Best Thanksgiving Turkey Recipes : Cooking Channel.
Having choices when making your Thanksgiving Day turkey is always great as it can give you some new and inventive ideas to serving a traditional meal. Cooking Channel has put together 33 of the best Thanksgiving turkey recipes so you can give something different a try. Check it out!
Best Thanksgiving Appetizer Recipes : Cooking Channel.
When planning your Thanksgiving dinner, you don’t want to forget about having some great appetizers to keep everyone ready for the big meal. Cooking Channel has put together 60 Thanksgiving appetizer recipes that you can try to keep the crowd happy. Check it out!
Best Chicken Wing Recipes : Buffalo, Honey & More : Cooking Channel.
It’s Sunday and you know what that means! Fall and Football season means tailgates and get-togethers at home or out at the stadium or a friend’s home to watch the games, so you naturally need some great snacks to go along with the game. I love chicken wings and they are perfect for any party, especially when watching the game. Cooking Channel has put together 21 great chicken wing recipes for you so you can choose from all types and flavors and sauces to suit your wants and needs. Check it out!
Michelle has been away on business all week so it has just been Sean and myself home for dinner each night and I let Sean choose some of the meals we would have this week. Naturally he chose things like burgers and pizza but he also wanted us to have some fried calamari this week for dinner. I love fried calamari myself, whether as an appetizer or as the main course, so I decided to make some for dinner for us and I found this recipe from Chuck Hughes on the Cooking Channel that was some calamari with a nice puttanesca dipping sauce. It seemed very easy to make and looked delicious so I decided to give it a go.
Fried Calamari with Puttanesca Dipping Sauce
For the Calamari:
1 pound fresh calamari
2 cups milk
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon hot sauce
2 cups all-purpose flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 eggs
Vegetable oil, for frying
Lemon wedges, for serving
For the Puttanesca Dipping Sauce:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
1/4 cup pitted, diced black olives
1 tablespoon capers
3 tomatoes, diced
Pinch of chile flakes
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Zest of 1/2 lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the calamari, clean the calamari and cut the bodies into thick rings, reserving the tentacles separately.
Mix the milk and the lemon juice in a large bowl. Let the mixture rest for 5 minutes until it thickens. Add the hot sauce. Add the calamari and allow it to soak in the buttermilk for up to 4 hours.
In a separate medium bowl, mix the flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, the paprika and the cayenne pepper until blended. In another separate medium bowl, beat the eggs.
Remove the calamari from the buttermilk and allow it to drain. Dip the calamari into the beaten egg and then into the flour mixture to dredge it.
Fill a large, heavy skillet or Dutch oven with 2 cups of vegetable oil and heat the oil over medium-high heat until it registers 360 degrees on a candy thermometer, or if you are using a deep fryer, set the deep fryer to 360 degrees. Fry the calamari, in batches, until they are golden brown and crispy, about 4 minutes. Place the calamari on a plate and pat them dry with paper towels to remove any excess oil. Sprinkle the calamari with salt and pepper. Serve with the puttanesca dipping sauce and lemon wedges.
For the Puttanesca dipping sauce, heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan set over medium heat. Add the shallot and saute for 2 minutes. Add the garlic, tomato paste, anchovies, chopped olives, capers and tomatoes. Saute the mixture, stirring occasionally, for another 5 minutes. Season the sauce with salt, pepper and the chile flakes to taste. If the sauce seems a little thick, add a little bit of water and mix to thin out the sauce. Stir in the parsley and the lemon zest and serve.
you end up with crispy and tasty calamari and the dipping sauce was great. The mix of the anchovy, olives, capers and tomatoes were perfect and made a great compliment to the calamari. Of course, you can always just use buttermilk if you have some on hand instead of making your own as the recipe does, but many people do not always have buttermilk on hand so this is a good quick fix for that. As I said, this is great as an appetizer or an entrée, and we had it for dinner with some rice and vegetables to round out the meal. I forgot to take a picture of the sauce, but trust me, it comes out very tasty and fragrant.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
The Best Slow-Cooker Recipes : Cooking Channel.
It’s getting into the Fall time of year where you want to make some housewarming meals at home but may not have the time to do just everything you want during the week. This is where your slow cooker can really come in handy and Cooking Channel has put together 26 of their best slow cooker recipes for you to tryr so you can make some great meals with just a little bit of work and have everything ready when you get home. Check it out!
Easy desserts can be really helpful when you cannot think of anything to make and are having a dinner or just want a special treat for you and your family one night without having to put a lot of effort into it. One of the classic desserts that many people may remember from their youth is just like this – the classic icebox cake. It only has a few ingredients to it and most of the time you need to put into making the cake is the cake chilling in the refrigerator. What you come out with is a great tasting classic without much effort. I got this recipe from the Cooking Channel, though you can also find the recipe on the back of the chocolate wafer cooking package you use in the recipe (unless of course you are making your own chocolate wafer cookies).
Classic Icebox Cake
40 chocolate wafer cookies (store-bought or homemade)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon corn syrup
3 cups heavy whipping cream
To make the caramel whipped cream, in a medium saucepan put the sugar in a mound in the center of the pan. Try to be sure that the sugar does not hit the sides of the pan. Gently add the water and the corn syrup, making sure that the sugar does not splash up on the sides of the pan. If any of the sugar is not dissolved, very gently stir, but make sure none of the sugar hits the sides of the pan. All of this care to keep the sugar off the sides of the pan will prevent the sugar from crystallizing while it cooks.
Cook the sugar mixture over high heat, without stirring. When the sugar starts to color on the edges, gently stir the sugar until it is quite dark. The sugar will smoke a bit until it has turned dark.
Once the caramel is dark in color, reduce the heat and add half of the heavy whipping cream. The caramel will sputter and seize up, which is normal. Gently whisk the caramel until the sugar dissolves. Add the remaining heavy cream and stir. Strain the caramel cream into a shallow container and cover and refrigerate it until it is well chilled, about 2 to 4 hours minimum.
Using a whisk or a stand mixer, whip 2/3 of the chilled caramel cream until soft peaks have formed. Reserve the remaining 1/3 of the cream for topping the cake.
To make the icebox cake, Line a 8-inch by 4-inch loaf pan with plastic wrap.
Coat the bottom of the prepared loaf pan with about 1/4-inch thick layer of the caramel cream. Line the outer edge of the loaf pan with chocolate wafer cookies. Spread a layer of cream on each cookie and layer them together in the pan. You should end up with about 3 rows of cookies and cream. Cover the top with more of the cream so that the cookies are completely covered. Refrigerate the cake for at least 3 hours or overnight.
Invert the cake onto a serving platter. Whip the remaining 1/3 of the caramel cream and decorate the cake with it as you wish.
Of course, if you didn’t want to go through the effort of making the caramel cream, you could simply make some regular whipped cream and use that as the base and topping for your cake and it would come out just as nicely I believe, but the caramel adds a nice touch and flavor to the cake. The cake is light and airy and the chocolate wafers just go so nicely with the cream that you can find yourself eating a lot of this cake without much effort at all. It’s pretty tasty and one that we use often, either with regular whipped cream or caramel cream.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Finding fast and easy recipes for potatoes can make cooking up a side dish simple for nearly any type of meal. Sure you could make some simple boiled potatoes easy enough, but you want to try to add a little something to them so you can get some great flavor out of the dish. Potatoes by themselves don’t have a tremendous amount of flavor so if you can add something to them you can really liven them up. I found this simple dish at the Cooking Channel website for State Fair salt potatoes that you can make in about 15 minutes and with just a few simple ingredients that you likely have on hand all of the time.
State Fair Salt Potatoes
2 pounds baby red or Yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed and halved
6 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup mixed chopped herbs, such as oregano, dill, thyme and parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Place the potatoes in a medium saucepan and cover them with cold water. Heavily salt the water, adding 1 tablespoon of salt per 1 cup of cold water used. Place the pot over high heat and bring the water to a boil. Cook the potatoes until they are fork tender, about 12 to 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes well in a colander. Return the potatoes to the pot and toss them with the butter and the chopped herbs of your choice. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper to taste and serve.
These are very easy to make and you get great taste from the salt and the herbs that you use. I chose to use oregano and dill and loved the flavor that came out of the mix. I served these as a side dish with the roasted chicken I made, but I think they would go really well with any pork, beef or chicken dish that you wanted to make. These are perfect for the small red potatoes, but I think you could really use any type of potato that you prefer for this one.
Just a quick recipe for today, but check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Pulled pork is one of those great meals to serve when you know you are having a crowd over for dinner, but it can also be great for a weeknight meal for the family and then give you plenty of leftovers to do something with. You certainly have your options when it comes to making the pulled pork itself. You can make it in the oven, smoke your own on the grill or smoker if you have one or even make it in the slow cooker to save you some time, energy and prevent the kitchen from overheating in the summer months. However you decide to make it, once you have the leftovers you may get a little tired of having pulled pork sandwiches or pulled pork over rice. Sure you can always whip up a batch of pulled pork nachos, but I decided to take some of what I had leftover and make use of this recipe from Kelsey Nixon of the Cooking Channel. While her recipe calls for the use of leftover shredded pork, I liked the way it worked with the pulled pork instead and decided to use it that way.
Pulled Pork and Pineapple Nachos
1 1/2 pounds of cooked pulled pork (in the oven or the slow cooker)
Corn or four tortillas, warmed
2 cups fresh pineapple, cut into a 1/2-inch dice
Fresh cilantro sprigs, for garnish
Shredded red cabbage or coleslaw, for garnish
Pickled red onions, for garnish
Guacamole, for garnish
Sour cream, for garnish
Shredded Mexican cheese, for garnish
In a large saucepan, warm the pulled pork over medium heat until it is re-heated through. Warm the tortillas individually in a medium skillet set over high heat for 30 seconds to 1 minute or take a stack and wrap them in plastic wrap and heat them in the microwave for 1 minute until warmed through. Top the warmed tortillas with some of the pulled pork and the fresh diced pineapple. Add the other garnishes that you like, such as guacamole, sour cream, cilantro, coleslaw or shredded cabbage, shredded cheese or pickled red onions and serve. Let each person make their own tacos as they like it best.
This can’t get much easier and is a great use of your leftovers. The pineapple and pork go together really well and you get such great flavor from the spices of the pulled pork. I even added some of the black bean salad with mango I had made the day before to the dish for some extra freshness and bite and it really worked well. You could try this with any type of pork you may have leftover, such as tenderloin or chops and just cut them into thin strips and re-heat them lightly with some spice and you can have great tacos from that.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Summer meals, whether you are cooking them out on the grill, in the kitchen or not cooking at all and trying to keep things cool and light, call for some easy side dishes that taste great. Sure coleslaw and potato salad are always great standbys, but I have found myself recently trying to make more use of different beans in my main dishes and side dishes. Beans are a great source of fiber and protein and can go really well with a lot of the summer vegetables and fruit that you find available right now. I came across this really easy recipe from the Cooking Channel for a black bean salad with mango, cilantro and lime and it sounded so easy and refreshing that I just knew I had to give it a try one night.
Black Bean Salad with Mango, Cilantro and Lime
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 small ripe mango, peeled and diced into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 yellow, orange or red bell pepper, cut into a small dice
1 (14.5-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 small jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, minced
1 small red onion, cut into a small dice
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
In a small mixing bowl, combine the apple cider vinegar, the lime juice, the honey and the ground cumin. Slowly whisk in the canola or vegetable oil until it is well incorporated. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Mix the diced mango, diced bell pepper, black beans, minced jalapeno pepper and the diced red onion together in a large bowl. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the ingredients and toss everything together until it is combined. Season the salad with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish the dish with the cilantro and serve.
I loved he freshness of this salad with the vinaigrette. The lime juice really made it all pop together, but to me the mixof the black beans, jalapeno, red onion and the mango are what really make this work. You get such a great medley of flavors with the freshness of the mango combined with the bite of the onion and the jalapeno that it all seems to go really well together. This salad works well as a side dish to just about any type of chicken, pork or beef dish and could even stand on its own as a vegetarian meal if you wanted it to. I served it as a side to some pulled pork tacos I made (which I ill be posting the recipe for tomorrow) and it was fantastic on the side or right on the tacos themselves. I think it would also work great with quesadillas or burritos.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Fun, unusual and forgotten designations on our calendar.
Happily Ever After Lives Here
a little bit naughty a little bit nice
Letting Life Lead
Simple and delicious dinner inspiration
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