Caramelized Onion and Cornbread Stuffing

This week's post, no surprise, is a Thanksgiving-themed recipe, and comes from Tyler Florence. This is our contribution to Thanksgiving dinner this year, and is a recipe we tried out last year. It's really tasty, easy to make, but doesn't make a whole lot, so consider at least doubling it.

Caramelized Onion and Cornbread Stuffing

2 T butter
2 onions, chopped
6 large cornmeal muffins, cubed
Handful fresh sage leaves, chopped
1 egg
1/4 C heavy cream
1/4 C chicken stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
-Melt the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, for about 10 minutes, or until soft and caramelized. Add sage and scrape into a large mixing bowl. Add the cornbread pieces, season well with salt and pepper, and give it a good toss until it's well combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, cream, and stock, and pour that over the cornbread. Stir the stuffing together and stuff the cavity of the turkey. You could also spoon it into a buttered baking dish and put it in the oven along with the turkey. Bake until hot and crusty on top, about 30 minutes.

My note: When we last made this, it only took 20-25 minutes, so check on it. And you can add more chicken stock if it seems too dry.

Brown Sugar Brownies

This brownie recipe is one that has taunted me for about a year now. I kept wondering, what would the difference be between brown sugar and regular old sugar. Finally, I decided it was just time to try the recipe instead of letting it take up space, wondering if it would be good or not. That's the trouble, there are so many great recipes out there waiting to be tried, and for some reason or other I often find myself stuck in the mode of making the same old things over and over. So here's to a renewed commitment to try new things several times a month.

Brown Sugar Brownies

1 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C (1 stick) butter, softened
2 eggs
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted
1/2 C flour
1 C coarsely chopped walnuts

-Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
-Grease an 8x8x2 pan.
-In large bowl beat sugar and butter until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at time. Beat in chocolate, then flour. Stir in nuts. Pour (scrape) into pan. Bake 25 minutes (I usually check to see if it's pulled away from the sides of the pan a bit and for the smell. Don't know why, but I can usually tell if something chocolate is done by the smell.) Cool in pan and cut into bars. Makes 24.

My note:

OK, so I followed the directions, but I think I've finally encountered my first recipe that needs to be adjusted for altitude. It came out of the oven with a nice size to it, but as it cooled it shrank and the brownies were about 1/2 inch tall. Maybe. So will I make these again? DEFINITELY! They taste amazing, more like a really good flourless chocolate cake than brownies. And the flavor is not too sweet, a nice dark chocolate flavor. I think they would taste great with chopped up hazelnuts, or maybe even almonds. But next time I'll try adjusting for altitude.

Oh, and my baking guru, Nick Malgieri, claims that if you want to double a recipe for an 8x8 pan, you can, just bake it in a 9x13 pan.

Strata, Seriously...Don't know why the previous post didn't work!

1/2 lb. sausage links 1/2 t. salt
8 slices white bread 1 T. fresh parsley or 1 t. dried parsley
3/4 lb. (3 cups) shredded Mozzarella cheese 8-10 large mushrooms (1/4 lb.)
4 large eggs, lightly beaten 3 T. butter, melted
1 1/2 cups milk

Cut sausage links into thirds; brown in small skillet; cook slowly until done then drain on paper towels. Butter 1-quart souffle dish or 9" X 9" baking dish. Cut the crusts from the bread; discard crusts. Cut bread into 1/2 inch cubes. Slice the mushrooms and saute' in 1 T. butter.

Arrange 1/3 bread cubes in bottom of baking dish. Sprinkle with a third of cheese; arrange sausage pieces over this. Add a layer of mushrooms. Top with 1/2 of remaining bread, sprinkle with 1/2 of remaining cheese. Top with rest of bread, pressing down slightly; add the rest of the cheese on top.

Combine eggs, milk, salt, and parsley; pour mixture slowly over the layers. Drizzle with 2 T. melted butter. Chill, covered, for several hours or overnight. Allow casserole to stand at room temperature for 45 minutes to 1 hour before baking. Set casserole inside a 9" X 13" cake pan; pour water around the outside of the casserole to come up about half way up the sides. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 1 1/4 hours, or until golden brown. Makes 9 servings.

Strata

My mom makes this every Christmas morning and it is crazy-good.  Not at ALL good for you (well, lots of protein!) but it tastes so yummy that Blair & I decided we would make it every General Conference Sunday.  By "we" I mean "me", so after calling my mom eight times (yes, that's true!) I dove in, and it was fun & easy!  I don't think I cooked it long enough, though because it was a tad soupy, but still yummy.  Here is the recipe:

Corn Salsa

The credit for this recipe really goes to Kati: she made it and brought it to a family party, then she gave a bunch of us her ward's cookbook which has the recipe in it. Derk and I made this (well, Derk did because we were running out of time) for a family thing this past weekend and I've had a few requests for the recipe. And so here it is, a really great and amazingly easy corn salsa recipe.

1 can of corn, drained
1 can of black beans rinsed and drained
1 can of pinto beans rinsed and drained
4 small tomatoes, diced
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
2 avocados, diced
1 packet Good Seasons Italian Season Mix

Mix Italian Season Mix as directed on package. In large bowl combine first 7 ingredients and mix together. Pour Italian Seasoning into the bowl and mix. Let sit for at least an hour then strain out the extra dressing so it's not so soupy. Serve with chips.

NOTES: Straining out the extra dressing isn't essential, but I'd recommend it. It does get really soupy. The other note is that this salsa is definitely best if eaten the day it's made. We had some left over, ate it the next day and it had lost a lot of what made it good--it mellowed out a little too much.

Grilled Fresh Corn

Grilled Fresh Corn in Spicy Lime Dressing, from Cuisine At Home, June 2008 issue.

Tonight Derk and I made this tasty little side dish to go with some honey-lime chicken we made. It comes from one of my very favorite food magazines called Cuisine At Home, and this was a real winner! It would be a nice side dish to any kind of Mexican or Southwestern kind of food. We decided that you could probably cook the corn on the stove if you don't have a grill, and we're not real big on super spicy flavor, so we omitted the jalapeno. We also used Cholula for the hot sauce/Tabasco, and that gave it just the right amount of kick. The flavors were really great, sweet corn with a nice spicy, kicky taste, with a hint of cilantro. We really liked it.

4 ears fresh sweet corn, shucked
2 tsp. vegetable oil
1 T fresh lime juice
1 T hot sauce or Tabasco (or Cholula)
1/4 C chopped fresh cilantro
2 tsp. jalapeno, seeded, minced (we omitted this)
1/2 tsp. sugar
salt and pepper to taste
Crumbled queso fresco (a Mexican cheese, could probably go with Pepper Jack or Monterrey Jack, but we also omitted this step too)

Preheat grill to medium.

Coat corn with oil and grill until lightly charred, turning frequently, 10-15 minutes.

Whisk lime juice, hot sauce, cilantro, jalapeno, sugar, salt, and pepper together in a bowl while corn grills. Allow corn to cool slightly, then slice kernels off cob and toss in dressing to coat. Garnish with cheese.

Makes 2 cups.

Buttermilk Pie

My aunt gave me this recipe and said she kind of combined 2 and got this one. So the directions aren't exactly specific but if I can make it and have it turn out, then I'm sure you all will do just fine with it.

Ingredients:
2 3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter softened at room temp.
1/3-1/2 cup flour depending on how eggy you like it. More flour, a little less eggy.
1/4 ts. salt
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 ts. vanilla (I put a little more because I love vanilla so much)
1 Tb. fresh lemon juice

This recipe is enough to fill one deep dish pie crust (frozen), but doesn't quite fill 2 regular pie crusts, so if doing 2, double the recipe.

In large bowl cream sugar and butter. Beat in flour and salt. Blend in eggs. Stir in buttermilk, vanilla, and lemon juice and pour into pie shells.

Put in 400 degree oven for 15 minutes
Then lower temp. to 325 degrees and bake for an additional 45 minutes or until set.