From Scratch

These wonderful, jazzed-up turkey burgers are on my grill every summer and in my grill pan every winter. Often, turkey or chicken burgers end up bland and dry, even when not overcooked, but these don’t. Sometimes ground poultry doesn’t hold together the way ground beef does, but these do without the overhandling that leads to […]

The first time I had turkey chili, back when the idea was a novelty, it was so bland it was almost tasteless. Turkey is hardly full of flavor. A friend who made turkey chili would try to compensate for that by loading up on the hot stuff, giving everyone at the table a runny nose and […]

This is a make-life-simple recipe. It’s not haute cuisine by any means but it is comfort food with a twist or two.
The simplicity comes from its preparation in a microwave; the twists are a combination of spicy flavors more often associated with Tex-Mex and then making it into fast-cooking individual meatloaves.
It’s quick and easy as […]

Had there been room I’d have called this Can I eat a turkey we’ve had for thirty years? It was a real question for the tireless turkey experts at the Butterball Turkey Hotline. For more than twenty-five years they’ve been on the other end of the phone during the holidays to answer our questions. This year’s […]

No, I’m not crazy. I haven’t rinsed raw poultry in a couple years, since reading about a then-proposed change in Federal food safety guidelines to recommend against it because of the great risk of cross-contamination by doing so. Here’s the government’s current official stance:
Washing raw poultry, beef, pork, lamb, or veal before cooking it is […]

People who know me know two things: I won’t dirty more pots, pans or bowls than I have to and if it’s a holiday meal, I like to make as much of it ahead as I can.
Thanksgiving brings the American mega-meal, of course, but I hate the  rush of finishing side dishes while the turkey rests. I […]