Sausage, Apple and Pecan Dressing

I played with various dressing (stuffing) recipes for years before settling on this one, Jim and I adore it could eat it all the time!  It’s a bit on the labor intensive side to make due to the extra steps of toasting the pecans and making the broth, but well worth the effort.

• 1 pound loaf of bread, cubed and dried.  (Mine is often a mixture of sourdough, whole wheat, whatever I have).
• 1 pound sage pork sausage (my preference) or 1 pound Italian sausage.
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 yellow onions, diced
• 6 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 apples, peeled, cored, and then quartered. (I prefer Granny Smith)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 cup apple juice
• 1 cup pecans, toasted and chopped.  (MUST be toasted!)
• Sage, Thyme, Salt and Pepper to taste
• 2-1/2 cups turkey broth.

To start with, I like to save my wings and legs from each years roasted turkey and toss them into the freezer.  Then the following year, the day before Thanksgiving, I will cook these down with celery, onion, and bay leaves, refrigerate overnight, scoop off the fat, and this is the broth I use for my dressing. I think it makes a much richer broth than cooking down the giblets… I save those for my gravy.

Brown the sausage well, remove to drain then add to bread cubes.  In drippings, sauté the onions and celery until they start to brown.  Remove from pan and add to bread cubes.

Melt the 4 tablespoons of butter in the same pan and add the apples.  Sprinkle the sugar over them and cook, stirring occasionally, about 5 to 6 minutes.  They should be soft and beginning to brown.  Add 3 tablespoons of the apple juice and simmer until reduced to a syrup, about 4 minutes.  Make sure to scrape up the brown bits in the pan!  Yum!

Add the apples and syrup to the bread cubes, and then pour the remaining apple juice into the pan, simmering until reduced by a third, then pour into the bread cube mixture.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix, adjust seasonings to taste.  Bake at 350 degrees in a buttered deep casserole dish (uncovered) about 45 minutes, or until top begins to brown.

If you prefer, you can make this with a package of Pepperidge farm seasoned bread cube stuffing.  If so, reduce broth to 2 cups.

Make sure to try my Cranberry Chutney while you’re at!

Bacon and Gruyère Muffins

These are so good!  Great for breakfast with a hot cup of coffee, and wonderful with soup on a cold, winter day.

I really enjoy mine with chopped chives or sliced green onions mixed in, but Jim has a cow when I add them… men!

Gruyère cheese is typically what I use instead of Swiss, but both work equally well and I figured everyone has Swiss cheese on hand.

• 8 slices of smoked bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 2 cups all purpose unbleached flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 stick melted butter
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 cup shredded Gruyère or swiss cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, grease twelve non stick muffin pans.

In a large bowl, stir dry ingredients together.  Mix in the shredded cheese and crumbled bacon.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, melted butter, milk and sour cream together.  Pour into the dry ingredients and mix lightly, just enough to incorporate everything.

Spoon batter into muffin cups and bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about twenty minutes.

Braised Rabbit in White Wine

Fabulously simple, this is an extremely flavorful dish that’s easy to make and perfect on a crisp fall day.  Rabbit at its best!

Jim and I raise a handful of New Zealand White rabbits, the meat is very delicate in flavor and I really enjoy cooking with it.  You have to be careful not to overwhelm it, so in this recipe, please don’t substitute bacon for the prosciutto.

Begin with a couple of eight to ten week old rabbits, around five pounds each.  I usually soak them in the sink in cold salted water for a bit before cooking.

Cut into pieces.  I prefer to cut rabbits up myself, as Jim cuts them in the traditional method which I don’t care for.  I cut the carcass in half, and use the backs (split) and front and back legs, saving the breast and the tiny rib bones for soup.

Toss the pieces into a bag with some flour and shake to coat.  Heat a large dutch oven over high heat with about a quarter inch of oil.  I do this outside as usual… my smooth top electric stove can’t reach the temperature I need nor can I stand all that smoke and grease in my house!

Braise the rabbit until it has a nice crust on it, remove to a platter.  Season liberally with salt and pepper.

In the drippings, sauté a large chunked red onion, two chunked red bell peppers, and about three ounces of diced prosciutto.  Add a can of diced tomatoees.  This is also good with celery and baby carrots, instead of the red bell peppers.

Pour in a cup or two of dry white wine.  Since we like this served over rice, I prefer not to thicken the juices, and tend to to add more rather than less wine.  Imagine that!

Add the rabbit pieces back to the dutch oven, and place in a 325 degree oven for about 2 hours.

Getting hungry yet?  Ah… the aroma of this cooking is fabulous!

Remove from the oven and serve over rice.  Yum!

CJ's Favorite Cobbler

Cobbler is one of those foods that people tend to get a little huffy about when it comes to the various types of crusts for them.  Some like the “pebbled” drop crusts, others prefer the rolled pie crust type… now I have to ask, if you’re going to roll the crust out, why call it cobbler at all?  Just put it in a pie pan and be done with it!

I like the batter type crust… heck it’s not really even a crust, more of a cake. One of the joys of cobbler should be that it’s fast and easy to whip up when there is an abundance of fresh berries and fruit… it’s also wonderful during the winter months to use frozen berries in a cobbler to add a bit of sunlight to a long, cold day!

This is my recipe, Jim and I love it and it works well with both berries and fruit.  I typically use either blackberries or peaches, having an abundance of both in our orchard.

• 1 stick of pure butter
• 1 cup sugar, plus cinnamon sugar to taste
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup whole milk or half and half
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups berries or fruit

Melt the butter.  Mix the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt together in a separate bowl, then whisk in the milk, mixing well.  Pour in the melted butter and mix again.

Butter a 2 quart baking dish and pour the batter in. Sprinkle the berries or fruit on top of the batter, distributing evenly.

Sprinkle (heavily!) cinnamon sugar over the top and bake at 325 degrees for 50-60 minutes, or until golden and bubbly.  Serve with vanilla ice cream!

(ps… tis’ very good with a bit of brandy mixed in with the berries too)!

Easy Chicken Cassoulet

This is one of my favorite dishes… you can’t toss a TV dinner in the oven much faster, and it’s much, much better!

In the summer, when it’s too hot to stand over the stove or the grill, this is one of the dishes I turn to.  Use one can of beans instead of two, and serve with rice and some steamed zucchini.  In the winter, I use two cans of beans, serve over mashed potatoes with a crusty loaf of bread.

• 1-1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs.  (Don’t use breasts, they don’t soak up the flavor as well).
• 1 can diced, fire roasted tomatoes
• 1 medium to large red onion, chunked
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1-1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (no substitutions please, this is “the” ingredient that makes the dish)
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 3-4 bay leaves
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1-2 cans cannellini beans (white kidney beans), drained.

Adjust oven rack to lowest position and preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Mix the tomatoes, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, thyme, bay leaves, salt and pepper in a heavy roasting dish.  Add the chicken and toss to coat.  Roast about 45 minutes.  Remove from the oven, take out the bay leaves, and add the beans.  Stir, and cook another 10 minutes, or reduce heat to 300 and hold until dinner time.

Update on Wednesday, August 3, 2011 at 8:42PM by Created by CJ

These are the canned tomatoes I use, Hunt’s diced fire roasted tomatoes.  You can use plain ones if you can’t find these.

As for making the dish in a crockpot… if you’ve been around my blog long enough, you’ll know I detest crockpots, so I can’t give any advice there!  I’m sure it’s just me, but everything that goes into a crockpot, in my opinion, comes out tasting like well chewed cardboard.  Blech!

Soup is the only exception.  I think it tastes just fine in a crockpot.  I hope I didn’t offend anyone, I know lots of lots of people adore their crockpots, I’m just not one of them.