Mike’s World For Free

October 9, 2009

3 Great Thanksgiving Recipes

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 5:35 pm

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Check out the following 3 recipes this Thanksgiving.  The Turkey and Yam recipes are great but a word of advice: if you make the stove top stuffing be sure to set some aside for yourself. The first time I made this I hardly got any. By the time I was finished all the serving and sat down at the table they were already into seconds.

The best stove top stuffing ever!

¾ cup dried cherries
2 -3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 tbsp butter
2 medium sized onions, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp sage, finely chopped
8 corn muffins (store bought)
2 cups chicken stock, plus some for reconstituting the cherries

Place cherries in a small bowl and cover with chicken stock for a few minutes until they soften. Heat a large non-stick skillet (or wok) over medium heat. Add olive oil and butter. Once melted, add the celery and onions, season with salt and pepper and cook until tender (10 minutes). Drain cherries and add them with the sage, cooking for 2 – 3 minutes, or until fragrant. Crumble the corn muffins into the pan adding chicken stock to dampen.

Turn heat down to low and keep warm until ready to serve.

Serves 8

Sweet Mashed Yams

¼ cup butter
2 tbsp 10 percent cream
1 tbsp maple syrup
½ tsp salt (or more to taste)
2 lbs Yams peeled, quartered lengthwise, and sliced 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch thick
Pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a medium pan, over medium heat. Stir in the syrup, cream and ½ tsp salt. Stir in the yams and reduce heat to low. Cover and cook, stirring often until yams are very tender (falling apart). Remove from heat and mash with a potato masher. Whip with a whisk until smooth, adding pepper to taste. Makes about 2 ½ cups, and can be made ahead of time and heated to serve.

Glazed Roasted Garlic Turkey

1 turkey 10 – 12 lbs.
1 tablespoon salt & pepper
3 heads garlic
¼ cup (50 ml) Diana marinade: Garlic & Herbs
1 cup (250 ml) HP Sauce (original)
1/3 cup (75ml) melted butter
4 fresh rosemary sprigs
3 fresh thyme sprigs

Preheat oven to 325 F (160 C)

Wash & prep turkey, sprinkle outside with salt and pepper.
Trim and discard the heads of the garlic, then cut each one in half, crossways.

Place the garlic in a bowl, drizzle with Diana marinade and microwave on high for 3 minutes until cloves start to separate.
Place 2 ½ heads of garlic inside the turkey with 3 sprigs of rosemary and the thyme. Place the remaining garlic into the neck cavity. (Add stuffing – apples cored and cut into quarters) Tie the legs and place in roasting pan, breast side up.

Whisk the HP sauce with the melted butter. Finely chop the remaining rosemary and stir in. Brush some of this sauce evenly over the turkey (save some to add later when basting). Roast for at least 2 ½ hours or until 170 F (77 C) registers on a thermometer inserted into the inner thigh. Baste often during the last 45 – 60 minutes. Let rest covered 15 minutes before carving.

October 5, 2009

Putting a price on free.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , — admin @ 10:53 pm

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How much is free really worth to the average person? It sounds like an odd question until you look at how the word free is used. We are saturated by free, inundated by free, overwhelmed by free. So much stuff is free that I wonder how the heck  can anyone afford to stay in business and still give away so much for free? What about something totally free, delivered to your doorstep, ready to be used, consumed, worn, read, collected, whatever it is you do with it? What would that be worth? I think a little more of that would be a welcome respite from the endless barrage of commerce which blasts us with free offers.

Commerce makes the world go round and everyone has a useful product to sell. The problem is that everyone has to yell louder than everyone else to get noticed. That’s called advertising. Buried in all of that, there are free goodies to be claimed, but separating them from the products they are being used to help sell, is the hard part. Now I get to the point. What is it worth for someone to get all this free stuff that’s out there? If you want to dig it up for yourself you will spend hours searching and sifting through the false promises and free with the purchase of…offers. Who needs the frustration? Besides, isn’t your time more valuable than that?

I think that many people would pay a small fee for a monthly service that searched out genuine free items that were useful and valuable. It would be more than worth the time it saves, looking for all this stuff yourself. Well here is the really good news. We have waived the small fee and have decided to offer you all of this, wait for it…that’s right…Absolutely Free. aren’t you lucky?  ;-)

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