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Many years ago I found a recipe by Marian Burros for a white chicken chili done with bite size boneless chicken breasts. The other night while channel surfing, I came upon “Sara’s Weeknight Meals” and Sara was preparing white chicken chili with ground chicken. I have never tried ground chicken, but have numerous recipes for ground turkey. Her recipe was quite easy and used pantry staples. The recipe calls for an onion, garlic, all-purpose flour, chili powder, ground cumin, cayenne pepper, chicken stock, white wine, ground chicken, two cans of cannellini beans and either sour cream or yogurt. I’m now counting leftover white wine as a pantry staple for me.
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I am still working through all the various cuts of venison a friend of my husband gave us. Over the weekend, I defrosted a roast and prepared that yesterday. I was able to find a recipe for a red wine braised venison roast that had simple ingredients that I felt would make for an appealing meal. 

The recipe called for red wine, garlic, thyme, onion, celery, carrots and beef stock. The recipe was for a 1 pound piece of meat and said to cut the roast into serving size pieces. I kept my roast whole. The roast was a little bit larger than a pound.  I didn’t use 1-1/2 cups of red wine that the recipe called for. I used half that amount along with  1 cup of beef stock and vegetables. I was hoping that those ingredients would yield sufficient pan juices at the end.
The recipe said to cook the meat for 2-3 hours or until tender. I cooked my for for 2-1/2 hours. When I went to turn the roast after an hour,  the meat was starting to look almost done. I wished that I used my meat thermometer to get a reading as braising for as long as I did was too long. When I finally pulled the roast out, most of the liquid had cooked off. I wish now that I used the full amount of wine or add the difference in beef stock. The roast was a bit overcooked, but it was tender and flavorful. The vegetables were delicious and maintained a bit of chew. I have some bordelaise sauce in my freezer that I will defrost and serve over the leftover roast . Overall, a good meal despite the meat being overcooked.

I still have some backstrap in the freezer. Backstrap is the length of loin on the back of a deer. I’ll use my meat thermometer the next time so as to not over cook the venison.
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Did you ever purchase apple cider for a holiday then discover there’s still some left. You may not feel like having another cup of mulled cider, so how about something different, an apple cider sour cocktail? I read about this drink in a “20 Odd Questions” column in the December 21st issue of the Wall Street Journal in which Martha Stewart says this is her favorite holiday drink. The drink contains apple cider, a piece of fresh ginger, lemon juice and bourbon. 
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I’ve got a great son-in-law! He prepared a fabulous Christmas dinner the other day.  His first inclination for Christmas dinner was lamb. However, my husband isn’t a big fan. My son-in-law then sent me a text saying he decided on veal. I assumed that he was making veal cutlets, but much to my surprise he made osso buco.
 
He found a fantastic old fashioned butcher shop, John’s Meat Mark, in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. My son-in-law was impressed by the service and knowledge of the butchers and also their walk in meat locker. They carry a wide variety of beef, pork and chicken products. John’s also carries assorted varieties of specialty sausage including Andoille, Chorizo, bratwurst, bockwurst, weisswurst and knockwurst. If that isn’t enough for you how about foil gras and wild game such as duck, quail and venison to name a few. 
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During the holidays everyone is busy between shopping and holiday prepping. Recently I was at Wegmans and purchased fresh shrimp from North Carolina. Recently the price of shrimp from North Carolina was as high as $16.99/lb. to a more recently acceptable level of $9.99/lb. Each time I saw the shrimp at Wegmans, I reached out to my sister-in-law on the Outer Banks to see what she was paying for fresh shrimp. Fortunately, at $9.99/lb. this was just $2 more per pound that my sister-in-law was paying. I grabbed a pound for supper.
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This week I had to pick up my granddaughter from daycare as both her parents were working extended hours. As my husband is also working extended hours during the holidays, I also needed to have meals on hand for him to reheat in my absence.
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My son loves Kane Brewing in Ocean Township, NJ. And over the Thanksgiving holiday he brought some stout beer to the house. There was one can that he left in my refrigerator.  I’m not a beer drinker, so I needed to find a recipe in which to use this product. I found a slow cooker recipe on the New York Times cooking app called slow cooker beef stew with maple syrup and stout. After reading the comments left by other cooks, this appeared to be a good recipe. The recipe recommended using a 3 to 3-1/2-pound chuck roast and cutting it into 2-inch chunks. However, I was only able to locate one roast that wasn’t part of a two-pack family pack. You’ll also need carrots, parsnips, russet potatoes, fresh thyme and rosemary, stout beer, real maple syrup and balsamic vinegar.
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Last week I was channel surfing our local PBS station when I came upon the show Sara’s Weeknight Meals. It’s hosted by chef Sara Moulton, who had one of the first cooking shows on the Food Network called “Cooking Live.” Sara literally cooked an entire meal in one hour while fielding questions from viewers calling in.

On this particular episode she was cooking several dishes with eggs. The one that caught my eye was Soufflé Omelet. This beautiful, fluffy omelet was made with five eggs and filled with goat cheese mixed with chopped broccoli. The omelet will serve two. My husband didn’t think it would be filling, but he was surprised that it was ample enough for him. I served maple pork breakfast sausage ($6.99/lb.) from Whole Foods to go along with the omelet and toasty whole wheat English muffins from Vermont Bread Company. Overall a super quick and delicious breakfast for supper meal. 
Soufflé Omelet filled with Broccoli and Goat Cheese
Sara's Weeknight Meals Season 9 
 
Makes 2 servings
Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Total preparation time: 27 minutes

Ingredients
1/2 pound cooked broccoli, coarsely chopped
3 ounces fresh goat cheese, crumbled
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
5 large eggs, separated
2 tablespoons all purpose flour

Directions
Preheat oven to 375° F. Toss the broccoli with the goat cheese and saltand pepper to taste.

Heat the oil in a 10-inch nonstick or stick resistant skillet with a heat proof handle until it is hot and tilt the pan to coat the bottom with the oil; remove from the heat. Whisk the egg yolks with the flour, 1/2 teaspoon saltand 1/4 teaspoon pepper until the mixture is thick and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until they hold soft peaks. Stir one quarter of the whites into the yolks and then fold the remaining whites into the yolk mixture gently but thoroughly. Pour the eggmixture into the skillet, spreading it evenly.

Bake the omelet in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes, or until it is puffed and almost cooked through, spoon the filling down the middle of it, and with a spatula fold the omelet in half to enclose the filling. Bake theomelet in the middle of the oven for 2 minutes more, or until the cheese is melted and the omelet is cooked through.
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The other morning, my husband was thoughtfully giving me supper suggestions. Sometimes I can use a bit of inspiration. His ideas were good, but they spurned me on to find a new take on ground turkey burgers. My go to sources for meals is New York Times Cooking or Epicurious. For the turkey burgers, I found a good recipe on Epicurious for turkey burgers with tomato jam, olives and feta. I will say, the only change I made to the recipe was to swap the feta for ricotta salata has I would use any leftover more so than the feta.
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I love Delicious Orchards of Colts Neck, New Jersey chocolate sugar cookies. They are soft and fudgy tasting. While I can purchase a bag anytime, I enjoy baking as I find it relaxing. I’ve had since December 2018 a recipe for chocolate sugar cookie dough from Southern Living Magazine. The dough is made with unsalted butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, unsweetened cocoa, baking powder and salt.
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Now that Thanksgiving is over, I can now catch up with the review and recipes for my Thanksgiving dinner. Perhaps some of these recipes will intrigue you enough to prepare them for the Christmas and New Year holiday.
 
For appetizers, my son and daughter-in-law brought over a wonderful cheese board. They went to our local Wegmans for the ingredients. The standout on the cheese board was the goat brie and the olive tapenade, yum! We also had a sinfully rich Alexian Truffle Mousse with pork, turkey and chicken liver mousse. By request, my son wanted to make sure that we had Mr. Shrimp’s crab spread. We had a little taste of everything. Next, we had fresh cheese ravioli from Pastosa. Nothing beats fresh pasta. Again, we had a few each with leftovers sent home with each our children. 


​meet donna

A former teacher, shop-a-holic, empty-nester redefining quick, family approved dinners.

​If you have questions or comments, click on the envelope icon above to contact me directly. 

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