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Thanksgiving Tacos!

November 27, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Now, some of you may think I’m a freak, but: I don’t really like turkey. Dark meat is okay, but white meat does absolutely nothing for me. And it’s not even like I’m being served dry, over-cooked turkey; my mother-in-law does a great job at cooking turkey and keeping it moist, but even so I’m still not a fan. So a year or two ago, when faced with a mountain of leftovers and no bread to make a delicious sandwich filled with sides and minimal turkey, I came up with the perfect solution — THANKSGIVING TACOS.

I know we’re a little over the top with our love of tacos at Casa Shenanigans but this is seriously good/genius. It’s also not really a recipe per se, but it’s something we enjoy and I think everyone else should too. There’s no wrong or right way to do this, but basic idea is layering different sides with turkey on a tortilla, then cheese, then heating it up. Like so:

Butternut squash is spread over half of the tortilla, with shredded turkey on top of it. You can really do whatever you’d like on this taco, as long as it is somewhat spreadable. My husband prefers to have turnips and carrots with his, but I prefer the sweeter base to mine. Then, add stuffing (or mashed potatoes) and top with cheese.

You can either heat it up in the microwave or oven/toaster oven until the cheese is nice and melty and everything is heated through. It doesn’t look particularly pretty when it’s done, but it’s good. The only thing that would’ve made mine better was having leftover cranberry sauce in there between the squash and turkey.

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Nothing says fall like squash!

December 1, 2009 by 1 Comment

Especially squash stuffed with sausage.

Man, Kevin Smith is a terrible actor. I totally get the fact that he’s in his own movies – I mean, he’s the boss of them, right? But why is he in Live Free and Die Hard? Actually, now that I’m thinking of it, how is Justin Long a working actor?! Or, the better question is, why am I still watching this movie? I DON’T KNOW.

What I do know, is that this dinner was particularly tasty. I am big on stuffing things with other things [I won't even make the obvious joke], and I feel like squash and sausage is a combination that works incredibly well together. Clearly the rest of the internet agrees with me, as there were eleventy billion stuffed squash recipes that came up in my Google search. And which one did I go with, you ask? Well, none of them! Mostly because I printed out a recipe and left it on my desk at work that night.

This is a near impossible dish to ruin; you’re taking something that is delicious on its own [squash] and stuffing something else delicious [sausage] into it. I’m pretty sure that’s a recipe for success every time. Not only that, but the finished product is not only attractive, but it is essentially its own serving platter. I really can’t think of a way you can go wrong here. Unless you don’t make it.

Acorn Squash Stuffed with Sausage

2 acorn squash, halved and seeded
1 lb sausage, cooked and crumbled (your choice; I used sweet Italian)
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter, softened
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 F. Coat the inside of each of the squash halves with butter, then season with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 – 40 minutes, or until tender.

While the squash is roasting, heat the oil in a pan and then add the diced onions. Cook slowly, on medium-low heat, until starting to caramelize. Add the garlic and cook just until fragrant and then remove from heat. In a mixing bowl, combine the bread crumbs, the cooked and crumbled sausage, and onions and garlic with remaining oil. Add in the beaten egg, the seasonings, and cheddar cheese.

Pile all of that into each of the acorn halves. I’m not gonna lie, you’re going to have leftover stuffing. The smart thing to do would be to either increase the squash or scale back on the meat/panko ratios, but what I did was just cooked it in a separate pan so that husband could eat it later. Cook for an additional 20 minutes, until the stuffing is golden brown.

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Nothing says appetizing like "pig vag".

October 25, 2009 by 2 Comments

009That’s what our friend Squallie called this particular dish while in its preparation stages. While it’s not the most enticing of descriptions [and if it is enticing to you, we here at Food Shenanigans do not condone bestiality and are now judging you] it is fairly apt, as evidenced by the photo on the right. Granted, it doesn’t look anything special now, but man, when this was done, it was good. I had been wanting to make pork chops for awhile now, and my husband wanted me to make them like his mother did, with stuffing. Of course, he had no idea how they were stuffed or with what, so I started looking at various recipes and throwing out ideas at him. When I said the magical combination of cornbread, chorizo and cheddar cheese, he was sold. The idea came courtesy of Eggs to the Apples and the execution was mostly mine as I forgot to print out the recipe and didn’t feel like looking it up when I got home that night.

The idea is pretty simple and you can really use whatever you’d like for your own recipe. I went with a pared down version of the original, as I didn’t think I could convince the husband that he wanted to eat cooked dried cranberries and I couldn’t find fresh sage at the grocery store. Below is the recipe I ended up going with, and approximate measurements as .. it was late, and I was hungry.

4 thick pork chops, split in the center so that you have a pocket for the stuffing
2 cups of cornbread, cubed
3 chorizo links, casing removed and diced
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
2 T vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 400 F. Start the chorizo cooking in one pan. In another pan, heat the two tablespoons of oil. Season the pork chops with the salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Sear on each side for 2- 3 minutes, until starting to caramelize [the inside will be raw, but will finish cooking in the oven].

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Once the chorizo is cooked through and starting to brown up a little, remove it from the heat and add it to the cubed cornbread, along with two tablespoons of the rendered fat from the chorizo. Mix that up, adding however much of the chicken broth will be needed to make the stuffing come together and be moist enough to go in the oven for 8 minutes and not completely dry out. Once the chorizo, cornbread and broth are mixed together evenly, add in the cheddar cheese and give it one last mix.

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Stuff as much as you can fit into the pocket in each of the chops. I overstuffed mine, but that’s only because I realized I made way too much stuffing. Luckily, the extra stuffing didn’t go to waste, as the husband ate it immediately upon finding it on the counter. Bake in the oven for about 7 – 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the chops. Cover with foil and let them rest for a few minutes after coming out of the oven.

These were delicious! Well, I have to admit, it’s really the stuffing that was delicious. Pork chops aren’t my favorite by any means, so the stuffing was really the reason I made them. There’s some sort of crazy magical chemistry that must have happened while in the oven, because the stuffing just worked so perfectly. The spicy and sweet chorizo complemented the sweet cornbread so well, and cheese just makes everything better. I feel like I’ll try to shove this stuffing into anything I can get my hands on. And… sorry for that image. Here’s another picture, that’ll make it better:

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