This is a 21 lb Turkey I cooked today. It took 5 Hrs. 30 Min at 325 degrees. It was stuffed with onions, celery and apples for flavor.
You do not have to baste it, but cook it with the lid on and never open until you get to 160 degrees. Figure about 20-23 min. a pound.
Look at all the juices for gravy! The slower temperature will guarantee a juicier turkey than baking it at 350 degrees.
Store tomorrow’s turkey breast and legs back in the roaster and put in the refrigerator or, as I did, on our covered porch. Tomorrow, I’ll just heat it up either in a pan on the stove or back in the oven. The 6 Qt. Dutch Oven has the juices in it to make gravy and that, too, I put on the porch. I put the rest of the carcass in the 12 Qt. Dutch Oven so I can make soup tomorrow. I try not to waste a thing!
Enjoy your Thanksgiving and let me know how your turkey turned out. I’d love to hear from you!
“Patience is really important, being patient with yourself. Learning some skills, learning how to use a knife, learning how to chop vegetables, learning how to roast a chicken, learning how to season, learning the importance of all these things that are going to impact your final result. Don’t think about the final result. Enjoy the process. Cooking is a process. Cooking should be fun. If you don’t get it right the first time, you know, don’t think you are a failure. If you do get it right the first time, you’re probably lucky or you’re a really good cook. Patience and persistence are really important in that process.” Thomas Keller from myrecipes.com
This is so true and it really puts cooking into perspective. Cooking is fun! Everyone enjoys a good meal and practice makes the meals better each time. I believe cooking is like building something…measuring, balancing, leveling and completing a project. Anyone can become skillful with patience and practice. Eating our mistakes sometimes becomes a favorite recipe!
“Farm to Table” in my opinion is cooking at home. So many restaurants get canned vegetables, prepared foods and heat them up for you. Not all, but I figure that if someone else can make it and it can be made, than so can I! If you have a favorite dish you love at your local restaurant, learn to make it yourself. It will be healthier because that is true “Farm to Table.”
Tired of the prices at the grocery store? Want to head off inflation at the table?
Today I made some stuffed peppers with left overs from my refrigerator and cupboard. I made 1 cup brown and wild rice in my 1 qt. Lifetime Cookware Saucepan. I also used some left over sauce from the lasagna I just made. Woodman’s Grocery Store had some reduced green peppers, $1 a bag of 7!, and I only used one of these peppers for myself as my husband can’t eat peppers.
Such an easy dish to make. Cook on medium without precooking the peppers. Just rinse and lay in pan with some sauce mixed into the cooked rice. After the lid is able to float on the pan when it is turned, reduce heat to low and cook about 20 to 30 minutes. Meal ready! This meal cost under $2 and the picture is what is left over after lunch so I have a couple more meals left! I took the handle of the pan off and put it in the refrigerator waiting to cook at the next meal.
In the times of inflation, I find it a good time to use up what I’ve had around the pantry, refrigerator and freezer. It costs nothing more to use what we might have otherwise thrown out because it is outdated. This whole meal cost us less than $10 and filled a 12×18 lasagna pan!
Today I made a spaghetti squash lasagna with 2 lbs of ground beef I had purchased from a farmer (1/4 cow) and it’s been in my freezer since July 2021. It’s hard for us to use all that meat, that fast, so we rely on it when we want to make something with meat.
Spaghetti Squash Lasagna with meat
This is a 12X18 pan, of course stainless steel!
RECIPE
Spaghetti Squash Lasagna with Meat
1 medium spaghetti squash, quartered, cooked waterless in Lifetime Cookware 6 qt. dutch oven on top of stove, no water
2 lbs. lean ground beef
2 medium onions, diced
2 cans Hunts garlic and herb spaghetti sauce
2 bay leaves
shakes of Oregano, Chili powder, Tarrigon, Rosemary, dried Kale Flakes and Chipotle Pepper, to taste
2 ea; Aldi’s extra-sharp Cheddar , Swiss and Mozzerella cheeses, grated on a coarse cheese grater
15 oz size low-fat Crystal Farms ricotta cheese
Preparation:
1st quarter a spaghetti squash, using a cold 6 qt. Lifetime Cookware Dutch oven, line the bottom thickly with a very wet paper towel. Lay quartered squash on top of towel, cover pan and cook on top of stove on medium heat until lid spins from the heat and moisture. Turn stove to low, making sure lid is still hot but not spitting moisture on to stove top. Cook about 35 minutes on low or until squash is ready to shred with 2 forks.
While spaghetti squash is cooking, prepare sauce by browning the ground beef (no added grease) in a Lifetime Cookware 4 qt. Dutch oven w/lid. Chop the beef in to very small pieces and drain off any grease. Add the next ingredients up through the spices once the ground beef is browned. Let cook as long as you like, but the longer the more flavorful it will be because you are letting the spices absorb.
To Assemble:
Using a 9×13, (yes, Lifetime Cookware makes one of these in Stainless Steel) or an 11×16 or 12×18 pan with sides, layer in some sauce, shredded squash, all the Ricotta Cheese, more shredded squash, more sauce, shredded cheeses, squash, sauce, cheese, etc. until used up but cheeses being the last layer.
Bake in the preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the cheese has melted on the top and pan is heated through.
To Serve
Let pan sit for 10 minutes and then slice out and serve with crusty bread or with a baked potato and lasagna atop the potato.
It’s great to cook an egg and clean the pan so quickly! Here’s how I do it
Spray the pan with Pam or other oil sprayAllow the spray to start to meltCrack the eggs into the pan and let sit at #4 on your flat top stove or medium low on a gas stove
Cover pan and let sit a couple of minutesUncover and flip your eggsPlate your eggs and voila! Perfectly cooked whites and runny yolks, great for dunking toast!Very little to clean up or make more!
Because we were invited to our daughter and son-in-law’s home for Thanksgiving, we didn’t cook a turkey until today. We were lucky to purchase a 12.6 lb. turkey for $7 at Sams Club!
We just purchased a new induction cooktop and this is the first holiday meal we’ve cooked on it. It worked out beautifully!
We thought we would show you how fast Thanksgiving meals can be and you don’t have to start cooking in the middle of the night! (I remember those days) Although our turkey was still a little frozen on the inside, we put it in and cooked it a little longer, maybe adding 1/2 hr. to the end.
Put Turkey in at 325 degrees at 9 AM
We made gravy in the 3 qt. Lifetime Cookware saucepan
The turkey was very juicy and the potatoes and beans were cooked without water
So easy to clean after making the turkey
Soup cooking in the 12 Qt. Dutch oven
All eaten and cleaned up and soup on by 1:30 PM
After dinner coffee! Thanks Regal Ware for making it so easy!
Corn on the cob cooked waterless can be so sweet that you don’t even feel like you need butter! All the natural goodness without the fat. Now that’s a diet I can stick to!
So easy to make. Husk your corn, wet the husks, place them in the electric skillet and add rinsed corn. Cover and turn on electric skillet to 250 degrees. Wait for the lid to spin, then reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 5-10 minutes. ENJOY!
