Sweet Potato Streusel

I got this from Cooking Light magazine a few years ago and somehow never posted it. Since it was specifically requested that I bring this to our Thanksgiving dinner, I figured I'd better post it so I don't lose it! Next time I'm going to halve this recipe though. We tend to do a lot of side dishes and a 9x13 pan of sweet potatoes meant there were a LOT of leftovers, although we packaged them up in smaller portions and sent them home with various guests. Leftovers heat well. Ours are gone already.

5 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in 1" cubes
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg

Streusel topping:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, cut in pieces
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Cover the sweet potatoes with water and simmer about 12 minutes, then drain. Mix with half and half, maple syrup, vanilla, salt and egg. Spread into a 9x13" pan.

Use a food processor or mixer to make the streusel. Combine all the ingredients except the pecans and pulse, then mix in the pecans. Sprinkle across the top of the sweet potatoes.

You can do all this ahead of time and freeze if you want. Or do the night before and refrigerate. If you've frozen it, thaw before baking.

Bake at 350 for half an hour (a bit longer if cold).

Turkey Hash

How is it that you can take the same three basic ingredients from Thursday and turn them into something that tastes different? Even though I didn't cook the turkey this year, my sister generously sent me home with some leftover turkey and gravy. Dinner last night was my youngest's favorite: turkey hash. I used frozen diced potatoes last night but usually just peel, dice, and cook the potatoes from scratch, or use leftover baked potatoes. The measurements aren't exact by any means. I make beef hash with leftover roast beef pretty much the same way.

3 Tbs butter, oil, or a mixture of both
1/2 an onion, diced
a bit of rosemary
2 cups chopped turkey
2 cups diced cooked potatoes
1 cup or so of gravy

Heat the oil and butter over medium high heat. Add the onion and cook until soft, then stir in the rosemary. Add the turkey and potatoes and stir, then let sit until the potatoes are a bit crispy. Stir again and get the other sides of the potatoes crispy. This is where my impatience kills me. You have to let the potatoes sit a bit. They won't get crispy if you keep stirring them. Once they're done to your liking, mix the gravy in and heat, then serve.

Salmon Two Ways and Very Simple Beets and Greens

I bought a lovely large piece of salmon for dinner the other night. At the store, I also picked up a bunch of beets (greens attached) and a mix of wild rice. My mom had brought down some ripe mangoes and she had then picked what I fear is the last of my tomatoes so we could make a batch of her mango-tomato salsa. What a way to say goodbye to fresh tomato season! I put a bit more jalapeno in that I have in the past and it was fantastic.

My eldest was going out to a play at the high school and I was driving her and her friend. I planned on feeding her first, so the rest of us could then sit down to a relaxing dinner rather than rushing. She loves salmon so I cut off a portion of the salmon and sprinkled it with some "salmon seasoning" I had in the pantry. I debated between poaching and roasting the salmon in the oven, my plan for ours. Both seemed a lot of work for one portion of salmon so I decided to just microwave it. I put it in a glass pie dish, covered it with an inverted bowl to prevent splatters, and microwaved it about 3 minutes.

My mom had already simmered the whole beets and chopped all the greens, so we cut up some of the beet for her, topped with a bit of butter, and gave her some plain mango. It was quite a colorful plate, albeit a bit heavy on the red-orange colors! She sat down to begin eating and declared it "the best salmon ever! What did you do?" I had worried the microwave cooking would ruin the salmon but evidently not! So keep that in mind for a quick, easy way to cook just a portion or two of salmon.

For the rest of us, my mom combined the simmered, peeled, and chopped beets with the steamed beet greens, sprinkled with some salt and pepper, and squeezed half a lemon over it all. Sometimes the simplest things are the best! Plus it made our plates much prettier with the greens offsetting the otherwise red-orange colors.

I sprinkled the salmon seasoning over the rest of the salmon, melted some butter in a baking dish and placed the salmon skin side up in a 450 oven, turning it once after 6 minutes, then cooking another 6 or so, testing it before that with a fork. I figured with the mango salsa, a simple preparation was best. It was also fantastic. I wish I'd done a side by side taste test between the microwaved salmon and the oven roasted salmon.

Beef Barley Soup

Rather than have French dip sandwiches again, I took a diced a cup of the leftover beef and used about 2 cups of the leftover au jus in this soup. Often when I make a beef-based soup I use about half chicken stock and half beef stock, as I did here. Add a couple of chopped carrots, a chopped onion, and 1/2 cup barley or rice (or diced potatoes) and you've got a simple but good soup.

4 cups broth (I like half chicken and half beef)
2-3 carrots, sliced or diced, whichever shape you like
1 onion, chopped
1 cup chopped or shredded leftover cooked roast beef
1/2 cup barley
salt and pepper to taste

Start to bring the broths to a boil while you peel and chop the carrots and onion. Add them to the soup pot as they're ready. Add the beef and barley as well when it gets to a simmer. Simmer covered about 45 minutes (however long it takes for your barley) to cook. Taste and add salt and pepper as desired. Homemade broths are generally much less salty than store-bought so more or less salt will be needed depending on your tastes and what broth you started you used.

French Dip Sandwiches

I suspect French dip sandwiches were originally a way to use up leftover roast beef, but I cook a beef roast just to have French dip sandwiches, then use the leftovers in soup or something. I've been breaking out the crockpot again with the cool weather. The hardest part is that it makes the house smell delicious long before dinner time!

1 rump roast
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tsp beef bouillon (or 1 cube)
1 bay leaf
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp garlic powder

Combine all this in a slow cooker and then add enough water to mostly cover the meat. I started with hot water this time, because I started it cooking a little later than I'd planned on. In my new slow cooker, which cooks hotter than the old ones, I started this at 1pm on low and it was done by 6:30. The water was pretty much at a simmer nearly the whole time. If you have an older slow cooker, I'd do 10 hours on low or 5-6 hours on high.

Get some good rolls for the sandwiches. Take the meat out and slice it as thinly as possible, then layer on the bread. Serve with the sauce and dip the sandwich as you eat.

This reheats well for leftovers. Just heat the sauce and put the slices of meat in it to heat at the same time. Or turn it into something else, like I did. I chopped up the leftovers and froze half of them and turned the other half into some beef barley soup.

Mustard Baked Pork Chops

I have a collection of recipes I've printed off of Yahoo groups and other cooking lists. This was one I decided to try tonight. I printed it out a few years ago but just now got to it. It was so easy and sooooo good! My girls have been rebelling against pork chops lately but pronounced these delicious and moist! They said they were a "bit too lemony" but I thought they were great. I did this with boneless thick pork chops, about 1" thick. My girls are NOT big mustard fans, but the mustard taste was mild and the coating seemed to keep the chops quite moist. I had bought a "family pack" of chops, so froze two other portions of 3 chops each, one with a margarita mix/garlic/salt/pepper marinade and one set with the remnants of a teriyaki marinade/glaze someone had brought over at some point. Now I'm almost wishing I'd left them alone since this was so good!

lemon juice
Dijon mustard
bread crumbs

Mix equal parts lemon juice and Dijon mustard. Dip the pork chops in that and coat them. Then roll in bread crumbs, pressing the bread crumbs in and coating the chops.

Bake on a baking pan at 350 for an hour.

I served these with baked sweet potatoes, which I just pierced a few times with a knife and baked with the chops, and sliced apples cooked in butter, with a bit of brown sugar. For myself, I did a small pan of fried onions and apples, using a bit of bacon grease to cook up the apples and onions, then adding a bit of brown sugar.

This was all delicious--everyone loved dinner and you can't beat that! I have one sweet potato left and am thinking of trying a recipe I saw for sweet potato burritos later this week--unless someone has another idea for what to do with a leftover baked sweet potato...?

Lo Mein

This is one of those funny dishes that I like when I make it at home, but I've never yet actually ordered it in a restaurant. Actually, I rarely order anything in a restaurant that I can cook at home. I mean, what's the point? I don't eat out much and am not going to waste those occasions ordering something I could just as easily fix myself any day! The last time I made lo mein with ham. This time I was skimming through my a Rachel Ray cookbook. I have to say I kind of enjoy watching her show now and then so I bought this book, Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats--A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners (A 30-Minute Meal Cookbook) but I rarely find anything that actually entices me to try it and I don't like the organization. But this was good and worth repeating. Maybe I should explore the book a bit more. You could add some leftover meat here and have a complete meal. I served it with her breaded and baked fish, which was nothing special so I'm not posting it. This one I'd make again, although my kids didn't like it.

I did actually use a can of bean sprouts, which somehow I've never bought before. But the last bag of bean sprouts I bought with some idea or another spoiled in the few days it took me to get to the idea. I think the canned may go onto my typical pantry list because they added a nice touch here and this could be an easy pantry dinner that way. It's quick, tasty, and filling.

1/2 pound spaghetti
3 Tbs oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs minced ginger
1 carrot, peeled and shredded or cut into matchsticks
2 cups bean sprouts (I actually used the canned ones)
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1/3 cup tamari (aged soy sauce)

Cook and drain the spaghetti.

Heat the oil. Cook the garlic, ginger, and carrot for a minute or so, stirring often. Add the bean sprouts and bell pepper. (She also called for scallions here but I left those out because my kids shy from onions). Cook another the 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Add the drained pasta and stir. Then mix in the tamari and mix well.