From the archives:  If you’re wondering what to serve this year for the holidays, this list may just help you find the perfect recipe for the job.

It’s that time of the year again!  Families and friends are already preparing to gather together to give thanks for, well, whatever it is there is to give thanks for.  The good china and grandma’s tablecloth get pulled out of storage and very soon most homes in America will be filled with the aromas of wonderful food, some from beloved family recipes and some that are new to your home.  You may be an old hand at family meals, or it may be the first Thanksgiving dinner you’ve made.

Whether you’re a pro or novice at Holiday meals, please allow us to share some of the recipes that have graced our Thanksgiving Table in the past, and a few new recipes that will be gracing our table this year.  Feel free to use these recipes as-is, for reference if necessary or as the basis for your own creations. I promise, they are all phenomenal recipes that I have served to our guests and will happily serve again.  Every one was a hit!

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© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2009. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Holiday-Recipes, Thanksgiving

If you’re like most of us the holiday dinner has passed and now you’re looking for a few creative ways to use up all that leftover turkey.  While there is absolutely noting wrong with turkey sandwiches, I know that there are a lot of people who tire of them quickly or just want to find something a little more creative to do with what’s left of a once regal bird. If you’re one of those people, this might just fit the bill.

Before any true curry fanatics out there step up to inform me that this isn’t a traditional curry.  Don’t bother.  I already know.  This dish was cobbled together with what I had on hand at the moment and geared towards introducing my kids to flavors they have never experienced before.  I used potatoes instead of rice because my middle son runs screaming at the mention of long grained anything, let alone basmati or jasmine rice.  This is just a big heapin’ pot o’ love, and may actually have made it ot my comfort foods list.

In the end I suppose this could be treated like a soup or a stew.  The liquid is fairly mild the first day (but gets pretty ambitious by day 2), and can easily be eaten with a spoon if you desire, or skip the potatoes and serve the curry with rice to soak all the wonderful flavors up while you’re eating it.  In any event it came out wonderfully and was enjoyed by all but my youngest, who was not only ill that evening, but is finicky to the point of sending this foodie father into fits on some occasions.

He had chicken nuggets.  The rest of us polished off half of this dish in minutes.  I’d call that a raging success!

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© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: christmas, Holiday-Recipes, leftover recipes, Leftover Turkey Recipes, Recipes, Thanksgiving

We’re pulling this dish out of the archives because it really is the ultimate roast turkey recipe and should not simply be linked to.  It needed to come back into the limelight and take its rightful place at the center of our holiday menu once again.  Enjoy!

Ladies and gentlemen, I proudly present to you the king of the American Holiday table, the centerpiece of nearly every family gathering in the United States for the months of November and December, the prince of poultry, the roast turkey. As promised, I’m kicking off the Holidays with a focus on the foods of the season, and there’s simply no better place to start than with with this, the noblest of all domestic foul.

The turkey is either the most awaited or most dreaded addition to a holiday meal. Most awaited if the bird is moist, succulent and juicy, and most maligned when dry, overcooked and in desperate need of a slathering of gravy just to make the remains of the once proud bird palatable. the latter almost never happens to me, and I’m going to give forth the secret of the perfect bird, which I assure you, this was.

There are literally thousands of roast turkey, Christmas turkey and Thanksgiving turkey recipes on the Internet, and the methods for achieving the “perfect” bird vary wildly from one recipe to another. Most call for basting the bird constantly throughout the cooking process. If it makes you happy, I suppose you can go ahead, but you’re not going to end up with the results you were looking for. To make the truly prefect turkey you must keep the mantra of poultry perfection on your lips at all times…

“I will not baste. I will not open the oven door. The turkey is fine.”

Sound silly? I know my mother and grandmother would have thought so. Both women basted their birds religiously, and both made some pretty fine turkeys. Over the years I’ve discovered that basting does not make for a better bird. Patience does.

One caveat. If you’ve bought yourself a butterball turkey, this method will not work for you. The skin of a butterball turkey has been pierced, and therefore basting is necessary. For any other poultry in the world, it is NOT, and should not be done. The second part of the mantra is this…

“I will not stuff the turkey…”

Stuffing the bird increases cooking times drastically while robbing you of the perfect opportunity to add flavor to the bird. I adore turkey flavored dressing but if you’ve got a good bird you should have more than enough turkey drippings to make not only a wonderful dressing, but a good amount of gravy as well. (But I digress, those are different entries.)

This method is simplicity in itself, a rub, a trip into the oven and one action that you need to take in the middle, a little patience at the end and viola! You’ll thank me for this, I promise.

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© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2009. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: christmas, Holiday-Recipes, Thanksgiving, Turkey

Winter is finally rearing it’s chilly head here in Northern California.  With temperatures finally dipping into the 30’s in the early mornings and the need for a jacket even in the afternoons the thought of a warm and comforting meal in the evening becomes less of a fond memory and more of an urgent desire. Baby, it’s cold outside!  Time for some comfort food.

Please note that this is not a recipe for Shepherd’s Pie.  Shepherd’s Pie, by definition uses minced lamb.  Anything else is a cottage pie and cannot technically be called a shepherd’s pie.  Regardless of that factoid (which you may or may not give a hoot about), this dish is full of all the love and goodness that you and your family will be craving throughout the oncoming chilly days and nights of winter. It’s a satisfying, warm and hearty dish that’s just perfect for cozying up around the table with family or friends and some good wine and conversation. (Or stout.  Stout is good here, too!)

Have yourself some meat and mash love this winter.  You deserve it.  It’s comfort food season, so consider this a calorie free meal for a Saturday night and enjoy!  We surely did.

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© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bake, carrots, comfort food, comfort foods, ground beef, ground pork, Irish cooking, irish cuisine, Potatoes, Recipes

And finally my recap of the Foodbuzz Food Festival Farewell Brunch.  If you haven’t already seen my recap of Day 1 and visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2009. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: #fbzfest, Farewells, Foodbuzz Food Festival, Restoraunt LuLu, San Francisco

Brussels sprouts.  As a kid the mere mention of the things would have sent me running to my room in fear, yet here I am sharing a recipe for them at the request of my kids, who absolutely adore them.  It’s a strange turn of events to be sure.

It’s strange the things I adore today that I never would have touched as a child.  I’m not sure if it was the lack of fresh ingredients in our diet for most of the year, or if my tastes have just changed that much.  I know that most of the vegetables we ate for may years were canned, that probably didn’t help.

In any event, these sprouts do not disappoint.  They have my Son’s seal of approval and I have to admit that I’ve eaten two plates of them in the last two days.  They truly are tasty. As a matter-of-fact, I think I’m going to add them to my permanent Thanksgiving lineup in one form or another.  That way I know my kids will eat at least one green vegetable at the family table…

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© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bacon, brussels sprouts, christmas, Holiday, Holiday-Recipes, Recipes, side dish, Thansgiving, Vegetables

As I left Day One of the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival I was in a funk, but the gorgeous sunny San Francisco day that greeted me for day two of the event went a long way toward lifting my … [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2009. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: #fbzfest, Blog, Blog Events, Foodbuzz Food Festival, San Francisco

It’s simple. It’s easy. It’s wonderful. It’s… Homemade white bread, and it only took a few minutes of actual work to make perfectly the very first time.  Trust me folks, if I can do this, so can you!  if you’ve got a stand mixer with a dough hook this is as simple as it gets, it contains no preservatives and it stores well. (The loaf pictured above spent a week in the fridge… It’s still wonderful and will be finished off tonight.)

This is probably one of the tastiest bread recipes I’ve come across for everyday use.  The recipe makes two full-sized loaves and my kids think it’s got the over the counter stuff beat by miles when it comes to a good PB&J.  If you figure up the cost to make it, it’s about 1/4 the price of any loaf at your local market, but twice as good, so even the tiny bit of effort required makes this cost effective as well as delicious.

Another plus of this recipe over other is that it’s a very firm crumb and easily handles duty as a sandwich bread.  I’ve tried several recipes that simply could not hold up to the role of sandwich bread.  This loaf does not disappoint in that regard.  It’s soft enough to be enjoyable, but firm enough to stand up to everything from peanut butter to hot roast beef without crumbling or turning to mush.  In short, it’s the perfect alternative to store-bought sandwich bread.  Give it a try, you’ll like it!

And if your wondering if this is the perfect bread to make your family his Thanksgiving or Christmas, the answer is YES!  It’ll make wonderful Turkey Sandwiches!

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© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bread, breads and pastries, christmas, Holiday, Holiday-Recipes, Sandwich, Thanksgiving, white bread

This weekend I had the honor of joining several hundred of my peers in food blogging at the first annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival in lovely San Francisco, California. It was an amazing experience all the way around, far more than I can fit into … [visit site to read more]

© Jerry D. Russell and Cooking... by the seat of my Pants!.com, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: #fbzfest, Blog Events, Events, Foodbuzz Food Festival, Foodies, San Francisco

I remember Christmas eve at my grandparents house.  There was always a dish … [visit site to read more]

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