Pantry Meals: Super Easy Beef, Andouille and Mushroom Lasagna

Lasagna can be a bit daunting at times, so I have to give a shout-out to Campbell's for this amazingly easy and super delicious lasagna recipe, made with ground beef, andouille sausage and mushrooms.

It's no secret that Campbell's soups are a regular pantry item in this household - we in the south love our southern béchamel sauce - otherwise known to the rest of y'all as Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup. I admit that I never thought to use it as a sauce in lasagna though. Course, I would have never thought to try it with a baked spaghetti or in a crawfish etouffée either.  Very clever. It works perfectly and is just delicious. This is a keeper and a go-to I will definitely be making again. It came together fast and was so easy it's ridiculous!

Couple of cooking notes. The original recipe, which you can find here {along with a boatload of other great recipe ideas from Campbell's} called for a smaller pan than I had, so I used a 9 x 13 inch baking dish and  increased the milk, pasta sauce, and lasagna noodles.  I also southernized it a bit with an almost Trinity, some mild andouille sausage, and since I used a generic Great Value pasta sauce, I bumped up the flavor with a few seasonings and herbs, and added in a small can of mushrooms.

By the way, do check out the Campbell's Kitchen site when you have a moment. There are some fantastic recipes there and they even have a recipe cloud so you can select recipes by mood for pete's sake! Can you say "Chocolaty?"  I LOVE that site, and no they did not pay me to say that!

The original recipe also called for layering it a bit different, by putting half of the meat and pasta sauce mixture in the bottom of the pan, topped by 3 noodles, then all of the mushroom sauce, another layer of 3 noodles, the other half of the meat sauce, ending with the last 3 noodles and a topping of the cheese.

Instead, I wanted a layer of noodles on the bottom with only just a smidge of the meat and pasta sauce underneath - just enough so the noodles would not stick and burn. I hated to see all that meat sauce just sitting on the bottom of the pan! On top of that bottom layer of noodles I wanted half of the meat sauce, topped by more noodles, then all of the cream sauce, more noodles, the other half of the meat sauce, noodles and then the cheese. Unfortunately, I realized a little too late that I was a bit short on lasagna noodles, having used some of the package recently to make my Skillet Broken Lasagna, so I had to make do and couldn't layer it how I wanted to. I will remedy this next time!

This was one of those made-on-the-fly-right-out-of-the-pantry meals, and I only had oven ready lasagna noodles on hand. With only a light layer of cheese on top, that top layer of the uncooked noodles had a bit more tooth than I like, requiring a sharp knife to cut through it. Next time I make this, I will either use regular cooked lasagna noodles as the recipe calls for, or I will at least soften those top noodles a bit with some boiling water. I think that will work well with that top layer, since the rest of the layers of the oven ready pasta cooked just fine.

Seriously, you must give this a try, it is so very easy and simply delicious - enjoy!

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Super Easy Beef, Andouille
   and Mushroom Lasagna
From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish

1 can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/2 cup of milk
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 of a medium onion, chopped
1/2 of a green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 pound of ground beef
1/4 pound of mild andouille or smoked
   sausage, finely chopped
1 (approx. 26 ounce) jar or can of pasta sauce
1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of Slap Ya Mama, or
   your favorite Cajun/Creole seasoning
1 tablespoon of dried parsley
1 small can of sliced mushrooms, drained
About 15 oven ready lasagna noodles (or use
   regular and cook them, setting aside)
1-1/2 to 2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cream of mushroom soup and milk until smooth and creamy; set aside. If using regular lasagna noodles, prepare as directed on the package. If using oven ready noodles, soften five of those noodles by placing them into a baking pan and pouring boiling water over the top of them, moving them around until slightly softened. These will be for the top layer.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet and add the onion and bell pepper, cooking until tender but not browned.  Add the garlic and cook another minute. Add the beef, breaking up the meat into fine pieces; drain off the fat and return the beef & vegetable mixture to the skillet. Add the sausage and cook until warmed through. Stir in the pasta sauce, Italian seasoning, Cajun seasoning, and parsley, and cook just until warm; set aside.

Spoon just enough of the meat and pasta sauce mixture on the bottom of baking dish to lightly coat the bottom. This is to help prevent the noodles from sticking and burning. Layer 4 noodles lengthwise, slightly overlapping, on the bottom, adding a fifth noodle at the end. You'll have to break off a bit of the end of that noodle.

Spread one-half of the meat and pasta sauce sauce mixture on top of that layer of noodles and scatter half of the canned mushrooms on top.  Top with five more noodles.  Spread all of the mushroom cream sauce on top of that layer of noodles. Add five more noodles.  On top of that, spread the remaining meat and pasta sauce and scatter the remaining mushrooms on top.  Layer the last five softened lasagna noodles on top and sprinkle the cheese all over the top.

Spray one side of a piece of aluminum foil with non-stick spray, and cover the lasagna with the sprayed side down.  Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 30 to 40 minutes or until hot and bubbly.  Remove, turn the oven up to broil, uncover the lasagna and place under the broiler for only a minute or so, or until cheese is lightly browned. Keep a very close eye on the lasagna while it is under the broiler so it doesn't burn!

Let rest 10 to 15 minutes before slicing.

Serves about 8

Source: http://deepsouthdish.com

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Crockpot Pomegranate Cranberry Chicken

I thought I would experiment with the old standby cranberry chicken dish, and use a bit of Cajun seasoning to spice it up a tad like I do with the other recipe, but this time, I decided to add in some pomegranate juice. What a delightful addition it was! The pomegranate just gave this an extra tangy punch above the cranberry and produced a nice sauce, even better than the usual.  The best part? It's a slow cooker dump and forget about it dish! Who doesn't love those?

You may have noticed that I've been adding POM Wonderful to quite a few recipes here lately - there was the Pomegranate Cosmos, the Spicy Pomegranate Cranberry Sauce, the Cranberry Pomegranate Holiday Sangria, and now this Cranberry Pomegranate Chicken dish. I love this stuff!!

Well, want to know more about POM Wonderful? How about a few free bottles for yourself so that you can try it out? There is exciting news right here in this post how you can enter to win some to try for yourself - ALL FREE - so stay tuned!!

Speaking of slow cookers, don't y'all think that I am due for a  new one?

I actually do have one that is even older than this one - one that I received as a gift when I married my son's father in the late 70s. Yes, I still have it. Yes, it still works but ... it sure ain't pretty, and while I want to say that I got this one at the same time and just kept them both, I can't say for sure. So this one might be slightly newer, but I'll tell ya. Not much! Soooooo, if anybody in my family is paying attention and thinking about a gift for me on down the line for some occasion or holiday, I sure could use a new crockpot. It doesn't really have to be fancy, though I have to say that a programmable one with a removeable insert would be super fine. :)  I'm just sayin'...

Anyway, on to the chicken.  I would have liked to have done this recipe with a whole chicken or at the least, chicken thighs, since I'm not a big fan of cooking chicken breasts in the crockpot, but what I had on hand in the freezer were chicken breasts, so that is what I used.  I grabbed a couple of pounds of bone-in chicken breasts from the freezer and thawed them in the fridge.  To the slow cooker I added the usual culprits - onion soup mix, a can of cranberry sauce, and catalina dressing.

Only this time, I added a little bit of my favorite Slap Ya Mama Cajun seasoning and an 8-ounce bottle of POM Wonderful 100% Pomegranate juice.

Whisk all of that together well, add the chicken and cook according to the temperature and time for the pieces you are cooking.

The result was a wonderful cranberry chicken, with just a bit of a punch. Tasty, easy, and great to have waiting for you when you get to the end of a busy day and everybody is hungry!

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Crockpot Pomegranate Cranberry Chicken
From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish

1 can cranberry sauce, whole or jellied
1 (8 ounce) bottle POM Wonderful
   100% pomegranate juice
1 cup of Catalina style dressing
1 envelope onion soup mix
1/2 teaspoon of Slap Ya Mama (or your
   favorite) Cajun seasoning
One whole chicken, cut up, or assorted
   individual chicken pieces

In the slow cooker, whisk together the cranberry sauce, pomegranate juice, Catalina dressing, soup mix and Cajun seasoning. Place chicken pieces in the slow cooker and turn to coat. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours, or high for 3 to 4 hours, or until chicken is cooked through. Time will depend on the cuts used.

Can also bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 50 minutes, or until chicken is done.

Source: http://deepsouthdish.com

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Ooey Gooey Crockpot BBQ Wings
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Cranberry Chicken Bake

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The Best Homemade Buttermilk Pancakes

My personal recipe for more than 30 years, these make simply perfect homemade buttermilk pancakes that I know you'll love.

Homemade Buttermilk Pancakes

You don't have to keep searching for the best recipe for pancakes because I've been making my homemade pancakes this way for more than 30 years, and I think they've stood the test of time. I declare them the best!

Don't get me wrong - I do realize that just adding water to a pre-packaged mix sure makes things a bit easier in this hurry-up world we live in, but honestly it doesn't take any time to mix up a fresh batch of pancake batter and no worries over weird ingredients or preservatives lurking in there either because you know what went in it. So, on your day off, why not make them homemade!

Heck you can even mix up several batches of the dry ingredients on your day off, stick them in cheap storage bags and then all you have to do is dump it in a bowl and add the milk and egg when you get ready to make them on a weekday morning. Homemade, good for you, prepackaged pancake mix in a jiffy! Truth is, when I was working outside of the home, I used to make big batches of pancakes on the weekend, flash freeze them and then only had to heat them up in the microwave for breakfast.

Great belly filling kick start to a cold morning, just add some of those Little Sizzlers sausage links or Jimmy Dean sausage patties, a side of skillet apples, pure butter, and loads of warmed maple syrup ... talk about some good.

Let's make some!

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Ham and egg salad is a southern favorite - easy and delicious!

Southern Ham and Egg Salad

Tired of turkey and ham sandwiches already? Here's another one of my favorite egg salad recipes, made with ham and a perfect sandwich filling to utilize some of that leftover holiday ham. Other than what is contained in the Cajun seasoning, I don't add any additional salt since ham tends to be on the salty side already. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking. You can, of course, simply omit the Cajun seasoning. Simple and delicious, enjoy!

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Recipe: Southern Ham and Egg Salad

©From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish

Prep time: 10 min |Inactive time: 1 hour |

Yield: About 4 servings

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Ingredients

• 1-1/2 to 2 cups of chopped ham
• 4 boiled eggs, chopped
• 1 green onion, sliced
• 1 stalk of celery, chopped
• 2/3 cup of mayonnaise, or as needed
• 1/4 teaspoon of yellow mustard, or to taste
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning (like Slap Ya Mama), or to taste, optional
• 1/4 teaspoon of freshly cracked black pepper, or to taste
• 1 tablespoon of dried parsley

Instructions

Combine all of the ingredients in a medium bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least an hour to allow the flavors to meld. Serve as a sandwich filling on bread, with toast points or crackers.

Source: http://www.deepsouthdish.com

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©Deep South Dish

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Brown Sugar and Mustard Glazed Ham
Spicy Cajun Sausage and Corn Soup
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Posted by Mary on November 28, 2009

Images and Full Post Content including Recipe ©Deep South Dish. Do not repost or republish elsewhere without explicit prior permission. All rights reserved.
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Recipes for Thanksgiving Leftovers

To me, there is nothing better than plain ole turkey sandwiches on white bread with mayo after Thanksgiving, and I can eat them for days. But if you have hosted a big family Thanksgiving at your house, it's likely that you will end up with a whole lot of leftovers.  Here are a few ideas I've thrown together to give you some inspiration.

Cranberry Sauce - Besides spreading it on a turkey sandwich, use this as a condiment on waffles, pancakes, french toast, oatmeal or as a spread for rolls, croissants and biscuits. Spread cream cheese on a bagel and top it with cranberry sauce. Spoon it into yogurt and over frozen yogurt and ice cream or to top a piece of cheesecake. Swirl it into a cake mix, or make it into a glaze. Mix with a bit of apple cider or juice and make it into a sauce for pork chops or chicken. Mix it up with your usual olive oil vinaigrette recipe. Mix it with pepper jelly and pour over a block of cream cheese as a dip for crackers.

Got more cranberry sauce leftover than you know what to do with? Try this Cranberry Chicken Bake

Or, this Crockpot Pomegranate Cranberry Chicken

☞ Don't throw away that turkey carcass! Break it apart, stick it in container and throw it into the fridge or freezer for Turkey Bone Gumbo!

Thanksgiving Turkey Bone Gumbo

☞ Save some thick slices of that turkey for some delicious Kentucky Hot Brown sandwiches.

☞ Transform leftover mashed potatoes into Duchess Potatoes

☞ Leftover Turkey and Dressing Casserole 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a casserole dish with non-stick spray - whatever size you want to make according to the number of leftovers.  Shred up about 2 cups of leftover turkey and mix it with a can of cream of mushroom soup and a can of cream of celery soup. Add about a can of milk, more or less, enough to moisten. Stir in a cup of leftover fried onions if you have them, pour into the casserole dish.  Top with leftover green beans or green bean casserole.  Top with leftover stuffing or leftover mashed potatoes or both, pour leftover gravy on top. Can also warm the gravy separately and spoon over each individual serving. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until heated through. Serve with cranberry sauce on the side.

☞ Turkey or Ham & Broccoli Casserole

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a casserole dish with non-stick spray.  Spread leftover broccoli casserole in the bottom of dish.  Add about 2 cups of shredded turkey meat or ham on top. Combine one can of cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup with just enough milk to make a smooth sauce. Pour over the top of the meat.  Top with shredded cheese, or leftover mashed potatoes dotted with pieces of butter, or sprinkle top with bread crumbs mixed with butter. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until heated through.

☞  Tex Mex Turkey Casserole

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a casserole dish with non-stick spray. Combine about 2 cups of diced up leftover turkey, with one whole green onion, sliced, and a can of Mexicorn, a one pound bag of hash brown potatoes, thawed, 1 small can of green chilies, 1 can of cream of chicken soup, 1 can of Rotel tomatoes, 1 cup of cheddar or pepper jack cheese or a combination of the two, pinch of salt and pepper, and 1 tablespoon of chopped jalapeno. Mix all together and turn out into casserole dish. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until heated through.

☞  Turkey Mornay

Melt 1/2 a stick of butter in a skillet, saute 1/2 an onion, chopped and couple cloves of chopped garlic until tender.  Add 3 tablespoons of flour and cook for 2 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and dried thyme. Stir in 1 cup of chicken broth and 1/2 cup of cream, bring to a boil, reduce heat on burner to simmer. Remove pan from burner. Beat 2 eggs in a small bowl, take a couple tablespoons of the sauce and slowly add to the eggs to temper them, return pan to the burner, then add the eggs to the sauce, stirring constantly and cooking for about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup of shredded Swiss cheese; mix until cheese is melted. Warm turkey slices in the microwave and top split, toasted English muffins with several slices of turkey, then top with the cheese sauce, sprinkle with some Parmesan cheese and stick under the broiler until bubbly - take care not to let it burn!

☞ Turkey Croquettes

Take my Tater Cakes recipe and add 2 cups of finely chopped, leftover turkey. Serve with cranberry sauce on the side.

☞ Turkey Carcass Soup
     Don't throw away that turkey carcass! It makes an excellent soup.

☞ Chicken Brunswick Stew
     Substitute turkey for the BBQ pork.

☞ Chicken Stew
     Substitute turkey for the chicken.

☞ Turkey Pot Pie
     Substitute turkey for the chicken.

☞ Grown-Up Southern Tea Room Chutney Turkey Salad for Two
     Substitute turkey for the chicken.

☞ Deli Style Turkey Salad
     Substitute turkey for the chicken.

☞ Easy Turkey Enchiladas
     Substitute turkey for the chicken.

☞ Turkey & Dumpling Bake
     Substitute turkey for the chicken.

☞ Turkey & Andouille Sausage Gumbo
     Substitute turkey for the chicken and add at the end.

☞  Old Fashioned Turkey Noodle Casserole
      Substitute turkey for the chicken.

☞ Turkey & Stuffing Bake
     Substitute turkey for the meatballs and use leftover dressing.

☞  Turkey & White Bean Chili
      Wait and add the shredded turkey at the end.

☞  Spicy Turkey & Veggie Stir Fry

☞  Chap Chae - Koren Mixed Veggies with Turkey, Beef or Ham & Cellophane Noodles
      Substitute meat according to leftovers.

☞  Tomato Basil Turkey Wrap

☞  Ham and Egg Salad
      Use leftover ham

☞  Southern Creamy Butter Beans
      Use that ham bone & leftover ham

☞ Shortcut Red Beans & Rice
     Use that ham bone & leftover ham in place of or with the smoked sausage

☞ Bean Soup
     Use that ham bone & leftover ham

☞ Grit Cakes
     Use leftover garlic cheese grits

☞ Step by Step Fried Rice
     Use leftover chopped pork, turkey, or ham and leftover rice

☞ Southern Vegetable Beef Soup
     Use leftover beef roast, adding meat at the end.

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Weekend Cocktails - Cranberry Pomegranate Christmas Holiday Sangria

This sangria combines the best of what is available during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays - cranberry, pomegranate, orange, apple, and of course a good red or white wine. Plan to double it.

Cranberry Pomegranate Holiday Christmas Sangria

I adore a good sangria, especially over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and let me tell you. They go fast so you might even want to double this, depending on how many folks you have around. We'll add this to our Weekend Cocktail Series, a little bit early so that you can enjoy it with your holiday meal - and I am here to tell you that this is goooooood! This sangria combines the best of what is available right now - cranberry, pomegranate, orange, and apple. I like mine a bit on the sweeter side, so maybe add 1/2 cup of the simple syrup, taste and adjust to your liking. Check out my spring sangria too - with lemon, pineapple, strawberries, orange, and apple, it's equally delicious.

Here's how to make it - enjoy!

Click Here to Read More & to Get Recipe »

Roasted Stuffed Boneless Turkey Breast

A turkey roulade recipe is a fantastic way to go, if it's just you and your significant other for the holidays, or you just don't want to deal with roasting an entire turkey. A turkey roulade is simply a boneless turkey breast that has been butterflied, pounded flat, and then stuffed, rolled and roasted in the oven. It is an excellent way to get a taste of your traditional turkey and dressing, without having a boatload of leftovers.

I couldn't find a whole boneless turkey breast (which would be two breast halves) so I just used one half, a single bone-in breast. I was in too much of a rush to wait for the butcher to debone it for me, so I thought I would try to manage the task myself.  It wasn't difficult, just on a much larger scale than a chicken breast which I have deboned a hundred times. The worst part of the process was worrying that I might stab myself trying to work around the bones, but I'm happy to report that I managed to safely complete the task with no injuries! It was also a bugger to roll since it was only half a breast.

I am a true believer in brining, so I used a one-quarter recipe of my Brining Solution with only one change. I didn't have any vegetable stock on hand, and I didn't have time to make one, so I just simply used only filtered water and mixed up the rest of the brine, placed the turkey breast in a Ziploc bag, and then set that in a bowl in the fridge to marinate for a couple of hours.

For the stuffing, I used my Homemade Herb Bread Dressing, made with well toasted, leftover rolls.  I made a double recipe, reserved 2 cups of the dressing to stuff the turkey breast and put the rest in a 9 by 9 inch baking pan to bake seperately.  If you are using a whole turkey breast (two breast halves) reserve 4 cups of the stuffing - 2 cups for each breast half.

This turned out so tender, juicy and just downright delectable, perfect for a small, intimate holiday meal, or even for a nice Sunday dinner. Play with the stuffing ingredients - a wild rice dressing would be nice, as would a mushroom stuffing, or chestnuts, or even spinach and oysters.

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Roasted Stuffed Boneless Turkey Breast
From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish

1 (4 pound) boneless whole turkey breast
Brine Recipe (1/2 recipe for full breast)
4 cups of Herb Bread Dressing, Southern Cornbread
   Dressing, or your choice of stuffing
1 tablespoon of butter
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
3 slices of bacon
Butcher's twine
Homemade Gravy

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Prepare the brine, place the turkey breast in a ziploc bag and pour brine in over the breast. Place into a bowl and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Remove the turkey from the brine and pat dry.  If using a whole breast, butterfly it by cutting right down the length of the turkey, cutting the breast nearly in half, but not all the way, stopping just short of the outside edge. It should lay flat like an open book. Lay the turkey breast on a large piece of plastic wrap, cover with another piece and using the flat side of a meat mallet, pound the breast in the thicker parts so that you have equal thickness.

Spread the stuffing evenly across the turkey breast out to about 1 inch from the ends. Roll up.  Wrap the breast securely using butcher's twine.  Season the outside of the turkey breast with salt and pepper.

Melt the butter and olive oil in a saucepan; pour part of it into the roasting pan and place the turkey breast on top, skin side up, moving it around a bit to coat the breast.  Pour the rest of the olive oil and butter over the top of the turkey breast.  Lay the 3 slices of bacon across the top of the length of the turkey breast and transfer the pan to the oven.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 1 hour to 1-1/4 hours, basting occasionally and removing the bacon about halfway through, or once it is crisped and used up. Turkey breast is done when an instant read thermometer reads 165 degrees when inserted into the thickest part of the breast.

Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing into 1/2 inch serving sized pieces.

Make a butter pan sauce by taking the roasting pan to the stove top and skimming off any fat that has floated to the top. Ideally, you can also carefully transfer all of the drippings to a fat separator (this kitchen tool is WONDERFUL) and then return the pan juices only back to the roasting pan, discarding the rest of the fat. In this case, you may not have that much in the drippings department. Place the roasting pan over medium high heat and bring the juices to a boil, adding a bit of stock or broth to the pan to help deglaze it and to lift the pan scrapings up. Cook until the juices have reduced slightly, remove from the heat, stir in a bit of butter and swirl around until blended in. Spoon over each serving slice. If you prefer, make a gravy using canned stock to spoon on top.

Source: http://deepsouthdish.com

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Traditional Southern Cornbread Dressing
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By brining, you are providing a moisture cushion for the meat - all provided by the process of osmosis.

Fast and Easy Brining Solution

Brine. Your. Turkey. (or your chicken, or your pork...) Period. Just trust me on this one.

What is brining? And why bother?

Brining is simply placing meat or poultry in a solution of salt water. By brining, you are providing a moisture cushion for the meat - all provided by the process of osmosis. The water moves from the brine, the area of higher concentration, to the meat, the area of lower concentration - so that moisture and flavor are trapped inside, giving you a bit of leeway with the cooking process.  If you happen to slightly overcook the meat (which we all tend to do especially with poultry), it will still stay tender and moist. (Thank you Alton for this knowledge tidbit.) Make sure that you do not leave meat in the brining solution for longer than the recommend times, 12 hours for a turkey, and also, give it a quick rinse inside and outside, when it comes out of the brine, especially if you use table salt. Kosher salt is what I use and recommend.

And, I discovered another thing. If you use brown sugar, it adds to the flavor, and you don't need to cook the brine at all. The salt and sugar will dissolve well with a few vigorous stirrings without warming the brine, so you don't have to wait for the brine to cool down before putting your bird in. I like anything that saves a little time!

Now, let's talk turkey. Remove the neck and giblets from the bird, set aside to use later or discard. You can check the displacement of your intended container by putting the bird in it and then cover it with the required amount of water to see if it will take all of the water with your bird in it.  Nothin' worse than preparing a brine and then adding your bird only to have half of your brine spill out!

Click Here to Read More & to Get Recipe »

A traditional classic side dish for the holidays, it wouldn't be the same around our house if green bean casserole didn't show up.

Classic Green Bean Casserole

I don't know what it is about Green Bean Casserole, but I am the first one to say I love it, and I expect it at holiday meals. Gooey, creamy southern béchamel (that's Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup for those of y'all with a more sophisticated palate) mixed in with one of our favorite southern veggies - green beans - and accented by crunchy French fried onions. Oh yeah. Comfort food for sure and likely to invoke all kinds of memories of Thanksgiving and Christmas past. Maybe that's why we love our Green Bean Casserole so much in The South.

And listen y'all. If you want to make a homemade cream sauce, then by all means, go for it... but folks, I'd like to ask that you please stop trash talkin' the classic if you don't mind. There are an awful lot of us still endeared to the original, and besides... remember mama's advice that if you don't have something nice to say, well.. if you're a proper southerner, you know the rest. For those with more adventurous appetites, I've added in some nice variations at the bottom of the recipe too.

Let's make it!

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How to Make Homemade Giblet Gravy in the Roasting Pan

A homemade gravy made from the roasting pan drippings and turkey giblets.

How to Make Homemade Giblet Gravy

My Mama always made turkey giblet gravy on the holidays. It was just a given that you'd find gravy on the table with those little bits of giblets floating in it. I under-appreciated it back then, but now I know the added punch of flavor that infusing the gravy with giblets gives us. Don't be intimated by homemade gravy because it is hands down so much better than a jar or can and not hard to do at all.  Click here for some tips on how to make (and repair) gravy and then come back here to learn how to make a wonderful pan gravy using those beautiful drippings from your holiday turkey. You will be thrilled with the results, and you can even make it ahead!

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Recipe: How to Make Homemade Giblet Gravy

©From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish

Prep time: 10 min |Cook time: 15 min |

Yield: About 4 to 6 servings

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Ingredients

• Turkey giblets and neck from the bird
• 1 bay leaf
• Water to cover (reserve water when done)
• 4 cups of drippings and/or broth from the turkey pan
• 1/3 cup of fat skimmed off the top of the drippings
• 1/3 cup of all purpose flour
• Kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
• Additional turkey or chicken stock, as needed

Instructions

Place the neck, giblets and a bay leaf into a small saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a very low simmer, cover and cook for about 5 to 10 minutes or until done but still tender. Remove the neck and giblets, reserving the cooking water, and set aside to cool. Pull the meat off of the neck, and chop giblets; set aside in the fridge till you need them.

When the turkey comes out of the oven, transfer it to a large platter to rest. Pour off all of the liquid from the roasting pan into a large measuring cup. Add the giblet cooking liquid to those pan drippings - an 8 cup measure is great for this but generally a 4 cup measure will do it. You'll also need a fat separator. You can make do without one, but trust me, they are more than handy and worth every dime. It will keep your gravy from getting greasy, so get yourself one!

Set the roasting pan over medium high heat. Pour some of the broth into the fat separator and add 1 cup of the pan drippings back to the roasting pan to start. Deglaze the pan by scraping up all of the browned bits. Pour off the broth and pan scrapings back into the 4 cup measure.

Now we make the roux. Spoon off 1/3 cup of fat from the top of the reserved pan drippings and add to the roasting pan. If you don't want to do this in the roasting pan, just start the roux in a large saucepan. You've already pulled up all of the browned bits, so it doesn't matter at this point.

Heat over medium to medium high heat, then slowly sprinkle in the 1/3 cup of flour. Cook and stir the roux for 3 minutes. Gradually begin to add in the reserved 4 cup measure of pan drippings and giblet broth - filtering it through the fat separator to avoid adding any of the fat floating on the top. Keep some additional turkey or chicken stock close by, because you'll be adding that, as needed, cooking and stirring constantly as you add the broth in, until the gravy reaches the desired consistency.

Add the reserved cooked giblets and turkey meat and warm through. Season with salt and pepper, taste and adjust as needed.

~Cook's Notes~

Some southern cooks add chopped, hard boiled eggs to their gravy. Mama never did and neither do I but feel free to throw some in if you like. You'll want 1 hard boiled egg, diced and stir it in just before serving.

Tip:  Buy an extra couple of turkey wings and you can fake it by making your gravy ahead, roasting off the wings and using the drippings and the broth as your base.

Be sure to check out these gravy success tips!

Source:  http://deepsouthdish.com

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Posted by Mary on November 23, 2009

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A roux based oyster stew in cream sauce, a drizzle of hot sauce and garnished with broken saltine crackers and green onion.

Creamy Oyster Stew

It used to be said - and lots of folks still live true to it today - that you should only eat oysters in months that contain the letter "R" in them, that being early spring, but mostly in fall and winter. It's really an old fallback to the days when refrigeration and spoilage were an issue, but there is a bit of truth there in that those "R" months just happen to be when Gulf oysters are at their peak flavor. These days oysters are also farmed, so you can pretty much get good oysters year-round all over the country. Well old folks tale or not, lucky us that we are in an "R" month because down here in the Deep Coastal South, we love our fresh Gulf oysters and they show themselves in many of our holiday dishes, one of them being oyster stew.

My Mama made oyster stew for Daddy all the time, and I loved it too, though I suppose her version was more like a soup than a stew. Made basically of lots of whole milk, and loads of pure butter, and, of course, fresh Gulf oysters. It was one recipe that I never watched Mama make, so when my brother asked me if I had a recipe for it, I had to go searching for one that sounded reasonably close in flavor. Still, there was always something that seemed like it was missing in this stew to me, so when I set out to try to make one of my own to post for Thanksgiving, I decided to incorporate a roux to make it thicker and more "stew-like." Oh boy did it work out! This turned out so creamy, and rich and just downright decadent.  But so simple.

I finished it with a drizzle of a combination of Tiger Sauce and Louisiana hot sauce, crumbled saltines, piled right in the middle, and some freshly sliced green onion sprinkled on top. It was a perfect accent to the stew.

Here's how to make it.

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Perfect and Easy Old Fashioned Cloverleaf and Crescent Yeast Rolls

Mama's favorite holiday roll remains my favorite too, even after all of these years. These are truly the original old fashioned yeast roll - tender, light and perfect.

Old Fashioned Yeast Rolls

This is my go to holiday dinner roll recipe, an absolutely perfect dinner roll for any holiday dinner, and, of course, any other day really. I wrote it for my stand mixer but if you don't own one, don't fret! You can still make these rolls with a little bit of extra elbow grease, so I've also included basic instructions for hand kneading in the recipe.

Airy, soft and tender on the inside and nicely browned with the tiniest bit of crunch on the outside, they truly are the perfect holiday roll. It's really a shame that we don't make homemade yeast rolls more often, but mostly they only make an appearance at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner because of the time needed for the two risings. Those 30 minute quick rolls are nice as a fill in, but they are really more like a biscuit than a roll to me because you really do need that extra long rise for the yeast to develop. They are so worth the extra time though, and especially for these two special meals, and aside from the rising time, so easy to make.

Scalding milk is an 'old school' method that is really not even necessary to do anymore, since the primary purpose of it in older recipes was to kill bacteria and also enzymes known to interfere with the chemical reaction from the milk with the recipe. With modern pasteurization that's not much of a worry these days, but you know what? I still do it. Old habits die hard, and why mess with a good thing?

You can do this entire batch in any shape you like - parker house, fan tans, whatever you like. I like to do the cloverleafs and crescents, because frankly they are the easiest, so I like to split the dough and form half of each. Once formed, the second rise can happen in 30 minutes or can take as long as an hour, depending on the environment, so plan accordingly, because you want to time these rolls to pop out of the oven when everything else is ready.

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