Christmastide 2020: The 7th Day of Christmas - New Year's Eve: Joe's Tater Tot Hot Dish

Thursday, December 31, 2020

High Minnesota cuisine for dinner: Tater Tot Hot Dish

Here's the recipe which is an amalgamation of 3 different recipes I found online. For that reason I'll call it Joe's Tater Tot Hot Dish:

1 pound of ground turkey

1 bag tater tots (I could only find a 28 oz. bag of mini tater tots. We used most of it.)

1 standard sized can of cream of mushroom soup

1 standard sized can cream of celery soup

1 small bag of frozen green beans (We used fresh green beans and I just eyeballed it. One of the recipes called for 8 oz.)

1 small bag of frozen corn, thawed (The smallest bag I could find was 10 oz. We used it all.)

1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese.  2 cups is better.

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

French fried onions (I bought a 6 oz. can and didn't use more than a third of it.)

Set oven to 350 degrees. Fry off turkey with some Worchestershire sauce. Meanwhile, combine soup, beans, and corn in a large bowl. Then add turkey and mix well. Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with cooking spray and transfer mixture to it. Cover with frozen tater tots (no need to thaw) and cheddar cheese. Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees. When finished cover with French fried onions. Note: Sweet potato tater tots are another option. 

We watched Star Trek: Discovery during dinner...

and then had Oh Ho cake from Kowalski's for dessert. 

Christmas Day 2017 - Beef

Monday, December 25, 2017

Dale decided he wanted to make Julia Child's beef bourginon recipe for Christmas dinner. I helped and was more involved in the production I think since the first time we made it years ago.

To start, my job was to slice the onion.

Dale got the meat dried off with paper towels.

I also took care of getting the carrots sliced. The recipe calls for one carrot. We had baby carrots so I used about 7 of them and sliced them into quarter rounds.

Dale got the stove set up.

I cut six (they're doubled up in the photo) good sized slices of bacon into thirds.

Dale had the brilliant idea of each of us frying the  bacon off at the same time. I used the skillet and he used the casserole. 

Then we did the same thing with the meat, searing it on all sides. I'm surprised one of us hadn't thought of this before since it made it go twice as fast.

We then fried the vegetables and then added the bacon and the beef and put it in the oven for about 4 minutes, took it out and tossed it, and then put it back in for 4 more minutes.

When it came back out we added garlic,

thyme,

the wine,

chicken stock,

and about a tablespoon+ of tomato paste,

brought it to a simmer and then put it in the oven for about 2 and a 1/2 hours.

As it got closer to the time to take it out, Dale fried off the mushrooms.

When it came out of the oven,

we drained off the broth,

put what was left back in the casserole,

and added the fried-off mushrooms to the casserole.

Dale needed to boil down the approximately 3 and a 1/2 cups of broth we had down to 2 and a 1/2 cups. He said it probably started out as 5 and a 1/2 cups when we put  the whole casserole in the oven and reduced to  the 3 and a 1/2 we had when we took it out.

After the broth was reduced, Dale skimmed off the fat although there wasn't much since the beef was pretty lean to begin with. We added the broth back to the casserole and waited for it to rest a bit. The smell was insanely divine.

Mom came over for Christmas dinner. She got here at 3:00 p.m. and watched The Bishop's Wife serving appetizers of smoked gouda, pears, and crackers.

We ate at 5 p.m. with the beef served over egg noodles. Dale made oven roasted brussels sprouts. Pumpkin pie for dessert.

Christmas Season 2015/2016 - White Clay Dough Ornaments

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Made dough ornaments out of cornstarch, baking powder, and water (see full recipe below). I'll hang them outside in the garden. They need to dry overnight so we'll see how they turn out. 

Recipe from happy hooligans.com

Christmas Season 2013/2014 - Holiday Brunch Rum Cake 1

We hosted our holiday brunch today. I made a pistachio rum cake pudding and Dale made an egg-bake. The rum cake is was quite easy and fun to make. The recipe comes from family friend Judy and is as follows:

Pistachio Rum Cake Pudding

1 package pistachio pudding mix
1 package yellow cake mix
1/2 cup light rum
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup oil
4 eggs

Beat all ingredients together at medium speed for 2 minutes. Bake in a Bundt pan at 325 degrees for 55-60 minutes.

Rum Cake Glaze

3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 stick butter
1/4 cup light rum
1/4 cup water

During last 10 minutes of baking, combine glaze ingredients in a pan. Boil 2-3 minutes [I stirred it the whole time]. Reduce heat [I continued to stir and removed from burner a couple of minutes before removing the cake from the oven]. After removing cake from oven, poke holes in the bottom with a knife to allow for seepage and then pour glaze over it while still in pan. Remove cake in 45 minutes from the pan.