Your "GO TO" meals for wintertime

I bought a turkey even though we are not hosting T day this year. I will make it ... eventually. The leftovers will magically turn into soup.

I also made bread in the machine today. I need to do that more.

I didnt like my mom's or gramoms turkey. It was dryyyy
I learnt the 475 for 10 min pr pound methods and the turkey os one of my favorite foods, but not s a "Goto" meal. (Too much ork)

Once it gets cold I really like to do stuff in a pot. Stews, soups, chilis, roast chicken in the crock pot.

Partly because it's tasty. Partly because it smells good while cooking. Partly because it keeps the air humid, which is good for my skin

Flip the turkey over and roast it breast-down.

roasting at very high oven temps for 10 min per pound, makes a bird so moist and flavorful you will be pissed that you didnt know this till this year. the only concern is to wrap some al foil over the wingtips and drumstick ends. then remove them while you have 20 min left to go in the oven.

You dont need to move or flip the bird-he stays still.

475 degrees F. 10 min/pound.

The best turkey I ever made was cooked spatchcocked at Diane and Bob's house one year, by moi and my request of the butcher, pretty much perfect.

Meantime, Diane and I will be finding a restaurant on an off day and get phone calls from afar if people call.

I'm not so sure I cook more winter stuff in winter, except for the produce choices. I make a lot of stuff anytime.


I'm presently keano about carne abogada extraordinaire, it is so good, and Marco's green chile recipe, which turned out online in varied places (he never said it didn't). Both of those are wonderful max.

I didn't say to move the bird while it was in the oven. It is always recommended to roast the bird with the breast up. I don't agree . . . either with that advice, or your silly insistence that you know more about this than anyone else.

what is carne abogada made from? Is it a SW comfort food?

I manage to screw up the name almost routinely - it's adovada or adobada.

I'm presently using a Saveur recipe, except I disobeyed and put my cast iron dutch oven for a slow cook at low heat.

Here's wiki on Adobada - in different areas/diff ingredients
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobada

Here's my copy of Saveur's recipe - you would change the cumin, I bet, and I changed the way I cooked it. I routinely use different dried chiles and next time I'm going to play with non-dried chiles medium roasted, plenty of choices in my grocery store.

SERVES 8–10

INGREDIENTS
5 oz. dried New Mexico chiles, stemmed
2 tbsp. New Mexico chile powder
2 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp. white wine vinegar
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
Juice of 1/2 lime
5 tbsp. olive oil
3 lb. boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1 1/2″ chunks
Kosher salt and freshly ground blackpepper, to taste
Warm corn tortillas, for serving

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Heat chiles in a 6-qt. Dutch oven over medium-high heat, and cook, turning once, until toasted, about 5 minutes; transfer to a large bowl, cover with 8 cups boiling water, and let sit for 20 minutes. Drain chiles, reserving 1 1/2 cups soaking liquid, and transfer chiles to a blender along with reserved soaking liquid, chile powder, honey, vinegar, cumin, cloves, cayenne, and lime juice. Puree until smooth and set sauce aside.

2. Return pot to medium-high heat and add oil; season pork with salt and pepper, and working in batches, add pork to pot and cook until browned on all sides, about 12 minutes. Add sauce and bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is thickened and pork is tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Serve with warm corn tortillas.

I make and freeze turkey pot pies left over from Thanksgiving, so that fits. Otherwise it tends to be soups/stews/chili and pots of beans with assorted things cooked in.

The WSJ considers CAMPBELL soups to be an excellent"Go To" meals for wintertime. Too bad that many of the flavors cost $2.00/can.

I like pot pies especially if fillwd with more than just grvy like the Marie Callanders pies. (They used to be good but now they are devoid of anything that could be called meat or veggie)

One of the reasons I read Barrons and not WSJ. Campbells soups are merely salt broths with some soup-like ingredients

They almost all suck ...flour/fat/water/artificial flavor/hi tech starches is what they are now. Make your own. They keep 6 months great. Pop it in the oven frozen 1.5 hour...dinner is served. Maybe a salad too. easzy-peazy.

Only thing is make the gravy thicker than you want, freezing and reheating the veg water it down, and I dont think cornstarch works as well after freezing. I dont seem to have the same problem if I use flour to thicken the sauce. I save the drippings from the turkey..OMG!

We do a lot of soup during the winter months. Usually it's made with leftovers from whatever previous meal we had. I made a gumbo out of leftover chicken and lamb kabobs the other day and it was wonderful.

Pot roast is another family favorite.

Roast chicken.

Chilli.

I just started brining my turkey this morning using a mixture of salt and baking powder ala foodlab's recipe. I'm going to try this with the leftovers: http://fortunegoodies.com/thanksgiving-egg-rolls/

my wife uses arrowroot or file (sassafras powder) to thicken her pies. Cornstaqrch will break down after freezing.
She makes a dynamite chicken pie that is full of ingredients . She uses fresh corn potatoes onions garlic and sometimes carrot chunks for more sweetness. She will use one can of Campbells cream of chicken as a "glue" and arrowroot and flour for a medium dark roux to thicken it all up and give a nutty flavor that really comes through.

I told mrs F to think about marketing her chicken corn pies Everybody who sits at our table has loved em.

do you add sugar to your brine?

No. I've never tried that and I'm wondering if I should!

Usually I just use salt but after reading about how baking powder will help crisp the skin I decided to give it a whirl.

I've done sugar curing on salmon before though.