As promised, here is the recipe for Apple Bacon Corn Bread stuffing . . . everyone raved about this on Thanksgiving. I know it seems like a lot of ingredients but the prep goes very quickly and it comes together easily.

This corn bread is good for stuffing, such as Apple Bacon Cornbread Stuffing.

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoon sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
¼ tsp lavender
1 1/4 cups 1% low-fat milk
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted
dash honey
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt and lavender in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture.

In another bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, and butter. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

Pour batter into a 13 x 9 baking pan, sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Let cool slight in pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Hor d’ourves . . . did I mention my hor d’ourves on Thanksgiving? Only about a dozen times probably. That’s only because I thoroughly enjoyed them and so did my guests. And a food enjoyed is always a good thing.

These Blue Filet Bites hor d’ourve was born after much testing and sampling. I tried a variety of cheeses and sauces. I tried fresh spinach and sundried tomatoes. I even made my husband sample them. Ultimately, the gorgonzola was too strong and the fresh mozzarella was too bland. The spinach didn’t add anything and while the sundried tomato was delicious, it wasn’t something that everyone would eat (and that was one of my objectives).

The beef is just barely seared in this recipe, leaving it very tender. The Spinch Pesto Sans Garlic is filled with tender spinach, a very antioxidant-rich vegetable, making this a perfect recipe for Sweetnicks ARF/5-A-Day Tuesdays. Check her site late tonight for a roundup of other like-minded recipes.

On a side note, it’s okay to make the pesto with less or no nuts, which I was forced to do on Thanksgiving due to an ingredient mishap (I accidentally used them in something else). Special thanks to the lady who helped me recover from the shock of missing an ingredient at midnight on Thanksgiving.

Blue Filet Bites
yields 30

1/4 lb filet mignon
salt and pepper
1 recipe pesto sans garlic, or pesto of your choice
2 pkgs. Fillo shells
crumbled blue cheese

Place the filet between sheets of plastic wrap and pound until between 1/8 and 1/4 of an inch thick. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper on both sides.

Heat a cast iron griddle or pan over medium heat until hot. Place filet on the grill and sear (about 1 minute on each side until just browned on the outside but still very rare in the center). Remove from grill and cut into small pieces.

Arrange Fillo shells on a tray and divide pesto evenly among them. Top with filet and blue cheese. Serve immediately.

I’ve written bits and pieces about Thanksgiving at my Cucina Bella, but here’s an inside look at the good and bad . . .

This was my table. See the centerpiece? It was born of necessity . . . I wanted something fancy and didn’t have time to actually get all the things necessary for it. The strange thing is that I liked this even better than what I had planned. I wish I had just a bit more fruit for the bowl, but c’est la vie – it worked out as is.

This was my lovely antipasti tray: olives, fresh mozzarella, stuffed grape leaves, fillo clams casino and seared beef in fillo. Yum. This stuff went fast.

This was near disaster. While toasting my cornbread for the stuffing, I burnt it. Fortunately it was savable and after 20 minutes of chopping the burnt off, it was all okay. And everyone raved about the stuffing, so that’s a good thing too.

On a side note, I am sure the title of this post will garner me some interesting search hits. Don’t ya think?

My husband took this photo. There was no cropping necessary, no repositioning. Doesn’t he take a great photo?

So this was my seafood appetizer for Thanksgiving. I played around with a variety of ideas that would have used lobster or smoked salmon or seared tuna, but ended up going with this. It turned out to be a wow from my family, so it will definitely be made again.

It’s the weekend (a rather LOOOOOOOONG weekend for me, yay!) so that means it’s time for Weekend Herb Blogging, the blogging event created by Kalyn from Kalyn’s Kitchen that celebrates herbs and veggies and other yummy things. It’s being hosted by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once this weekend, so check there on Monday for the delicious round-up.

Directly following dinner Thursday (yes, Thanksgiving dinner), I started making turkey stock with my leftover carcass from the turkey. After letting the stock cool all the way, I skimmed the fat from the top and seperated the broth into freezer bags for later use. I also reserved four cups of it to make some soup today.

Winter time is soup time. The cool weather and warm soup go hand-in-hand. I’ve been stressing trying to think of some delicious soup recipes to make so I can take some to work but ultimately this was a “hmm, what do I have leftover to use?” sort of recipe. It came together so well that I figured it would be a great thing to share for WHB.

One of the herbs used in this soup is sage, one of the few herbs that has a flavor that intensifies with drying. Go figure. But I still like fresh herbs over dried, and had leftovers from Thanksgiving. One interesting thing I learned recently about sage is that research has shown that sage may indeed improve short term memory and could aid in improved quality of life for Alzheimer patients (it might help counteract the causes of memory loss).

Back to the soup. This is a great for those nights were you want something filling that won’t bog you down. It’s also great for a quick and easy lunch to take to work and heat up.

4 cups turkey stock (or stock of your choice)
1 19 oz. can white beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup baby portabella mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 large shallot (or two small-medium), sliced
1 generous tbsp. chopped fresh sage
1 generous tbsp. chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1 generous tbsp. chopped fresh thyme
salt and pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and stir together.

Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook 20 minutes.

Turn off heat and let sit 15-20 minutes, stirring once in a while.

1 cup baby spinach, packed
½ cup walnuts
½ cup shredded romano
2 tbsp olive oil

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process to a paste.

Cucina Bella notes:

This recipe was born out of necessity. My husband tolerates pesto, but hates the garlic in it. I, on the other hand, love pesto for the garlic. Nonetheless I wanted to find a compromise of sorts – a garlic-free pesto that could be spread onto sandwiches, mixed into pastas or spread across meats or fish.

This recipe did not disappoint. It’s a very tasty spread that I used to make some very tasty appetizers. I also used it inside a special chicken dish that I will write about tomorrow.

If you want to use this with pasta, add two tbsp of cold water to the recipe when processing. That will give it a consistency that is better for the application.

It’s 1:15 a.m., Thanksgiving Day.

After a delayed start, due to my need to reseason all my cast-iron pans (and I use the term “need” very loosely), the glazed carrots, cranberry apple chutney, roasted parsnips and honey maple glaze are ready. I also made (to my own detriment) walnut turtles — oops, the walnuts were for another dish and I forget. C’est la vie. And some interesting truffles.

I have the recipe a-go for my bacon apple cornbread stuffing (need to make the cornbread first thing in the A.M.). The mashed potatoes need to be made, the gravy, the turkey, the hor d’ourves . . . and the French bread for dinner too.

The table needs to be set, the house cleaned, the silverware shined.

Uh-oh.

But what’s important isn’t all this food. It’s not about how perfect the gravy is or how perfectly done the sides are. What’s important is that you are with your loved ones and giving thanks for all the blessings in your life – a home, food, family, friends . . .

From the Cucina Bella home to yours, have a wonderful Thanksgiving. And if you are outside the U.S., have a wonderful day.

I have a confession to make . . . my Thanksgiving menu is still unfinished. I have some finalization to do yet. I know, I know – it’s getting a bit late for that. But c’est la vie. It will get done.

Here’s what I have so far:

Hor D’ourves
Blue Beef Bites
Antipasti platter
(i planned a seafood hor d’ourve, but the jury is still out on whether it will come to fruition)

Dinner
Honey-Maple Roasted Turkey
Cranberry Apple Chutney
Glazed Carrots
Steamed Green Beans
Roasted Parsnips
Roasted Butternut Squash
Mashed Potatoes
Honey Maple Turkey Gravy
Cornbread Apple Stuffing with Sage
Salad

Dessert
Homemade whipped cream
Pumpkin Pie