turkey croquettes

I loooooove thanksgiving!  Not only because it marks the beginning of my favorite season but also because I looooooove cooking a huge thanksgiving meal for my friends and family.  This year we wanted to make two turkeys since we were expecting a small battalion of people, so we did!  Total combined weight?  33 pounds!!  Really?  What were we thinking? You guys see where I am going?  I have had nightmares about leftover turkey for the past 3 days!

I have made paninis, rice with turkey (my thanksgiving take on arroz con pollo), turkey stock with the leftover carcass, turkey burgers, turkey chilli, turkey, turkey, turkey!  Did anyone say steak??  I am all turkeyed out!   But I still have just a little bit of turkey left and I am determined to use up all 33 pounds of turkey!  So here we go!  Now I give thanks for the leftover turkey that will stop haunting me in my dreams!…until next year that is.

Ingredients:

3 cups leftover turkey

1 tablespoons fresh thyme

6 tablespoons butter

½ cup of flour + some for coating

½ teaspoon white ground pepper

salt

1 ½ cups of milk

Bread crumbs or stuffing

2 eggs

Oil for frying

Get cooking:

  • In a food processor combine the turkey and the thyme and grate
  • In a medium pot melt the butter
  • Once the butter has melted add the flour, salt and pepper.  Combine until a soft paste forms
  • Increase heat to medium/high and slowly add the milk until the mixture comes to a low boil
  • Add the turkey and mix well
  • Cool the paste in the refrigerator until it is firm
  • Prepare your breading mix into 3 separate plates.  One with flour, one with the beaten eggs and one with breadcrumbs
  • Form small balls with the mixture from the refrigerator
  • Bread by dipping the balls in the flour, followed by the eggs and coated in breadcrumbs
  • Fry the croquettes over medium heat until golden

BTW:  Any leftover cranberry sauce?  Make it into a sweet dipping sauce for the croquettes!

If you have any leftover stuffing like I did, grate the stuffing in your food processor and use it instead of breadcrumbs for a flavorful twist.

salty fish & eggplant casserole (tastes way better than it sounds!)

So back to reality and back to cooking!  I took a few days off to recover from the recent loss of my camera.  But, now I am back in action and trying to cook up some yummy dishes for all of you!  Well, not really me cooking, at least not for this post.

What’s today’s experiment?  Salty fish and Eggplant Casserole!

Today I am not driving; today I am the observer, the interviewer, the reporter or whatever else you may want to call it.  I have recruited the help of my roommate and best friend Reyna for this dish.  But before we get down to cooking, let me tell you a little bit about her…

Reyna is 32 years old, just like me.  She is also a Korean, but born and raised in Venezuela.  When I was a sophomore in college I went out to my usual Friday night spot in Tampa for some, yes, I will admit to it now…underage drinking and salsa dancing with some cute boys!  That particular Friday I was dancing with my friends when this Asian girl I had never seen before came up to me and started to speak to me in perfect fluent Spanish.  Immediately she asked “are you Christina?” and I said “yes…”  I remembered seeing her before, somewhere on campus for sure and somehow I thought we had taken an Italian class together.  Well, the conversation went somewhat like “Hey!  I am Reyna!  I have been asking around and everyone tells me you are really nice…so…do you want to be my roommate next semester?” and I immediately said “sure!”.  To what she responded “cool!  I’ll find you on campus!” and away she went dancing into the crowd.

That night I came back to my dorm room and told my roommate April that I had met a girl at a club and agreed that we could all be roommates the following year, that I did not remember her name but she may show up soon.  April, a criminology major and police officer nowadays did not take it very well, but we needed and extra roommate to apply to where all the upper classmen lived.   And so it happened.  Soon after her proposal we discovered we were both Biology majors, loved Italian, cooking and traveling!  The only thing that we have never agreed on is our taste in men and between me and my friends, it is the best!  We date guys that the other does not find attractive at all which equals ZERO fights, jealousy or bickering!  What more could I ask for?  It was like finding the missing link to a sex and the city quartet…a match made in heaven!  Since then she has become my partner in crime and confidant!

For a few days I have been nagging her to share two of her recipes with me, so finally I got her in the kitchen!  She is cooking while I record her every move and share this recipe with all of you!

Hope you guys enjoy!

Ingredients:

3 Japanese eggplants

Kosher salt

3 salty dried anchovies, minced

1 tablespoon peppercorn chili oil

1 teaspoons sesame oil

½ pound ground chicken

1 teaspoon minced ginger

2 teaspoons minced garlic

½ medium white onion, thinly sliced

3 Thai chili peppers (optional for heat)

1 tablespoon cornstarch

¾ cups water

Scallions

Sauce:

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

2 tablespoons chili bean sauce

1 tablespoon white rice vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

  • cut the eggplant in large diagonal slices
  • salt the eggplant
  • soak the anchovies in water for about 30 minutes
  • combine ingredients for the sauce and set aside
  • over medium heat combine the chili and sesame oil
  • brown the chicken
  • add the garlic and the ginger to the chicken and continue to cook
  • add a few pinches of salt to season the chicken – note:  watch the salt, the anchiovies are already salty. 
  • once the chicken is brown, add the onion and cook until translucent
  • add the eggplant to the chicken mixture and cook for about 10 minutes
  • add the chili peppers
  • while the eggplant cooks drain the minced anchovies
  • add the anchovies to the chicken and eggplant
  • add the sauce mixture
  • dilute the cornstarch into ¾ cups of water
  • add the cornstarch mix
  • add the scallions
  • mix well
  • cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes
  • Serve with White Rice

 

M.I.A.

I am back!  Once again
I have to apologize for this huge gap between posts.  I went on vacation with my family for two
weeks and had little to no time to even breathe.  We had a great time!

Me and my family (mom, dad, sister, niece, nephew, cousins,
aunt and uncle) took a much deserved vacation and went to Disney World and
GA.   During our trip we took my 2 year old
niece and 1 year old nephew to Disney World for the first time.  After a few days in Orlando we took a short
road trip and headed north to Georgia.
Took my mom to Blue Ridge to see the leaves turning in the fall for the
first time in her life, went apple picking for the first time, went to Dekalb
market for the first time and visited the World of Coca Cola and the Georgia
Aquarium for the first time too!

So what do I do after two fun filled weeks of firsts?!  I go and lose my camera!  Yep!!!
Still kicking myself for it!

Has anyone ever lost a camera?  Well, this was also a first for me and I
can’t help but sympathize with anyone out there that has gone through this
experience.  That first night, after
having called every place I had been to in the past 24 hours, the fact that I
had lost my camera slowly started to sink in and I found myself going to bed
with tears in my eyes.  I was not really
mourning the camera itself but all the precious memories and videos that could
never be replaced.

Capturing moments like those are precious.  I can still close my eyes an remember my
2-year old niece seeing Mickey Mouse for the first time, wanting to touch him,
the emotion, the innocence.  My mom
picking apples for the first time, roasting marshmallows in the woods at night
and so much more!  Those are the memories
that we capture so in the future we can look back and cherish those
moments.

Took almost 5 years, a slew of illnesses, loses and many
other life incidents and tragedies to get the whole family together and now the
only memories left are those recorded in our mind, and because our mind works
in mysterious ways, those memories will fade with time.

During the trip we visited Helen, GA and I remember seeing a
sign in front of a store with a flyer that said “Lost Nikon Camera here, reward
for memory stick, may keep camera”.  My
initial thought was “man that must suck!”
Then I mentioned to my sister that there should be a universal lost and
found for the lost cameras of the world.
There has to be a way in which people that find a camera can anonymously
upload any pictures they find on a website so those of us that are on the
losing end can go look for them.  Maybe
there is such a website and the world is not aware of it. I am definitely not
aware.

I cannot stop wishing someone would just return the memory
stick and keep the camera.  I already
have a new one, don’t need it, it was 4 years old and had seen its share of the
world with me, it was time for retirement.
However, over 700 pictures and videos that may soon be deleted and
erased, meaningless moments to a stranger…that my friends, is heart breaking!

I am writing this post with hopes that maybe one day someone
will come across it and return the pictures to me, if not, at the very least to
sympathize with any of you that have mourned the loss of a camera and the
precious moments captured in it.

Oh and not forget blog pictures!  How many pictures do you take of a dish?  I have found myself taking a ton for a single
dish.  Hours in the kitchen, plating,
styling and photographing the meal.
Sigh!  Those are lost too.

So my dear friends, my heart goes out to anyone whose camera
has ever gone M.I.A. I can sincerely say “I know the feeling” and can only hope
that whoever has acquired my camera enjoys it as much as I did.  Unfortunately that is the way it is!

PS.  Stay tuned as I play
around with my new camera and cook up some more recipes to share with all of
you!  Will be back soon!