Spice Rubbed Turkey with Cranberry BBQ Sauce

Years ago, way back at the start of this blog, I flagged recipes in the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook that looked good. I never actually thought I'd make spice rubbed turkey breast, but I also never bothered to remove the flag. Then Key Foods put a 6.5 lb turkey breast on sale.

The cranberry bbq sauce was really good. I mean, the turkey turned out well, but... that cranberry sauce was super tasty. Scrappy wasn't a fan. Things like cider vinegar and hot sauce boiled with cranberry isn't really her thing. Oh well.

Extreme Close-Up

We ate the last batch of chocolate chip cookies in record time. Something about ingredients being on sale or maybe me thinking that if I stir them by hand instead of using an electric mixer (as I have been for the past three batches (and they seem to come out better when I mix by hand)) then that burns all the calories necessary to offset eating so many cookies... These are oatmeal scotchies.

Leftover Chicken

I wanted to make meatballs. Big Italian meatballs. But that plan just wasn't working out. First, I didn't have bread. Second, I didn't have time. After three days of wanting spaghetti and meatballs, I decided to simply make spaghetti and dump the sauce over the leftover roast chicken. Good enough.

Leftover Ham

This time, rather than make more breakfast-for-dinner fare, I felt like making macaroni & cheese to go with the leftover ham. I had actually had leftover macaroni & cheese for lunch. This is the container that it had been in. Rather than get another plate dirty, I ate my dinner in the leftover dish. Leftovers galore...

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mmm... Monday morning cookies. This time I added pecans.

Leftover Steak

I took the steak out of the freezer several days ago with bigger plans than simply making plain penne and frozen green beans. But here we are, plain penne and frozen green beans with some really good leftover steak. Mmm...

Roast Chicken, Muffins, Mini Quiche

My parents came to visit. I made a chicken.

I also made mini quiche (much better when I didn't haphazardly add salt) and...

muffins for Sunday morning. (I was up *real* early on Saturday.) The muffins are oatmeal-cranberry-pecan. Because that's what was around...

Swedish Meatballs

These are more frozen IKEA meatballs, but the sauce is all homemade. And this time I gave it about 20 minutes. Soooo good. So much better than the last time I tried to make a sauce without using the real drippings. Maybe too much sauce, though.

The 501st!

No, it's not Star Wars. It's pernil. I thought I would take a picture before it became completely blackened.

A gigantic pork shoulder with the skin on does not look that appetizing. But give it enough time and it's delish! ("Enough time" for this particular shoulder was about 12 hours at 250 degrees.)

Baby Food and BBQ Biscuits

I made a dozen biscuits, thinking I'd eat those during the week. But then dinnertime rolled around and I realized that I could use them for dinner again tonight. I don't know why (I don't think I've seen any TV chefs pushing the idea lately), but I was inspired to take the leftover pork roast and mix it with a chopped onion, some bottled BBQ sauce, some homemade BBQ sauce (ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, dry mustard), and serve it hot over frozen vegetables. Yeah, frozen vegetables are my friend. Scrappy really liked it.

Meanwhile, I've decided the baby is ready to start learning to eat from a spoon. (The self-timer on this camera goes nuts flashing a red light on the subject, hence eye contact from baby.) I bought the rice cereal, but for now he's starting with milk on a spoon. It's not like he takes more than a few tastes.

Good Steak

When I picked up the London broil, I wasn't thinking, Mmm, this'll be good. I was looking more at the size. But oh my god it was so good compared to the beef we've been eating lately. So good. The biscuits, not so much. I thought I had left them in there long enough, but it wasn't the same as the last really good batch.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love the cookie dough scooper. I think I forgot to mention that on the Oatmeal Scotchies entry. I love it!

LV redeemed a coupon I gave him last Christmas as a gift, so we have more cookies. I think my idea of baking every week (it started as a goal for Fridays) really will go on and on way past the holidays.

Leftover Chicken

I had roasted chicken, half a box of shell pasta, and frozen vegetables. They all seemed to go together, but I wasn't sure what else it needed. Mayonnaise! LV was very excited. I was worried I was about to make everyone sick with warm mayonnaise. But it was safe. And still good as a lunch later in the week.

Pork Roast

I had made my first pot roast, so now it was time to embrace the pork roast. This time I included the potatoes in the dish while it baked. So good.

Leftover Ham

When the opportunity arises, LV likes to order a dish from Italian restaurants that has ham and a cream sauce. He asked me to hold the peas. Luckily, there were no peas in this frozen vegetable mix. He also requested a really thick sauce. I added corn starch, thinking that would do the trick. Instead we ended up with a lumpy alfredo sauce. Oh well. He still enjoyed it.

A Whole Chicken

I see whole chickens in the store or on some cooking segment and think I'd never make that. But then I finally bought one. I made a whole chicken.

Tacos

I had second half of a pack of ground beef in the freezer. None of the usual options sounded appetizing to me, so I decided to make tacos. That's imitation shredded cheese. It was fine in the tacos, but, when there aren't so many other foods going into your mouth at the same time, the "cheese" sticks to your teeth. Eek.

Grilled Pork and Yellow Rice

I didn't feel like baking the pork chops, so I seasoned them with the usual chili powder and grilled them instead. No complaints...

Oatmeal Scotchies

With our cookie container empty, it was time to make more...

Buttermilk Pancakes

When Imagine That! was about to hit theaters, LV received a press package of ketchup, mustard, chocolate syrup, and pancake mix. We shrugged our shoulders (until we saw the movie), put the items in the cabinet, and never really considered using them. But for weeks now I've been looking in the cabinet for things to make. Finally, one morning I woke up and started making pancakes with the mix. And what a nice mix it was!

Swedish Meatballs

I've made Swedish meatballs from scratch before, but we picked up a bag of frozen meatballs and a jar of lingon berries the last time we were at IKEA. One day I sent LV to work with a tub of meatballs. And only meatballs. This night I actually made a sauce and egg noodles to with frozen meatballs. Much better. (Though, I think I still prefer the homemade variety.)

Beef Wrapped Peppers

What to do with tough cheap meat... I put it in a zip-top bag, marinated it with balsamic vinaigrette (oh, that's where all that went), then beat it with a hammer. It was still super tough.

Bean and Pumpkin Soup

I bought a bag of beans almost a year ago that was labeled as a soup mix, but I never made it. (After preparing kidney beans and chickpeas that I didn't eat, I just left all the bags of beans to sit on the cabinet shelf.) Then I saw a recipe in November for black bean soup that used canned pumpkin. It sounded really good. I've made black bean soup before. I've made pea soup before. Why couldn't I use my random can of pumpkin (seriously, I'm not sure when or why this small can was purchased) and my bag of mixed beans? I had a cold, I needed something soupy. While it tasted good, this was not the cure for a sore throat. The finished product was like a bean chili. I keep asking LV if he wants some. He keeps saying no.

Cupcakes and a Pattymelt

By special request, I made more cupcakes. This time I thought the frosting should be green. And the batter should be pink.

After making this sandwich for myself (LV had regular burgers later), I've decided the best way to clean the Foreman grill is to use a piece of bread. So good.

Salad

Bags of lettuce were on sale, but there's no way we only ate vegetables for dinner. I have no recollection of what I served with this...

Ham and Eggs

What better dinner to make with your leftover ham than breakfast?