Kalyn's Kitchen CooksThe Best Recipes in the WorldGinger Chicken (Thailand)

Please don't think I am bragging about my cooking skills or my recipes when you see the title of this post! Actually this is the first in a series of posts where I'm going to cook dishes from my new favorite cookbook, Mark Bittmans The Best Recipes in the World. In this book, famous minimalist cook Mark Bittman gives us the best recipes from 44 different countries. This book has nearly every international dish worth cooking at home, and Bittman's non-fussy style gives lots of possible substitutions for home cooks who don't have a huge assortment of ethnic ingredients.

Of course, since I've never followed a recipe exactly in my life, I'll be giving you my version of Mark Bittman's recipes. But, after looking through this book and trying the first recipe, I'm pretty sure you'll be happy with the results.

The first recipe I tried was Ginger Chicken from Thailand. Oh my goodness, this was absolutely delicious. I did wish I had managed to have some fresh Shitake mushrooms on hand instead of the dried ones I used. Also, next time I would increase the sauce ingredients just a bit (use the higher amounts if you want to take my recommendation on this), and I wanted some fresh chopped cilantro to sprinkle over it, but the overall flavor of this was amazing. I substitued Splenda for sugar, and no other changes were needed to be sure this was South Beach Diet friendly. I also used some small red chiles to season the oil but didn't keep them in the dish, which made it much less spicy. If you're more into spicy dishes than I am, you could add a bit of hot pepper to the sauce mixture or add some chopped hot peppers to the dish.

GINGER CHICKEN (Thailand)
Adapted from The Best Recipes in the World

2 small red dried chiles
2 T peanut oil
2 small shallots or one small onion, sliced thin, slices cut in fourths
1 T minced garlic
1 T grated ginger root (I keep my ginger root in the freezer and grate it on the large side of the grater while it's still frozen)
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut in 1/2 inch pieces (be careful to keep them small)
about 1 cup sliced fresh Shitake mushrooms or white mushrooms
1/4 cup sliced green onions
1-2 T soy sauce
1 T or slightly more Thai Fish Sauce (nam pla)
2 tsp. Splenda or sugar
black pepper to taste
2 -3 T fresh lime juice

(If you're not that experienced with stir-frying, you might want to read this earlier post on the Principles of Chinese Cooking before you cook this.)

Soak dried chiles in boiling water a few minutes if desired. Heat wok or large frying pan over high heat two minutes, add oil, heat 1 minute more, then add the chiles and stir fry 2-3 minutes and remove.

Add shallots and cook 2 minutes. Add garlic and ginger and cook just a few seconds, then add chicken and stir fry until all chicken has turned opaque and no pink remains, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and scallions and cook 2 minutes more.

Combine soy sauce, fish sauce, Splenda, black pepper, and lime juice, add to wok and cook 2-3 minutes, until sauce is slightly thickened. (There will not be a great deal of sauce, especially if you use the smaller amounts.) Taste, add salt if desired, and serve hot.

This dish is great for the South Beach Diet, any phase, as long as you substitute Splenda for the sugar. Even if you don't have Splenda, the small amount of sugar here would be a very tiny bit of sugar per serving. For phase two or three, this would taste great with Brown Rice with Cashews and Herbs.

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A Cooking with Kids Recipe:Sophie Makes Baked Sour Cream Chicken

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you probably remember that my friend Susan and her adorable daughter Sophie are going to be taking once-a-month cooking lessons in Kalyn's Kitchen. Sophie is a precocious four year old who wants to cook and her mom is pretty much a non-cook, so I am teaching them some simple recipes that they can make together. It's fun, we get to spend some time together, and they end up with a few dinners to take home and put in the freezer.

Sophie was excited to come for her second cooking lesson. She even brought her violin and promised to play for us later. (Quite impressive for a four year old!) This time we made chicken noodle soup and sour cream chicken, but I forgot to take any pictures of the soup so you will just have to take my word for it - it was delicious. The Sour Cream Chicken recipe came from one of those neighborhood cookbooks where everyone puts a few of their favorite recipes, then I doctored it up a little to make it a bit more complex in flavor, and we all agreed it was a total keeper. My friend Robin joined us for dinner, and she raved about it too.

Remember when you see "Cooking with Kids" in the subject line that this is a recipe designed for busy moms who don't have hours to spend in the kitchen, so if you're a certified foodie who would never make a recipe that has canned cream of chicken soup, just give this one a pass.

BAKED SOUR CREAM CHICKEN
8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can cream of chicken soup (Campbells, not low fat or low sodium)
1 cup light sour cream
1/2 cup mayo (light or regular, but not fat free)
1 cup plus 1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheddar cheese
1 T onion powder
1 T fresh lemon juice
1 T poultry seasoning (I used Penzeys)
salt - pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 F.Trim all visible fat and tendons from chicken breasts, then cut each piece in thirds diagonally. Spray 9 X 12 inch glass casserole dish with nonstick spray and arrange chicken pieces in a single layer. Combine all other ingredients except the 1/2 cup cheese and pour over chicken. Bake 45 minutes, stirring slightly halfway through cooking time. Top with 1/2 cup reserved cheese and bake 15-20 minutes more, until cheese is melted and top is slightly browned. We ate this with brown rice and asparagus, which was a good combination for the rich chicken and sauce.

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Leftover Turkey, Mushroom and Wild Rice Soup

Here it is a few days after Thanksgiving and you're wondering what to do with some of that leftover turkey, other than sandwiches, of course. This is a soup that will be a great change from the usual turkey casseroles. If you can find some, use Baby Bella and brown mushrooms in the soup for even more flavor.

Slashfood is having a contest called Lovely Leftovers Day where they are asking food bloggers to show what they made with their leftover turkey. I guess I'm entering my soup, because it tasted incredible, even though I was not totally satisfied with the photo. I've decided it's really hard to get good photos of soup. I still have a lot to learn about food photography, but I'm pretty good at soup making!

Leftover Turkey, Mushroom, and Wild Rice Soup
(about 6 servings, recipe created by Kalyn)

2-3 cups diced leftover turkey
6 cups chicken stock (or 4 cans chicken broth)
1 tsp. dried thyme or 2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
1 onion, diced small
1/2 cup diced celery
2 T butter, divided
Vege-Sal or salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper to taste
8 oz. sliced white or brown mushrooms
8 oz. sliced Baby Bella or shitake mushrooms (not dried shitakes)
2 cups water
1 T Better Than Bouillon Mushroom Base (optional but recommended)
1 T soy sauce (or more if you do not have the mushroom base)
3 T flour
1 cup cooked wild rice or wild/brown rice mix
1 cup half and half or cream

Put stock or broth in soup pot with turkey and thyme and heat to low simmer. Melt 1/2 T butter in small frying pan and saute onion and celery 3-5 minutes. Add to soup pot with water, mushroom base, and soy sauce and simmer 15 minutes.

While soup simmers, saute mushrooms about 5 minutes in 1/2 T of butter. Add mushrooms to soup and simmer 15-20 minutes more. In same pan that mushrooms and veggies were cooked in, melt remaining 1 T butter. Wisk in flour and cook 2 minutes. One cup at a time, wisk 2 cups of soup liquid into the flour mixture and heat until mixture starts to thicken. Pour thickened mixture back into soup pot and stir to distribute.

Taste for seasoning, add salt and pepper to taste. If mixture seems too thin, cook down for a few minutes. When soup has reached desired thickness, add wild rice and cook 2-3 minutes. Add half and half or cream, stir in and heat thoroughly but do not boil. Serve hot.

This recipe would be a "once in a while" treat for South Beach Dieters due to the butter, cream, and white flour. If you wanted to make it more South Beach Diet friendly, you could replace those ingredients with olive oil, milk, and whole wheat flour.

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Herbs and Plants Around the WorldWeekend Herb Blogging #8

This week was consumed with Thanksgiving dinners and family plans for most people in the U.S., but I was still hoping some of my international food blog friends would want to participate in Weekend Herb Blogging, and they didn't let me down. In fact, every week it seems there is a new blogger or new country represented, and this week was no exception. By the way, luckily I save the links in my e-mail until the final post is published because somehow Blogger chewed up my original post and spit it out in a form I didn't recognize. So if anyone finds any errors, please let me know. (Bless Blogger's pointed little blogspot head.)

(UPDATE ADDED 12-1-05) I must apologize profusely to Rokh who writes the great blog Tham Jiak because when blogger mangled this post I did make a BIG error, I left out her great herb post on curry leaves. It was in the original but fell victim to the mangling and I missed it. I'm so sorry, and it's ironic because I was so excited to get an entry about curry leaves. I had always been curious about them. Rokh used her curry leaves to make Vadai, a type of fried gram snack food that is eaten in Malaysia.

First, let me say that when I heard that CookieCrumb and Cranky were going to be under *house arrest* at her parents' house, I was not surprised when I did not hear from her. However, I did managed to spot Bean Sprout snuggling up to a rosemary bush down there in Southern California where CC's folks live, so I decided Bean Sprout didn't want to be left out.

The first blogger to send me a link this week was Eggy, all the way from Singapore, a first for WHB. Eggy writes a fun new blog called Greedy Goose, and she posted about growing herbs from seed and her version of Laksa, something I've always wanted to try. Eggy is obviously a talented woman, and I hope we will hear more from her.

Next was The Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz, sharing a zucchini recipe from Lidia, someone I love to watch on the Food Network. Paz had wanted to make something with zucchini blossoms, but in New York City in November, they proved hard to find . We will look forward to hearing about that cooking adventure next summer.

Another interesting post from Vijay flew into my inbox next. My Dhaba is a great blog which shares all kinds of interesting information about Indian culture and cuisine, and this week we learned about the Ayurvedic medicinal uses of the radish plant. Vijay also shared two very interesting recipes for salads using radishes in ways that were new to me.

Squeezeweasel from Gastronomy Domine is off to Prague next weekend, but this weekend she managed to get out and photograph some wild violets in bloom (in England in November!) and also the seedhead of a wild carrot. SW promises that if her hotel in Prague has internet connection she will send us something interesting from there for next week.

From Melbourne, Ed Charles of Tomato sent a great photo of poppies in a herb patch. Ed is going to try saving he seeds or possibly making tea from them. Meanwhile, in the "grass is always greener on the other side of the fence department," I wish it was summer here and Ed wishes he was in Utah skiing.

From Tuscany, Ilva of Lucullian Delights sent a great photo and recipe for Tuscan Kale. If you know that this vegetable's name in Italian translates to black cabbage, it will help you figure out the recipe's name Calovo Nero Con Pepperoncino. Tuscan Kale is also often used in Ribollito, a famous Italian soup.

Farmgirl Fare from Missouri shared some tips for growing mint, information about the properties of mint, and some very nice comments about Weekend Herb Blogging. She also sent a fun Herb/Dog Blogging photo showing her dog getting into the garlic.

I know you have probably already seen my herbs covered with frost, but here's a reminder. I also shared some recipes of how I used those herbs earlier this year when the weather was more cooperative. Now I am off to cook something out of my new favorite cookbook, Mark Bittman's The Best Recipes in the World. In fact, I like this cookbook so much I am thinking of doing a regular feature on Kalyn's Kitchen sharing my interpretations and photos of recipes I find in the book. Now, go off and cook something yourself, that is after you take a look at all these incredible herb posts.

Weekend Herb Blogging

Sunday Morning Omelet with Asparagus and Goat Cheese

It's another Sunday morning in Salt Lake City and the snow is falling lightly outside. This week Andrew is not having another meme, but I feel like making an omelet again, something I often do on Sunday morning. If you want more step-by-step instructions on making omelets, see my previous post from last Sunday. This week I just used some leftover asparagus I had hanging around in the fridge and a good sized chunk of goat cheese.

I notice that when I'm talking to non-foodies (i.e. normal people) and I say goat cheese they automatically think I am talking about Feta. Well actually, some of the best Feta is not made from goat's milk at all, in my opinion, but that's a topic for a whole other discussion. Goat cheese means something such as this Chevre I got at Costco, a semi-soft, rather pungent cheese that comes in a log. It's wonderful on salads, great for stuffing chicken breasts, and also delicious in an omlette like this where the cheese gets melted and yummy. A trick to working with goat cheese when you want to crumble it is to take it out of the fridge at the last possible second, since it gets soft rather fast.

To make my omelet this is what I did:

• Cut up leftover (cooked) asparagus in small pieces and sauteed in a small bit of olive oil just to warm them in omelet pan. Removed asparagus.
  
• Whipped up 2 eggs with a bit of milk and some Spike Seasoning.
• Put a tsp. butter in pan and melted on high, added eggs and immediately lowered heat.
• Let eggs cook 2-3 minutes, then added asparagus.
• Took cheese out of refrigerator, sliced off a chunk (about 2 T) and crumbled over top of omelet. I also crumbled over about 2 T sharp cheddar. Salt/pepper to taste.
• Cover with glass lid and cook 3-4 minutes more on low, until cheese is looking melty.
• Take off lid and flip one side over the other. If some melted egg and cheese runs out cook a little more on each side.

Very, very delicious. I thought the combination of asparagus and goat cheese was really good. Later this week I will show you how I roasted the asparagus to get those leftovers.

Don't forget to check back later tonight to see what herbs, plants, veggies, and flowers other bloggers have been writing about for Weekend Herb Blogging. If you want to join in the fun, you still have until midafternoon today (SLC time) to post something and send your link to me at kalynskitchen (at) comcast (dot) net. If you use Technorati you can tag it with Weekend Herb Blogging but that's purely optional.

And since it's the weekend, they are blogging about cats and dogs over at Weekend Cat Blogging and Weekend Dog Blogging.

Herbs, plants, veggies, flowers, cats, and dogs. What a lot of fun blogging subject matter. What are you waiting for? Get blogging!

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Weekend Herb Blogging #8Jack Frost visits Kalyn's Herbs

I hadn't been out in the garden for a several days, but yesterday morning I wandered out with my camera and got some great shots of barely surviving herbs covered with frost. This was about 9:30 A.M. so the frost is staying for quite a while in the mornings. Today there is a light drizzle of snow falling in Salt Lake City, so these are probably the very last garden pictures of the year, except for one garden photo I am saving for a weekend when I am buried in snow and don't even want to go to the store to buy some herbs.

Sam was curious about what kind of herbs I put in my stuffing for Thanksgiving. Actually my sister Sandee usually makes the stuffing, and it was delicious this year, as usual. But thinking of Sam's question I did inquire to be sure I knew how she makes it. Sandee uses thyme, sage, and a tiny bit of poultry seasoning in her made-from-scratch stuffing. Store-bought stuffing is considered vastly inferior in my family, and we prefer "dry" stuffing (not cooked inside the turkey). Sandee did a great job hosting Thanksgiving for our huge family and her stuffing, turkey, and gravy were all delicious

Now here are some shots of my frosty herbs with some herb memory recipes from earlier in the year. You can see from some of these recipes that I have learned a bit about writing a recipe from the time I started my blog. For one thing, many of these recipes were from a time before I entered the digital camera age! But the recipes were still delicious and I hope you like them.

Of course thyme is an essential herb for roast chicken, chicken soup, and bread stuffing. But earlier in the year I used it in recipes for Chicken with Kalamata Olives and Grilled Chicken with Balsamic Vinegar. Both were really tasty.

Sage is fantastic for rubbing on pork roast or chicken before you oven roast or rotisserie cook it. It's also the most essential ingredient in stuffing, in my opinion. Fried sage leaves have become trendy in cooking, so I am thinking I might try them next summer. For now, here's a recipe for Sauteed Chicken Cutlets with Capers and Sage which was really delicious.

Oregano is one of the defining flavors in Greek cooking. I have a number of Greek friends, I've been to Greece, and I love the food. Of course feta cheese is one of my very favorite flavors, so anything with feta tastes delicious to me. Two other recipes I created this year with a decidedly Greek flavor were Kalyn's Souvlaki and Very Greek Grilled Chicken. Both of these are going to be repeated again and again on my barbecue grill.

Last, but certainly not least, even though I gave you some of my favorite mint recipes just last week, I could not leave out this photo of my lovely mint with frost nipping the edges. What a difference in how the mint looks in just one week's time! I love mint in lots of dishes, and also love mint tea which is so favored in the Middle East. My best mint tea memory is drinking it in Morocco, where they hold the long-spouted tea pot way above your head and pour the tea into your glass cup. There is also a restaurant in Washington D.C. called Marrakesh where they do a great job of making you think you are in Morocco, right down to sitting on the floor and eating with your hands. Back in the days when I was visiting D.C. regularly for work, I ate there several times. Now, believe it or not, Salt Lake has a new Moroccan restaurant called Cloud 9, and the food is very good. I will have to visit there again and try their version of mint tea.

Enjoy your weekend, whether you're drinking mint tea or something a little more ordinary. Don't forget to come back on Sunday to see the recap of Weekend Herb Blogging from other blogs. Also, check out Weekend Cat Blogging at Eat Stuff and Weekend Dog Blogging at Sweetnicks. Now, I MUST get off the computer and do some housework!

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Two More Thanksgiving Recipes

Here are two more recipes for things I made for Thanksgiving. Cheesy Artichoke Dip is something we ate before dinner with tortilla chips and low carb flatbread which I toasted.

HOT ARTICHOKE DIP
(recipe evolved from many sources)

2 cans(14.5 oz) artichoke hearts, drained
(not marinated artichokes)
1 cup mayo
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup grated four cheese Mexican blend (low fat)
1 small can diced green chiles, Anaheim chiles, not jalapenos (4 oz. size unless you really like spicy food).
1 T onion powder

Drain artichokes well, then pulse in food processor until finely chopped. You don't want it to be pureed, but there shouldn't be too many big chunks. (Sometimes there are woody pieces of artichoke that don't chop up well, pull those out and discard.) Put in small crock pot and mix in other ingredients. I warmed it for 2 hours on high and then 4 hours on low before serving it, but you just need to heat it until cheese is melted and the flavors are combined. Serve with tortilla chips or low carb flatbread which has been toasted in the oven. (I used Flatout brand flatbread, something new I found in the store.)

(Note: the photo above is 3 times this recipe, so use the smallest crock pot you have if you are not increasing the recipe. This makes a generous amount, so you might want to cut it in half if you have a mini-crock pot for dips. It could also be baked in a small crock. Don't cook too long or the cheese will separate.)

This is a dish I am calling Sweet Potato Crisp. It's made with white sweet potatoes, butter, Splenda Brown Sugar blend, and almonds. Only a few people in my family like sweet potaotes, but those who do said this was very good.

SWEET POTATO CRISP

(This is a rich dish, so this makes about 8-10 servings.)

5 large sweet potatoes, white fleshed variety
1 stick butter
1/2 cup almond meal (I like Bob's Red Mill brand)
1 cup slivered almonds, divided
1/4 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend

Preheat oven to 350. Pierce sweet potatoes all over with a fork and then microwave on high 10-15 minutes, until about 2/3 cooked but still somewhat firm. Let cool. While potatoes cool, cut cold butter into small cubes and put in food processor with almond meal, Splenda Brown Sugar blend, and half of slivered almonds. Pulse until mixture is the consistency of apple crisp topping. (Don't overmix or it will stick together too much.) Peel sweet potatoes, put in large bowl and mash slightly. Spray glass casserole dish with nonstick spray. (I used 8" X 10" dish) In casserole, make a layer of sweet potato, top with a layer of butter mixture, then another layer of sweet potato followed by another layer of butter mixture. Bake 30 minutes covered. Remove foil and sprinkle almonds on top. Bake 15 minutes more, until almonds are slightly toasted.

Variations: Next time I might use pecans instead of almonds.

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Kalyn's Kitchen in the Blogosphereand WHB #8 is Coming

I just found out, purely by chance, that an extremely fun Aussie Blog called Mac's Picks has selected Kalyn's Kitchen as one of his "Picks of the Week" this week. Thanks, Mac! Every week Mac chooses about ten blogs and features them as his picks of the week. I looked through his list of past picks and saw some great blogs listed. I do appreciate being recognized, and Mac was kind enough to let me use his great logo when I wrote about it here. I have no idea how he found out about my humble little blog, clear over there in Australia. Mac picks new blogs every Monday, so bookmark his site and check them out every week.

Another exciting that happened this week was that, sometime, when I took my eyes off the stats for a few hours, my blog passed 50,000 pageloads! Now I realize that in the blogging world, that amount is no big deal, but in my little world, it sounds like a lot! It actually probably happened a month or two ago, because when I first started the blog I didn't install Statcounter for quite a while. But hey, let's celebrate now. Break out the low carb champagne.

They say good things come in threes, and the third thing that happened was that when I checked my links today I found that a blog called Blogger's Blog, which reports on blogging trends, had featured my blog because of the little Thanksgiving Sing Along (originally from American Greetings) that I published yesterday. Me, a blogging trendsetter! Who knew?

In case you missed it, Kalyn's Kitchen has declared that the weekend officially starts on Friday night after work. So that means in some parts of the world, it's the weekend already! Time for Weekend Herb Blogging #8. I know that some of our regular herb bloggers are away celebrating Thanksgiving with their families, but for bloggers who want to participate, just photograph and post about any herb, plant, vegetable, or flower and e-mail me the link (send to kalynskitchen-at-comcast-dot-net) before Sunday afternoon , Utah time, and I will feature you in the wrap-up. I've already received one entry. (If you'd rather blog about dogs or cats instead of herbs, head over the Sweetnicks for Weekend Dog Blogging or Eat Stuff for Weekend Cat Blogging.)

Check back later today to see a couple of recipes for two other very delicious things I made for Thanksgiving dinner, besides this Broccoli with Cheese Sauce that my family rquested. And Even later, Susan and Sophie are coming for another cooking lesson, so we will be cooking up some more good stuff to add to the "Cooking with Kids" section of Kalyn's Kitchen Recipe Box.

Thanksgiving blogging food

Happy Thanksgiving: A Turkey Sing-Along

I've been wondering what to put on the blog for Thanksgiving day. After all, I realize that it's not Thanksgiving in every part of the world. And, even though cooks in the U.S. will probably be busy that day I knew some people would be reading the blogs and I wanted to have something to share with you.

Then it came to me. Literally as an e-mail from my sister Pam, sent to her by her friend Janet, from her friend Ellen, and on down the chain clear back to someone at AmericanGreetings.com who created the original greeting.

This little Thanksgiving sing-along is hilariously funny. And unless you are one of those baby bloggers out there (the ones with the teeny-tiny font size) you'll recognize the tune as a famous Donna Summer song from the 70's.

Rock on. It's Thanksgiving! And if you are prosperous enough to have a computer and enough free time to enjoy the internet, you have a lot to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving

Brussel Sprouts or Brussels Sprouts?My New Favorite Vegetable, Whichever Way You Spell It

I haven't posted any recipes for them yet, but a vegetable I'm really starting to like more than I ever did is brussel sprouts. I saw a recipe that looked very promising on Zen Foodism, one of the blogs I read reguarly, but I haven't tried it yet. I did try a recipe from Cooking Light for a pasta dish with brussel sprouts, but I gave it a thumbs down. I did take some leftover brussel sprouts from that recipe, put them in a plastic container, put a handful of cheese over and take it to school for lunch. At school I just heated it in the microwave for about 3 minutes, added salt and pepper, and it was delicious.

But here is the purpose for this post. I am seriously wondering which is the correct spelling, brussel sprouts or brussels sprouts. Since I talk about being a teacher, I don't like to make spelling or grammatical errors on my blog. Interestingly enough, when I searched I found it both ways. Even on Epicurious.com, certainly a very reputable source, I found a recipe where it was spelled one way in the title and one way in the recipe! Due to the lack of consensus I have decided I'm going to spell it the way I say it, without the extra *s*. If someone can prove to me that I'm wrong, I will change my ways.

Here's a little more brussel sprouts information in case you're interested. Notice that this is NOT brussels sprouts information.

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Kalyn's Food Assignment for Thanksgiving Dinner: "Don't Try Out Anything New On Us"

I was on the phone with my sister Sandee and we were talking about Thanksgiving Dinner. Sandee had just asked me what I wanted to bring for dinner and immediately my foodie brain had switched into high gear. I started rattling off ideas for interesting Thanksgiving type dishes I had seen in magazines and on other food blogs that I had been thinking of trying. Sandee listened patiently, and then she quietly said, "Don't try out anything new on us."

I laughed out loud. "I'm putting that on the blog," I said. Sandee said she didn't mind if I repeated it on the blog, as long as I brought the broccoli with cheese sauce again this year.

Thanksgiving in America is all about traditions. Entire families have been known to rebel if the person who makes Thanksgiving dinner tries out a new recipe for stuffing. So, even if my tastes have changed quite a bit over time, when Thanksgiving rolls around, I am delegated to make a dish that I first made years (and years and years) ago, when I was barely learning to cook.

There have been a few years I have tried to improvise on this recipe, once even making a nice homemade cheese sauce with expensive imported cheese. But when I do, my family gently comments that they really prefer "the way you usually make it." So there you have it. My Thanksgiving Broccoli with Cheese sauce has a cheese sauce made with Campbells Cheddar Cheese Soup, mayonnaise, a touch of lemon juice and black pepper. The only improvising I am allowed these days is a little grated cheese mixed into the sauce to make it a little more cheesy.

THANKSGIVING BROCCOLI WITH CHEESE SAUCE
(about 6 servings)

6-8 cups fresh broccoli flowerets
1 can Campbells cheddar cheese soup
half a soup can of mayo (do not use fat free)
1 T fresh lemon juice
generous amount black pepper
1 cup (or more) grated sharp cheddar plus 1/2 cup for top (optional)

Preheat oven to 375. Cut broccoli into same size pieces (bite size), put in pan with enough water to cover and bring to a boil. When the broccoli turns bright green (about 2-3 minutes), immediately take off heat and drain. Pour well drained broccoli into casserole dish with a lid. In a bowl mix cheese soup, mayo, lemon juice and pepper. Mix in 1 cup grated cheese. Pour sauce over broccoli and bake covered until just starting to bubble, about 35 minutes. Remove lid and sprinkle over 1/2 cup grated cheese and bake until cheese is melted and slightly browned, about 10 minutes more. Serve hot.

P.S. Now it's after Thanksgiving and I'm coming back to give you the photos I promised. Above is how the broccoli with cheese sauce looked when I served it that day. I ended up using a four cheese blend for the additional cheese, because I had some I needed to use up. It was very good in this.

Below is how much was left from two dishes. It was for sure very tasty and probably acceptable as a "once in a while" treat for South Beach Dieters, even with the mayo and cheese. This sauce is also very good on cauliflower or brussel sprouts.

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