Caprese Grilled Cheese

Anything that contains the word "Caprese" in the recipe title, I'm in. I love Caprese entrees and appetizers and I love a hot off the griddle grilled cheese. When the two are combined together you get an intensely delicious sandwich that you won't easily forget. Obviously you don't have to use fresh bread as I listed in the recipe, but I figure if you are going to fill a sandwich with fresh mozzarella, fresh tomatoes and fresh basil then you may as well keep a good thing going. Looking for a delightfully simple and quick lunch or dinner idea? Look no further because it doesn't get much easier than grilled cheese and this is grilled cheese done right. Enjoy!

 Caprese Grilled Cheese
Yields 1 serving

Ingredients:
2 slices fresh bread (I recommend sourdough or rustic white bread)
3 oz fresh mozzarella, sliced into rounds or grated*
4 - 6 Roma tomato slices
1 Tbsp chopped, fresh basil ribbons
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil or 1 Tbsp butter
1/2 clove of garlic, for rubbing bread 

Directions:
Layer Mozzarella rounds in an even layer over one slice of bread followed by an even layer of sliced tomatoes. Sprinkle basil ribbons over top and season with ground black pepper to taste, then cover with remaining slice of bread. Drizzle 1 tsp olive oil in a non-stick skillet, heat over medium-low heat and tilt back and forth to evenly coat (heat the oil long enough for it to glide easily across the pan but don't heat it to smoking point before adding sandwich or it the bread will toast before the cheese has a chance to melt. If using butter, spread 1/2 tbsp butter on both top and bottom of sandwich and heat skillet over medium heat), add sandwich, cover with lid and cook until sandwich is golden brown on bottom, about 2 minutes. Then lift sandwich out of skillet and drizzle remaining 1 tsp olive oil into skillet, tilt pan back and forth to evenly coat. Carefully flip sandwich to opposite side then return to skillet, cover with lid and continue to cook until bottom side is golden brown and cheese is melted through. Remove from skillet and lightly brush garlic clove along toasted sides of bread. Serve immediately.

*When I don't have fresh mozzarella on hand I will sometimes use low-moisture part-skim Mozzarella which is also delicious.

Read More

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Is there anything like a delicious, made from scratch Thanksgiving meal? Many people settle for the stuff that comes out of a can or a box, and that's just it, it's settling. If you find yourself to be one of those people that is settling, I would highly recommend this year you give the homemade alternative to the pre-packaged and processed Thanksgiving foods a try. The two are a night and day difference. Like this for instance, one comes in the shape of a can while it's homemade opponent has a spoonable texture and begins with fresh fruit. Not to mention this is unbelievable easy to prepare. 

Cranberry sauce and turkey were made to be together. It's another Thanksgiving must. Here's a few random ideas if you happen to have any left over cranberry sauce after the holiday:

• spread over toast or pancakes
• serve warm over chocolate or vanilla ice cream
• spread in a turkey sandwich 
• make into a dressing or vinaigrette
• spread over a cream cheese layered bagel
• add to a fruit smoothie
• use it as a dip for chicken nuggets/sticks
• serve with roasted chicken or pork chops
• make a tangy and tart barbecue sauce with it
• spread over cheesecake
• add it to a chicken or turkey salad
• layer cheese slices or cream cheese over crackers and spread with cranberry sauce
• mix in breakfast oatmeal and top with whipped cream

Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

1 (12 oz) bag cranberries, rinsed

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light-brown sugar

1 tsp orange zest

Directions:

In a medium sauce-pan set over medium-high heat, whisk together water, orange juice, granulated sugar, light-brown sugar and orange zest. Bring mixture to a boil then carefully pour in cranberries and reduce heat to a simmer. Allow mixture to simmer about 10 - 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cranberries have popped (they skin on the cranberries will burst and it will release the juices and pulp, in other words they'll pop open). Allow mixture to cool about 20 - 30 minutes. Store in refrigerator in an airtight container. 

Recipe Source: Cooking Classy

Read More

Browned Butter Sweet Potato Casserole

I'm not a huge casserole fan but this is the best sweet potato thing I've ever eaten! It's time for dinner and I would rather just skip the dinner meal and have a heaping plate of this in its place. I would be happy if this were the only thing I had to eat for the thanksgiving feast =). 
Growing up I never cared for sweet potato anything but that has definitely changed. Now I say it's a Thanksgiving must! It's basically a dessert that passes for a side, so how could you not love it? 
This recipe is a pretty basic recipe. I chose not to add in any spices, cream, citrus or even vanilla because I didn't want to drown out any of that incredible browned butter flavor. Some of you may be thinking this girl puts browned butter in everything. And I say, well why not? My motto: if it's going to have butter it may as well be browned. There are some exceptions to that but not many. Browned butter enhances everything that's lucky enough to contain it's goodness. When it's added to something along with brown sugar it seems to give it a caramel-y flavor. Another highlight of make this recipe is that you won't need to light any scented candles for the holiday =). To me browned butter is basically the best scent in the world. I want to cook it sometimes just so my home can be filled with it's captivating, delightfully fragrant, nutty, caramel-like smell. Does it come in perfume?
The other thing I chose to do with this recipe is yo use two toppings. Why stick with just one? That way it gives people two options to choose from, the marshmallow or crunchy pecan corn flake topping. I always take a scoop that has half of each because I love them both. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

Browned Butter Sweet Potato Casserole
Yields about 12 servings

Ingredients:
5 lbs sweet potatoes
1/2 cup salted butter, diced into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1/3 cup milk

Topping:
2 1/4 cups crushed corn flakes (begin with about 5 cups and crush to about 2 1/4 cups)
1/2 cup chopped pecans (I used pre-chopped pecan chips to save time)
1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/4 cup salted butter, diced into 1-inch pieces
3 cups miniature marshmallows

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pierce each sweet potato several times with a fork and transfer to a rimmed cookie sheet. Bake about 1 hour, or until very tender when pierced with a fork. Meanwhile brown 1/2 cup butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, swirling pan occasionally (for stages of browning butter see notes below).
Remove potatoes from oven and reduce oven temperature to 350. Cut each in half and scoop out flesh into a large mixing bowl. Mash potatoes with a potato masher. Pour in 1/2 cup browned butter, using a rubber spatula to scrape excess butter from pan, add granulated sugar, 1/4 cup light-brown sugar and salt then using an electric hand mixer set on low speed, blend together until well combine. Add in eggs and mix until well blended, then pour in milk and mix until well blended. Pour mixture into a buttered 13 x 9 baking dish and spread into an even layer. 
Brown remaining 1/4 cup butter in a saucepan. Pour crushed cornflakes into a mixing bowl, along with chopped pecans and 1/4 cup light-brown sugar and mix to combine. Pour browned butter over mixture and toss to evenly coat. Spread mixture into diagonal rows over mashed sweet potato mixture leaving about a 1 1/2-inch gap between rows. Bake in preheated oven (350 degrees) for 30 minutes, then remove from oven and spread marshmallows between rows of corn flake topping. Return to oven and bake until marshmallows are lightly golden about 8 - 12 minutes (I didn't brown mine much because I like the contrast of color between the white of the marshmallow and golden brown of the corn flake topping). Serve warm. Store in refrigerator in an airtight container.

Stages of browning butter: butter will first melt, it will become lemony yellow and after a minute or two it will begin to splatter a bit, then it will foam and begin to smell nutty, then little brown specks will begin to appear in the center of the golden foamy bubbles - this is when you remove it from heat. I wait just a few seconds for a generous amount of specs maybe a 2-inch circle before removing from heat. Color wise it should go from a yellow, to golden tan, to an orange-y toasty golden brown. I personally like to push it to the limit before removing from heat to get a really nice browned flavor, be sure you don't take it off too early while also not waiting too long.

Note that if you are making this in advance to refrigerate then bake the following day, don't add the corn flake topping until baking or it will become stale. Also I'd recommend placing cold casserole in cool oven and let it preheat with oven. 

Recipe Source: Cooking Classy

Read More

Roasted Turkey

If you ask me, it only takes 3 ingredients (well 4 if you count the water) to prepare a perfect roasted turkey. In other words the perfect Thanksgiving turkey, the most important part of the Thanksgiving feast. We only have roasted turkey in my home about 5 times a year so I'm definitely not perfect at preparing one. That is why this time around I turned to Cook's Illustrated to follow their advice for brining and roasting turkey. I'm so glad I did as I achieved incredible results. I always thought it took plenty of fancy fresh herbs and a jumble of other ingredients to get a delicious turkey. That was definitely a misconception. If you ask me, some of those things can seemingly hide the delicious flavors of the turkey. All you need is a turkey, salt, water, a bit of butter along with a few easy steps and you'll have a turkey that is moist, flavorful and tender with a perfectly golden, crispy skin. It's likely that no one will even be reaching for the salt with this turkey. The brine get's the job done. I think this will now be my go to Thanksgiving turkey recipe. Easy and delicious! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 After brining, for an extra crispy skin allow to air dry in refrigerator for 8 hours  on top of a cooling rack set over a rimmed cookie sheet (optional).

 If you don't have a large roasting rack, you can use a large tin, if you don't own a V-rack you can create one using two grates from a gas oven or two racks from a toaster oven. No matter what you use for the V-rack, just be sure to line it with foil and poke holes in the foil.

 Brush both sides with 2 Tbsp melted butter, then roast breast side down first.

Perfectly crisp, golden skin, with a moist deliciously seasoned interior. A Thanksgiving Turkey to remember...

Brined and Roasted Turkey

Ingredients:
1 (12 - 14 lb) untreated turkey, rinsed thoroughly*
1/2 - 1 cup Table salt, depending on brine time
4 Tbsp butter, melted

Directions:

1. For the brine: for a 4 - 6 hour brine, dissolve 1 cup of table salt per 1 gallon of water. For a 12 - 14 hour brine, dissolve 1/2 cup of table salt per 1 gallon of water. Place turkey in an extra large food safe bag (such as a Reynolds Turkey Size Oven Bag), a large stockpot or a clean bucket. Pour enough of the salt water over turkey to completely cover (tie knot bag if using a bag) and refrigerate turkey for predetermined amount of time. 

2. Before removing turkey from brine, adjust oven rack to lowest or second to lowest position (Cook's Illustrated stated "lowest" in their recipe, I actually went with second to lowest). Preheat oven to 400 degrees**. Line a large V-rack with heavy duty aluminum foil or two layers of regular foil, and using a pairing knife poke 20 - 30 holes in foil. Set lined V-rack in a large roasting pan.

3. After soaking turkey in brine, remove from refrigerator and thoroughly rinse turkey under cold tap water. Using paper towels, pat turkey dry inside and out. With the breast side facing upward, tuck wingtips underneath the bottom side of turkey and tuck ends of drumsticks into skin at tail to secure***. Then brush turkey (breast side up) with 2 Tbsp melted butter, then rotate turkey and set breast-side down on prepared V-rack and brush opposite side with remaining 2 Tbsp melted butter. Roast turkey for 1 hour.

4. Carefully remove turkey in roasting pan from oven (and close oven door so the heat doesn't escape). Using clean kitchen towels or pot holders, lift turkey and rotate to opposite side - it should now be breast side up. Return turkey in roasting pan to oven and continue to roast until thickest part of breast registers 165 degrees on an instant read thermometer, and the thickest part of thigh registers 175 degrees, about 60 minutes (if you don't like juicy turkey you will definitely want to bake it longer). Remove from oven and transfer turkey to a carving board, allow turkey to rest 30 minutes. Carve and serve with freshly ground black pepper if desired (mine didn't need any salt). 

*Do not use a pre-seasoned, self-basting or Kosher turkey.
**I would recommend roasting at 450 degrees for the first hour then reducing oven temp to 400 degrees for the second hour. Cooks Illustrated left the oven at 400 degrees the entire time.
***Or for an optional step if you prefer an extra crispy skin on your turkey you can air dry the turkey in the refrigerator. To do so, place brined and rinsed turkey on a cooling rack set over a rimmed cookie sheet and allow turkey to rest in refrigerator for at least 8 hours (so obviously you wont need to preheat oven until later). Then proceed with the recipe (in step 3, brushing with butter). Again this is an optional step and only needed if you want a an extra crispy skin. 

Recipe Source: adapted from Cook's Illustrated All-Time Best Recipes, pg 40 - 41 "How to Brine and Roast Turkey" (can also be found here).

Read More

Peppermint Brownies with Fluffy Peppermint Buttercream

I'm so excited to be a part of such a fun Christmas event this year. Today and I'm posting over on I Heart Naptime for her Crazy Christmas Event (she has such a cute blog btw). So please head on over to check out my post and the delicious and easy recipe for these amazing, Christmas inspired Peppermint Brownies. P.S. they start from a boxed brownies mix! I just doctored it up a bit and no one would ever now they aren't from scratch.

Recipe for Peppermint Brownies with Fluffy Peppermint Buttercream Frosting can be found HERE.

Read More