Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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Home > 81
KitchenKatalog: Blog 81
Sunday, November 29, 2020, 07:34 PM
Meredith made Butternut Squash and Black Bean Enchiladas using the regular recipe with frozen butternut squash. Since most people said they weren't hungry, she just did one serving.
Thursday, November 26, 2020, 03:04 PM
Small Thanksgiving with my dad, Emily, and Victor. So only 6 people and only two of whom actually eat turkey. A bit lower key than 2018.
The menu was as follows with other details below:
For dessert, we had
This was the main thing I was in charge of making. I dry brined the turkey and then followed Serious Eats' Herb-Rubbed Crisp-Skinned Butterflied Roast Turkey (LOCAL). I did butterfly/Spatchcock it as well. It was a small turkey starting at about 9.66 lbs.
I carved it following this video from Serious Eats on YouTube (LOCAL)
I followed Serious Eats (LOCAL) for the gravy. I used some matchsticks carrots for the carrots
I repeated the crispy salmon from the other day using the same rub but they were cut ahead of time so we could also sear and crisp the sides.
Update: See our recipe book for an updated description
Meredith made her favorite Cranberry Bars. She followed the recipe but had to use two different pans rather than the one she wanted. They were a bit thin but very, very good. We all really enjoyed them!
Emily made No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake (LOCAL) from Kind of Healthy Recipes by Mason Fit. Her notes: Used low fat cream cheese
Emily made Zero Smart Points Cranberry Sauce. Mostly just for her and my dad
Victor made "Chef John's" Pumpkin Pie from All Recipes (LOCAL). I do not know if this was Victor's planned recipe or if he pivoted to this since I bought him Sweetened Condensed Milk rather than Evaporated. I think he also used (eyeballed?) Pumpkin Pie Spice in place of the constituent spices in the recipe
At first, I didn't love it since it wasn't really sweet (it doesn't get any additional sugar) but once I got used to it, I actually really liked it since you really tasted the pumpkin.
Monday, November 23, 2020, 09:58 PM
I made Hot Dish with Impossible Beef and using vegetable broth instead of chicken. It worked very well. It took exactly three packs of the beef, which cooked up just like real meat. I thought there was a slight acidity I do not usually note when Meredith makes it and I suspect that was the beef.
I made two containers as seen in the picture though it was really hard to spread all four layers. I should have done just two. We had some tater "rounds" instead of tots so that went into one of them (and a bit of the other). Finally, I did cheese! On one, I tried doing cheese then tots. On the other I did tots then cheese. I think the cheese under worked better as the tots got more exposed to the heat but honestly, the cheese just hardened on both and I didn't really taste it.
But overall, a very well received meal!
Sunday, November 22, 2020, 08:34 PM
I made our typical African Peanut Soup. I made extra sure to actually use vegetarian broth. I also added an extra two cups of water since I wanted to make more. And a bit extra peanut butter because of that.
I used only one frozen ginger cubes and then went heavy on the powdered ginger. I also used a red onion since it is all we had. And since I didn't plan to blend anything, I tried to chop things on the smaller side.
It came out really good. I liked the change in tumeric from last time.
I also grilled two delicata squashes. I think I prefer kabocha, even though it is drier. But they were still good and well received.
Saturday, November 21, 2020, 04:36 PM
Meredith made Croque-Monsieurs following Bon Appétit (LOCAL). She used Trader Joes Focaccia bread but I think otherwise followed the recipe. They were good. We may try to prep-ahead the béchamel and use that to make these quickly during the week.
Friday, November 20, 2020, 08:26 PM
Meredith made fondue to have before Christmas Tree decorating.
She used the Serious Eats Recipe (LOCAL). We used comté instead of Appenzeller. We also forgot the nutmeg and didn't have kirsch. It came out pretty good. We wish we had the kirsch but it was fine. Even Caroline ate some of it (we didn't want her to have too much with the wine).
We served it with bread, roasted fingerling potatoes, apples, broccoli, and cauliflower
Thursday, November 19, 2020, 04:34 PM
Meredith made her usual Cauliflower Mac and Cheese. She used the Sriracha Mac and cheese with less sriracha and added lightly mashed (a bit rougher than "cauliflower rice" consistency) cauliflower.
We really liked it but Caroline decided to be fickle about it this time. I did think it needed a bit more sriracha than usual but still very good.
Thursday, November 19, 2020, 03:31 PM
Meredith prepped and froze Chicken and Wild Rice Hotdish. It still needs the cracker topping, but otherwise ready to go. She also did onions instead of leaks. And used a combination of half and half with whole milk for the heavy cream
I will update or link back when we reheat it and cook it: 2021-01-04