Poultry Brine

If you want to get your turkey ready for Thanksgiving, or just have a really special roast chicken, you can dunk your bird in this brine to make it succulent and delicious. You're welcome!

(You can find juniper berries at well-stocked spice shops and in some import stores like Cost Plus.)

POULTRY BRINE
1¼ gallons cold water
1 cup kosher salt
½ cup sugar
1 bunch fresh thyme or 2 tablespoons dried thyme
2 bay leaves, torn in pieces
½ head garlic cloves, peeled
3 allspice berries, crushed
2 juniper berries, crushed
15-20 peppercorns, crushed (this was Curtis' addition)

Use a large pot that can easily hold the brine and the poultry you intend to brine. Add all ingredients and heat, stirring until sugar and salt dissolve. Allow brine to cool completely, adding ice if necessary to speed the process. Then add poultry, covering with a plate or weight to keep poultry submerged. Refrigerate 24 hours before removing poultry from brine. Rinse poultry briefly under fresh running water and rub skin with oil to encourage browning (otherwise your bird will be tender and juicy but a little pale).

This recipe makes enough brine to cover a chicken, duck or capon. Brine recipe may be doubled or tripled to cover a larger bird. Have fun!

Contributor: Soozcat (via several brining recipes)

Cranberry Nut Coffee Cake

If you have leftover cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving, this is a good way to use it up.

CRANBERRY NUT COFFEE CAKE
Cake:
¼ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup chopped nuts
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups Bisquick or other biscuit mix
2 teaspoons sugar
1 egg
⅔ cup water or milk
⅔ cup whole cranberry sauce

Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix brown sugar, nuts and cinnamon and set aside. Combine Bisquick, sugar, egg and liquid (water or milk) and beat vigorously 1 minute. Spread batter into 9x9" pan. Sprinkle with nut mixture and spoon cranberry sauce over top. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Mix together icing ingredients while cake bakes. While cake is still warm, spread with icing.

Makes 1 coffee cake.

Probably stolen off the back of the Bisquick box.

Caramel Corn

Made by my mommy (and probably all her sisters too).

CARAMEL CORN
1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
¼ cup light Karo syrup
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 quarts popped popcorn

Put popcorn in a large bowl in a 200-degree oven to keep warm. Melt butter in a saucepan, add brown sugar and other ingredients. Pour over warm popcorn and toss well to coat.

Turn oven up to 250 degrees. Spread popcorn on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for about an hour. Break into pieces. Store in airtight container. Or in your tum, really.

Makes 6 quarts of sugary fluffy corn goodness.

Contributor: Karin Buck

Stover Fudge

No, this has nothing to do with Russell Stover. This Rocky Road-style fudge is named after Stover Hall in Helaman Halls at BYU, the one-time domain of head resident (and dorm mom) Jean Fossum May, who came up with this recipe. May Hall, a resident hall for women, was later named in her honor.

STOVER FUDGE
12 oz. chocolate chips
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped nuts
1 cube butter
½ cup (or more) maraschino cherries, drained and chopped
4½ cups white sugar
1 can evaporated milk
1 package miniature marshmallows, frozen (they have to be or they'll melt in the hot fudge)

Butter a cookie sheet. Have ready in a large bowl chocolate, raisins, nuts, butter and cherries. In a saucepan, boil sugar and milk to fudge stage (228 degrees), and pour syrup over contents in bowl. Stir until chocolate and butter are melted and ingredients are mixed well. Add marshmallows. Spread on cookie sheet, cool and cut into squares.

Makes 5 pounds candy. Yes, 5 pounds. Hey, you'd make that much candy too if you had visits from gobs of hungry college kids.

Contributor: Karin Buck (via Sister May)

Pineapple Nut Bread

Mom doesn't even remember where she got this recipe. It was years ago and she's slept since then.

PINEAPPLE NUT BREAD
Bread:
1¾ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup raisins
¾ cup chopped nuts
¾ cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
1 8.5 oz. can crushed pineapple, undrained

Topping:
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5x3" loaf pan. Sift dry ingredients; set aside. Plump raisins in a little hot water, drain and set aside. Beat sugar and butter together, beat in eggs, add raisins and nuts. Add half the flour mixture, then add pineapple. Add rest of flour. Spoon into prepared loaf pan. Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle over loaf. Bake 60 minutes; turn onto rack to cool.

Makes 1 delicious loaf.

Contributor: Karin Buck

Pumpkin Cookies

You probably have a can of pumpkin sitting on your pantry shelf right now, dontcha? Well, let's do something festive with it besides make a pie.

PUMPKIN COOKIES
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ginger
2 cups raisins
1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet. In a bowl, mix together wet ingredients; in another bowl, sift together dry ingredients (except the raisins and nuts). Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, mixing until well combined, then add raisins and nuts and stir to incorporate.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet; bake 10-12 minutes.

Makes 7 dozen cookies.

Contributor: Karin Buck

Hummus

It's ridiculously easy if you have a food processor.

HUMMUS
2 cloves garlic
1 15 oz. can garbanzo beans, plus ½ cup bean liquid
¼ cup tahini
lemon juice to taste
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil to taste

Peel garlic and whirl it in the food processor until it's in tiny pieces. Open garbanzo beans and drain all but ½ cup of the liquid, reserving liquid for later use. Whirl garbanzos with garlic. Add tahini, reserved garbanzo liquid, lemon juice, salt and pepper, then process while adding a thin stream of olive oil to the mix. It's done when it reaches a nice smooth dipping consistency. Taste and correct seasoning if necessary.

Garlicky good! Tasty as a dip for raw veggies, spread on lavash as part of a pinwheel sandwich, or in a tabbouleh-filled pita.

Contributor: Soozcat

Tabbouleh

If you can get really ripe tomatoes, make this to fully appreciate their lusciousness. It takes a lot of mincing but the results are worth it.

TABBOULEH
½ cup medium or fine bulgur wheat
½ cup onion, minced
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon or more pepper, freshly ground
1-2 teaspoons salt
3 cups parsley, minced
½ cup green onions, minced
2 cups ripe tomatoes, minced
1½ cups fresh spearmint leaves, minced
1 cup cucumber, peeled, seeded and minced
½ cup fresh lemon juice
¾ cup olive oil
romaine or other leaves for serving

Soak bulgur wheat in lukewarm water to cover by ½" for about an hour, then drain in a sieve.

In a small bowl, combine minced onion with allspice, pepper and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine parsley, green onions, tomatoes, spearmint and cucumber. Gently fold in the drained bulgur and seasoned onions.

Refrigerate until an hour before serving, then dress salad with lemon and oil. Surround with romaine leaves, using them to scoop up the salad in juicy bites.

Serves a few people. (I can't remember.)

You can also use this as an excellent sandwich filling for a pita, along with some good hummus. Messy and delicious.

Stolen from the Internet by Sooz, muahahaha.