pepper
2-3 tsp red pepper flakes (3 if you like it super spicy!)
2 tsp fennel seeds (crushed)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 – 1 tsp cayenne pepper (totally optional (if like it super spicy! I left this out))

Meatballs

1 pound lean ground beef
1 pound regular ground pork
3 eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs
3 tbsp Italian spice mix
1 1/2 -2 tsp cayenne pepper

Seasoning Mix

To a small bowl or jar (recipe makes ~9 Tbsp of seasoning), add all spices (salt – cloves) + cayenne if you want it spicy.
Stir or shake to combine. Store and use to make sausage as needed!
TIP: ~3 Tbsp (depending on optional add ins above) = 1 lb of sausage

Meatballs

Place both ground pork and beef into a large bowl. Crack three eggs into it being sure no shell chunks fall in. Add the bread crumbs and begin to mix, either with dough beaters or by hand.
Once this is generally mixed, begin to add the Italian spice mix, and finish with the cayenne pepper. By the time you are done, you will have your hands in it….
Continue until thoroughly mixed, then remove from the bowl onto plastic. Wrap and cool for an hour or two to make division easier and less sticky. A scale came in handy for making 7 g balls.
Put parchment paper on two cookie sheets, and and fill them up. Slightly flatten the balls for easier freezing.
Cook for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, then remove to paper towel lined bowl. Repeat until all are cooked.
Separate into whatever divisions seem suitable. We made freezer packs of 300 g (after some got eaten).

The first dish we tried this in was our Spinach Sausage Pasta recipe, which tasted a bit different, but was close enough to use again. The other recipe so far is Jumbalaya, and I expect the same results there. Over time the cayenne and pepper flakes will need some adjusting, but all in all, this was a bit of work for a wild success.