Weekend Recipe Early - Baked Herb Feta

You can make this as an appetizer before the meal on Thanksgiving Day - Something Warm and Warming.

Baked Herb Feta

2- 6 ounce packages of feta

1 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

1 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano

1 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme

2 tablespoons olive oil

freshly cracked black pepper

Preheat oven to 180C or 350F degrees. Place the feta on a 12 inches square of foil. Mix together the freshly chopped herbs and press on to the sides of the feta. Drizzle with the oil and season to taste with cracked black pepper. Gently fold the sides and ends of the foil over to make a parcel. Place on a baking tray and bake for 10 -15 minutes until the feta is soft. Drain any excess liquid before serving and serve either hot or cold chopped in salads, with bread or as part of a cheese platter

Can also be made with 1 ½ Tbls BYP Italian Seasoning or Grilled Meat Rub instead of the fresh herbs.

How to make Stuffing

1. Cook vegetables, fruits, herbs and/or meat in butter, then add broth.
2. Toss with beaten eggs and cubed bread.
3. Transfer to a buttered baking dish and dot with butter or drippings. Bake, covered, at 375 degrees F, 30 minutes; uncover and bake until golden, about 30 more minutes (or cook the cooled stuffing in the turkey).

Here are two variations on that theme that you might like to try this year.

Cranberry-Apple Stuffing

Melt 1 stick butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add 2 chopped apples and 1 cup dried cranberries with 2 cups each diced onions and celery and 1 tablespoon each minced sage and thyme; add salt and pepper and cook 5 minutes. Add 3 cups turkey or chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Beat 2 eggs with 1/4 cup chopped parsley in a large bowl; add 16 cups cubed stale white bread, then pour in the vegetable-broth mixture and toss. Transfer to a buttered baking dish and dot with butter. Cover and bake 30 minutes at 375 degrees F; uncover and bake until golden, 30 more minutes. (Or stuff in your turkey and bake.)

Bourbon-Pecan Stuffing

Melt 1 stick butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add 2 cups each diced onions and celery and 1 tablespoon each minced sage and thyme; add salt and pepper and cook 3 minutes. Add 2 chopped pears, 1 cup chopped pecans and 1/2 cup bourbon to the cooked vegetables and cook another 2 minutes. Add 3 cups turkey or chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Beat 2 eggs with 1/4 cup chopped parsley in a large bowl; add 16 cups cubed stale white bread, then pour in the vegetable-broth mixture and toss. Transfer to a buttered baking dish and dot with butter. Cover and bake 30 minutes at 375 degrees F; uncover and bake until golden, 30 more minutes. (Or stuff in your turkey and bake.)

Thanksgiving Herbs

As I do every year at this time, I was looking for new recipes to try for Thanksgiving.  We are entertaining this year and I wanted to do a few new recipes.  My husband however, had other plans.  He said we would be doing traditional and that would not include doing something we have not done in the past.  So no brine for my turkey this year, even though I think it would be a great thing to try.  We will instead do a traditional butter, seasoned with herbs, pressed under the skin. It is not like that will be bad!

Here is the buttered turkey we did a couple years ago.  We blended 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter with 2 Tbls. BYP Poultry Seasoning.

Have you ever wondered why we have a taste for certain flavors at different times of the

year? For example, why do we look for foods like pot roast, baked turkey or roasted ham in winter? Why do foods like spicy chili, corned beef and cabbage, beef stew or chicken pot pie not appeal to us in the summer? The answer is in the need of the body for warmth or cooling and the inherent properties of the herbs to provide this warming and cooling.

In warm weather we crave foods and flavors that help cool us. In winter, our cravings turn to foods that warm us, and give us more fat, a bit like a bear before hibernating.  This may be why pumpkin pie is only a winter food.  There is the issue that pumpkins aren't ready to eat until cool weather, but the spices we traditionally use for pie making - cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg - are all warming herbs. In summer, those spices would make us feel hot and clammy. They're not spices that cause sweating (and thus cooling) like hot peppers do. So in winter, spice cake, pumpkin pie spices, spicy Indian chai tea is what our bodies crave. It's the way our bodies adjust to the changing seasons.

rosemary

savory - 2015 herb of the year

The herbs considered by many to be traditional holiday seasonings include rosemary, thyme, savory and sage. Not surprisingly, those are all warming herbs, seasonings that not only give us  a warm feeling spiritually, but also add a warming effect internally.

Winter warming herbs traditionally used with the heavy, fatty winter meats. Roast goose, a seriously greasy food, was traditionally seasoned with hyssop, winter savory, onion and thyme. Those herbs helped cut the greasy taste while still warming the meal.  The same holds true for pork. Back in the days when most people raised their own pigs and butchered privately, putting up pork loin, pork roast and bacon, each had more fat left on than you will find today. Historically, people used the fat for flavor and richness adding herbs that helped manage the fat and increased the warming. Rosemary, thyme, savory, sage and hot peppers went into sausage, seasoned roasts and was used in mixes for curing the meat.

Our tradition and tastes for the foods like dressing or stuffing, the seasoning in our gravy and on a roast turkey, all come down to us from those customs from the past that placed certain actions with needs of the body and the spirit.  Poultry seasoning, a must-have in the traditional dishes, is a mixture of sage, thyme, rosemary and savory. Even though today the modern turkey isn't as fatty, our yearnings for seasonings are still there.

So enjoy your winter season herbs and know that they are good for you and will help you enjoy the winter change of seasons.

Monthly Bath Blend - Sugar Cookie Bath Salts

There are few things that rival a nice warm bubble bath to reduce stress and find comfort. I have always advocated a nice soak in the tub and recently have found with the stress of moving, relocating the business and trying to keep up with orders, lectures and shows that I am in need of the healing powers of the bath.

I have also found that you can easily turn your tub into a spa like experience easily and cheaply.  This recipe is not only sweet smelling and fun, it makes a great gift that although it smells like a cookie has absolutely no calories!

The added benefit of these salts is they are full of magnesium sulphate.  This mineral reduces stress and eases muscle tension and inflammation.
 

Sugar Cookie Bath Salts 

6 cups Epsom salts

1 Tbls. canola oil

4 drops vanilla extract

1/2 cup unscented liquid soap

1 tsp cinnamon

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper.  I have cookie sheets that are never used for baking and I used those, but I still lined them.  Spread the salt on the sheet.  Place oil, liquid soap and vanilla in a mixing bowl.  Use your hands to mix thoroughly.  Pour the wet mixture over the salts. Sprinkle the cinnamon lightly over all the entire mixture. Allow to air-dry until the moisture is completely gone. Store in a jar with a tight-fitting lid.  Keep in a cool and dry location.

To use: Add a scoop into a warm bath and breath deeply. (When gift giving be sure to include a scoop!)