Turkey & Rice Soup

 As i sat drinking my morning coffee a question came to mind...
Day after Thanksgiving... "what should i do with some of the leftover turkey"?

SOUP of course!

I looked in the fridge i had all the ingredients celery, carrots, onion. My cupboard and pantry is fully stocked with quite a selection of spices, broths, rice, noodles etc...

Here we go lets get started. The ingredients you will need are as follows...

2 tablespoon real butter

1 medium onion, (1 cup), chopped

2 to 3 ribs (1 cup) celery, chopped

2 to 3 medium (1 cup) carrots, chopped

1 teaspoon finely diced fresh garlic

65 ounces chicken broth

2 nice sized bay leaves

2 cups cooked rice* (no instant rice please)

2 cups chopped Turkey (white & dark mix)

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

Pinch of celery salt

Salt & Pepper to taste

Before you prep the veggies, start the rice cooking as per instruction on the bag. 
Get to peeling and chopping the veggies, try to chop/dice all ingredients into the same size pieces so they will finish cooking at the same.
Melt butter in 4- to 6-quart saucepan over medium heat until sizzling. Add onion, celery, carrots and garlic; season with salt & pepper; continue cooking 5-7 minutes or until vegetables are softened.

 

When working with raw rice a good rule of thumb is 1 cup raw = 2 cups cooked. Rice doubles when cooked. Be carefull not to burn or over cook the rice. Follow the instructions on the bag & you`ll do just fine. For this recipe good rice cooked well is much better than instant rice.

 


When your rice and veggies are finished add chicken broth, bay leaves & celery salt. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, 10-12 minutes or until mixture comes to a boil and carrots, celery & onion are tender. Stir in cooked rice, turkey and parsley. Cook 5-7 minutes or until heated through. Taste, & re-season with salt and pepper, if needed.

 Now don't that look good & it tastes great too! 

There is some thing comforting about home made soup. And this is a great way to use leftover turkey or chicken. Being the "BBQ Nut" that i am i used Smoked Turkey. The added "kiss of smoke" flavor from the turkey is amazing! You can taste the butter in the veggies, a hint of the bay leaves come to taste as you eat the soup. A down home comfort food for sure! 

Well Bloggers that's it for this one.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my "latest adventure" in cooking!

Whiskey Mapel Glazed Braided Pork Tenderloins

Well Blogger`s...
Today was another nice day here in Nebraska, which i`m afraid is coming to a close. Winter is on it`s way  and i figured i`d better fire up the Big Green Egg smoker before it get`s too cold. I found some tenderloins on sale at my local grocer. After a quick Internet search i decided i`d try my hand at braiding some tenderloins. Looked like a very nice way to present one of my favorite cut`s of meat.

I purchased two nice tenderloins so let`s get to work!

Start by trimming any extra bit`s of fat and silver skin from each loin. I decided to split one loin the long way into two pieces and leave the other whole. On your cutting surface place the loin so as you can slice each piece in three long sections as shown in this picture. Leave an inch uncut to hold the braid together as shown.

Start braiding by placing the left piece over the middle, the right piece in between those two and keep repeating till your at the end of the loin. Secure the ends with a tooth pick so they don't come apart while cooking. Fella`s if you are having trouble figuring this out just ask your wife or girl friend to show you, i`m sure they have braided there own hair. Not that we would need the help but such girl-ish matters are a bit confusing. Hang in there fellas it`s not as hard as it seems besides... it looks real purdy when your done and the ladies will just love the fancy presentation.  

OK... now that we suffered through that difficult task the other whole tenderloin will be easy peasy. Split that loin into three section the same as before and criss cross the three sections into another one of those fancy nancy braids that the ladies love. What you will end up with is some thing like the next picture.
Be sure to grab your bottle of Whyldfire Bar-B-Que All Purpose Original Dry Rub or the next best thing which would be... huh ? cant think of any thing.
Anyway season em up good and place in the fridge covered for a few hours to meld the flavors and let em get... (you guessed it) happy. Remember fella`s... Pork gets real happy when using Whyldfire Bar-B-Que Rub so be careful when removing them from the fridge... they is liable to jump right out at ya when opening the fridge door.

While the loins are marinating... fire up your favorite smoker or grill. When the cooker temp stabilizes at 250 degrees place the tenderloins on the grate for a quick cook of approximately 2 - 2 1/2 hours at that temp. For this cook session i added two nice chunks of Apricot wood for smoke flavor. Check on them at the one hour mark and note your cooker temp, make any adjustments to the dampers if needed to maintain the target cooking temp.
Your finished temp for these loins will be 138-140 degrees. When close to being done "glaze" the loins once or twice with your barbecue sauce. Any more than that and in my opinion its a waste. Barbecue sauce is for serving on the side and dipping your meat in. When one glazes its added for color or presentation. Although it does add flavor... what you want is to add too it not over power the flavor of the meat, dry rub & smoke.

The last barbecue cooking competition my wife & I won she came home with a bottle of Whiskey Maple barbecue sauce so i figured this would be the perfect sauce for such a fancy presentations. Brush on a layer or two of the sauce the last 15-20 minutes of cook time.

When you hit the target temp remove the loins from the smoker and let them rest for 20 minutes or so, tented with foil. The internal temp will rise as it rests to approximately 140-145 internal temp, which is just perfect!
Ain't that just a nice way of presenting one of the most tender and flavorful cuts of pork? For the side dishes i would suggest Mac & Cheese with Seasoned Green Beans and a tall glass of iced tea.

That`s it... Thanks for checking out my latest... "BBQ Adventure".

Barbecued Cheese

Hello Blogger`s!
Came up with a new "must try super easy recipe" for ya all to try. Great for a game time snack, after school or work snack or if your like me a "mid night" snack. The ingredients are only a couple of items that most folks have right in there own fridge and cupboard.

I love Swiss cheese about as much as Mozzarella and be`ins i had Swiss in the fridge and a cupboard full of spices i decided why not make.... Barbecued Cheese. All you need is a block of your favorite cheese, some barbecue dry rub spice mix and a quart zip lock bag. That`s it .... super easy and quite tasty if you have a good dry rub such as Whyldfire Bar-B-Que All Purpose Original Dry Rub (shameless plug), which can be purchased at Lou`s Thrifty Way in Norfolk Ne. (nuther shameless plug). I might add that this seasoning is a sweet mix of BBQ spices specially formulated for all kinds of applications. (yup again)

First off gather up your ingredients.
I used a one pound block of Swiss cheese.
Cut the block into cube sized snack bites.
Place cubes in a quart size zip lock bag.
Shake on the Dry Rub.
Seal the Bag and toss to coat the cheese cubes.

Refrigerate for an hour or so to meld the flavors and let em all get happy!
 

Ain`t that super easy and your family will love it! Make this snack with your kids if you have little one`s. Or next time the grand-kids come over make it with them! Great for the football game or as a holiday treat. One important side note is to use a dry rub that has a sweet BBQ flavor. A savory or spicy rub might be too over powering for this recipe. Unless of course one likes that sort of flavor.

Hey folks that`s it for today.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my latest.... "BBQ Adventure".