This will probably be my last post on the ol' recipe blog. For those who haven't heard I am leaving Pittsburgh and moving to a station in Chicago. It has been the toughest decision I've ever had to make, but it puts us 8-9 hours closer to grandmas and grandpas. Needless to say, they are very excited!

Anyway, here's a great recipe I just tried the other day. Once of our great folks behind the scene brought these in for a Christmas treat and I was amazed at how simple they are and how great they tasted! If you like toffee, you'll love these!

Ingredients
1 box low sodium saltine crackers
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 bag milk chocolate chips

Preparation
1. Spread foil on cookie sheet and line with saltine crackers
2. In a sauce pan, cook butter and sugar until the butter is completely melted and mixture is smooth
3. Pour over saltines and spread evenly with a spatula
4. Cook at 350 degrees for approximately 15 minutes or until caramelized (golden color)
5. Remove and immediately sprinkle chocolate chips (the heat will melt the chips) then spread smoothly with spatula
6. Cool until chocolate has hardened and break or cut into bars.

That's it, and it tastes just like Heath. Thanks to Jim & his wife for the great recipe. And thanks to you, the reader, for trying out some of these recipes. I love cooking and I hope I've inspired some of you to cook too. Until next time...

While working the 11 o'clock news on Thanksgiving evening, Mike Clark asked me on the air what was my favorite dish I'd made that day. I replied "The turkey, it was the best one yet." Since then I've gotten several phone calls and emails from people asking for the recipe. A note: It takes 8+ hours to make because you soak the turkey in Brine. Well here it is:

Ingredients
1 (11 to 14 pound) frozen turkey (thawed)

Brine ingredients
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 heaping tablespoon black peppercorns
1 gallon iced water
1 clean 5 gallon bucket

Other ingredients
1/2 apple, sliced
1/2 onion
1 whole stalk celery (including the leaves)
Canola oil (or other neutral oil)

Preparation:
1. A day or two before, combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil.
2. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
3. Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before{we like to eat around Noon}) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket.
4. Remove the neck and organs. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for at least 6 hours.
5. A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, celery, and 1/2 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 2 minutes.
6. Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.
7. Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels.
8. Add apple and veggies from microwave to cavity along.
9. Tuck wings back and underneath the bird and coat whole bird liberally with oil.
10. Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. This will brown it up quickly. A warning, it smokes a lot in my oven so I turn the vent fan above the oven to help pump it outside.
11. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F.
12. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. My bird was 13 pounds. It should require a total of 2 1/2 - 3 hours of roasting.
13. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15-30 minutes before carving.

I got the original recipe from Alton Brown of food network. He uses more aromatics and other ingredients in the brine, plus a few more steps. I like to keep it a little simpler though. Also, buy the vegetable Bouillon cubes and make it with water in the same pot you make the brine in. It's a lot cheaper than buying ready made bouillon.

I know this recipe is a lot of work. If you are not up to it, but the Reynolds turkey bags. Cook one in there according to instructions. I made those for years and they always turned out great! Good luck and good eating.

Thanksgiving. It's one of my favorite holidays. Not just because of the food, but the family. And one of the staples of the holidays in our house is Scalloped Corn. You can go back in the blog and get that one.
I was recently talking about it with my buddy Michelle Wright. She said one of her favorite holiday recipes was her Grandmother's Sweet Corn Pudding. Her grandmother actually had several recipes, but this one is her favorite because it's more like a dessert. I said let's blog it up, so here it is...

Ingredients
1/2 cup flour
1 cup milk
2 eggs
large can cream corn (must be cream corn)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teas. vanilla
1 stick butter (melted)


Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix all with small electric hand mixer
3. Bake for 45 minutes

That's it. This is only the second recipe I've posted without trying first. I will be trying it for the first time tomorrow. I can't wait! If you have some Thanksgiving faves, email them to me. I'd love to see them. My email is: Dschwenneker@hearst.com.

May you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Good luck and good eating.

My father-in-law's a great guy and a heck of a cook. Boy, I hope he's reading this! Anyway, this one we make whenever they come to visit, or we head back to the Midwest. I will warn you, it's a little complicated, but the results are outstanding!


Ingredients

1 TBL soy sauce
1 lb. ground pork
1 TBL sesame oil
½ cup scallions, minced
2 TBL oyster sauce
1 TBL grated ginger
¼ tsp white pepper
1 TBL minced garlic
1 TBLSP dry sherry
1 beaten egg
1 Pkg. (16 oz) of Won Ton Wrappers
2 cup chopped cabbage
4 Mushrooms, chopped ( I like the chinese, but any will do)
1 can (5 oz.) water chestnuts, drained and chopped
1 pack oriental sesame dressing mix


Preparation:
1. In a large bowl, Mix all ingredients and spoon into Won Ton Wrappers. Careful not to overfill!
2. Fold or crimp edges and place on a floured dish.
3. Fill all of them before cooking, it's easier!
4. Place enough pot stickersto cover the bottom of pan in it. Don't jam them all in at once. Place flat side down in a pan over medium-high heat, coated well
with oil. Cook until the bottom is browned.
5. Have pan cover ready and add 1 cup of chicken stock, cover immediately.
Be careful, the liquid will splatter! The stock will steam the pot stickers.
6. Check them in 4-5 minutes as more stock may be needed.
7. The trick here is that once the dumplings are firm and fully cooked the stock will evaporate and the bottoms will crisp-up again.

You can keep them warm on a pan, covered in towl, in an oven on low, but they are best when served fresh out of the pan!



For a dipping sauce try this:
¼ cup Soy Sauce
1 tsp chili paste with garlic
Pinch of sugar
Dash of hot chili oil
1 tsp sesame oil
Cut up green onions
2 TBL rice wine vinegar
Dash of Ginger

Mix together and let sit for at least an hour before dipping!

This is a tough recipe, but I promise, you will love the results! Good luck and good eating.

One note. Don't be intimidated by any of my recipes. They are all pretty easy and usually turn out OK. And please keep the new ones coming!

When I made the bean soup last week, I promised a corn bread recipe. Though I love Jiffy and use it in several recipes, this one is my favorite. Heads up, you will need an Iron Skillet. My grandma had an extra she'd had for decades. I gladly took it off her hands and think of her every time I make this recipe!

Ingredients
1 cup cornmeal (in the flour section at the grocery store)
1 cup flour
1 Tablespoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1 egg
1/4 cup of oil (I use canola, but vegetable works great too)
3 Tablespoons of sugar
3 Tablespoons of butter (not margarine)
1 1/4 Cups of buttermilk (or sour milk, I'll put it's recipe at the end)

Preparation
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
1. In a large bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Mix well and set aside.
2. In a smaller bowl, whisk egg, oil, sugar until combined, then add sugar and whisk.
3. Place iron skillet over medium-high heat butter until in melts and starts to sizzle. Lift pan and coat the sides.
4. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients and mix just until moistened. It's okay if there's lumps, they'll bake out. Put it in hot skillet and bake in the oven for 25 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean). Cool slightly and serve.

It's awesome. My kids will eat it right out of the pan until it's gone, especially with a little spray butter on it! As far as the sour milk goes... Take a Tablespoon of lemon juice and add milk to it to equal one and a quarter cups. Make it first thing, before any other steps in the recipe. When it's time to use it, it's ready to go. It works as a great substitute for any recipe that calls for buttermilk. Good luck and good eating!

With the cold weather rolling in, I love soups. I made this one in the crock pot earlier this week. It's easy, delicious, and not for newlyweds. Long time married couples will get that joke(BEANS).

Here it is:

Ingredients

Water for soaking (enough to cover the dry beans)
1 lb. Dry Navy Beans
6 cups of water
2 large Carrots, chopped
3 stalks Celery, chopped
2 Chicken Bouillon cubes
1 Tbsp. of dried Parsley
1 tsp. of Salt
1/2 tsp. of ground Black Pepper
1/2 envelope of Onion Soup mix
1 cup Ham, diced

Preparation

1. Soak the beans overnight. Drain, throwing out the water
2. Add all ingredients, including 6 cups of new water, (except ham) to the crock pot. Just throw them in.
3. Cook on High for 4 hours or Low for 8 hours
4. Add ham and cook on high for an additional half hour.

That's it. It's ready to serve. It's hearty, filling, low in fat, and great with my homemade cornbread. I'll add that recipe next week. In the meantime, just buy a couple of boxes of Jiffy cornbread. Good luck and good eating!

People will pay high prices for basic chicken salad in their super megastore deli. This is a new twist on an old favorite from a friend of my in-laws. I have to admit, when I first looked at the ingredients I thought nah, but I tried it and it's awesome! I hope you think so too.

1/2 cup celery chopped
1 small onion - chopped
1/2 green pepper - chopped
1 small jar pimento's
2 1/2 cups chicken breasts - boiled and cubed
1 (8 oz.) can pineapple tidbits - drained
4 hard boiled eggs - chopped
1/2 cup Mayonnaise
2 TBLSP soy sauce
1/2 cup salted cashews
1 can chow main noodles

Mix all ingredients together and let it chill for at least four hours (overnight is better).

My in-laws serve it on some big lettuce leafs, but I also like it on a Croissant. One other note, if you want to save time, just buy some pre-cooked chicken in a can. It's in the tuna isle. You could probably use tuna too, but I'm not a huge fan, so I've never tried it. Good luck and good eating!

Filling in on the morning shift for Demetrius can be tough. I go to bed before my 9 year old, wake up at 3am, and I'm in a tired daze all week. The good thing is some people actually feel sorry for you. The last time I worked it, one of our great behind-the-scenes folks felt sorry and made these. I immediately said "please gimme that recipe for the blog". And here it is...


Ingredients
2 loafs frozen bread dough
1 stick margarine
1 large vanilla (or butterscotch) pudding (not instant)
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup pecans (or walnuts)


Preparation
1. Grease 9x13 pan. Sprinkle with nuts.
2. Pull thawed (1 hour with towel) bread dough into walnut-sized pieces.
3. Place in pan in single layer.
4. Heat (and dissolve) other ingredients and pour over dough.
5. Let rise in refrigerator overnight.
6. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
7. Cool inverted.

Nancy said this is something they do every Christmas eve, then throw in on Christmas morning. They are awesome. Good luck and good eating!

If your house is like mine, you always have a few bananas around that are just past their prime. Here is a great way to use them up and it's easy for the kids.

Ingredients

Cooking spray
2-3 medium ripe bananas
1 stick of butter or margarine
2 eggs
1 1/2 Cups of sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk or sour milk*
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 1/2 Cups of flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray loaf pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. Melt butter/margarine on stove top or in microwave and set aside to cool for 5 minutes
3. Peel bananas and put into bowl. Mash with potato masher or fork until almost smooth
4. Crack eggs into bowl. Add melted butter/margarine, sugar, buttermilk, and vanilla. Stir with spatula or wooden spoon until mixed.
5. Add the baking soda, stir, then add salt and flour. Stir until flour is just wet.
6. Pour batter into sprayed pan and bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the center or loaf comes out clean.
7. Remove and let cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack until cool to the touch.

I put a star by the sour milk because I use it all the time when I'm out of buttermilk. For this recipe, take 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice and add enough skim milk to it make 1/2 cup. Let stand 5 minutes and you are ready to go. It works great!

My kids love this recipe and I've made it so many times I've got it memorized. I think they purposely let bananas over ripen so I will make this! Good luck and good eating!