Turkey Scallopine w/ Capers & Lemon

How's everyone doing?! 

I'm on cloud 9 right now!  The quarter is pretty much over and we received our grades for our Garde Manger final practical.  We did a 6-course meal (salad, consomme, fish course, intermezzo sorbet, beef entree, and dessert).  We were in teams of 3 and we found out we got an A!  Which is a major big deal, because it's EXTREMELY hard to get an A from the chef we have - and we've done it twice - with our midterm and now with our final!  How awesome is that?!

Anyway, scallopine is usually done with veal, but I saw some turkey breast fillets on sale at the grocery this week and knew I could pull together something quick and tasty with them.  Lemon and capers are such a classic combo and this comes together in such a quick amount of time!  Fancy without the fuss!

Ingredients:

2 turkey breasts, pounded flat and cut in half
salt and pepper, to taste
flour, for dredging
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup white wine
juice from 1 lemon
1 tablespoon capers

Season the turkey breasts with salt and pepper. Dredge in the flour, dusting off excess.

Heat the butter in a large saute pan under medium high heat.  Add the turkey and saute until golden brown on both sides.  Remove from pan and keep covered and warm.

Deglaze the pan with the white wine and add lemon juice and capers.  Return the turkey to the pan and coat with sauce.

Serve turkey over rice and vegetables and any excess sauce.  Dig on in!

I told you it was easy!  And it's ready in no time - what are you waiting for?!

Mixed Greens w/ Apples & Smoked Gouda

I know I've been posting a lot of simple salads over the past few months - but I can't help it!  I love lunchin' on salads!

One of my favorite additions to salads are julienned apples - Granny Smiths to be exact.  Raise your hand if you agree!  They just give a welcomed and refreshing sour bite in the midst of some semi-bitter greens.

Happy mid-week to ya guys and just remember - 2 more days and it's a 3 day weekend (for those of us in the US that is!).


Ingredients:

Mixed greens
1/2 cup Smoked gouda, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Granny Smith apple, peeled and julienned
1/4 cup deli turkey, chopped

In a large bowl combine greens, gouda, apple, and turkey.  Serve plain or dressed with your favorite dressing!

Simple right?  Right. 

I promise I'll start posting "harder" recipes soon!  Stay tuned tomorrow for my review of our Danville, KY tasting and a meet-up with other KY Food Bloggers!  Have a great rest of your Wednesday guys!

Garden Update & My New Favorite Sandwich

The garden is really freakin' green right now!  It's definitely in better shape than last year's garden!  We've got tons of lettuce, that's for sure!  The onions are doing pretty well too, well, besides the fact that I planted the pumpkins right next to them.  Maybe next year, the pumpkins will have their own patch of land - I'm still learning =)

The herbs are growing nicely too - parlsey and cilantro are practically a-plenty... anybody need some?  Hehe.

And my tomatoes!  They're flowering, which is exciting - because they didn't even get to this stage last year.  Looks like I'll be buying plants from now on, as opposed to seeds like I did last year!

Anyway, with all the lettuce we've been having, in our CSA and in the garden - salads seem to be a go-to lunch.  But when we tire of salads, I like to make a nice little sandwich!  And this just happens to be my fave at the moment:

Ingredients:

2 slices of bread, toasted
lettuce
hummus 
smoked gouda slices
cajun turkey

Assemble all ingredients into a sandwich and enjoy!

Hummus is seriously my favorite sandwich condiment... especially since I HATE putting mayo on sandwiches =)

What's your favorite sandwich?  How's your garden (if you have one) shaping up??

Have a great Tuesday guys!

Thanksgiving 2010!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

We just got back from an eating extravaganza at my parent's house!  We had a ton of food, and my parents even set us up with a couple boxes of leftovers! 

Here's just a quick run down of this year's events:

My mom's really cute centerpiece.

The free-range bird in all it's 25 lb. glory.  It was a pretty huge bird... you can see it hardly even fits into the roasting pan!

 The spread of side dishes consisted of mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, roasted artichokes, fresh made rolls, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce (yes from the can!), and gravy!  We also had a crap load of dessert dishes that included a peppermint meringue chocolate cake (made by moi!), pumpkin pie, apple pie, a variety of cheesecakes, a variety of chocolates, and brownies.  So needless to say, no one went hungry!

We like the dark meat in our family!  My sister was definitely in touch with her carnal side and opted for a leg piece!

 Just a couple candid shots of my sisters... you can tell my sister Frances (on the left edge) is really classy, hehe.

Now she looks more civilized

Thanksgiving was a huge success.  This was also Andy's parent's 3rd visit to our Thanksgiving and we definitely love having them over!  It's great that both of our families can share in this holiday together!

The end of the night consisted of my mom bombarding us with deodorant (you have to know my mom because every time we come over it seems like she gives us TOTALLY random gifts), a big canister of popcorn, and a purse.  Talk about random things, but hey, at least she was concerned about our body odor!

If you celebrated Thanksgiving, how did it go?  Hope you have full bellies and if you're going out in the madness for Black Friday (I am NOT), be careful and be safe!

And I definitely want to make sure you guys know that you are one of the many things I am thankful for today... and every day!