Week 46 Friday (11/28/14)

Recipe Review              

Today’s Recipe and Location:           My Favorite Turkey Brine        

Found in: The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays

                  Pages:  245 -247     Copyright:  2013  Harper Collins   OR

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/10/my-favorite-turkey-brine/

       Turkey Brining – I knew the word, but really didn’t know what was involved in the process. I don’t remember ever watching anyone even prepare Thanksgiving dinner. I’m sure I helped set the table or put the rolls in the oven or even make a salad, but I was never involved in the actual turkey making. Boy, does that sound sad. Apparently, it never dawned on me that this was something I needed to learn to do in my lifetime.

         The first area of frustration was locating a brining bag. I went to Walmart, where they acted like I was speaking Swahili or something. Then I was off to a local small store – no such luck. I did need to pick up the girls from the groomer in Sandwich, so I stopped at the Jewel in Sugar Grove. The worker there had heard of it, but told me the display they had them in was gone, so they were out. For some reason I decided to ask another man who worked there. THANK GOD I DID. He located the only one in the store – which was a brining mix kit with the bag. So because I always try to follow Ree’s recipes to a tee – I spent a whopping $8.00 for a thick bag that can only be used once. Just in case you were wondering – it really is a great bag.

         I bought a fresh 15 pound turkey. It seems monstrous for just one person, so I plan to share the wealth with Mom and Ron. I am also making many recipes with the leftovers, so this will make everything for the next week work out just fine.

         Brining a turkey consists of throwing the ingredients in a pan, bringing it to a boil, cooling it, and then pouring it over and around the turkey in the bag. I left it in the refrigerator overnight and then it needs to be rinsed and soaked for about 15 minutes to remove the extra salt. I did have to turn to the bird over halfway so both sides received the full impact of the brine. It was now ready to prepare for the oven. 

         This is really easy to do, and tomorrow I will decide if it was worth the extra amount of time it took for me. It felt pretty good to do this for the first time.

      

Fabulous “Family and Friends” Food

Kim Gerhard’s Peanut Butter Treats

Another school recipe – thanks Kim for sharing

Ingredients:

12 oz. package butterscotch morsels

1 cup peanut butter

8 cups Rice Krispies

12 oz. chocolate chips

1 cup powdered sugar

4 Tablespoons butter

2 Tablespoons water

Directions:

         Melt butterscotch chips and peanut butter in a pan. Add Rice Krispies. Cool in freezer for 5 minutes. Add chocolate chips, powdered sugar, water, and butter in a bowl. Put in microwave until it melts one minute at a time. Add to pan in freezer. Put the rest of the Rice Krispies on top. Cut into squares. Keep in refrigerator.