Pizza Pockets

So my mom gave Nabil and I this little do-hicky for Christmas.

What is it you ask? It is a pizza pocket press! Like making a mini calzone. Homemade hot pockets anyone? And what can you do other than making mini pizzas? Well, you are full of questions today, but I'm glad you asked. The options are limitless. I could go one and on like an infomercial, but I will just show you two.

I used regular bread dough that I bought at the store, but you could make your own. First, roll it out and cut the dough into circular pieces. Place on the "claw", and fill with desired goodies. Dab the edges with water, and clamp the claw.

Place them on a pizza stone (or baking sheet) and bake on 400*F until golden brown. Make sure to put lots of flour down before baking. We found out the hard way that the rolled out dough tends to stick, and then you just have a hot, torn up pile of ingredients.

There are so many things that you can do with the pizza pocket. This time, we just tried a few. The first was the original pizza pocket, filled with pizza sauce, cheese, mushrooms and zucchini.

Dessert anyone? Why yes, don't mind if I do. Last time, I made a batch with chocolate and marsh mallows aka wintertime s'mores (delish), but this time, I made a batch of caramel apple pockets. I used homemade caramel sauce and sauteed the apples before putting them in the pocket. You can find the directions for caramel sauce and how to saute the apples here.

I'm pretty sure this was the best dessert you could ever have in a pocket. To. Die. For.

Until next time...

Cabbage wraps

In an effort to be healthier, I have started to expand my cooking horizons. On the list this week; stuffed cabbage roles. Nabil's mom used to make a different version of this, but I kinda tweaked it to make it a little healthier. I didn't take too many pictures because I didn't expect it to be so good. The deets are below.

Ingrediants:
- 10 to 12 large leaves Savoy cabbage
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup orzo
- 1 cup white rice
- 3 1/2 cups chicken stock, divided
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 small onion, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Freshly grated nutmeg
- 3 tablespoons dill, finely chopped, or dried
- 1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped, or dried
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 1 can diced tomatoes in juice

Boil cabbage leaves to soften. This only takes a couple of minutes. Drain and cool to handle.

In a saucepot over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter and add the orzo. Toast to golden and add rice, stir for about 1 minute. Add 2 1/2 cups chicken stock and cook at a simmer for 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Lightly brown the turkey. Season with salt and pepper; add onions, garlic, nutmeg, dill and parsley. Transfer to a bowl with the rice and stir to combine.

Mix the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and remaining cup stock. Fill and roll cabbage leaves to make 10-12 small burrito-shaped logs. Arrange in a 9x13 glass baking dish. Add the sauce and bake on 350 for 30 minutes.

 Top with cheese (optional) and serve. Voila!

Thanksgiving Leftover Soup

I absolutely love having leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner. In fact, I buy a turkey that is way bigger than I know we could possibly eat, because I want leftover for sandwiches and soup, ...and I know everyone else will want leftovers too. It's the best part! Last year, I found a recipe for white bean turkey soup on Epicurious. I changed a few things, to make it my own, and it has definitely become a post-turkey day staple. I tend to even make it a few other times in the winter with chicken instead of turkey. In my opinion, it is ten times better than your traditional chicken noodle soup.

Below are the ingredients that I used for the soup. Not pictured is the turkey leftovers, and turkey broth made from scratch. 

1 package dried white beans (whatever kind you choose)

2-3 whole carrots

2-3 celery stalks

one whole yellow onion

2 15oz cans diced tomatoes

leftover turkey, cut or torn into bite-sized pieces

homemade turkey broth, you will have to eye the amount to use, aprox. 10 cups total

about 4 servings of Orzo pasta

To make turkey broth, I boil the carcass (picked through), the leftover turkey drippings, and water. I do this with all the meat I buy when I have leftover bone/carcass. It's free broth, and it tastes way better than the store bought. When filling the pan, you want the carcass to be about two-thirds to three-fourths covered with liquid, so after adding the dripping, add water for the rest. I let this boil for about half an hour. Then I bring it down to a simmer and let it sit for hours. This year it probably simmered for about 5 hours. You wanna get all the turkey flavor you can. If you have a big enough crock-pot, it is probably easier. After you feel the broth is complete, use a mesh strainer to separate out all the pieces. Place the broth into containers and set in the fridge. Once it is completely cooled you can remove the fat layer which will have separated to the top. The second time I made turkey broth, I thought I messed it up somehow because it was very thick and gelatin-like. Since then, I have learned that if it is thick, that means you did it right. It looks weird, and you will need to add some water when using it for soup, but a concentrated broth, makes the soup taste much better. Yet another cooking tip you can only learn from experience.

Back to the soup. In the morning, place dried beans in crock pot. Cover with broth. If broth is very thick, add equal amounts of water to thin (approximately 5-7 cups together). Chop carrots celery, and onion and add to the pot. Cook on low for approximately eight hours. Side note; the turkey that I make is very garlicy. The broth is also very garlicy. If it wasn't, I would add 4-5 chopped cloves at this point too.

Once the beans are soft (or in my case, when I get home from work), I transfer everything to a large soup pot, only because my crock pot is too small. I can literally hear my mom's voice in my ears "I told you so, I knew you would need a bigger crock pot". Ugh! Whatevs mom. Anyway, once the soup is in a big enough pot, I add the tomatoes (not drained), and the turkey (or chicken) pieces. Simmer for another hour. The soup will need to have quite a bit more broth than you think because the orzo will soak it all up. Add the orzo and continue to simmer for another 30-45 min. Next, divide and serve!

Add parm and basil to garnish. Yum!

Until next time...