I have been hooked big time on brussels sprouts, since first trying them out for a Christmas dinner party in 2010. I can’t get enough of them.

My family’s favorite way to eat them is with bacon and butter, but that method is just too high in fat and calories for me to cook except for special holiday dinners.  Fortunately, Hubby and the kids are still pretty pleased with this much leaner recipe by Gina over at SkinnyTaste.com.  While they’ll always choose bacon and butter when given the choice, we all do enjoy the surprising amount of flavor packed into this skinnier version.

Heat olive oil. Add shallots and sauté about 2 minutes, add garlic and saute until golden.

Add shredded brussels sprouts, salt and pepper.

Sauté on medium-low for about 4-5 minutes.

Sautéed Brussels Sprouts

Source: Gina’s Weight Watcher Recipes

Yield: 4 servings
Weight Watchers Info: 2 PointsPlus per serving

Ingredients

• 1 lb brussels sprouts (outer leaves removed and washed)
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

Directions

Finely shred the brussels sprouts after thoroughly washing. In a sauté pan, heat olive oil. Add shallots and sauté about 2 minutes, add garlic and saute until golden. Add brussels sprouts, salt and pepper and sauté on medium-low for about 4-5 minutes.

Chicken pot pie, with Mom’s homemade pie crust, is one of those special family meal memories I have from childhood. But, until recently, I never attempted to make it myself. For one, I don’t do pie crust — one of these days I’ll have Mom teach me. And for another thing, good pot pies are usually really fattening — this one is no exception.

This winter, I finally caved, and made individual chicken pot pies for the entire family, and individual turkey pot pies for just my husband and I a few weeks later. Instead of battling with pie crust, I oped to use frozen puff pastry sheets…these turned out great. For the pie filling, I picked my favorite parts of both a Neely’s and a Barefoot Contessa recipe. Ina’s recipe calls for pearl onions, so I tried those the first time (in the chicken pot pies), but all four of us agreed that those just didn’t taste right, so I omitted them the next time.

At 22 to 23 Weight Watchers PointsPlus per serving, these are far too fattening for me to cook on a regular basis (although Hubby and the kids would gladly eat them every week). But, I’m happy to splurge a couple times each fall or winter.

In a Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat. Saute the onions until translucent, 10-15 minutes. Add flour, cook over low heat, stirring constantly, 2 minutes.

You should have a nice roux going.

Add chicken stock, simmer over low heat for 1 more minute, stirring until thick. Add salt, pepper, cream and sherry.

dd cooked diced chicken or turkey, carrots, peas and parsley. Mix well.

Divide the filling among 4 large ramekin baking dishes.

Cut each sheet of puffed pastry in half, on the diagonal. Fit each diagonal over each large ramekin, trimming to to leave about 1/4 inch hanging over the edge.

Pull and stretch the pastry to fit, then crimp around the edges.

Brush with egg wash.

Bake approximately 35 minutes, until pastry is golden brown.

Serve and enjoy!

Individual Puff Pastry Chicken or Turkey Pot Pies

Source: Inspired by The Neelys and the Barefoot Contessa

Yield: 4 servings
Weight Watchers Info: 22 PointsPlus per pie, if using light meat chicken or turkey. 23 PointsPlus per pie, if using dark meat chicken or turkey.

Ingredients

• 4 cups fat-free chicken or turkey stock, or broth
• 1 chicken bouillon cube
• 1 stick butter
• 1 sweet onion, diced
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 3 Tbsp dry sherry
• 4 cups diced chicken or turkey, cooked (we grill ours)
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 1 rib of celery, sliced
• 1 cup of frozen peas, thawed
• 1/2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
• 2 sheets of puff pastry, thawed and layed flat
• 1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a medium sauce pan, heat chicken stock or broth, and dissolve bouillon cube, over medium heat.
3. In a Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat. Saute the onions until translucent, 10-15 minutes. Add flour, cook over low heat, stirring constantly, 2 minutes. Add chicken stock, simmer over low heat for 1 more minute, stirring until thick. Add salt, pepper, cream and sherry. Add cooked diced chicken or turkey, carrots, peas and parsley. Mix well.
4. Divide the filling among 4 large ramekin baking dishes.
5. Cut each sheet of pastry in half, on the diagonal. Fit each diagonal over each large ramekin, trimming to to leave about 1/4 inch hanging over the edge (pull and stretch to fit). Crimp the pastry around the edge of each ramekin, and brush with egg wash.
6. Place ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake 35 minutes, until pastry is golden brown.
7. Remove cookie sheet from the oven, and serve.

If you read The Taste Place regularly, you know we love spicy food.  One of our favorite cuisines that regularly features a bit of spice is Indian.  We both enjoy Indian restaurants, but our experience making Indian food at home has been a bit mixed.  We’ve used Trader Joe’s Curry and Masala Simmer Sauces with some success as a quick, flavorful meal, but it isn’t exactly something we can take ownership in.  We’ve also tried Food Channel’s “Aarti’s Party’s” Green Chicken Curry, which was quite authentic, quite complicated, and smelled great, but whose taste underwhelmed us. We’ve also done a grilled tandoori chicken skewers recipe, which was pretty decent, but not the sort of thing I’d seek out at a restaurant.

But we don’t give up easily, and we finally we hit on a yummy, spicy, slow cooker recipe we loved at The Perfect Pantry.  We generally like slow cooker recipes, because we can start it before work, and it’ll be ready for us when we get home that night, but this one isn’t quite that easy.  We actually did it on a day when neither of us had to work, so I was able to get it started in a leisurely way in the morning before we went off hiking, and then came home to the heavenly aroma that evening.  You could probably do all the prep the night before and just turn it on the next day, which we will almost certainly try, because we loved it so much that we’re dying to do it again—work day, Saturday, or whenever!

It was definitely spicy, so kids and wimpy adults may want to skip it, but we thought it was great.  Serve with some Basmati rice and/or some Naan, and maybe a tomato cucumber salad for a great dinner that is definitely worth the time it takes to prep it.

The picture above doesn’t look that appealing, but for once, I’m pretty sure it is more a function of the dish than our photography skills.  After all, how nice can you make chunks of chicken in a thick brown sauce look?  But I promise, it tastes better than it looks!

An ingredient line-up that isn't in every kitchen pantry, but it is worth finding.

Brown the onions and add the vinegar.

Browned onions all processed up!

The first set of spices ready to go in the food processor.

This smelled sooooo good!

Second group of spices ready to be ground up.

Grinding your own salt, pepper and mustard is kinda cool...

Onion paste, spice paste, and fresh ground spices all ready to go in slow cooker.

Chicken and spices ready to be cooked in the crock.

Ready to serve! Tastes better than it looks, and smells so good!

Spicy Slow Cooker Chicken Vindaloo

Source: The Perfect Pantry

Yield: Serves 6
Weight Watchers Info: 6 PointsPlus (rice is extra)

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp canola oil
• 3 Large yellow onions, halved and sliced
• 3 Tbsp white wine vinegar (we substituted rice vinegar)
• 4 inch piece fresh ginger root, peeled and cut into chunks
• 10 cloves garlic, peeled
• 5-8 dried red Thai or Serrano chili peppers, stems removed  (we used 8 )
• ½ Tbsp turmeric
• ½ Tbsp ground coriander
• ½ Tbsp garam masala
• ½ Tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ Tbsp black peppercorns
• ½ Tbsp coarse sea salt
• ½ Tbsp brown or black mustard seeds
• 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts and/or thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces

Instructions

1. Sauté onions in one tbsp of canola oil for 4-5 minutes, or until browned, but not burned.
2. Stir in vinegar and cook until liquid evaporates.
3. Transfer onion mixture to food processor, add additional tbsp oil, and puree.
4. Scrape puree into 4 qt slow cooker.  Do NOT wash food processor.
5. Add ginger, garlic, chili peppers, turmeric, coriander, garam masala, and cinnamon to processor.  Process into a paste, and scrape into slow cooker.
6. Using a mortar and pestle or dedicated spice/coffee grinder, combine peppercorns, salt, and mustard seed and crush into a coarse powder.  Add to slow cooker.
7. Add cut chicken and ¼ cup water to slow cooker and stir everything together.  (If we do this on a work day, we will probably add an extra ¼ cup water and stop here the night before)
8. Turn slow cooker on low and cook for 6-8 hours, stirring an hour or so before serving.

NOTE: Some of the ingredients (garam masala, turmeric, brown mustard seeds) are unusual, but if you like Indian and Asian food, they are worth having on hand for future dishes.

Served over basmati rice.

Yep, it’s time for that mandatory year-end post highlighting our most popular recipes of 2011, based on the number of page views (total and unique) racked up between January 1 and December 31, 2011. Paula Deen, pork and slow cookers seem to be the theme.

If these recipes are new to you, give them a try! If they are now part of your culinary repretoire, continue enjoying!

We look forward to introducing you to more of our favorite recipes in 2012!

#1

1. Paula Deen’s Pecan Praline Baked French Toast

• Published: February 13, 2011
• Weight Watchers: Don’t bother

A delicious decadent dish that combines french toast with good ol’ southern pecan praline. A bit decadent for an average weekend breakfast, but perfect for holidays and special occasions. Can be made overnight your guests.

#2

2. Jeff’s Smoked Pork Tenderloin

• Published: January 25, 2011
• Weight Watchers: 5-6 PointsPlus per serving.

Pork tenderloin is one of the very easiest and tastiest things you can do on a smoker, and there are many rubs, marinades, and sauces you can play with to customize it to your own tastes! Our method ensures a perfect pink smoke ring every time!

#3

3. Slow Cooker Ham and Mixed Bean Soup

• Published: January 1, 2011
• Weight Watchers: 4 PointsPlus per serving

This is one of the first soups I ever made for my husband, and it remains a favorite of both of ours. Just like I remember Mom making, but with the added convenience of a slow cooker. The perfect way to stretch that leftover ham bone and bits of leftover ham into a hearty additional meal.

#4

4. Mom’s Super Easy Crockpot Pork Roast

• Published March 9, 2011
• Weight Watchers: 6 PointsPlus per serving

A super easy, super yummy slow cooker roast recipe from Jeff’s mom, that easily feeds a hungry family for a couple meals. Made with anything from a beef rump roast to a pork loin roast, it is sure to please with very little effort.

#5

5. Paula Deen’s White Chicken Chili

• Published: March 24, 2011
• Weight Watchers: 6 PointsPlus per serving

A delicious healthy hearty chili dish with lean chicken, white beans, and green chilies. Perfect for weekend game day, or for a busy day at work. Easily stretch a couple meals out of this.

Every December, since Jeff and I married in 2009, we’ve helped (and by “helped”, I mean bought the ingredients) the kids make a bunch of fun sweet treats to give as gifts to their friends the last week of school before Christmas break. With three such Christmas candy-making seasons under our belts, this has indeed become a treasured family tradition for our new family. The kids look forward to it as soon as Thanksgiving passes by, and Jeff and I look forward to the kids’ excitement when Christmas Treats Weekend rolls around.

The kids look forward each Christmas to making these gifts.

The first Christmas that Jeff and I were dating, we took his kids (now our kids) to my parents’ house for my family’s big annual feast. The kids sampled my mom’s peppermint bark there and specifically asked to make it that first Christmas Treats Weekend after Jeff and I married. Peppermint bark is so easy and quick, and since we heat our white chocolate in the microwave instead of over a flame, it’s super kid-friendly. The kids don’t even need our help anymore.

So, if you’re looking for an easy last minute gift, or you simply want some inspiration for something that your kids can make together on Christmas Eve or Christmas day, give our peppermint bark a try!

Use the blunt end of a meat tenderizer, mallet or hammer to pound the candy into chunks. We have since learned to place the bag between two kitchen towels so it doesn't rip.

Pound in to chunks no bigger than 1/4 of an inch big.

Microwave 1 package of bark in a medium size microwave-safe bowl for 30 seconds and stir. Repeat at 15 second intervals until melted and smooth.

Toss the candy cane chunks into the melted almond bark and mix well.

Pour the mixture on to a table, counter or cookie sheets lined with was paper.

Spread to an even layer.

Garnish with candy sprinkles if so desired.

Allow them to sit until hardened and dry, then break in to bite-size pieces.

Easy Peppermint Bark

Source: Adapted from Kathleen Robledo

Ingredients

• 60 miniature candy canes
• 24 ounces almond bark (or white chocolate)

Instructions

1. Place the candy canes in a large ziplock bag and seal shut. Then place the bag between two kitchen towels, and use the blunt end of a meat tenderizer mallet (or hammer) to pound the candy canes until the biggest pieces are no bigger than 1/4 inch large chunks (it’s easy to overdue it and turn the candy into powder). You can also use a food processor to pulverize the candy canes into chunks, but then your kids (and husbands) would miss out on the fun of pounding away on the candy.
2. Microwave 1 package of bark in a medium size microwave-safe bowl for 30 seconds and stir. Repeat at 15 second intervals until melted and smooth.
3. Toss the candy cane chunks into the melted almond bark and mix well.
4. Pour the mixture on to a table, counter or cookie sheets lined with was paper, and spread to an even layer.
5. Allow them to sit until hardened and dry.
6. When completely hard, break into bite size pieces.

Note: Do not attempt to double the recipe in a single batch, due to how fast the chocolate stiffens up and dries.

Through my childhood and most of my adult life, I have only had a few foods that I just did not like and did not want to try again.  The two that come to mind the quickest are liver and Brussels sprouts.  I still have no interest in liver, but I have opened my mind to Brussels sprouts now that I’ve had them the way God probably intended when he created these mini-cabbages:  With bacon!

Last year, we were going old school for the Christmas-themed dinner we were preparing for our friends from Rustic Garden Bistro.  We decided to do a roast goose with bourbon gravy, and chestnut and wild rice stuffing.    We needed a good veggie side dish to complement the classic main dish, and Colleen wanted to do Brussel sprouts!  I complained bitterly (“bitter” being a word I would normally use to describe Brussel sprouts), but she really wanted to try it, and when she found a recipe that used bacon and bacon grease in it, I relented, figuring even if the sprouts themselves were horrible, I could at least eat the bacon bits out of it!

Long story short, they turned out great!  We have since made them at Thanksgiving and then again this week alongside my smoked turkey for Colleen’s birthday (her request–shows you how much SHE liked them…).  With the bacon and bacon grease in it, this is far from the leanest vegetable dish you can make, but for a special occasion, who’s keeping track, anyways?

Cooking the onion and the Brussels sprouts in the bacon grease.

Arrange the sprouts cut side down to brown them.

Add the crumbled bacon after the sprouts have browned.

Toss with the bacon and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Pan Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

Source: Food Network’s Cooking for Real via What’s Cookin’, Chicago?

Yield: Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 4 strips thick cut bacon (or 5 thinner cut strips)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 pound Brussels sprouts, halved
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Wash and slice Brussels sprouts in half, peeling and discarding wilted leaves if necessary.
2. Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium high heat until crispy.
3. Remove bacon to paper towels to dry and cool.  Chop.
4. In the pan with the bacon grease, melt butter over high heat.
5. Add onions to pan and cook for a few minutes, until they start to soften.
6. Add Brussels sprouts, stirring occasionally until cut side of sprouts are golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes.
7. Add crumbled bacon back to pan, season with salt and pepper as necessary, and stir.
8. Serve!

Plated with smoked turkey and garlic mashed potatoes with gravy.

At the holidays, whether you’re doing our classic Roast Goose with Bourbon Gravy, or a turkey (our awesome Smoked Turkey or otherwise), you need some good sides to truly impress your crowd.  We’ve suggested some great old school and modern takes on the classics here in the past (including a sourdough parmesan artichoke stuffing, port wine cranberry sauce, whiskey glazed carrots, and bourbon mashed sweet potatoes), but when we decided to do a Charles Dickens-like goose last year for a Christmas dinner party, I wanted a Dickensian classic to match it, and a chestnut stuffing just seemed right.

There were a variety of recipes out there for a chestnut stuffing, but after reviewing quite a few, I settled on one from roastgoose.com, the company from whence we got the goose!  For some reason, their website no longer features recipes, but fortunately, I printed it out last year, and because I like you, I will re-publish it here now.

The recipe uses a can of whole chestnuts, drained and chopped, but I couldn’t find any, and thought it would be cooler to do my own chestnuts anyways.  Turns out, it is a tremendous pain in the @$$ to boil and peel your own chestnuts, but it is more authentic, so I’ve included the instructions (and pictures)  for that below.  But if you want to save some time and effort, try to find a source for that in advance, in which case you can skip the first seven pictures…

The original recipe recommended actually using this as a true stuffing for the goose (or turkey), but we just served it separately.  Because it is pre-cooked, you wouldn’t have some of the issues you might have with other in-bird stuffings, but I prefer to cook mine outside the bird and use onions, garlic and herbs inside instead.  Another advantage of this stuffing, is it does not need to be further baked in an oven, so can be served whenever you (and the bird) are ready.

Raw chestnuts.

Cross hatching the chestnuts, to keep them from 'sploding.

Simmering the chestnuts.

Chestnuts boiled and ready to peel.

Let them cool a bit. I didn't let them cool long enough, and regretted it!

Peeling the chestnuts.

Big pile of chestnut shells for the amount of meat it provided.

Raw materials for chestnut and wild rice stuffing.

Browning the bacon bits.

Celery, onion, and parsley added to bacon and grease.

Wild rice, chestnuts, and herbs added to pan.

Ready to serve!

Dickens-Style Chestnut and Wild Rice Stuffing

Source: RoastGoose.com (crediting Yankee Magazine, December 1990 issue)

Yield: 6 servings

Instructions

• 6 slices bacon, chopped
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 cups sliced celery
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 1 can whole chestnuts, drained and chopped (or something over a pound of raw chestnuts, boiled and then peeled)
• 4 cups cooked wild rice (about 1.5 cups dry wild rice, plus water or beef or chicken broth according to directions)
• 1 tsp crumbled dried sage
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried marjoram

Intructions

1. If you’re doing the chestnuts fresh, do them first–give yourself between 30 minutes and an hour to get them ready.  Probably an hour.
2. Cook wild rice.  This will take close to an hour as well–do it the same time you do the chestnuts, if boiling them.
3. Fry bacon in a skillet until browned.
4. Pour off some of the grease if you wish, and saute onion, celery, and parsley in the pan for about 5 minutes, or until the onion and celery is soft.
5. Stir in chestnuts, rice, and herbs and season to taste with salt and/or pepper.
6. Serve wif yo meat!

CHESTNUT NOTE:  If you don’t find or don’t want to use canned chestnuts, there are several ways to cook them. To boil them, as I did, cross-hatch each of them at the top (to keep them from exploding and make easier to peel), simmer in boiling water for five minutes, and peel.  Peeling was messy, a bit time consuming, and not particularly easy, but didn’t require any special technique.  Consider paying a kid to do this in the future…

Plated with brussel sprouts, roast goose and bourbon gravy.

Last year we were doing a regular monthly supper club with our good friends Kim and Barry from the beautiful Rustic Garden Bistro food blog.  We got the December dinner, and were looking forward to doing a Christmas Classic that we’d never tried before:  Roast Goose!

Lots of wild Canadian Geese available for the taking right across the street at Tri-City Park, but I hear the panty-waisted local authorities frown on such things...

I had my heart set on it fairly early in the year.  I’d grown up hunting geese and ducks, so had some limited experience in cooking wild game, and had seen the Christmas Goose dinner in too many old movies and stories to count, so it seemed like a stellar idea.  But while I had shot a goose or two in my youth, I now lived in an area where whacking the local geese was frowned upon.

Fortunately, the local grocery stores all seem to have this in stock.

Fortunately, though I’d never really noticed it, nearly every major grocery store in our area actually carried goose/geese.  They weren’t cheap (normal price is about $6.99/lb for a 10 pound bird, but you can get it cheaper on sale if you keep your eyes open), but they were plentiful, so I picked one up and began to seriously research a good traditional recipe.  I probably reviewed twenty or so recipes and other articles about the use and care of a goose before settling on some combination of three of them to combine for the dinner. One had a recipe for both the roasted goose and a bourbon gravy (originally found at www.gooseproducts.com–the home page of Schiltz Foods, the producers of Whetstone Valley Geese, but who have since removed their recipes for some reason, making our re-printing of it here that much more critical!), one for a simple brine for the goose, and one for a Dickensian chestnut stuffing for the goose (which we will blog about separately).  If you know how we feel about bourbon, you can guess how I reacted to finding a traditional roast goose recipe that used a bourbon gravy, so I jumped all over that!

Doing a goose sounds scary, but it really isn't anything more than a small turkey or extra large chicken.

I removed the neck and giblets and wing tips from the goose and rinsed it, before putting it in the brine the night before.  About 5 hours before dinner, I began preparing the turkey in earnest for the party, as described below, and I’m pleased to report that it turned out great!  Everyone ate their fill that night, I sent some goose grease home with our guests (there was a TON of the useful stuff on this domestic goose–wild goose is much leaner), and there was enough goose and carcass left over to do a goose risotto that we pieced together from a few other recipes, which we will blog about later…

Goose coming out of the brine.

Stuffing the cavity with onion, garlic, and sage.

Breast side down, ready to roast.

Check out all the goose oil poured from the pan after the first two hours! It is beautifully colored and should be saved for future cooking needs.

Rotate goose breast-side up, and add turkey innards and parts to roasting pan with chicken broth.

Ready to carve! (Ignore appetizer/party detritus in background)

Carves just like a small turkey or large chicken.

Carved up and ready to serve!

Sage Roasted Goose with Bourbon Gravy

Source: GooseProducts.com

Sage Roasted Goose

• 1 10-12 pound goose, thawed and brined (see brine note below)
• Salt and Pepper and Paprika (or Creole Seasoning and Black Pepper)
• 1 Large sweet onion, quartered
• 3-4 Whole cloves of garlic, cracked
• 6 Fresh sage leaves (or 2 tsp dried sage)
• 2-3 Cups chicken broth

Bourbon Gravy

• Goose Drippings
• 1 8 ounce container demiglace (home-made or available from specialty markets or butchers) or 2 envelopes au jus gravy mix plus 1 cup water.
• 1/3 Cup Bourbon or Whiskey
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp minced fresh sage, or 1 tsp dried sage

Instructions

1. The night before your dinner, remove neck, giblets, and wing tips (reserving all for later).  Remove and discard large pieces of fat.
2. Begin brining the cleaned goose (simple brine recipe in note below).
3. About 5 hours before you plan to eat, rinse the brine off.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
5. Pierce goose skin all over with a paring nice, especially in fatty area of breast (not necessary with wild goose).
6. Sprinkle inside and out with salt, pepper and paprika (or creole seasoning and pepper).
7. Insert onion quarters, garlic, and sage leaves in cavity of goose.
8. Place breast-side down on roasting rack in large, open roasting pan (ours in the picture really wasn’t quite large enough, but was all we have).
9. Roast goose for 1 hour and 45 minutes—(if you’re one of those people who doesn’t read the whole recipe first, note that this is only HALF the total cooking time–two more hours or so is still to come).
10. Remove goose from oven, spoon or pour off drippings and reserve for future use (I was shocked at how much oil came off the goose–see pic above).
11. Add 2 cups chicken broth, wing tips, neck, and giblets to roasting pan.
12. Rotate goose to breast-side up on roasting rack.
13. Continue roasting 2 more hours or until temperature of goose at thickest part of meat (between breast and thigh) reaches 180 degrees, or until juices run clear when stabbed.  If necessary, add more broth to pan to prevent pan drippings from burning.
14. Place goose on large serving platter, and cover loosely with foil.
15. Pour drippings from roasting pan into bowl or gravy separator.  Skim off fat and discard.
16. Strain remaining juices into saucepan, add demiglace (or gravy mix and water), and bourbon.
17. Heat to boiling over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.
18. Stir in butter and minced sage, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
19. Pour into heated pitcher or sauceboat.

BRINING NOTE: I have previously linked to a brining recipe in my recipe for smoked turkey, but for this one, I used a really easy Recipe from Field and Stream magazine:  Mix 2 gallons of water, 1 cup of Kosher salt, 1 cup of black pepper, and 1 cup of brown sugar in a large plastic bag, pot or bucket.  Place cleaned goose in brine overnight.  Rinse well before preparing the goose for cooking.

Plated with bacon sauteed brussel sprouts and chestnut stuffing!

I have used Evernote for about 2-1/2 years to archive and organize recipes across all of my computing devices (I’ll do a post on that exact process and set-up later).  So when I read this morning that Evernote today release a dedicated iPhone food app, I did not initially see any value in it. My curiousity got the better of me, however, so I played with Evernote Food quite a bit during my “foodie” breaks for coffee, at lunch, and again this evening.

According to Evernote, the app “…is all about preserving the experiences, thoughts and memories that accompany food.” It’s supposed to help us save information about what we eat, find related notes in our existing Evernote library, share that info and accompanyihng photos with our friends and family on Facebook and Twitter.  I already do all of that…with the regular Evernote, with Facebook, with Twitter, and with this food blog.

After just a day on Evernote Food, I’m not sold on the app, but I will give it at least a month or so just to be fair — as a foodie, techie and Evernote nerd.  Following are my initial findings.

Likes

• The Twitter sharing functionality helpfully includes a photo (hosted on Photobucket) geo-tagged (if turned on) with a comment and a link to your public Evernote record.  Oddly, it displays two links though (kind of ugly): one to the Twitter/Photobucket photo link, and one to your public Evernote record link.
• The app can pull from, or add to, my existing Tag library on my regular Evernote account.
• The app syncs with one of my existing Notebooks on my regular Evernote account.
• I can choose from among 3 different photo sizes in the app Settings (applies to all new photos). This is handy if you’re concerned about file size and disk space in your Evernote account.

Dislikes

• No “Syncronize now” button in the iPhone app, like there is in the regular Evernote iPhone app. When testing editing existing Food notes, I have to wait for the Evernote server to auto-sync with the app.
• No editable Date field, and it only stores the date the record was created. This is an issue with folks (like me), who already have a bunch of food pictures in their iPhone photo library, and would like to now add those items to Evernote Food. I don’t care about the date my Evernote Food record was created; I care about the date on which I cooked and/or ate that particular dish.
• Cannot edit the note Title in Evernote desktop or web (I can only edit Tags). You have to go back into the seperate Evernote Food app to change the Title.
• Cannot delete a Food note.  I find no way to delete an existing record from within the Food app. Yet when I open that record in my Evernote library and delete it, that change does not appear to get pushed to Evernote Food.
• The Facebook sharing feature is horrid. It simply posts a link (using your Evernote Food note Title) on your personal Facebook wall — no pretty engaging thumbnail like on Twitter. Why on earth would any of my friends be tempted to click on that link?
• The Related Notes feature is not helpful at all.  It seems to be pulling regular Evernote notes created around the same time, instead of pulling notes that share common Tags (i.e., by course, cuisine or ingredient).

Have you tried out the new app yet?  What are your thoughts?

If you’re not already using Evernote, does an app like this make you more interested in trying Evernote?

My first entry! The geo-tag is not my real address, I simply wanted to see what would happen if I typed in "Home".

Notice that there's no Date field, not good if you're entering old food photos (not taken with your current date).

Since Evernote Food must sync with an existing Evernote notebook, I created a dedicated "Meals" notebook in my regular Evernote library.

Evernote Food lacks the critical "Synchronize now" feature available in the normal Evernote app for iPhone.

I can't find any way to delete that 2nd duplicate (mis-titled) photo.

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Colleen and I both love soups, but we differ just a bit on when a soup crosses the line from a side dish to an entree.  When she first showed me the Skinny Taste recipe for a crock pot minestrone soup, I looked at the ingredient list, nodded, and said, “that looks like a lovely side for an actual meal.”  She looked at me with her traditional pained expression when I deny a soup or salad as an entree, knowing what was coming next—”But if we were to add some meat to the soup, it might then make a mighty tasty main dish!”

She went back to her computer and looked for some meaty minestrones, and after doing some research, came up with a way to add some meat (substance) to the soup, and still keep it healthy and low fat:  Spicy Turkey Italian Sausage.

We have experimented with turkey a few times as a lower fat alternative to other meats.  Ground turkey works great in our turkey larb dish, but turkey bacon was an abomination when we tried it as a bacon substitute.  We’ve found Turkey Italian Sausage actually works really well as a substitute for regular Italian Sausage, especially in a recipe (it is merely adequate as an Italian Sausage Sandwich), and this one is no different.

In the end, not only did the spicy turkey Italian sausage make it hearty enough for me to count as a main course, but we both agreed that the flavor it added to the soup itself added a great deal to its awesomeness.

It is a crock pot soup, but really isn’t quite as quick and easy as most of our crock pot recipes.  It requires some significant prep in the morning (or the night before), and then needs a few more steps and another hour or so in the evening before you can eat it.  Probably best on a weekend when you might have a little more time to invest in the morning, but we did it as a weekday dish both times, and just got up an extra 30 minutes or so early to get everything started.

Browning the spicy turkey Italian sausage.

All items but the broth, prior to cooking.

Broth added, prior to cooking.

8 hours later, prior to adding zucchini and spinach.

Zucchini and spinach in. Ready to stir and finish this bad boy up!

Done!

I'm ready for my close-up...

Slow Cooker Minestrone Soup with Spicy Italian Sausage

Source: Modified from SkinnyTaste.com

Yield: 6 servings
Weight Watchers Info: 8 PointsPlus per serving

Ingredients

•  4 links turkey Italian sausage
• 1/2 large onion (maybe a whole small or medium onion), chopped
• 1 cup carrots (about 2 carrots), chopped
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes
• 1 (15 oz) can white (cannelini or navy) beans, drained and rinsed
• 3 cups fat free chicken broth
• 1 oz chunk “good Parmesan cheese rind” (original recipe calls for this–we have never used it)
• 1 fresh rosemary sprig
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
• Salt and fresh ground pepper
• 1 medium zucchini, chopped
• 2 cups chopped fresh (or frozen and defrosted) spinach
• 2 cups cooked small pasta (farfalle, shells, elbows, or something similar)
• Parmesan cheese to top (extra WW points to taste…)

Instructions

1. Remove sausage from casings (or use bulk sausage), brown and break into small pieces over medium high in a skillet.
2. Rinse and drain beans.  Puree beans with 1 cup broth in a blender, or with hand held immersion blender in the crock pot itself (that’s what I do).
3. In crock pot, combine pureed beans, cooked sausage, broth, tomatoes, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, herbs, parmesan rind (if used), salt, and pepper.
4. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
5. 40 minutes before ready to eat, add zucchini and spinach. Cover and cook 30 more minutes.
6. Add cooked pasta, cook 10 minutes more.
7. Remove bay leaves, rosemary sprig, and parmesan rind (if you bothered), and season to taste with salt and pepper.
8. Serve with extra parmesan cheese and a crusty roll, if you’re so inclined…

NOTE 1:  The original did not have the Italian Sausage, and we doubled the garlic.
NOTE 2:  I love to sprinkle red pepper flakes in it as a condiment, Colleen just likes to pile on the parmesan.
NOTE 3:  The original recipe’s author says that puree’ing the beans is optional.  Many people like to have whole beans in their soup.  It would be an easy step to skip if you were pressed for time.

Ready to eat, with a sprinkling of parmesan!