Cranberry Turkey in the Crock Pot

This week's recipe is my favorite so far! The cranberry turkey was so easy - I was able to set it up before work and have a hot meal ready when I got home! The recipe is actually called "Easy and Delicious Turkey Breast" but I thought "Cranberry Turkey" was more descriptive. The recipe comes from this book, which was a graduation gift of my husband's. Thanks, Aunt Rosemary!

The recipe is simple:

1 turkey breast
15-oz can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

1. Place turkey in slow cooker.
2. Combine remaining ingredients. Pour over turkey.
3. Cover. Cook on Low 6-8 hours.

I cooked mine for 8 hours (it was even partially frozen) and it turned out perfectly.

If you have a crock pot I would definitely recommend this recipe. If you don't have a crock pot, I would recommend adding it to your next birthday list or wedding registry!

Learning to Crochet

I've spent the past week learning to crochet. I now know how to single crochet, half-double crochet, double crochet, and treble crochet. I haven't tried any edging or rounds or anything fancy, but I feel pretty comfortable with the basic stitches now. For my first project I made a "baby blanket" for Captain. Nothing fancy, but he actually likes it! (Don't look too closely for mistakes!)

Chocolate-Hazelnut Meringues

I decided to try a little baking for a change, and chose this recipe for Chocolate-Hazelnut Meringues. The hardest part was knowing how long to mix the egg whites. I don't know if I really saw the "soft peaks" or the "stiff peaks" like I was supposed to, but here is a series of 3 pictures as I added different ingredients.

Just the egg whites

Egg whites + cream of tartar and salt

After adding sugar and vanilla extract. Stiff peaks anywhere? No, I guess not really.

Here are the meringues as I scooped them onto the parchment paper.

And here they are coming out of the oven, 2 hours later!

And, finally, after dipping in chocolate and sprinkling with chopped walnuts (I couldn't find hazelnuts). They aren't quite as spherical as in the magazine, but they're still delicious!

I also tried this recipe for Vanilla-Almond Steamer. The steamer was good, but a little too sweet for me. As the recipe states, it can also be paired with brandy or gold rum.

Chicken Marsala

Chicken Marsala is a dish I had made before and really liked, so I decided to try it again. It is from one of my mother-in-law's cookbooks (I don't remember which one), but I will try to scan in the recipe soon in case you want to try it yourself. This recipe is simple and quick; I'd definitely recommend it.

So good you'll lick your plate clean. ;)

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Besides trying new recipes, I am hoping to master some staples, like this recipe for Tuna Noodle Casserole. It was quick and easy, other than waiting for the water to boil for the pasta - I always hate that part. It did come out a little runny, though, so I might use less milk next time. Also, this was my first time using the broiler. Can anybody tell me if you have to preheat the broiler? The first step in the recipe says to preheat the broiler, so I was waiting for the preheat indicator to turn on and it never did.

Roast Chicken with Balsamic Bell Peppers

The roast chicken recipe was a little harder than the others, especially since I was trying to time it with marscarpone mashed potatoes. I couldn't find a link for the marscarpone pototoes to share with you, but it basically just called for yukon gold pototaoes with milk and marscarpone cheese. The potatoes took a lot longer to cook than I expected, so that threw me off a bit. In the end (about 2 hours later I think??) everything came together and tasted great! I would definitely recommend this one if you like bell peppers.

Sauteed Snapper with Orange-Fennel Salad

After the chicken noodle soup, I felt confident enough to try something a little more challenging. I chose the sauteed snapper recipe because I wanted to try fish, and I love oranges. I didn't know what fennel was before making this recipe, but the picture in my Cooking Light magazine helped me to know what I was looking for. In case you are not familiar, fennel (found in the produce section) has a white bulb with green celery-like stalks growing out of it, and little green leaves (fronds) coming off the stalks. I didn't think to take a picture before chopping it up, but here is what it looked like with the bulb sliced and the fronds chopped.



Another thing I learned about fennel, is that it has a taste very similar to black licorice. Fortunately for me, this taste was not too strong in the final product.

Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention, I couldn't actually find snapper in the grocery store either, so I used tilapia. I don't know much about fish so I really don't know if this was a good substitution, but I think it tasted fine!



And voila, the finished product! Paired with a green house salad and a glass of wine, it made a pretty healthy meal!



"Two paws up" from this fish-loving friend!

Quick Chicken Noodle Soup

For my first cooking adventure I decided to start with an easy one. I chose this recipe out of my January 2010 Cooking Light magazine for Chicken Noodle Soup, and decided to make a double batch for lots of leftovers.

The recipe called for shredded skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken breast, but I couldn't find this in the grocery store and didn't know how to prepare it myself, so instead I bought frozen chicken breasts and cut them into cubes. The other thing I missed was that the recipe tells you to cook the pasta right in the chicken broth. It makes sense to add flavor, but I didn't see that before I had already cooked and drained the pasta. Has anybody done it this way before? I was afraid it might leave the soup kind of "starchy" if you couldn't drain the pasta after cooking it.

Overall I was pleased with the recipe, and it was definitely an easy one. I only wish I had frozen half, or else just made a single batch, because a double batch of soup goes a long way for just two people!