Egg Roll Salad

Perfect Pairing: Deep straight-sided skillet with a lid        

It is hard to believe I have been an “Iowan” for almost three months!  I don’t know where the time has gone.  Chris and I love living here and it really feels like home.  That being said, we both agree that sometimes it feels like we are playing house and soon we will have to move back into a one bedroom city condo.  Our baby boy is growing (and boy am I growing) and kicking and moving!  I love to watch and feel him moving around and getting comfy in there.  He has a tendency to stop as soon as Chris puts his hand on my stomach.  Stinker!

A big part of the move has been my transition to working from home full time.  So far I have really enjoyed the experience.  I did find that I need to make myself get out and do things because a few days will go by without leaving my neighborhood.  I’m sure it will be 10x harder once baby boy Lam arrives!  While I no longer need to pack a lunch to take to the office I find that it is much easier to have a big batch of something made at the beginning of the week so I can have a quick lunch ready when I don’t have a lot of time away from my desk. 

This Egg Roll Salad has been a staple lunch for me since I started working from home.  Not only is it delicious and satisfying it is incredibly light and healthy.  It is full of protein and fiber!  It is called an Egg Roll Salad because it tastes like the inside of an egg roll.  Side note, one thing that we miss from Chicago was the Chinese food delivery place that was a block from our condo.  The meals were just ok but they had the BEST egg rolls I’ve ever had in my life and they would legit deliver in under 15 minutes.  I miss those unhealthy rolls. 

I use my trusty straight sided skillet for this meal.  I use this skillet more than any other pan in my kitchen.  I am actually on my second generation because I wore out the first one.  Tip from the top, I found both of mine at a discount price at Home Goods.  You need a pan that has a large capacity for this recipe since you will be steaming two bags of slaw. 

I always serve this with an extra drizzle of soy sauce and sriracha.  So good!

One year ago on Perfecting the Pairing: Cream Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

Two years ago on Perfecting the Pairing: Sloppy Joe Dip

Three years ago on Perfecting the Pairing: Pumpkin Crisp

Four years ago on Perfecting the Pairing: Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna Roll-Ups

Five years ago on Perfecting the Pairing (my first ever "Five years ago!": Baked Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal

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Thanksgiving Menu

I can hardly believe it has already been a month since I got engaged!  The month has been full of fun wedding planning.  We have our date, church, reception venue, band, photographer, rehearsal dinner venue, my dress, and my bridesmaid dresses.  I call that a success!  Next up is the food.  You KNOW I am looking forward to that part!

Now let’s focus on the ultimate food holiday, Thanksgiving.  Last year I shared a few of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes.  They absolutely must be on our table every single year.  If you are looking for some new recipes for your Thanksgiving table, look no further!

Sausage and Dried Cherry Stuffing

This is my favorite part of the meal. You will never want to make another stuffing.  The tart cherries and savory sausage make it the most delicious stuffing ever.  We always make it outside of the bird so the top has a little crunch.

Sweet Potato Casserole

No marshmallows here!  Instead it is topped with a pecan streusel.  The best.

Corn Casserole

This shows up at every major family meal.  It will be the easiest thing you make at Thanksgiving and probably the most popular.  Always a crowd pleaser!

Those three are our staples.  Every year we change up the other dishes.  Here are some great options!

Citrus and Herbs de Provence Rotisserie Turkey Breast

This is a great recipe for a small group since it is not an entire bird.  Using the rotisserie on the grill is a great way to free up the oven for the all-important side dishes!

Citrus and Sherry Cranberry Sauce

Love the combination of sherry and citrus.

Pecan Pie Bars

I might like these more than traditional pecan pie.  Amazing.

Pumpkin Roll

A fun alternative for your dessert table!

Pumpkin Pecan Shortbread

It combines the traditional pumpkin pie and pecan pie in one tasty bite!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I know I am personally overwhelmed with blessings and I can't wait to celebrate with my loved ones.

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Sloppy Joe Dip

Perfect Pairing:  Potato chips

 

Thank you to everyone for the sweet comments, messages, calls, texts, etc. on our engagement!  I am so so excited!  We have been busy with wedding planning and already have a date, church, and venue!  The next 6 months are going to be so much fun.  

I am sure balancing my job, wedding planning, teaching zumba, spending time with friends and family, and of course spending non-wedding planning time with Chris will be interesting but I definitely still want to be on Perfecting the Pairing!  

Growing up we always had a can of Manwich in our pantry.  I think it was there “in case of emergencies”.  I had never purchased a can of it as an adult.  I have made sloppy joes, but they were always made with a homemade sauce.  I am sure you could make this awesome dip with a homemade sauce, but man, that can is just so easy.  It is mixed with ground turkey (trying to keep it at least a little healthy), sautéed veggies, cream cheese (light is fine), and shredded cheddar cheese.

 

Soooo sloppy joe dip is not beautiful.  Unfortunately, it is quite hard to get a shot that accurately portrays how yummy it is.  I cook all the time for my fiance (I love writing that!!) and he is always so sweet and appreciative about everything I make.  People ask him what his favorite dish is that I make, and he always says, “it is too hard to choose, I love everything!”.  Ah, so sweet.  If I had to guess his favorite it wouldn’t be a fancy dessert, or expensive cut of meat, it would be this dip.  It is up there with the other man-pleasing favorite, Buffalo Chicken Dip.

You could serve this with crackers or veggies, but I think it is best with potato chips.  I have always used the reduced fat variety and they were perfect with it.   

 

One year ago on Perfecting the Pairing: Pork Chops and Apples

Two years ago on Perfecting the Pairing: Tortilla Soup

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Citrus and Sherry Cranberry Sauce

Perfect Pairing:  Citrus and Herbs de Provence Rotisserie Turkey Breast

No surprise that I am following up the turkey recipe with a cranberry sauce!  Homemade cranberry sauce is so easy there is really no excuse to buy the canned stuff.

Fresh cranberries are combined with orange zest and juice, sugar, a cinnamon stick, and some sherry.  You can probably skip the sherry if you don’t want to invest in a bottle.  I use the cheap cooking sherry which is great in soups or for deglazing pans, so I like to have it on hand.

This cranberry sauce is perfect served alongside of the Citrus and Herbs de Provence Turkey Breast.  The citrus in the sauce and the zest in the turkey rub are great together.  Don't get me wrong, this cranberry sauce would be fabulous with any turkey!  

One year ago on Perfecting the Pairing:  Pumpkin Pecan Shortbread

Two years ago on Perfecting the Pairing:  Manchego Cheese with Brown Butter Honey Sauce

Click "Read More" for the recipe...

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Citrus and Herbs de Provence Rotisserie Turkey Breast

Perfect Pairing:  The leftover sandwich

I started the Thanksgiving recipes last week with stuffing (because it is my favorite thing ever, ever) but we can't forget about the turkey. 

This year I will be with a large group for Thanksgiving, so we will likely have multiple turkeys going.  Probably one on the Weber grill and one in the smoker.  Since my “pre-Thanksgiving” meal was a smaller group I decided to try making a turkey breast instead of the whole bird.  

I prepared the turkey using a dry brine.  The dry rub had the zest of an orange and lemon, brown sugar, garlic, salt, and herbs de Provence.  The dry brine is rubbed all over the turkey and under the skin, then you let it rest in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours.  The prep time was minimal.  It was so easy!

I have to give credit to my dad for the actual cooking.  He is the grill master.  He got a rotisserie attachment for his grill a few years ago and uses it all the time.  If you don’t have a rotisserie you can follow traditional roasting instructions like these.

This turkey was so juicy and flavorful.  I really think it would be great any time of the year, not just Thanksgiving.

Everyone looks forward to the Thanksgiving leftovers, especially the turkey sandwich.  Try making one with grainy bread, turkey, cranberry sauce and a good smear of pumpkin cream cheese.  It doesn’t suck.

Next up is a homemade cranberry sauce!

One year ago on Perfecting the Pairing:  Butternut Squash and Chickpea Tahini Salad

Two years ago on Perfecting the Pairing:  Oven Roasted Mushroom Tapas with Goat Cheese

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Pesto Turkey Burgers with Goat Cheese

Perfect Pairing:  Store bought pesto

Last year I talked about my garden woes.  This year was not exactly better, different maybe.  I continued to be my overly optimistic self and planted window boxes and herbs.  I bought most of the goods at Gethsemane Nursery again.  That place is incredible. 

I tried some new things in the window box this year.  The shade loving ferns and the mini hosta worked well.  Er, maybe not WELL.  They ended up being a little confused with one side growing twice as fast as the other side, and doing the complete opposite thing from the other window box.  Whatever, there was green stuff growing so I had to be ok with that.  

I tried impatiens AGAIN and they all died AGAIN.  I actually replanted them twice.  One batch died within two days.  That was a new record.  Then I found out that there is a rampant impatiens disease in Chicago.  I am not even kidding, google it. 

I came up with a new method for my herbs.  Instead of having them on my front patio (where there was very little sun) I moved them to the other side of my garage after getting the OK from my nice neighbor to use his plot of land.  Everything was going along swimmingly until I came home one day and found one of the pots missing and part of my basil dug up from the other pot.  I fumed on Facebook for a moment, and then went about my day.  Long story short, another neighbor thought they were being thrown out and rescued them.  Um, that probably does not say much about the state of my herbs, huh?  I got them back and continued giving them TLC.  They still died.  I am going to get a complex over this.

I think I made about two dishes from my herbs before they all went kaput.  These turkey burgers did not make the cut.  There was no chance I was getting an entire batch of pesto out of my sad basil plant…. Not from the first or the second planting (no one can say I didn’t give it a valiant effort).  Store bought pesto was perfect in this recipe.  I mixed some in with the ground turkey and added a dollop on top instead of the traditional condiments.  Add a healthy dose of goat cheese and you have a pretty fantastic burger. 

One year ago on Perfecting the Pairing - Strawberry Pie

Two years ago on Perfecting the Pairing - Chicken Yakitori

Click "Read more" for the recipe....

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Greek Turkey Burgers

Perfect Pairing: Tzatziki Sauce

Back in early December Chicago had a freakishly warm day in the upper 60s.  It was the perfect day to put up my outdoor Christmas lights.  I figured since I was going to be outside all day I should finish the day with something on the grill.  I bought flank steak and let it marinate all day.  I was feeling pretty good about myself. I had spent about 90 minutes untangling lights and was up and down the ladder approximately 40 times before it was all said and done.  Everything looked great and I was excited for the programmable timer to kick in so I could see everything twinkling. 

When I tried to light my grill for dinner, nothing happened.  I let out a very loud sigh and hightailed it to Home Depot for a new gas tank.  I got the new tank on the grill and tried to light it again.  Nada.  It was right about this time that my nifty programmable timer should have been kicking on.  Nada squared.  Oh I was in a state.  I was dangerously close to having a super girly meltdown in my front yard. 

I pulled myself together and figured out the timer and enjoyed the lights for a moment before moving to the grill.  I spent about 30 minutes trying to get it going but had no success.  I gave it up in fear of blowing something up by leaving the gas on too long, and made flank steak on my grill pan inside.  I think that might be one of the most frustrating things to have a dinner planned on the grill and it will not work.

When my parents came for a visit in March I gave my dad the job of fixing this faulty grill.  I was convinced I was going to be buying a new one.  Nope.  My dad spent 20 seconds outside and got it going.  Farmers, they can fix everything.  I don’t even care now what happened, I’m just so glad it works! 

Now that we are entering grilling season, and I have an operational grill, I was excited to start cooking outside again!  My first spring dinner was Greek Turkey Burgers with Tzatziki Sauce and grilled vegetables.  It was outstanding, if I do say so myself!  The burgers are made with lean turkey (I used 93% lean), frozen chopped spinach, and crumbled feta.  They are so flavorful and healthy! 

Rather than topping the burgers with the standard ketchup and mustard I whipped up a tzatziki sauce with fat free Greek yogurt.  It was the perfect accompaniment!  I will totally be making these again on my fully functional grill this summer. 

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Turkey Meatball Sandwiches

Perfect Pairing:  Hollowed out bread

Dude food.   That is what I think of when I think about meatball sandwiches.  They are quite manly.  Oh, I also think of Joey Tribbiani on Friends.  He had a thing for meatball sandwiches.  I would love to cook for Joey.  I think he would like anything I put in front of him. 

Even though I made these for my cousin, who is definitely a dude, I did have to girly-up the sandwiches a little bit.  I don’t think he noticed.  I substituted lean ground turkey for beef, or whatever they use in normal meatballs.  In addition, I used a small amount of hot Italian pork sausage.  It added a ton of flavor without much added fat.

I made my own sauce with just a few ingredients, but you could easily substitute your favorite store bought sauce. 

When I was putting the sandwiches together I realized it was a lot of bread.  I made the bread “skinny” by tearing out the soft insides to save on calories.  Thank you Potbelly’s for the idea!  You really don’t miss the extra bread and it makes the sandwich easier to handle.

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Pork Loin (or Turkey) Crostini with Green Apple, Mango Chutney, and Brie

Perfect Pairing:  Leftover Turkey

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I had a fabulous time with my family filled with lots of good food and laughs.  My mom and I spent the last couple of days getting a jump start on the Christmas baking.  We decided to try our hand at truffles, three different varieties.  At times the kitchen felt a little like Willy Wonka's, but they turned out great.  I will definitely be posting about them!

The internet is flooded with ideas on what to do with your leftover turkey.  In fact, CoolMaterial.com (a website dedicated to "stuff guys want") did a feature on how to use your leftovers, and included a link to my recipe for customized bread bowl breakfasts!  It is hard to beat a turkey sandwich with a little mayo and cranberry sauce, but if even that is getting a little old, try out this crostini.  When I made them I used leftover pork loin, but I think it would be lovely with turkey. 

If you don’t happen to have mango chutney on hand, or if you are not a fan, orange marmalade or apricot preserves would work well.  The tart green apple adds crunch and melted brie makes anything better.

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Asian Turkey Meatballs

Perfect Pairing:  Hoisin dipping sauce

I have been lucky enough to meet some really great friends through my job.  When I started at my company I was in meeting planning.  All of the girls in my department became really close, probably because of all of the traveling we did together.  There were meetings literally all over the world so we had a lot of bonding experiences while sitting at a hospitality desk outside of a meeting room.  Sometimes that meeting room was in Singapore and sometimes that meeting room was at an airport hotel in Chicago, but I can tell you a hospitality desk and a banquet room is pretty standard no matter where you go!   That original group of girls has scattered but we still remain good friends and try to get together on a regular basis to catch up. 

Sometimes we get together at a restaurant but more often we gather around someone’s kitchen table or island and chat over wine and appetizers.  We start sending e-mails about a week before the event to decide who is bringing what.  Everyone knows that Mary will bring dessert and that it will be fabulous.  At our last get together she brought Paula Dean’s gooey butter cake.  Oh my goodness gracious was that delicious. 

We are never short on dips and cheese but we are often lacking in protein.  Please remember that this is a group of meeting planners so we strive to have a well balanced spread!  For our most recent get together I took it upon myself to come up with the protein.  I decided to make some Asian Turkey Meatballs.  I didn’t have a recipe in mind but gathered up ingredients that I thought would be good together.  I thought these little guys turned out great.  I loved the Asian flavors of sesame oil, lime, ginger, and soy sauce.  They were great as an appetizer/tapa but they would also be a great main course alongside some brown rice.  I had some of the meat mixture left over after the party, so I sautéed it in a pan and added it to scrambled egg whites for a hearty breakfast the next day.  So tasty!

The Perfect Pairing for these Asian Turkey Meatballs is hoisin dipping sauce.  I combined ½ cup of reduced fat mayo with 2 tablespoons of hoisin sauce, the juice of half of a lime, and a teaspoon of spicy sriracha sauce. 

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