November 2012

Leftover turkey quesadillas

Put that Thanksgiving turkey to good use.

One of my favorite things to do the days following Thanksgiving is to find new ways to use my leftover turkey meat. Up until I made the turkey quesadillas, my kids favorite recipe was creamed turkey over toast. The turkey quesadillas were so good, however, that I felt the need to share the recipe with you.

You will need the following ingredients to make the turkey quesadilla:

  • Leftover turkey
  • Flour tortillas
  • 1 green pepper
  • 1 small onion
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese

Serve your guests Shirley Temples this Thanksgiving

A quick and easy drink that is sure to please.

One of my favorite Thanksgiving memories growing up was meeting my grandparents at the Inn near their home and ordering a Shirley Temple to go along with my meal. It was the only time of year I ever got one, and even my father and a few other family members would order one. Now that I'm the adult, I suggested to my sister that we make our own Shirley Temples to serve with Thanksgiving dinner.

Secret of the Secret Sauce revealed!

It's not just mayo and ketchup

McDonalds' Big Mac Secret Sauce is no longer such a secret. And it isn't, as many people have claimed, just mayonnaise and relish or just mayonnaise and ketchup. Oh no, my friend! It is mayonnaise, sweet pickle relish, yellow mustard, white wine vinegar, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika. 

(The paprika adds a slight bit of taste, but is mostly there to add color. The color of the added paprika is no doubt what caused a lot of people to believe that Secret Sauce involved ketchup somehow.)
 
The secret was revealed in an official YouTube video where the company's executive chef answered questions from the audience. Someone asked what is in McDonalds' secret sauce, and Dan Coudreaut revealed the answer.

Review: DiGiorno Pizza

It is just like delivery.

I've seen the commercial for DiGiorno pizza a million times before I decided to give it a try. I wanted to put their slogan “It's not delivery. It's DiGiorno” to the test. I have to say that this pizza is so good that it is now our pizza of choice.

If you like having pizza once a week like we do, or on occasion, DiGiorno is not only cheaper than take-out, but you can always buy it ahead of time so that you have it on hand when you get the urge to bite into a slice of pizza. We make it a habit to keep one box in the freezer at all times. Our favorite is the pepperoni, but it must be everyone else's favorite because they often run out of it at the grocery store.

Dried mango slices: surprisingly delicious!

Great addition to a gluten-free food stockpile

As a rule, I am not a big fan of dried fruit. But I live in a rural area that is often susceptible to big weather issues that keep me trapped at home for days - sometimes weeks - at a time. And when I went gluten free a few months ago, I started to realize that most of the food I usually stockpile is gluten full. This has led me farther afield to experiment with shelf-stable, gluten free food stuffs that stockpile well.

And thus: dried fruit. Dried fruit in the abstract has a lot to recommend it. It has the same fruity taste (more or less) as real fruit. It has the same amount of fiber as fresh fruit. A lot of dried fruit has some added sugar, but that isn't too worrisome in an emergency stockpile. (No one's going to begrudge you a few extra calories on the fourth day of a power outage.) 
 
Most importantly, dried fruit has all of the fiber of the original fruit. It's hard to get fiber in a shelf stable gluten free stockpile. Most things with fiber also have gluten (including oats, which are all considered cross-contaminated with gluten unless specifically labeled otherwise).