Tuscan Roast Turkey

Wow, Thanksgiving is around the corner. So, want to spice up your turkey this Thanksgiving? Why not try to cook Tuscan Roast Turkey.



Serving Size: 16

1 16-pound young turkey
Kosher salt, to taste
1 cup Tuscan Herb Paste
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
2 teaspoons celery salt
3 fennel stalks with fronds, rough chopped
3 onions, large dice
1 stalk celery, small dice
2 1/4 quarts chicken stock
3 ounces all-purpose flour



Remove giblets from turkey’s cavity, rinse cavity and pat dry, set aside. Season turkey inside and out with Kosher salt.

Mix Tuscan Herb Paste with crushed fennel seeds and celery salt. Starting at the neck of the bird, slip your hand between the meat and the skin to loosen.

Rub half the paste mix under skin, and rub remaining paste inside the cavity and over the rest of the turkey.

Season all over with kosher salt.

Place two-thirds of the chopped onion and fennel stalks inside cavity. Truss bird.

Place turkey in a roasting pan. Roast at 400°F for 30 minutes.

Reduce temperature to 325°F and continue cooking the turkey to an internal temperature of 160°F, approximately 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Baste turkey often during cooking with juices from pan. If turkey begins to overbrown, cover it loosely with aluminum foil.

As turkey roasts, simmer giblets (neck, heart and gizzard), the other one-third of the fennel stalk, onion mix and diced celery in 1 quart chicken stock until tender, approximately 1 1/2 hours.

When turkey is done, remove from roasting pan and set aside to rest. Degrease roasting pan, reserving 3 ounces of fat to make a roux.

Deglaze pan with a small amount of chicken stock. Transfer stock to a saucepot, and add remaining stock and broth from giblets. Bring to a simmer and degrease.

Make a blond roux with reserved fat and flour. Add roux to the liquid, whisking well to prevent lumps. Simmer 15 minutes. Strain gravy through a fine-meshed strainer. Adjust seasoning.


This recipe was emailed to me and it is for me to share. Please also check CarapelliUSA.com for a $1 off coupon available for download.

Firing up the Grill

It has been a while since we last grilled but last weekend we fired up our grill.

Last weekend was a big one for us since we were anticipating the college football game of the century. We were getting ready for LSU-Alabama game. We are big fans of LSU so it was a big day for us.

Dave offered to grill and gave me a break from cooking. He grilled T-bone steaks, asparagus and mushroom & onion.

Grilled food and a winning team. It was a fun Saturday for us!

Sweet Temptation

There are times especially when hubby and I stays up for our movie nights that we just crave for something to munch on.

Few nights ago, we were in the mood for a sweet temptation. We opted to make an apple cinnamon crumble pie. It was awesome.

We had enough leftover that we ate 2 days later. The good thing with making this kind of pie is you can store the leftover in your fridge for up to 5 days.

Dig in everyone! This is yummy!

Filipino Breakfast

Can you imagine how much I miss this type of breakfast? I remember that buying "chorizo" is very easy as most wet market has this and wet markets in the Philippines can be found everywhere. Here in my place, it is hard to find this product and I am just lucky that when I went to the Asian store, I found a frozen cured pork sausage (chorizo). This one is spicy and I loved it.

I know that next time we will go to the Asian Store, I will look for this one. This is delicious. Even if this is frozen, it taste the same with the ones I used to buy in the wet market.

Breakfast @ Cracker Barrel

The Cracker Barrel chain is a Southern themed chain, and serves traditional Southern comfort food. Breakfast is served all day, though the breakfast menu is kept separate from the one for lunch and dinner. The outer porch of a Cracker Barrel store has rows of rocking chairs for guests to enjoy before or after eating, and there is usually a fireplace and a checkers table within the dining area for an added country feel; patrons are welcome to sit down for a game.

For the previous times that we ate at Cracker Barrel I was not impressed with their food. I would not go my way to eat at Cracker Barrel. But, the last time Mischa came, we have to find a place to eat for breakfast before she heeded home. We ended up agreeing to meet for breakfast at Cracker Barrel.

This time I ordered a southern omelet which was really good. Mischa had french toast and the rest of us have the same order... omelet.

The breakfast date was great. We all had a good food for a change and we enjoyed each other's company.

Best Hamburger

This was the first time we tried to eat at Five Guys Hamburger and Fries. The place is known to have the best hamburger thus we want to see it for ourselves.

The place is somewhat cozy for a hamburger place. The price of their burgers are also expensive. A burger will cost almost $6. Just the burger. If you want a burger, fries and drink it will cost you over $10. Expensive right? But it is worth the price. They have the best hamburger so far. I love their toppings. I ordered mine topped with mushroom and grilled onion.

This is my model. Seriously trying to see how her drink tastes like. See that little pinkie? I guess who should know where she got that from... lol