Fennel, Sausage and Caramelized Apple Stuffing

Fennel, Sausage, and Caramelized Apple Stuffing
From Cooking Light 

As you are probably aware, Thanksgiving is tomorrow.  And as you probably don't know, John and I attended a fabulous "Friendsgiving" feast on Sunday.  Both of these events involve stuffing.  Lots of delicious stuffing, some of which may even be offered to us as left overs, which is great since we love stuffing.  In fact, love might not be a strong enough word.  Case in point: on Tuesday we made a MASSIVE (i.e. 12 serving) batch of stuffing...for the two of us.  Of course we didn't eat all of it in one sitting, but I'd be willing to bet we polish it off before the week is out.

I blame magazines (obviously I'd never blame our lack of self control...) for this act of gluttony.  The magazine shelves are currently brimming with outrageous cover stories about caramelized veggies, potatoes galore, and of course every variety of stuffing known to man.  The average person only gets to contribute one or two dishes to their family's feast, so for cooking addicts like us there's just not enough Thanksgivings in a lifetime to make everything that looks amazing.  Thus, we had no choice but to cave in and make this awesome stuffing recipe on a random Tuesday night sandwiched between two legitimate holiday feasts.
Don't worry, we turned it into a real meal by sauteing some extra sausage with red pepper and red onion strips and having some garlicky broccoli on the side, but in the end this stuffing stole the show.  The apples add a hint of sweetness without over powering it, and the sausage is the perfect savory note.  It's certainly not traditional Stove Top style, but it's not so far off that traditionalists would be insulted.  So if you're one of the lucky ones that gets to contribute stuffing this year and for some reason haven't found a recipe yet, consider giving this one a try!


Ingredients

• 12 oz sourdough bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• cooking spray
• 9 oz Italian sausage (we used hot Italian sausage, but mild works too)
• 5 tsp olive oil, divided
• 4 cups chopped onion
• 1 1/4 cups fennel bulb, sliced
• 1 1/4 cups carrot, chopped
• 1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves (the recipe called for 2 Tbsp chopped fresh sage, but we didn't have any)
• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
• 5 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
• 1/2 tsp black pepper, divided
• 3 cups apple, chopped (we used Honey Crisp, the recipe called for Golden Delicious)
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 1/2 cups fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
• 2 large eggs

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Arrange bread cubes in a single layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.  Bake for 16 minutes, stirring after 8 minutes.  Place toasted bread in a large bowl.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Coat with cooking spray.
4. Remove casings froms sausage and add to pan.  Cook 8 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble.  Add cooked sausage to bread bowl, reserving sausage grease.
5. Add 3 tablespoons oil to sausage grease, swirling to coat.
6. Add onion, sliced fennel bulb, carrot, thyme, crushed fennel seeds, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper to the pan.  Saute 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.  Add veggies to bread mixture.
7. Add 2 tsp oil to pan, swirling to coat.
8. Add apple and sugar, and saute 5 minutes or until apple caramelizes, stirring occasionally.  Add apple mixture to bread mixture.
9. Whisk broth and eggs in a small bowl.
10. Add broth mixture and 1/4 tsp pepper to mixture, tossing well to combing.
11. Spoon mixture into a 13x9 inch glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray.
12. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.
13. Remove foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes, or until browned and crisp on top.

Serves 12.

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Jalapeno Butternut Squash Soup

Jalapeno Butternut Squash Soup
From Derek Clayton 

If you've been keeping up with the HMK since the beginning, you may be thinking "geez, they make a LOT of soup!"  Ironically, our pre-blog soup consumption was pretty exclusively Campbell's based.  I've always loved soup and there's been a few ill-fated attempts a making it over the years, but I was never able to produce anything as creamy and comforting as the old Campbell's can (sad, I know).  Usually my attempts involved an immersion blender that I had a brief love affair with.  If you have one, you know that they're super fun to use and hold the promise of being quick, easy, and low mess.  But what they don't offer is creamy.  All my soups were oddly chunky and mealy, and after a particularly off-putting batch of lentil soup, John put a moratorium on the soup making.

Then the KitchenAid 5-Speed KSB560 blender came into our lives. 


That's right, a basic blender that we got as a wedding gift changed everything.  We finally gave into the potential mess and started using our shiny new toy to blend soups.  We hit puree and walk away.  In just 2 minutes, beautiful velvety smooth soup is born.  Now we make every creamy soup that crosses our paths, and we haven't looked back.


Ingredients

• 1 butternut squash (about 3 pounds)
• olive oil
• coarse salt
• 1 tsp butter, melted
• 2 pinches cayenne pepper
• 1 pinch ground cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 yellow onions, finely chopped
• 2 medium carrots, chopped
• 2 medium celery ribs, chopped
• ½ jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped (we left the seeds in...and it was HOT.  your call)
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• 4 cups chicken stock (store bought is totally fine, but if you're feeling overzealous, make your own!)
• ½ cup heavy cream
• cider vinegar, to taste
• salt, to taste
• 1 Granny Smith apple, thinly sliced into matchsticks, optional
• ½ cup cilantro leaves, chopped, optional

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Slice the squash in half lengthwise.  Scoop out the seeds and fibrous pulp, reserving the seeds.
3. Use a sharp knife to score the neck portion of the squash flesh several times.  Rub the flesh with olive oil and season with coarse salt.
4. Place the squash on a parchment lined baking sheet, cut side down.  Roast for 1 hour.
5. Remove from oven, allow to cool slightly, and scrape flesh from skin.  Set aside.
6. Rinse the seeds in a colander and dry with paper towels.
7. Place the seeds on a baking sheet and toast at 400 degrees for 7 minutes, or until golden and fragrant.
8. In a small bowl, whisk together melted butter, cayenne pepper, cinnamon and a large pinch of salt.  Toss with seeds and set aside.
9. Heat vegetable oil in a medium stockpot over medium heat.
10. Add the onions, carrots, celery and jalapeno.  Cook, stirring often, until tender, about 10 minutes.
11. Add the maple syrup and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes.
12. Add squash, chicken stock, and cream.  Simmer for 10 minutes.
13. Transfer soup to blender and puree until velvety smooth.
14. Return to pot over low heat and season to taste with cider vinegar and salt.
15. Serve hot, garnished with seeds, apple, and cilantro.

Serves 6.

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Homemade Chicken Stock

Homemade Chicken Stock
From Ina Garten 

Making your own chicken stock is clearly not necessary.  According to me, and according to most sane people.  BUT, something strange happens when you watch enough episodes of Martha Stewart and The Barefoot Contessa.  Sure, at first you mock the TV screen and joke about fetching eggs from your chickens out back.  But then one day you wake up and say something absurd to your husband: "honey, I think we should make our own chicken stock today."  And then, because he's been second hand smoking this crazy food babble for the past 3 years, he agrees to the process of sitting around all Saturday afternoon to make this happen (to be fair, college football season makes the sitting around part less objectionable for him).

So what was the result?  Actually, a pretty awesome product for what was really very little work.  Everything goes into the pot whole or nearly whole, so there's not much hands on effort.  And it makes a TON of stock, so thanks to some Gladware and our new freezer in the garage, we'll be enjoying this super rich stock for a while to come.


Ingredients

• 2 (5-pound) roasting chickens
• 2 large yellow onions, unpeeled and quartered
• 4 carrots, unpeeled and halved
• 2 stalks celery with leaves, cut into thirds
• 3 parsnips, unpeeled and cut in half
• 15 sprigs fresh parsley
• 10 sprigs fresh thyme
• 15 sprigs fresh dill
• 1 head garlic, unpeeled and cut in 1/2 crosswise
• 1 1/2 Tbsp coarse salt
• 1 1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns

Preparation

1. Place the chickens, onions, carrots, celery, parsnips, parsley, thyme, dill, garlic, salt, and peppercorns into a 12-quart stockpot.
2. Add 5 quarts of water and bring to a boil.
3. Simmer, uncovered, for 2 hours.
4. Remove the chickens and place in a big bowl.  Pull the breast meat off both chickens. 
5. Return the carcases and all scraps to the pot.  Simmer, uncovered, for an additional 2 hours.
6. Strain the entire contents of the pot through a colander and discard the solids.
7. Chill the stock overnight.
8. The next day the fat will have congealed on the top.  Skim it off with a ladle.
9. Use immediately, or pack in containers and freeze for up to 3 months.

Makes about 4 quarts.

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