A Tasty Treat Gone Terribly, Terribly Wrong

I'm clearing up my backlog of "WTF Bad Marketing Ideas" entries. The source of this one - the local Korean grocery store, of course. But I've also seen this, well, stuff, at my local Hyvee as well, in some way, shape or form.

Was this really necessary? I mean, if you're that concerned about diet and such, should you even have pudding on your menu to begin with?

Two Leftover Ham Recipes

Bought a 22 pound ham for Christmas. Lots of leftover meat. Here's what I did with it:



Ham Tetrazzini

2 cans cream of celery soup
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
16 oz slicedmushrooms (fresh or canned)
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 cups chopped/diced ham

Place all in crockpot on low 6-8 hours. Meanwhile, (during last hour) make 10-12 oz of spaghetti. In a large stew pot, mix the drained spaghetti with the tetrazzini mix and 1/2 cup dried parmesan cheese. Stir until blended thoroughly. Caution - this makes A LOT of food.

Ham Bake

2 cups of corn (canned is OK)
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups diced ham
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 tspn prepared mustard
1 tspn parsley
1 cup cracker crumbs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

I initially made this dish by mixing the ingredients together, and baking at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes. In retrospect, I should have sauteed the onions first in butter. The onions needed to be softer going into the dish.

Recipe List - New Thanksgiving Turkey Idea

The original idea was on Recipezaar or something like that. I can't recall where. It doesn't matter, as the overall concept is not "recipe", but rather "process" related:

East enough. To start, Buy a turkey. Then, thaw it - one day or more.

Boil one large teapot of boiling water. Once boiled, pour boiling water over
the turkey. Frankly, it's pretty damned amazing. You can see the skin before your eyes shrinking and tightening around the carcass. What the boiling water does is tighten the outer skin on the turkey meat, trapping the meat fluid inside the skin as it broils.

I'm not a big stuffing guy. Heck, despite tradition, most people don't like or actually eat bread stuffing. So I stuffed the turkey with orange and apple slices, apricots, raisins, and plums. The sole purpose of the fruit stuffing is to add flavor to the meat, and not to serve as a separate dish (the fruit is too soft and mushy for that). Final touches - I tooth-picked six pieces of raw center-cut bacon on top of the turkey, and poured a 16 oz can of chicken broth on top of the bird while in the broiler.

After the requisite 6-7 hours, I removed the bird from the broiler, removed the bacon from the turkey (but saved for leftover dishes and sandwiches), and left the fruit stuffing to remain inside the carcass. The fruit is eventually discarded with the carcass.

Result - best turkey I've ever made. Very soft and moist, regardless of white meat or dark. This experiment was a complete success. Can't wait to do it again, when at some time turkey is on sale.

Then, straight to the table on a platter. Bottom line - best turkey I've ever made. I will NEVER again another turkey without using the "boiled water" technique. It is flawless. And delicious.

B-B-Q'd Quail

I picked up a package of six frozen quail at the same Chinese grocery story that had the periwinkles. I'd only made quail once before, and it wasn't that successful. The problem - quail are so small, they are very easy to burn or overcook. The recipe below seemed pretty simple, especially the use of barbeque sauce and water. I also was attracted to the use of an electric skillet. I love electric skillets. So retro.

Oh, I used a Korean pancake mix instead of flour, as I didn't have any flour readily available. In retrospect, I should have passed on either the mix or flour - the breading doesn't add anything to the recipe, and makes the fowl meat unnecessarily filling. No value added there. The barbeque sauce is more than adequate.

I found this recipe on http://www.backwardbound.com, which has all types of strange and mysterious game recipes, including squirrel, raccoon, and armadillo.

B-B-Q'd Quail

~ 2 quail breast per person
~ flour
~ oil
~ 1/4 tsp garlic salt
~ 1 cup "Cookies" bbq sauce or your favorite sauce
~ 1/2 cup water

Heat 1/2 inch of oil in an electric skillet until hot. A regular skillet can be used in place of the electric one.

Roll the quail in the flour. Add to the hot oil.

Fry until browned on all sides.

When browned, remove the quail and drain the grease. Return the quail to the skillet.

In a bowl, mix the bbq sauce and water together. Pour over the quail.

Sprinkle on the garlic salt.

Simmer between 250 and 300 degrees until meat is done.