Dinner | Adventures in Thyme

Christmas Dinner for Two

December 14, 2015 by Dan Leave a Comment

Christmas Dinner for Two

Not every holiday dinner is meant for happy hordes of friends and family. Sometimes it’s just a quiet meal between two soulmates. This delightful little dinner is easy to prepare and perfect for an intimate evening of good food and conversation.

1 small, fully cooked HAM, about 2 pounds
1 can Pineapple Rings
Maraschino Cherries
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Pineapple Juice (from the canned pineapple)
pinch ground clove

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

If your ham is pre-sliced, use two metal skewers to hold it together, pushing them all the way through the ham.

Line a small baking pan with aluminum foil and place a small baking rack or cooling rack in the bottom of the pan. Place the ham on the rack. Top with pineapple rings, held in place with toothpicks. My ham took 4. Use a toothpick hold one maraschino cherry in the middle of each pineapple ring. Place the ham in the oven and back for 15 minutes.

While the ham cooks, combine 1/4 cup pineapple juice and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Add a pinch of ground clove. (If you like a mustard flavor, add 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder as well.) This is the glaze for the ham. Tip: Drops of glaze into the pan might cause some smoke as the sugar burns, adding some water into the bottom of your baking pan can prevent this.

Remove the ham from the oven and turn the oven up to 450 degrees F.

While the oven heats up glaze the ham by carefully pouring the glaze over the ham so it covers all of the top and sides. Place it back in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until the glaze begins to brown. The ham should be heated through. Test with a kitchen thermometer to be sure it has reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees F. When heated through, remove from the oven and serve.

You can serve this with baked beans, a salad, mashed potatoes, bread or whatever sides you like. A simple tomato salad can be made by slicing a tomato per person. Place the sliced tomatoes on a serving plate, top with crumble goat cheese or goat feta and drizzle with a bit of good balsamic vinegar.

Crockpot Baked Beans

December 10, 2015 by Dan Leave a Comment

Crockpot Baked Beans

This week, lets bring a bit of summer indoors. These baked beans taste great, make your house smell wonderful and are good addition to your own dinner or a holiday potluck party.

2 pounds Navy or Great Northern Beans
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
28 oz (2 12 oz bottles) Hard Apple Cider
1/2 pound Bacon, cut into small pieces
1/2 Shallot, chopped
1 cup dark Molasses
1 cup dark brown Sugar
1/4 cup Maple Syrup
1/3 to 1/2 cup good Balsamic Vinegar
2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 teaspoon Paprika
1 teaspoon granulated Garlic
2 teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Black Pepper
1 teaspoon Mustard Powder
3 cups hot Water

Place your beans in a large pot, add the baking soda and enough water to cover by a couple of inches. Bring to a boil and boil 5 minutes or so. Turn off the heat and let the beans stand for an hour or two. Drain the beans.

Add the beans and all of the other ingredients to your crockpot. Cook for 10 to 12 hours. For this set to High for 4 to 6 hours, then turn down to low for the remainder of the time. Stir periodically if you’re home. you can also cook these over night, just set to low, stir in the morning and off and on during the day so they don’t stick or burn to the bottom of the crock.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Dinner for Two

November 19, 2015 by Dan Leave a Comment

Thanksgiving Dinner for Two

Holiday dinners don’t always have to be made for large crowds of extended family. Tonight’s elegant looking meal is actually very easy to create – which gives you more time to spend with your special someone. Let’s get cookin’!

2 Game Hens
1 large sweet Apple
2 or 3 slices of rustic white Bread
4 oz. goat Feta
1/4 cup dried Cranberries
1/2 cup Chicken Stock
1/2 teaspoon crushed Rosemary
1/2 teaspoon crushed Thyme
dash ground Nutmeg
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Lightly toast your bread (or use slightly stale bread). Cut into small cubes. Coarsely chop your apple and add to the bread. Coarsely chop the dried cranberries and add to the stuffing. Add the feta, 1/2 teaspoon each crushed rosemary and crushed thyme. Add 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Add 1/2 cup chicken stock and gently stir to combine the ingredients. The bread will absorb the chicken stock.

Wash the game hens and be sure the body cavity is clean. Stuff with the stuffing mixture. Tie the legs to hold the body cavity closed. Brush with Olive Oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in a baking pan on a baking rack.

Bake covered for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional hour or until the internal temperature of the stuffing and the thickest part of the game hen is 165 degrees.

Bake any remaining stuffing mixture in a baking dish until it reaches a temperature of 165 degrees.

Serve with mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables and pumpkin pie.

Although this is the season of “thanks”, we hope you find something each day of the year to strengthen your attitude of gratitude. We are very thankful for all of you that have continued to check in our adventures in cooking. Have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving.

Lasagna Rolls

October 22, 2015 by Ginger Leave a Comment

Lasagna Rollups, rolling

So many times when confronted with cooking a meal for family I can’t ask “What do I want to eat?” because I know that not every can or will eat what I want to eat. Instead I have to ask the question “What am I willing to eat?”. Tonight’s spin on lasagna helps alleviate some of that issue. With a little extra time, and a nice selection of fillings not only can you achieve dinnertime bliss but you might get the kids involved with helping make dinner too. So let’s get cooking!

Please keep in mind that this recipe is really more of an example, to show you how you can cook for a number of people with varying tastes. Change out any of my ingredients for ones you like better:

1 box of Lasagna Noodles – cooked just before al dente
1 lb fried Turkey “burger” meat
8 oz of goat cheese Feta
1 egg
5 0z of shredded Spinach (I used 1/2 of a frozen box of spinach)
caramelized Onions & Mushrooms
shredded Pecorino
finely chopped fresh herbs: Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram
Olive Oil
Marinara Sauce
Salt & Pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F and prepare a tall sided baking dish – as pictured below, your lasagna noodles will be standing upright, you’ll need the sides of the dish to be taller than the rolled noodles. Pour enough marinara into the dish to cover the bottom and keep the noodles from sticking.

I seasoned and fried the turkey meat, and in a separate pan caramelized onions and mushrooms. In a bowl I mixed the feta cheese, spinach, egg, 1/2 cup of pecorino, about two tablespoons of the herbs (combined) and about a tablespoon of olive oil.

When all your ingredients are getting close to done, cook your lasagna noodles to just before al dente. They will cook more in the oven so you don’t want to boil them to al dente.

Now’s the time to individualize the rolls. Lay out a lasagna noodle and place a thin layer of the spinach mixture as a base, then for the meat lover’s pasta roll add a couple spoonfuls of turkey and gently roll it up carefully placing it into the baking dish. Lay out a 2nd lasagna noodle, add a layer of spinach mixture, and for the veggie lover’s selection add a layer of the onion & mushroom mixture. These are thin layers, too much and rolling will be difficult and much of the layers will actually fall out of the roll, so be conservative with the layers until you get a feel for the quantity needed.

That’s really it, keep making noodles to match who wants what combination of filling. When ready spoon marinara over the top of each noodle to add some moisture. Cook about 30 minutes and bingo – dinner for everyone!

Enjoy!

Lasagna Rollups

Easy Carbonara

July 23, 2015 by Dan Leave a Comment

Simple Carbonara

We were blessed this past weekend with lots of friends and family gathering for a celebration. To feed the throngs of hungry, we smoked 18lbs of beef and ham – there wasn’t much left over at the end of the day! Tonight, like most after a long day at work, the final question of the day is deciding “What are we eating for dinner?” Our question went a little more like this “What are we doing with the left over ham?” And it was a no-brainer really, this is an easy (seriously easy) carbonara recipe. Enjoy!

1/2 pound Ham
2 or 3 slices Bacon
1 or more cloves Garlic chopped fine (optional)
12 oz. Pasta (We used Gluten Free Penne Rigate)
1 cup grated Pecorino Cheese
2 tablespoons fresh chopped Parsley
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
2 eggs, scrambled in a bowl

While your pasta cooks, fry your bacon until crispy. You can multi-task here and also cut your ham into 1/4 inch strips about an inch or so long. When the bacon is done, remove it from the pan and drain. (At this point, if you like garlic you can add it to the pan and cook in the bacon fat until it just starts to turn color. If you don’t like garlic, skip this part.) Now add the ham to the pan and cook until lightly browned.

Drain your pasta and reserve some of the pasta water. Return the pasta to the pot on the stove. Turn off the burner. Add the ham, bacon, salt, pepper, parsley and cheese to the pot and toss to combine evenly and to keep it from sticking to the pot. Add the eggs. Toss together so the egg coats everything and cooks with the heat remaining in the pan. If it is too thick, add a bit of pasta water and continue to toss. Repeat until you have a light coating on all of the carbonara. This will not be a heavy sauce.

Serve hot with a little more grated cheese.