Chocolate-It's What's for Dinner

It was time for a rib-sticking meal again. So I dug out this recipe again . I added 1 tsp thyme and perhaps a little more garlic powder this time around and the meatballs seemed more flavorful. I also left out the Parmesean cheese which is always adds a lot of flavor.  The ground turkey was thigh meat so that could have also been where the extra flavor came from?

2010 Turkey In addition to using homemade stock , sometimes I use white wine and the stock. It makes a flavorful gravy. I usually try to buy an organic free-range turkey. I find that they are moist - probably because they are usually fresh. I am definitely in the camp of stuffing the bird. I know there are people that say that by stuffing the bird, this dries the bird out and you can kill your family by stuffing the turkey. Well the turkey has always come out moist and I haven't killed any family member yet.  I remove the turkey from the oven after ensuring that the turkey thigh is about 165. I immediately remove the stuffing and set it in a covered dish to keep warm. I never stuff the bird the night before. But let me get back to actually getting the bird in the oven. First off, the night before I wash the turkey and place it in a shallow bowl in the refrigerator with no covering. This dries out the skin and allows it to become nice and crisp in the oven. I place the turk...

Making stock is one of those things that you appreciate after you've done it and have stowed it in the freezer for future use. Since Thanksgiving is approaching quickly, I figured I had better get cracking on the turkey stock. I use the stock to baste the turkey, moisten the stuffing that doesn't fit in the bird and has to go in a dish in the oven, and as a base for the gravy. It is definitely better than buying that salty stuff that they sell in the store. Freezer bounty Stock is the easiest thing in the world to make. All it really requires is some time. I usually have a "stock" bag that I keep in the freezer. I put all the stems from parsley, mushrooms that are starting to get past their prime, and guts from when I seed fresh tomatoes. These are things that you would normally just toss or compost but they definitely have a value for stock. For chicken stock I also have a separate bag for the backs of whole chickens (again something you would normally just toss...