.smoked turkey and lentil soup.

This was a soup I made for Jim's birthday last week. Lentil soup is probably one of my favorites because it's so hearty. It was popular at the bakery and I am sure it will be popular in your home too.





I made a small pot of this. To feed a family of say 4+, you might want to add a little more than you see here.








Chop one shallot.








Chop 2 celery stalks.








Grate a carrot.



Chop some garlic. Don't use this much garlic! I needed some for something else. You're only going to need one large clove for this soup.

Pull the leaves off the stem of thyme. Chop. Use dried if you don't have fresh.


Cut up some smoked turkey. Set aside.



Heat a litle olive oil in a soup pot. Add the garlic, shallot, and thyme. Saute for a minute.

Add the carrot and celery. Saute for about 5 minutes.

Add 1 cup lentils. Saute for another couple minutes.


Add 4-6 cups chicken stock.



Add the smoked turkey.

Cover soup pot and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to medium low and let the lentils cook and soften. This will take about half hour.

Season well with salt and pepper.

.wild rice soup.

Since I've put off the contest to the end of the week, I will still post a recipe.


Last night we had the Bishop from church over for dinner. I feel like I've been horking all sorts of bad things this week so I made salad, soup, and rolls.



Elizabeth, you're going to love me because I know how much you love this soup! My friend Elizabeth, who frequents this blog would always come get a bowl of Wild Rice Soup when I had the bakery but noooo she had to move away. :( It's her favorite. ;) Love you Elizabeth!!! Miss you!!!



Dice 1 onion, 2 cloves garlic, and a few stalks of celery.

Grate 1 cup carrots. There are a lot of carrots here. I needed more for the carrot cake. So unless you are making carrot cake like me, don't grate this many. ;)

Heat 3 Tbsp butter in a soup pot over medium high. Throw in the onion, garlic, carrots, and celery. Sautee for a few minutes.

You want one box of Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice ORIGINAL recipe.

Dump the rice into the pot. Put the seasoning packet off to the side. You'll need that in a minute.

Cut up 1/2 lb ham (about 1 1/2 cups), and 1 1/2 cups turkey. I get my ham and turkey from the deli counter and have them cut it a little thicker than sandwich slices.

After the rice has cooked for a minute, add 5 cups chicken stock (3-4 cans). The rice absorbs a lot of the liquid so you want to make sure you have enough so you have liquid in your bowl when it comes time to eat it!



Kick the heat up to high and bring to a boil. Once it starts boiling, reduce the heat to low.



Add the cut up meat.

Remember that seasoning packet that came with the rice? Add about 1 1/2 Tbsp to the soup. Don't add the whole packet. It throws the whole flavor off. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Simmer for about half hour before serving.

To serve: Ladle soup into your bowl. Add a little half and half to your bowl to make it creamy.


Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_50zprm3ncc

.turkey with bowtie pasta and tomato cream sauce.

I had a turkey breast roast in the fridge that needed cooking. Normally I would roast it in the oven and serve with stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc etc... yawn yawn boring! I wanted to do something different tonight. Something italian perhaps?

I thought about the ingredients I had on hand. Thought perhaps I would do an italian sausage stuffed turkey breast, bread it, sear it, roast it. And serve with some type of pasta.



Great plan, huh? Well, even good cooks are thwarted once in awhile. This is what happened when I pulled off the netting from the turkey breast.

Crap.

That's not going to work so well with my stuffed turkey breast!

So I had to think of something else. Here's what I came up with.


In a dish, melt some butter. I used 1/4 cup.

Cut up the turkey breast into chunks.

Before we go any further, we need to prep some things. Mince 1-2 cloves garlic, seed and dice a couple roma tomatoes, mince 1-2 shallots, and chop some parsley.

I had some frozen spinach. Put it in a sieve and run cold water over it until it's thawed. Squeeze all the water out and set aside.

Put the cut up turkey in the melted butter. Coat all of the pieces.

Put them in a large ziploc baggie.







Dump in some italian seasoned bread crumbs and shake to coat.

















Heat olive oil in a pan and brown the turkey pieces on each side.

Pull the turkey from the pan as each piece browns and put in a baking dish. Put this dish in a 350* oven to finish cooking the meat through.

Take some bowtie pasta (also known as farfalle) and boil according to directions on the package. I used the entire box.
















In a pot, put some water in. Bring to boil and add some chopped up asparagus. Cook only a couple minutes.

After those 2 minutes are up, use a serrated spoon to pull from the hot water and put immediately into a bowl of ice water. This is called an ice bath and it will help stop the cooking and electrify the color.

Drain the water.

In a skillet, heat some olive oil. Sautee the garlic and shallots. Add a teaspoon oregano, basil, and about 1/2 tsp fennel seeds. The heat of the pan draws out the flavor in the herbs. After you've sauteed the spices for a minute, add the asparagus, tomato, and spinach. Sautee another minute or two.

Add 1 can of tomato sauce, 1/4 cup burgundy wine, 1 Tbsp sugar and 1/2 cup chicken broth. Cook over medium high heat for two minutes.

Dump in your cooked, strained pasta and stir to coat.










In a bowl mix together 1 cup cream and 1 Tbsp flour. Whisk together until lumps are gone. Add to the pasta and stir.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.














Grate some fresh parmesan cheese and put in the pasta. Add the parsley at this time too. Mix well.

To serve: Plate the pasta and put the turkey on top. Sprinkle with some reserved grated parmesan cheese.

Serve with salad and bread.


Chef notes -- this was a recipe that I just threw together in my head. I used ingredients that I had on hand. If I had to make this again (which I will), I wouldn't bread or cook the turkey the way I did. I would have left it uncoated and sauteed in the pan with the asparagus, tomato, and spinach and let it basically sear then braise in the sauces. I think the turkey would have had more flavor. I also would have cut the turkey into smaller bite-size pieces.

The pasta, however, was fabulous. I could have eaten half the pan myself. In fact, if I was wanting a meatless dish, this would be perfect. Lots of flavor.

.turkey mango wrap.

When I had the bakery, we offered soups, salads, and sandwiches to our customers for lunch. I added gourmet type pizzas and wraps to the menu last summer and they were a hit.

One of the wraps, which was the most popular was the turkey mango wrap. It's the perfect lunch or dinner for hot nights or when you're just in the mood for something light and simple.

What you'll need for the wraps:

• Sundried tomato wraps


• deli turkey (or you can use cooked turkey medallions sliced up)


• provolone cheese


• lettuce


• tomato


• mango, sliced


• mayo


• cream cheese


• ranch dry dressing mix

In a bowl, mix together 1/4 cup cream cheese, 3 Tbsp mayonnaise, and 2 Tbsp dry Ranch dressing mix.

Spread some of the ranch spread on a wrap.

Put down a layer of turkey and some provolone cheese (not pictured). I usually use one slice provolone and cut it in half and put down the center. Use whatever you'd like.

Put slices of mango, tomato and some lettuce (leaf or iceberg) down the center.

Fold outsides in and roll up like a burrito.

Carefully slice in half on the diagonal and serve with chips or salad.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_27fgkj24ft