Category Archives: Holiday Dishes

Appetizers and Small Plates, Holiday Dishes, Meat Dishes, Recipes

Post-Thanksgiving Stuffed Mushrooms

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Thanksgiving leftovers go from absolute wonder to total boredom as the days pass after turkey day.  By day three, you’re still hiding under mounds of potatoes and gravy, but so over the leftover sandwich.  You don’t want to waste, but you’d like a taste profile different from the original meal.  While mashed potatoes are easy to repurpose (shepard’s pie, pierogies, croquettes), stuffing gets old.  But yet, with a little bit of ingenuity, you can make a glorious appetizer out of the remnants of the holiday.

These mushrooms are stuffed with a combination of ground beef, spinach and cheese to make a mini-meatball as a baked, one-bite delicacy.  Feel free to chuck in leftover vegetables (roasted red peppers or caramelized onions work well) or different greens (kale or swiss chard) to make the same deliciousness with whatever solid ingredients you have on hand.  You’ll be most pleased with the increased fridge space and the dying of the rumble in your tummy, not to mention the end of turkey malaise.

Recipe for

Post-Thanksgiving Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients
1/2 lb. of ground beef
1 c. of leftover stuffing
1/4 c. of spinach leaves, defrosted and squeezed of liquid
1 lb. of mushrooms, cleaned and stems removed.
1/2 c. of parmasean
1 tsp. of fennel seeds
1 c. of mozzarella cheese

Wipe the mushrooms clean and remove the stems.  If you’d like, chop the stems and add to the filling that you’ll mix in a bit.  Line a cookie sheet with foil and grease with olive oil or melted butter.  Place the mushroom caps on the cookie sheet and preheat the oven to 375°.

In a standing mixer (or with your hands in a mixing bowl), blend the ground beef, stuffing, mushroom stems, spinach, parmasean and fennel.  Fill the mushrooms with a few tablespoons of filling, using a spoon to smooth the mounds into round balls.  Sprinkle with parmasean cheese and bake in the oven for 25 – 30 minutes, until the mushrooms are golden on top and cooked through.  Serve with toothpicks.

Appetizers and Small Plates, Holiday Dishes, Recipes, Seafood Dishes

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

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Like a true daughter of the Eastern shore, I love me some blue crab.  I once read an article that broke me into a fury as strong as the east coast-west coast hip hop beef.  Apparently Tupac thinks dungeoness crab is far better than Biggie’s favorite blue crabs, and that those little hard-shelled beauties from the Chesapeake Bay (and increasingly from the Gulf and around Texas) are too hard to crack and overrated.  To which I say, Tupac, that’s bollocks.  Come over for these crab-stuffed mushrooms anytime and I will change your mind.  And yes, I just offered the deceased crab stuffed mushrooms.

This recipe is incredibly simple, but can be pricey if you are making it outside the Chesapeake Bay area.  I lessen the blow by substituting half of the lump crab with claw meat – this briny, dark colored meat is far cheaper and works well as a mushroom filling.  If that’s still too expensive, employ a blend of a half pound of diced raw shrimp and roasted red peppers sautéed with an extra cup of panko, a few tablespoons of butter and enough chicken stock to moisten the stuffing.  Regardless of the seafood, the mixture is lightened by lemon zest and parsley, and has a dose of cayenne for kick.  Make a batch of these for loved ones, and I am sure that your street cred will go through the roof.  Homie? Homie.

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

1 shallot, minced
4 tbs. of butter
8 oz. lump crab meat
8 oz. of crab claw meat
1 egg
1/2 tbs. of dijon mustard
2 tbs. of mayo
pinch of cayenne
1/4 tsp. of white pepper
1 tbs. of fresh thyme
2 tbs. of fresh chopped parsley
1 tsp of old bay, plus more for sprinkling
1 lemon
1/2 c. of panko, plus more for sprinkling
1 lb. of cremini or white button mushrooms

Wipe the mushrooms clean and remove the stems.  If you’d like, chop the stems and sauté with the shallots in the next step or save for another use (like a marinara sauce or a mushroom risotto).  Line a cookie sheet with foil and grease with olive oil or butter.  Place the mushroom caps on the cookie sheet and preheat the oven to 375°.

Sauté the shallots in a small skillet with the butter until translucent.  Let cool to room temperature and then pour into a mixing bowl.  Blend carefully with the egg, mustard, mayo, cayenne, white pepper, thyme, parsley, old bay and the zest of 1 lemon.  Pick over the crab for any extra shells and gently fold into the stuffing mixture.  Fold in the panko.  Fill each mushroom with a few tablespoons of filling.  Sprinkle with panko and old bay on top.  Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until golden.  Cut the lemon into wedges and squeeze over the mushrooms before serving.  Eat and then bust a rhyme.

Baked Goods, Desserts, Friends Recipes and Hacks, Holiday Dishes, Recipes, Vegetarian Dishes

Simple Gingerbread Cookies

Not gonna lie, I wholeheartedly think Sandra Lee is a hot mess.  Most of her recipes strip the fun out of cooking, replacing fresh ingredients and unique spices with prepackaged, frozen ingredients, all for the sake of saving time.  Which I believe is reserved for getting drunk, based on the heavy emphasis on “cocktail time” in each and every one of her episodes.  A group of us were watching her show Semi Homemade (aka Semi Disgusting) like a horror film – a friend turned to us all and said that she couldn’t get over how batshit crazy she seemed.  Watching her show is like a car accident in slow-motion – from recipes for Kwanzaa cake to jello shots (Um, we need a recipe for jello shots? How old are we?), Food Network Humor has a wide array of just the recipes and techniques that make me groan every time I see her trying to teach people how to cook.

So with all of the vitriole above, and my straight up disgust with Sandra Lee, maybe I need to put down the haterade for a second in that her gingerbread recipe is damn good.  I found the recipe in passing while getting together my list of Christmas goodies to bake, and to my horror, the one that seemed like some majesty was hers.  With a few tweaks made by my expert baker of a sister, this recipe absolutely goes into the pantheon of keepers for all time.  Given that there’s no shame in my game, I do have to give her (or, more likely, whatever peon employee of Food Network Test Kitchen who wrote the recipe) credit where credit is due.  But I can’t forgive all transgressions as your Espresso Martini featured on the Today Show was like a cloyingly sweet White Russian in a martini glass.  Plus, the chapter about you in Anthony Bourdain’s “Medium Raw” is truly cringeworthy.  I guess I’ll just focus on the gingerbread and pretend to forget about your many other transgressions in the kitchen.  And I’m Sandra Lee doesn’t care about any of us haters out there as she cashes those fat checks from her media empire and kicks back with myriad vodka tipples in the Governor’s mansion.

Enough of the negativity – Lexi and I had a hell of a time decorating with the help of some strange Swedish animal shapes from IKEA cookie cutters and some well-placed decorative candy.  We warmed Starburst with our hands and rolled it out like fondant to cut into ribbons and bows.  We sliced red and green fruit roll ups into strips and pressed them together to make a Christmas striped sheet for cutting into scarves, sweaters and top hats.  We used cinnamon candy dots to make necklaces and eyes.  And rather than making royal icing from scratch, we used the prepackaged muffin glaze in a squeezable tube (found in the baking aisle at the supermarket) to stick on the decorations.  I’m sure Sandra Lee would approve.

Recipe for

Simple Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients
1 package of dry sugar cookie mix
1 egg
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup melted butter
2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tbs of crystalized ginger, finely ground in a coffee grinder or pulverized in a food processor
1/4 cup dark molasses
1 tbs. of maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. of almond extract

In a standing mixer, blend the mix, egg, flour, butter, pumpkin pie spice, ground ginger, crystalized ginger, molasses, maple syrup, vanilla extract and almond extract.  Once a dough forms, remove from the bowl, wrap with plastic and chill for about an hour.  If you chill for longer than an hour, make sure to remove from the fridge about 15 minutes before you want to roll out the dough.  Flour a board and rolling pin and roll out the dough to around 1/4 of an inch thick.  Cut cookies with cookie cutters and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment.  Bake in a 350° oven for 7 minutes.  Remove to a wire rack and let cool.  Decorate as you see fit and store in a tupperware to keep soft and chewy.

Friends Recipes and Hacks, Holiday Dishes, Meat Dishes, Recipes, Side Dishes

Sausage, Pumpkin and Kale Stuffing

This recipe is decidedly a hack – upon researching recipes for Thanksgiving, I came across a stuffing that looked to be a welcomed alternative to my tried and true Classic Stuffing.  Given that this year’s celebration was a pot luck extravaganza, why not two stuffings instead of one?  Truthfully, I wanted to do a third Oyster Dressing like the ones we used to have at my paternal grandmother’s house every year, but not enough people were into oysters, so I skipped it.

The original recipe from Food Network Kitchens is good, but I lost the leeks and butternut squash for caramelized red onions and canned pumpkin – MUCH easier, which is really what you are going for at Thanksgiving.  The result was moist, flavorful and complex – a nice accompaniment to turkey and gravy, if I might say so myself.  Give this one a try if you are looking to make a new tradition or two – how can you form a tradition if you don’t try something out for the first time, right? Right?!?

Recipe for

Sausage, Pumpkin and Kale Stuffing

Ingredients
2 round loaves of foccacia (onion or herb)
1 stick of butter, melted
2 eggs
1/2 can of pumpkin
1 can of chicken stock (or 2 cups of homemade stock)
1  red onion, thinly sliced
2 tbs. of olive oil
2 tbs. of butter
1 lb. of sweet italian sausage
1 bunch of kale
1 tsp. of whole fennel seeds
1 tsp. of rubbed sage
1 tsp. of white pepper
shredded pecorino romano

Cube foccacia and spread on a cookie sheet.  Bake in a 350° oven until crisp and golden, about 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and set aside.

In a bowl, whisk the eggs.  Add the white pepper, sage, fennel seeds, pumpkin and chicken stock and mix until incorporated.  Set aside.

In a skillet, brown the sausage and remove with a slotted spoon.  Add the olive oil and sauté the kale until wilted.  Remove with a slotted spoon and add to sausage.  Add the butter to the pan and turn the heat to medium low.  Let the onions sweat it out in the pan until dark brown and soft, about 10 minutes.

In a huge bowl, add the foccacia cubes, sausage and kale, and caramelized onions.  Toss to combine and then pour in the pumpkin mixture.  Turn out into a greased 13x9x2 casserole and bake in a 375° oven until puffy and golden on top, about 35-45 minutes.

Beverages and Cocktails, Holiday Dishes, Recipes

Caramel Apple Punch

I’m not sure how my sister Lexi and I came up with this punch recipe, but it’s just ridiculously good.  Despite the strong alcohol trifecta in play with this one, it tastes just like a smooth, delicious caramel apple.  Plus, the Goldschlager, usually the troublemaker at the party, plays nice here with the perfect flavor of cinnamon.  A little Martinelli’s on top for sparkle and a good quality fresh apple cider for body and you are in business.

We serve this cold, but you can absolutely have it warm as well – just make sure to add the alcohol after you’ve warmed the cider.  This recipe also doubles and triples well into a punch for a bunch, so don’t be afraid to break it out at your next Halloween or Christmas party.
Caramel Apple Punch

Caramel Apple Punch

1 1/2 oz. Butterscotch Schnapps
1 oz. Goldschlager
1 oz. Sour Apple Pucker
Apple Cider
Sparkling Cider

Fill a highball glass with ice and add the Apple Pucker, Goldschlager and Schnapps in that order.  Fill the glass just about up to the top with apple cider and then top with a splash of the sparkling cider.  Garnish with a slender apple wedge.

To make as a punch, combine 1 part Goldschlager, 1 part Sour Apple Pucker and 2 parts Butterscotch Schnapps.  Add 4 parts fresh apple cider and 1 part sparkling cider on top right before serving.  Serve in a punch bowl with thin slices of apple rings and the ice on the side.