Kay Wheeler Moore

Welcome to my blog

Hello. . .

The Newfangled Country Gardener is for anyone who has a garden, would like to have a garden, or who simply enjoys eating the garden-fresh way. I don't claim to be an expert; in this blog I'm simply sharing some of the experiences my husband and I have in preparing food that is home-grown.

About the author

Kay Wheeler Moore is the author of a new cookbook, Way Back in the Country Garden, that features six generations of recipes that call for ingredients that are fresh from the garden. With home gardening surging in popularity as frugal people become more resourceful, this recipe collection and the stories that accompany it ideally will inspire others to cook the garden-fresh way and to preserve their own family food stories as well. The stories in this book center around the Three Red-Haired Miller Girls (Kay's mother and aunts) who grew up in Delta County, TX, with their own backyard garden so lavish that they felt as though they were royalty after their Mama wielded her kitchen magic on all that was homegrown. Introduced in Kay's previous book, Way Back in the Country, the lively Miller Girls again draw readers into their growing-up world, in which a stringent economic era--not unlike today's tight times--saw people turn to the earth to put food on the table for their loved ones. The rollicking yarns (all with recipes attached) have love, family, and faith as common denominators and show how food evocatively bonds us to our life experiences.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

"To-go" urge on December nights foiled with the ease of these Grilled Turkey & Cranberry Sandwiches

This was just about the greatest idea for leftovers I've ever run across—Grilled Turkey & Cranberry Sandwiches. Good for using up the turkey and cranberry sauce leftovers—even better for the December Ratrace Nights about which I have been muttering. Too many pre-Christmas evening to-do's, no time to cook, too much temptation to breeze through a to-go line somewhere and bring home unhealth in a bag.

In a recent article extolling the virtues of cranberries Prevention magazine furnished this recipe as one of its Fast Ideas. Prevention mentions the fact that cheery-hued cranberries represent a good source of vitamin C and fiber and are in season from October through December. Cranberries last two to four weeks in the fridge and up to a year in the freezer.

The recipe involves heating a nonstick skillet, smearing on a little olive oil, placing whole-grain-bread slices in the pan, and topping with cheese and turkey. Add a thin layer of leftover cranberry sauce (can be a sliver of jellied sauce or a layer of whole-berry sauce); then more cheese and the remaining bread slice. Once browned, flip to toast the other side.

These clever sandwiches made a healthy, quick evening meal and left some remainders for the next day's lunch. Didn't I feel virtuous? Plus the last smidgen of Thanksgiving leftovers was re-purposed without wastage. Love it!

Grilled Turkey & Cranberry Sandwich

4 teaspoons olive oil
8 slices whole-grain bread
4 ounces pepper jack or mozzarella cheese, sliced
8 ounces roast turkey, sliced
1/2 cup leftover cranberry sauce (strained if runny)

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in large nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Place 2 slices of bread side by side in pan and top each with one-eighth of the cheese and one-fourth of the turkey. Spread one-fourth of the sauce over turkey on each slice and top each slice with another eighth of the cheese and two bread slices. Cook until browned, about 4 minutes. Remove from pan; add another teaspoon oil, then cook second side until toasted, about 3 minutes. Repeat for remaining 2 sandwiches. Makes 4 servings.


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