Thanksgiving Recap

We served our big meal here last night. Almost everything went according to plan. What didn't?

I didn't end up making the pumpkin cheesecake because we had leftover apple pie bites to bring home and our guests brought over pecan pie. I'll save that for another occasion.

My gravy was not just lumpy but totally overcooked. Since I don't usually have such a large turkey, I didn't remember that the drippings are almost all fat, not brothy. What I had tasted good but looked thoroughly unappetizing. If I'd had another small pot and any room on the stove I could have skimmed off the fat and tried again, but I wasn't thinking. I'll try again tonight using the giblet stock I completely forgot about in the fridge and some butter. (I'd even added bacon dripping to make the roux the first time, which I highly recommend if you don't have enough drippings from your bird.)

For the jumbo-sized bird, I ended up brining it, stuffing the cavity with half an onion and a whole apple (quartered), and roasting uncovered at 400 for about 45 minutes. Then I cooked it at 325 with foil lightly tenting it for another 4 hours, then uncovered it for the last 45 minutes. It was golden brown and lovely.

The stuffing turned out really well. I'll share the recipe for that one later.

Thanksgiving: Caramel Apple Pie Bites

I love apple pie, but I'll admit it, my crusts are nothing to write home about. This year I happened to notice a great deal on puff pastry at Aldi ($2.99 per package), so I jumped on it. Each package will create 18 bites, a good amount to bring to a party.

For the puff pastry shells:
Remove one package puff pastry from the freezer. Allow to defrost at room temperature, about half an hour. Unfold the first pastry sheet. You will have three strips joined together. Cut the strips apart, then cut each into three even pieces. You will have nine squares. Pierce each square about four times in the middle with a fork (so the middle won't puff up as much, and you have a hollow to place your filling).



Then grease a muffin pan very well. (I can't stress this enough.) Press each square lightly into a muffin cup, making sure the sides are even. If you have two muffin pans, you can do both sheets at once.



Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes, until pastry is golden and puffed. Remove from oven and allow to cool briefly (about 5 minutes) before tipping over the muffin pan and coaxing the cups out. Cool completely on a wire rack.



For the filling:
Start with 4 apples. I used two medium Granny Smiths and two small Galas. You can use all the same type of apple, but differences make for a more interesting pie. Peel and chop the apples into bite-sized pieces, then dump them in a medium pot with 1/4 cup of apple juice, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and 1 tsp of cinnamon. (Add a few grates of nutmeg if you have it.) Stir to coat well and cook on medium until the apples have softened. Remove the apples, but keep all the juices in the pot. Add 2 Tbsp of butter to your pot and simmer until the sauce begins to thicken. (A spoon pulled across the bottom of the pot will reveal the pot briefly before the sauce spills back over it.) Remove the sauce from the heat and set aside.

Putting it all together:
If you are taking these to a gathering, put each cup into a cupcake paper. If not, set cups onto a cookie sheet covered in parchment or a silicone mat. Spoon filling into each cup, then top generously with caramel sauce. Warm in a 250 degree oven for 5-10 minutes if you can, and top with brown sugar cinnamon ice cream if you have it. 

Thanksgiving: Cranberry Sauce

I'll admit it. I have a soft spot for the canned cranberry sauce. The shape of the can, the way it wiggled, the way you can slice it up easily.... it brings back memories. And in fact I bought a can this year. But I also found real cranberries at $.89 a bag and couldn't resist those either.

Cranberry sauce is one of those magical dishes that looks impressive but couldn't be easier to make from scratch.  Start with a 12 oz. bag of cranberries. Rinse them in a colander.



Then toss them into a medium pot. Add:

• 1 cup cranberry juice (100% if possible)
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons orange juice (eyeball this, precision is not necessary)
• a little orange zest if you've got it

Stir and bring to a boil on medium heat. Once the mixture is bubbling merrily, turn it down to medium-low and stir frequently until thickened, about 10 minutes. It will still look liquidy, but will firm up when it chills. You can skim off the foam if you like, but I never do. Looks impressive and takes only a few minutes of your time. Make ahead for best effect.

Thanksgiving Prep: Make-Ahead Dishes

If you're cooking a big meal this weekend, you know there's a lot to be done. The trick is to do as much now as you can so you can actually enjoy the day and interact with your guests.

What can you do now? Start with mashed potatoes. Did you know you can make these ahead? At the very least, you can peel, cut, and boil them ahead. Pot in the fridge and warm up tomorrow, then mash and add milk and butter. Or you can mash them now, adding just enough milk to make them stick together. Tomorrow, heat up and add more hot milk, butter, and salt to taste.

Sweet potatoes are a cinch to prepare ahead too. Reader Megan suggested not peeling the sweet potatoes. I admit I was skeptical, but it worked like a charm. Just clean and chop your sweet potatoes into chunks, then boil until tender (15-20 minutes usually). Mine are now cooked and waiting in the fridge to be finished tomorrow. (That pot held about 4 lb of sweet potatoes. I'll add 2 peeled and sliced apples, sauted in butter, apple juice, and cinnamon until falling apart, then mash them together, adding additional cinnamon and nutmeg to taste.)

Making your cranberry sauce ahead takes only a few minutes. Recipe up next!

The best use of your time today, if you don't have much, is to make your dessert ahead. I'm making caramel apple pie bites and pumpkin cheesecake. The pumpkin cheesecake is Paula Deen's. The apple pie recipe is coming shortly. Making dessert ahead frees you up to spend time with your guests during dinner and afterward, rather than fussing over dessert. Set up your coffee pot with decaf and water before your guests arrive, and you'll be able to just press the button while you plate dessert and have coffee ready to go.

November Groceries: Week 3

In week 3, I was right under our $100 budget. The big budget busters weren't Thanksgiving items. They were mailing envelopes, Kleenex, and beer!

Aldi:
2 packages puff pastry sheets, jar of garlic powder, baking sprinkles, iodized salt, gallon of milk, pancake syrup, baking soda, sweet pickles, cornbread crackers, pecan halves, chocolate coins, and 2 bags of cranberries
Total: $22.00

Dominick's:
12 pack Leinenkugel and 6 pack hard cider
Total: $19.95
Saved: $4.10

Jewel:
19.5 lb Jennie-O frozen turkey, 8.4 lb sweet potatoes, 2 bags Brownberry bread cubes, 2 rolls of sage sausage, 2 cans of pumpkin, 2 cans of olives, package of Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder, 1 can cranberry sauce

Total: $5.73
Saved: $49.44

Sam's Club:
10 pack Kleenex, 25 10x15 mailing envelopes, 96 oz orange juice, 10 lb sugar, gallon of milk
Total: $36.77

Target:
10 lb russet potatoes, 8 cans green beans, 2.5 lb Braeburn apples, 6 cups of yogurt, 2 bags mini chocolate chips
Total: $12.45 (includes $3.04 refund on V-Fusion)
Saved: $13.90

Week 3 Total: $94.82
Week 3 Savings: $67.44


November Total-to-date: $258.63
November Savings-to-date: $298.15

Thanksgiving: Shopping Done!

Waiting to do your Thanksgiving shopping? Here's a tip. Shop for a turkey early in the day, when the cooler is still full and you have better options. Shopping at 4:30 at Jewel today left me with two options: a 12 lb bird I couldn't use a coupon on, or a 19+ lb bird that would feed our family for a week and still make a big pot of soup.
My shopping is done, and it didn't go too badly aside from the lack of choice in birds. I walked out with:

• 8.5 lb. of sweet potatoes
• 2 bags of Brownberries stuffing cubes 
• 2 rolls of sage sausage
  
• 2 cans of pumpkin puree
• 2 cans of olives
• 1 can of cranberry sauce
• 1 box of Hershey's Special Dark cocoa

I only used two coupons, but paid with $25 in Catalinas. My final out of pocket cost was $5.72. Not bad!

I've updated my spreadsheet with prices for Garden Fresh Market as well and a few prices I noticed at Jewel and Target. I'll try to fill in some Dominick's prices tomorrow. 

Thanksgiving: Planning Your Shopping

Thanksgiving is now just one week away. You've got your shopping list ready. Now what? In my area, and probably yours, grocery sales change on Thursdays. I get the ads in my mailbox on Tuesday or Wednesday. If you don't normally get the ads, you can find your store's sales flyer on its website.

Today my sales flyers came in the mail. I pulled out Sunday's Target ad and compared all the prices for my shopping list. As usual, not every item on my list was featured in every ad. Due to this year's pumpkin shortage, canned pumpkin wasn't listed in any ads. If you live in the Chicago area and haven't compared the ads, I've done some of the work for you. I've plugged prices from Jewel, Dominick's, Aldi, Target, and Peapod delivery into a handy spreadsheet. (Edited to add Garden Fresh Market prices.) Please note that the turkey prices for Jewel and Dominick's are based on making a separate $20 purchase.

For me, this year's shopping decisions are easy. I have $25 in Catalinas to redeem at Jewel. $10 expires on Saturday, the others on Thanksgiving. The key for me will be to maximize what I get for $20 so I can get the cheapest turkey option. My Thanksgiving list alone actually doesn't get me to $20 unless I buy multiples of several items, so I'll be supplementing with items I need to bake cookies in December.

If you want to shop around, the best frozen turkey price is at Jewel at $.37 a pound for Jennie-O frozen with a $20 purchase. If you don't want to spend $20, Target has store-brand turkeys at $.68 per pound. You can make that an even better deal if you happen to need a roaster. Target will give you a $15 gift card if you buy both bird and roaster.

Real sweet potatoes are a steal for $.28 a pound at Jewel. If you're really strapped for time you can use canned, but real sweet potatoes aren't difficult to make and you'll get 4 pounds of them for the same price as a single 29 oz can. You just need a volunteer who doesn't mind peeling them!

So pull out your ads and figure out your strategy! I suggest buying canned goods early. If you're going with a frozen turkey, you can buy that now too. If you're going to shop at multiple stores, try not to make more than one dedicated shopping trip. It's not a savings if you drive miles out of your way to save $.10 on cranberries. If you stop at a store on your way home from somewhere else, you won't spend extra gas.

And the last step before going shopping? Clean your refrigerator! Make room for next week's goodies by eating any leftovers and making sure each shelf is optimized to give you all the room you'll need to put away the food you're buying.

Thanksgiving: Shopping List

One of the best tools in the frugal grocery shopper's arsenal is a list. A list keeps you from wandering the store aimlessly, picking up a bunch of things that sound good but ultimately don't make a meal.

Let's recap what I'm making and what I have on hand.

The menu is:

• Breakfast: cinnamon rolls and wassail
• Snacks: cheese, crackers, pickles, olives, carrot sticks
• Dinner: brined turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes with apples, pecan and sausage stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, pumpkin cheesecake
• Potluck dinner contribution: apple pie bites with brown sugar cinnamon ice cream

I have all the ingredients for breakfast on-hand. While I know a great cinnamon roll recipe, I got three rolls of cinnamon rolls free in a Catalina deal a few weeks ago. (Believe it or not, they freeze fine. Just make sure they're totally defrosted before cracking open the roll.) The wassail only has three ingredients: Good Earth tea (which I have), apple juice (bought on sale at Target for $.75 last month), and cranberry juice (bought this week on sale for $.99 at Target).


For snacks, I have everything but the olives on hand.


For dinner, I obviously need a turkey! For three people, I actually buy a 12 lb bird because we'll eat leftovers for days and then I'll make soup with the carcass. I already bought the brine last month. I make the gravy from scratch, so nothing to buy there. I have plenty of potatoes bought at $.99 a bag, plenty of apples, a small bag of pecan chips, crescent rolls bought during the same Catalina deal last month, and plenty of cream cheese I bought this week.


That makes my shopping list:

• turkey, at least 12 lb
• sage sausage
• bread cubes 
• cranberry sauce
• canned pumpkin
• puff pastry
• olives

Thanksgiving: The Menu

With Thanksgiving less than two weeks away, now is the time to plan your menu and write up a shopping list. Many stores are already discounting Thanksgiving staples, and it's a good idea to take stock now of what you need. (There's no better way to end up without pie than to wait until the day before Thanksgiving to shop for canned pumpkin!)

Here's my menu for the big day:

Breakfast:

• Cinnamon rolls
• Wassail (a tasty, non-alcoholic hot punch, recipe to come)

Nibbles such as olives, pickles, carrot sticks, cheese, and crackers throughout the day.

Dinner:

• Brined turkey
• Turkey gravy
• Mashed potatoes
• Mashed sweet potatoes with apples
• Pecan and sausage stuffing
• Cranberry sauce
• Rolls
• Pumpkin cheesecake

We are usually invited for a meal elsewhere as well, and will bring apple pie bites with brown sugar cinnamon ice cream.

Over the next week, I'll be sharing my shopping list, ways to save, and dishes to make ahead to make your big day less frazzled. 

November Groceries: Week 2

This was a pretty light shopping week. I only ran the Jewel Catalina deal one more time, giving me a grand total of six trips during the sale. I ended up saving about $170 and paying about $37. Not exactly blackbelt level frugal, but fabulous for me considering I messed up the deal once. I also still have $25 in Catalinas to use in the next 10 days. Those will probably go toward Thanksgiving meal items.

Dominick's:
dozen donuts, large cheese pizza
Total: $10.15
Saved: $3.50

Jewel:
1 5lb bag of flour, 2 13oz boxes of potato buds (potato flakes I'll use in bread), 2 jars peanut butter, 6 cans of soup, 2 boxes of cake mix
Total: $4.04
Saved: $29.70

Aldi:
1 bag of meatballs, 5 8oz blocks of cream cheese (on sale for $.79 each), jar of sprinkles, 2lb brown sugar
Total: $8.10

Sam's:
1 gallon milk, bottle of multi-vitamins, 3 lb bananas
Total: $4.33 (saved $11.53 returning a bottle of recalled Children's Tylenol)

Target:
jumbo of Up and Up diapers, 64 oz bottle of cranberry juice, 3 pints of Coffee-Mate (on sale plus coupon, $.50 each), cold medicine, 2 bottles V-Fusion (one I'll be returning because she didn't scan my coupon), 2.33 lb honeycrisp apples, gift bag, 12 oz bacon
Total: $25.44
Saved: $9.58

Week 2 Total: $52.08
Week 2 Savings: $42.78

Month-to-Date Total: $163.81
Month-to-Date Savings: $230.71

Halfway through November, we're $36 under budget, have $25 to spend next week with no impact on our budget, and have tons of soup to eat when sick or in need of a fast lunch. I also have 13 cartons of broth to use in recipes or making homemade soup, and 40 lb of flour to make our bread and Christmas cookies with.

November Groceries: Week 1

This was kind of a nutty week because there's a big Catalina deal going on at Jewel. I went a little overbudget this week, but I bought a ridiculous amount of food.

Aldi:
2 boxes of cornbread crackers, 2 lb brown sugar, Kleenex, 1 qt half and half, peach candy, candy corn, 2 cans mini ravioli, 2 cans of pineapple, 1 jar of honey, 1 jar of mustard, 2 canisters of cooking spray with flour, chili powder, 2 qt batter bowl, 30 gallon freezer bags, 2 gallons milk, 2 dozen eggs
Total: $36.02

Dominick's:
14.5 lb 93% lean ground beef, 3 lb Bartlett pears
Total: $27.38
Saved: $35.18

Target:
cake mix, cold medicine, 8 cups of yogurt, 3 boxes of Frosted Mini-Wheats, 1 box of Raisin Bran Crunch
Total: $14.47
Saved: $12.10

Jewel:
3 jars Skippy peanut butter, 18 cans of Progresso soup, 7 5 lb bags of flour, 4 1.5 quart boxes of Breyers ice cream, 2 packages of Yoplait Delights yogurt, 4 boxes of cake mix, 1 jar of Italian breadcrumbs, 4 boxes of Lipton soup mix (2 ct.), 3 5 lb bags of potatoes, 7 boxes of chicken broth, 6 boxes of beef broth
Total: $33.86
Savings: $140.65

Week 1 Total: $111.73
Week 1 Savings: $187.93 (plus $25 in catalinas to roll to next week)

Freezer Cooking Day; Baking Recap

After the 18-hour rest in the refrigerator suggested in the recipe, I divided the potato bread dough into one medium and one large loaf pan, then let them rise. Rather than just leaving them in the kitchen, I boiled some water and put the cup of water and both loaf pans into the microwave for two hours. (Not on, of course!) That produced a good rise, but I also reheated the water and popped the pans in again for another hour. That brought both pans up and above the lip of the pans, so I baked them for 45 minutes (the last ten minutes covered with foil to avoid overbrowning).

The result is a sturdy, tasty sandwich loaf that slices and toasts well. I've got one in the fridge and one popped into the freezer.

Quick & Easy Dinner: Sausage Skillet

In all the hubbub yesterday with cooking and waiting for the furnace to be repaired, I totally failed to consider what we would eat for dinner tonight. Never fear! I generally have some items on hand for quick meals. Tonight I went with a simple sausage skillet that comes together in about 20 minutes.

1.5 cups of white rice
3 cups vegetable broth
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 cup green peas
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 package (about 8 oz.) of cubed kielbasa
salt and pepper to taste

Slice kielbasa, then cut each slice into four pieces. Cook sausage in a skillet on medium heat until cooked through. Remove sausage and set aside. Add broth to skill, and wait for the broth to boil. Add rice, onion, and garlic. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for 15 minutes. Fluff rice and add beans, sausage, and rice to the skillet. Mix together and cook a few more minutes, until peas are warmed through. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serves four.

Freezer Cooking Day: Baking Time

Well, yesterday I set out to bake two items: banana bread and potato bread.

With the banana bread I wanted to use up 5 bananas in my freezer and some yogurt that was about to expire, so I searched All Recipes and found this recipe. I doubled the recipe to make one large loaf and some mini-muffins. I also altered it in several ways, but the loaf fell after it came out of the oven, so I think it still needs more work.

Rich Banana Bread

1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour (next time I'll try 2 cups)
1/2 cup yogurt (next time I'll try 1/3 cup)
1/3 cup ground nuts (Trader Joe's nut meal is ideal) or 1/2 cup chopped nuts (OPTIONAL)
2-3 bananas mashed (2 large or 3 smaller)

Mix together oil and sugars, then add eggs and vanilla extract. Mix until combined. Add baking soda and salt to flour, stir, then add the flour mix to your batter. Mix until just combined, then add yogurt, nuts (optional), and mashed bananas.

Pour your batter into a well greased pan. I used baking spray with flour and it came out the pan easily. Bake at 350 for 60 minutes. Check the center for doneness with a toothpick. If the top is brown but the center is still gooey, cover with aluminum foil and bake until toothpick comes out clean. Check every few minutes.

As I said, I doubled this, so I got a 10x5 loaf and 4 dozen mini-muffins. The muffins turned out well. They cook for about 13 minutes per batch. The loaf fell. It's tasty, but very dense. The batter was just too wet, hence my tweaks to the recipe above.


The other baking task for the day was to make yeasted potato bread, one of my husband's favorites. I've not made a successful batch, so I wanted to try a new recipe. I went with this one from King Arthur Flour. Unfortunately I couldn't make the dough until late last night because I ran out of flour and had to make a Jewel run that went poorly (more on that later). The dough rested all night and will rest more while I'm at work today, then I'll put it in the pans when I get home and bake it tonight.

Two lessons learned so far with this recipe:
1. Cube your softened butter, or the mixer blade will slosh yeasty water all over your counter. And while the softened butter looks really weird, it will integrate into your dough eventually.
2. This dough is too much for a 4.5 quart stand mixer to knead. The dough wormed its way up over the top of my dough hook and tried to get into the machinery. If you knead this using a mixer, divide the dough before kneading and knead each piece separately. Then rise each piece separately as well. The recipe makes 3 regular loaves or one large and one medium loaf.

Easy Meat Pasta Sauce

We love good meat sauce at our house, but jarred pasta sauces are often too sweet (and not meaty enough) for my taste. As long as you have a little time or a crockpot, meat sauce is a snap to make at home.

 Easy Meat Sauce
1.5-2 lb ground beef (93% lean is best, but 80% is fine)
2 15 oz. cans tomato sauce
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
2 tsp garlic powder (or 2 cloves of garlic, minced)
1.5 tsp onion (or 1/2 onion, minced)
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 cup red wine
Salt and pepper to taste

Place ground beef in a pot and break up into small pieces. Brown meat over medium heat (saute garlic and onion with the meat if using), then add red wine, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and spices. Mix well, cover, and reduce heat to low. Stir every 10-15 minutes and let simmer for at least 30 minutes. Taste and add salt and pepper. (Start with 1/2 tsp of each if you're not sure where to start.) Simmer up to 3 hours for best flavor. If not serving that night, chill sauce overnight, then remove excess fat that will solidify on the top of the sauce.

Or: put all ingredients into a crockpot, mix well, and cook on low at least 8 hours. Stir and adjust seasonings. Crockpot cooked sauce may need additional spices.

Makes about 7 cups of very meaty sauce. If you prefer less meat, either use 1 lb of meat or an additional can of tomato sauce. If you use more sauce, add an extra 1/2 tsp of all spices. Freezes very well.

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Ice Cream

You may not be thinking about ice cream in November, but a scoop of this ice cream really takes an apple crumble or slice of pumpkin pie to the next level.

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Ice Cream

2 cup half and half
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla (preferably vanilla paste)
1.5 tsp good quality cinnamon

Mix together half and half and heavy cream in a saucepan. Whisk in sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Some of the cinnamon will stick to the sides of the pan. Don't worry about this. Heat the mixture to 170 degrees, whisking frequently. Remove from heat and chill for at least four hours. Freeze in an ice cream maker for about 30 minutes. Scoop into a plastic container and freeze until firm, at least 4-6 hours.

Freezer Cooking Day

While I'm not going to be as productive as others, today I'm joining Money Saving Mom and Life as Mom's Freezer Cooking Day.

The plan is to at least get started on:

- double batch of banana bread
- cinnamon vanilla ice cream
- batch of meat marinara sauce
- 2 loaves potato bread

I'd hoped to roast two pumpkins as well, but our furnace is being repaired, so I don't think I'll get to that today.

October Groceries: Week 4

Well, October's grand total was a lot higher than September. Week 4 brought, once again, too many trips to Target, but I also had the opportunity to stock up on quality spices.