Nothing beats homemade soup! True comfort food – a bowl of hot soup, especially on a cool fall or cold winter day, warms the tummy and the soul. This Cream of Broccoli and Cheese Soup fits that bill nicely. Continue reading Classic Cream of Broccoli and Cheese Soup
On my sandwich board today, I have a lovely gourmet Turkey, Pear, Brie, and Cranberry Sandwich and this one comes fully dressed! Note this sandwich can also be made with chicken as a substitute for turkey. Continue reading On The Sandwich Board: Turkey, Pear, Brie, and Cranberry Sandwich
Undisputedly, a big roasted turkey is the traditional star of the Thanksgiving dinner in many North American homes. Playing the supporting roles, of course, are all the fixins’, including the variety of vegetables and gravy. This year, however, I am deviating from the norm and putting a new twist on Thanksgiving dinner, lightening it up and sizing it down for smaller households, while still staying true to some of the elements of what one would expect to be on the Thanksgiving dinner table. Here’s why I’ve shaken up the norm a bit.
I sometimes hear people say they don’t want to cook a big turkey, or even a whole chicken, because perhaps they have a small household of only one, two, or three people and it’s just too much meat for them. And, then there is the large carcass to deal with – though I am a big proponent of using it to make great homemade stock (click here for my stock recipe). Others have indicated they don’t have a big roaster in which to roast a turkey and still some others say they don’t know how to roast a turkey to get it cooked properly. I have heard some say that, while they like a roast turkey dinner, it can be a heavy meal with rich gravy, heavily spiced stuffing, and so forth. Others may be on a restricted diet making it a challenge to, alternatively, dine out for Thanksgiving dinner. Whatever the reason, I have decided to create a Thanksgiving dinner menu suitable for the smaller household and those looking for lighter fare.
Now, it can be challenging to size everything down precisely to one or two servings and, to be frank, it’s not the most cost-effective or efficient approach to meal preparation for the smaller household. I learned that many years ago and that’s when I moved to batch cooking for the freezer which allows me to have much greater meal variety than would be the case if I was to spend time in the kitchen preparing unique daily meals for one or two. This menu, by the way, is also suitable for any autumnal dinner party and the recipes referenced are scalable to the number of servings required.
The inspiration for the menu was drawn primarily from seasonal foods, those that would be considered to be fall flavors. While varied from the traditional Thanksgiving dinner style, I aimed to still maintain elements of a typical Thanksgiving dinner. From the gourd family comes the butternut squash for the soup. From the garden come the fresh greens, vine-ripened tomatoes, beets, and carrots. From the fields of a local farmer, come the potatoes. From the cranberry bogs and high bush blueberry field come the cranberries and blueberries. And, from a local orchard and distillery come the apples and liqueur for the dessert. In lieu of turkey, I have opted to go with chicken breasts though turkey breasts could certainly be used. The chicken breasts are smaller to roast and plate quite attractively. The steamed mussels for an appetizer have been included because, well, it’s PEI and we love our mussels any time of the year!
The table is set – it’s time to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner!
Food is meant to be enjoyed and savored, not hurriedly consumed. This menu and its serving style aim for that objective.
Island Blue Mussels steamed in Upstreet’s “Rhuby Social” beer
Savory Mushroom and Quinoa Crostini
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Served with a toasted baguette slice topped with cheese, bacon, and chives
Mix of Garden Greens with Vine-ripened Mini Tomatoes and Button Mushrooms
Dressed with Raspberry Vinaigrette and served from the salad urn, tableside
Roasted Chicken Breast with a dry rub of spices
Served over Sausage Bread Dressing
Petite Roasted Potato Stacks
Thinly sliced potato tossed with melted butter, herbs, and cheese then roasted
Roasted Beets and Carrots
Cranberry Blueberry Sauce
Apple-Maple Bread Pudding with Maple Sauce
Clean Slate 2016 Riesling (Germany)
It’s almost bordering on the sacrilegious if either (or both) steamed mussels and oysters are not on the menu for a gathering here in PEI! Yes, we love our seafood! I’ve chosen Island Blue Mussels steamed in Upstreet’s “Rhuby Social” beer (recipe here). Steaming mussels in beer lends a wonderful flavor to the mussels. Easy and quick to prepare, these mussels are a great start to a wonderful meal.
The second appetizer I’ve chosen is the Savory Mushroom and Quinoa Crostini (recipe here). These little morsels are ever-so-tasty. This recipe is easy to reduce or increase in size, depending on the number of guests and either wheat-based or gluten-free baguettes can be used.
Our Thanksgiving dinner this year starts with Roasted Butternut Squash Soup, a stunning golden yellow soup that is smooth and luxurious and filled with the warm flavors of fall (click here for recipe). This soup is a great way to kick off an autumnal dinner. My recipe for this soup makes 8-10 servings so, if making the soup specifically for Thanksgiving dinner in a small household, the remainder can be frozen for later enjoyment. Alternatively, the soup can be made in advance of Thanksgiving, frozen, and then the number of servings needed thawed and reheated for the dinner. I love when I can do prep work for dinners days ahead as it relieves some of the work and stress on the day of the dinner.
Serving the soup at the table from a soup tureen adds a lovely touch to a special meal or dinner party.
The soup tureen can also serve as a table centerpiece for the soup course.
Our garden did fabulously this year. We grow a grand selection of lettuce that usually takes us well into the fall, sometimes until late October. Our one tomato plant with mini tomatoes has literally produced hundreds of tiny orange tomatoes this year. It was a very prolific producer and we have been blessed to have its produce right through to Thanksgiving, even if it meant blanketing it down on frost nights in order to keep it producing.
My salad bowl is a small ceramic urn-shaped planter which also serves as the table centerpiece for the salad course. It’s a great conversation piece and it elevates the status of the salad! When using a unique vessel, like this urn, for the salad ingredients to be assembled at the table, opt for few ingredients that can easily be divided between plates. It’s not always necessary to have a multitude of ingredients in a salad, particularly if it is a starter to a meal. In this salad, all I’ve used is a selection of lettuce, tiny tomatoes, and button mushrooms served with a simple raspberry vinaigrette. I like vinaigrettes because they allow the flavour of the vegetables to shine through as they are not masked by a heavy cream dressing.
Chicken breasts sometimes get a bad rap for being dry. I think this is because they have not been properly prepared and cooked. I always brine my chicken breasts – it makes such a huge difference in both flavor and texture and no more dried out, stringy chicken. All I do is place the chicken breasts in a salt brine for 1½ – 2 hours, rinse them off, then pat them dry with paper towel followed by a light brushing of some olive oil and a sprinkle of selected dry spices. Then, into my convection oven set at 400°F they go just until they test done on my trusty meat thermometer. The high heat locks in the juices and cooks the chicken fast so it does not get a chance to dry out. The result is perfectly cooked and juicy chicken …. every time. The great thing about boneless skinless chicken breasts is it’s all meat and no waste and they slice beautifully for plating, sandwiches, etc.
For my Thanksgiving dinner, I have plated the sliced chicken over sausage bread dressing – recipe here. This is not a heavily spiced dressing so it is in keeping with my “lighter” Thanksgiving dinner theme yet it still bows to the tradition of having stuffing/dressing as a side dish at dinner. In fact, I will often make this recipe and freeze it for later use when I am having some kind of chicken dish for a meal. So, this is also something that can be made ahead for this dinner and the dressing can be heated for just a few seconds in the microwave.
Because this meal is meant to be light, the traditional gravy is absent. This meant I needed to come up with a potato side dish that did not need gravy. These Roasted Potato Stacks (recipe here), are the perfect potato side dish. These are not difficult to make and, with the butter, garlic, herbs, and cheeses, these tasty morsels are simply divine. They bake perfectly in muffin cups and plate beautifully. They are best served fresh from the oven. However, they can be pre-made, roasted, and refrigerated for up to 24 hours then reheated for a few minutes in the oven. So, again, this is a menu item that can be made in advance of the dinner. While my published recipe makes eight potato stacks (serves four), the recipe is easily halved (or, alternatively, make the whole recipe and enjoy leftovers the following day).
For my vegetable side dishes, I decided to go really local — all the way to our backyard garden! Beets and freshly dug carrots were roasted with herbs in the oven. I love roasted vegetables because their true flavors are evident and no nutrients or flavor are washed down the drain as can be the case with boiled vegetables. The beets were tossed with a spritz or two of raspberry balsamic vinegar and the same of orange juice. The key is not to add too much liquid to the roasted vegetables that would make them soupy or lose their roasted flavor. Both the vinegar and orange juice are just meant to be flavor enhancers so very little is needed.
For the condiment, I’m serving my Cranberry Blueberry Sauce. This sauce is a beautiful deep burgundy-plum color and combines two complementary flavors. The tartness of the cranberries is enhanced by the sweetness of the high bush blueberries. Click here for my recipe.
To bring one of the quintessential fall flavors into the menu, I am serving Apple-Maple Bread Pudding with Maple Sauce (recipe here). Both the pudding and the sauce freeze well for later use and both can be made ahead of the dinner, thawed, and reheated for dessert.
The wine I’ve paired with this meal is Clean Slate, a 2016 Riesling from Mosel, Germany, an affordable wine that appeals to a variety of tastes. When selecting the wine for this meal, I considered the menu items, both individually and collectively. Thanksgiving dinner plates tend to have a variety of foods with flavors that span the spectrum from sweet (Cranberry-Blueberry Sauce) to the moist and gently spiced (Sausage Bread Dressing) to the herbed and roasted (the vegetables) to the slight saltiness (brined chicken breast). With that variety, it can be a challenge to select one wine that will temper and balance all the flavors and cleanse and refresh the palate between bites so that the true flavors of each of the foods can be enjoyed.
A Riesling wine is a great choice because it has low alcohol content with lots of palate-refreshing acidity along with a slight touch of sweetness to balance and complement the variety of flavors.
So, whether you’re looking for inspiration for a Thanksgiving dinner with a lighter fare, one that is suitable for smaller households, or for an autumnal-themed dinner party, this menu is scalable to virtually any number, big or small. All recipes referenced can be found on My Island Bistro Kitchen’s website, a one-stop destination for recipes for a tasty fall dinner.
Living in a province known for its potato production, it’s almost inevitable that potatoes are served at many meals on PEI dinner tables. There are any number of ways this versatile veggie can be served and, later in this posting, you’ll find links to some of my favorite potato recipes.
Roasted Potato Stacks are my latest creation involving potatoes. They are very tasty and do plate quite attractively. They are also suitable for serving at buffets.
Because these potato stacks are free-standing when cooked and removed from the muffin cups, they need to be able to stand on their own when plated. The goal is also to see the individual slices of the potato. I recommend choosing potatoes that have a medium starch content, are semi-waxy, and have somewhat firm flesh such as Yukon Gold, or an all-purpose round white potato variety. These are the types of potatoes that will hold their shape after cooking and when plated and they can take the higher heat at which the stacks are roasted without falling apart or becoming mushy. Choosing potatoes that have good moisture content also helps to keep the roasted potato stacks moist. Potatoes high in starch and low in moisture don’t hold their shape as well and tend to break down easier than less starchy or waxy potatoes. For this reason, they are not as suitable for these Roasted Potato Stacks as are their semi-waxy cousins. Select potatoes, about 2” around, so that, when sliced very thinly, they will easily fit flatly in muffin tin cups.
The key to making these Roasted Potato Stacks is to have the potato slices very thin and uniformly sized. I have tested my recipe with three different thicknesses of potatoes – 1/16”, 3/16”, and 1/8” and my preference is 3/16” as the layers of individual potato slices in each stack are still intact and identifiable when fully roasted but they are not so thick as to cause issues getting them cooked.
I recommend using a mandolin for quick and uniform slicing. I have a dandy hand-held mandolin that is slick and easy for this kind of work and it saves the set up of my larger mandolin or the trials, tribulations, and time to thinly slice the potatoes by hand.
Made with seasoned butter and a blend of cheeses, these delectable easy-to-make roasted potato stacks are a great side dish or appetizer.
[Printable recipe follows at end of posting]
Ingredients:
2¼ lb potatoes, peeled, washed, and dried (e.g., Yukon Gold or all-purpose round white variety)
3 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp liquid chicken bouillon
1 tsp garlic salt
¾ tsp onion powder
2 tsp fresh lemon thyme, chopped
2 tsp fresh parsley, minced
Pinch nutmeg (optional)
½ – ¾ tsp fine sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
½ cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated
3 tbsp Cheddar Cheese, finely grated
1 tbsp whole milk or cream
3 – 4 tbsp finely grated Parmesan cheese
Paprika (for sprinkling tops of stacks)
Fresh thyme sprigs for garnish
Method:
Position oven rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 375°F.
Butter eight (8) regular-sized non-stick muffin cups with butter. Set aside.
In small, microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter. Add the olive oil, liquid chicken bouillon, garlic salt, onion powder, thyme, parsley, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Stir well to mix. Stir in the Parmesan and Cheddar cheeses along with the milk or cream.
Choose potatoes that are not overly starchy and that will hold their shape after cooking – e.g., Yukon Gold or an all-purpose round white variety. Select potatoes the size that, when sliced horizontally, the slices will easily fit flat into the muffin cups. Using a mandolin, slice potatoes horizontally into slices 3/16” thick. Place half the potato slices in large bowl. Add half the mixed butter, seasonings, and cheese ingredients. Using hands, toss the potatoes in the mixture until the slices are well coated. Add the remaining potato slices and butter mixture and continue mixing until the potato slices are coated with the mixture. Either create the stacks of potatoes in hands and place in buttered muffin cups or individually stack the potato slices directly in the muffin tin cups, stacking the slices as evenly as possible until they are about ¾ – 1” above the muffin cup rims. The stacks will shrink a bit during the roasting but building them a little higher than the muffin cup rim will ensure a good sized potato stack when cooked.
Roast the potato stacks for about 25 minutes, then sprinkle each stack with additional grated Parmesan cheese and a light sprinkle of paprika. Roast for 20 minutes longer, or until the tops of the potato stacks are golden and crispy, and a skewer or thin knife inserted in center of a stack indicates potatoes are tender and cooked through. Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes then carefully run the tip of a knife around the perimeter of each muffin cup to ensure the potato stacks are loose for easy removal. With the aid of a fork, or soup spoon, and the tip of the knife, carefully remove each potato stack and serve immediately sprinkled with additional finely-grated Parmesan cheese and fresh parsley.
Yield: 8 potato stacks (Suggested serving size – 2 stacks per person)
Decadent Duchess Potatoes
Twice Baked Potatoes
Best Creamy Scalloped Potatoes
Bistro Style Potato Patties
Potato Salad
Yield: 8 potato stacks (Suggested serving size – 2 stacks per person)
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Quite some time ago, I shared my standard “go-to” recipe for basic poultry stuffing/dressing. At the bottom of this posting, you will find the link to that recipe and an explanation for the difference (if you don’t already know) between stuffing and dressing.
In this Sweet and Savory Sausage Bread Stuffing recipe, I have jazzed up the stuffing by adding sausage meat to it. Dried cranberries can also be added so long as they have first been plumped in some warm rum (or warm chicken stock) for 10-15 minutes. Otherwise, the cranberries can be a bit hard and chewy in this stuffing. The cranberries are an optional ingredient but they do lend a pop of color and texture to the finished product. I sometimes, though not always, add them in. The sweetness in this stuffing comes from both the chopped apple and a bit of maple syrup which also adds to the moistness of the stuffing.
What gives this stuffing its unique flavour is the kind of sausage used. My local butcher shop (KJL Meats in Charlottetown) is known for its creativity in making sausages. To get the best choice, it means an early visit on Saturday mornings when they have their best selection available. I have a couple of favorites I gravitate to for bread stuffing/dressing and they are sundried tomato or honey garlic sausages. Other flavours may, of course, also be used, according to personal taste preferences. I remove the sausage casing and break up the meat then lightly scramble fry it with the aromatics (onion and celery) for 3-4 minutes, or until the meat is no longer pink.
Here, in PEI, the seasoning of choice for many folks when it comes to poultry stuffing/dressing is the herb called summer savory and that’s what I use in my stuffing/dressing recipes. In my household, it would not be considered to be stuffing/dressing unless it is made with summer savory! Old traditions prevail!
This recipe should yield approximately 4-5 cups of stuffing/dressing, depending on how dry/wet the potatoes are when cooked and the texture of the bread crumbs used. The recipe, however, is easily scalable so it can be doubled, tripled, halved, and so forth to meet the size of the chicken or turkey.
To make this recipe gluten free, simply substitute gluten-free bread crumbs in the same amount called for in this recipe and ensure that all other ingredients called for are also gluten free, including the sausage and liquid chicken bouillon. Some butchers, like KJL Meats, do make gluten-free sausages. I save all the crusts from gluten-free bread and then use my food processor to crumb them coarsely for use in stuffing and then freeze the crumbs in airtight freezer bags for use as needed.
[Printable recipe follows at end of posting]
Ingredients:
2-3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp finely chopped onion
2 tbsp finely chopped celery
4 oz honey garlic or sundried tomato sausage, casing removed
2 cups warm mashed potatoes (apx. 1 1/8 lb, uncooked)
1½ tsp summer savory
2 tsp liquid chicken bouillon
¼ cup dried cranberries, plumped in 2 tbsp warm rum or warm chicken stock (optional)
2 tbsp finely chopped apple
1 cup soft, coarse bread crumbs (apx. – see note below)
¼ cup melted butter
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp pure maple syrup
1 tbsp fresh parsley
1 tbsp chopped fresh chives
Salt and pepper, to taste
Method:
Melt butter in small frypan over medium heat. Add the onion and celery. Briskly stir the vegetables for 2-3 minutes. Break apart the sausage meat and add to the onion and celery. Scramble fry the sausage meat until no longer pink, about 3-4 minutes.
Place the warm mashed potatoes in a large bowl. Sprinkle with summer savory. Add the onion, celery, sausage, and chicken bouillon. Mix. Add the dried cranberries and chopped apple.
Mix in the bread crumbs along with the melted butter, water, maple syrup, parsley, and chives. Stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Loosely fill the body cavity of turkey or chicken with the stuffing. Roast turkey/chicken according to package directions for stuffed poultry and use a food thermometer to ensure that both the poultry and the stuffing have reached the safe minimum temperature.
Alternatively, make the stuffing into dressing by lightly pressing the mixture into one or two greased tinfoil-lined loaf pan(s). Cover with tin foil and bake in 350°F oven for apx. 15-20 minutes then remove tin foil and bake for 10-15 minutes longer, or until lightly browned on top. Let cool in pan(s) for at least 15 minutes then lift the tinfoil out of the loaf pan(s) and slice the dressing.
NOTE: Depending on how wet the variety of potatoes may be when cooked, additional bread crumbs may be needed to achieve the desired texture of the stuffing.
Yield: Approximately 4-5 cups
Yield: Approximately 4-5 cups
NOTE 1: Depending on how wet the variety of potatoes may be when cooked, additional bread crumbs may be needed to achieve the desired texture of the stuffing.
NOTE 2: To make this recipe gluten free, simply substitute gluten-free bread crumbs in the same amount called for in this recipe and ensure that all other ingredients called for are also gluten free, including the sausage and liquid chicken bouillon.
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