New Year's Eve Tourtière

Years ago, like in the 80's, I used to hang out with this French couple who introduced me to Tourtière on Christmas Eve one year.  They explained it was a tradition in their French Canadian homes in Quebec and I loved it!  I remember I liked it so much, I went back to their house for New Years Eve when they were having it again.

Ranch & Bacon Cheese Ball

I have never made a cheese ball in my life, but I do love them occasionally, like at Christmas time.  I decided I wanted to try, so one for me and one for a gift to a co-worker who was dropping by on the weekend.  I based my recipe on this one (there are a ton of cheese ball recipes out there!).  I chose one that I knew my co-worker would like.  Next time, I will use this recipe or this one.

Festive Pomegranate Guacamole

I was invited to a Christmas dinner party so wanted to contribute with an appetizer.  I wanted it to be related to "the season🎄🎅" and I wanted it to be something that the host liked.  I knew he loved avocados, so I stumbled across this recipe and thought it was perfect!  I bought all the serving dishes "holiday style🎍" at the 'Dollar store' so I wouldn't have to worry about bringing anything home or getting it back.  I found organic red tortilla chips which would go with the theme, and that made me really happy (I saw white & red everywhere, but when I found all red, I was delighted).

Manhattan Fish Chowder

I was craving soup and I thought I'd make a fish soup.  I decided to make a spin on Manhattan clam chowder.  I bought some fresh Pacific red snapper and some previously frozen sockeye salmon head (no eyes)/tail pieces that had lots of meat on them - scraps.  The fish cost me under $10 for all of it.  I figured that would do fine for the fish part of the soup.  Basically, after that, the ingredients all came from what was in the fridge/kitchen.  I used:

Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls

This is pretty good diet food though I had some sausages in the fridge that needed to be used up.  I added them to the turkey, making it a little less healthy, though they would certainly add more flavor.  This dish is known as "lazy cabbage rolls" and is really easy to make.  It works for me since on two previous tries, I did a lousy job of trying to separate the cabbage leaves successfully and then roll - definitely not an easy task!   Tonight I used:

Kale Chips

I had a healthy weekend of eating.  I awoke today and had an egg white omelette with fresh spinach and tomatoes, but found I was hungry again early afternoon.  I was watching "Cooking Channel" and someone was making kale chips.  It reminded me that I had this really curly, springy bunch of kale in my fridge so I decided to make it too.  I preheated my oven to 300°F.

Wylie's Turkey Goulash (Christine Style)

I got this recipe from "The Biggest Loser" t.v. show years ago.  It is a diet meal deal, and I always really liked it.  I decided to make it tonight, in trying to keep in better health before the holiday season hits us.  Well, I guess it already is holiday season since my "lunch/dinner eating out" calendar has filled up three times as much as normal... I altered this, a lot, so it is really my spin on this recipe tonight.  I made a double batch too by adding more turkey and vegetables.  I only used the one can of beans.

Instant Pot: Swiss Steak with Tomatoes and Cream

I got this Instant Pot for my birthday from my wonderful son.  I have always wanted a pressure cooker.  I remember using one in high school (old school, stovetop type) in Home Economics class and made Swiss Steak.  I remember thinking how delicious it was and that memory has always stayed with me for whatever reason.  It is something I have never made since then and I've never used a pressure pot since then either.  Now that I had the Instant Pot, I was a little intimidated and did a ton of reading about it.  I found online "community" posts confusing because everyone had their own opinions about how to do things but it did help me find helpful links though.  I also bought this cookbook (online version) to get started.  The recipe below is from this book.  I knew it was going to take some time to build my confidence using this unit, so I decided I needed to try trusted, tested recipes to start so I could get the hang of how the thing worked.  Before I started, I did the "water test".  I also perused this link for beginners.  I was finally ready to begin...

Southern Tomato Pie

I bastardized this recipe by using Pillsbury pie dough for the crust.  I have been wanting to make this for quite some time or rather, I've been wanting to eat this for quite some time.  Since I know there will be nowhere in my town to indulge on it and I won't be in North Carolina any time soon, I decided to try it.  I've enjoyed watching chef Vivian Howard on "A Chef's Life" on PBS and have become a fan.  One day I would really like to try one of her restaurants as my favorite food is Southern...

Pork and Napa Cabbage Soup

Hmm, for no reason at all, I seem to be on a pork soup kick.  I followed this recipe (loosely) for dinner tonight.  I had some leftover Korean spiced pork roast from dinner last night so used that up.  I just cut it up into small bite sized pieces.  I also used Johnsonville Brats in place of the ground pork since that's what I had in the freezer.  I took them out of the casings and broke them apart so it resembled ground meat.