The Turham - a ham stuffed into a turkey!

I've always wanted to create a new food-related portmanteau. And there are so many related to turkey. I mean, think about it - there's the Turducken, and Tofurky.

Wait, I see we've lost a few people running to Wikipedia to see what a portmanteau is. We'll give them a second to get back here before the fun starts.

For those of you who haven't fled, portmanteau translates to "suitcase" and it's two (or more) words that have been mashed together. So, a tofurkey is tofu and turkey, and a turducken is turkey, duck and chicken. And we also have this year's Thanksgivukkah and the lovely menurkey.

So, I came up with the ...

But wait. Let me tell you a story first.

When I was a kid, we always had turkey for Thanksgiving. Never failed. Always. Then, when Christmas rolled around, mom would ask if we wanted turkey again, or if we wanted something else.

Ah, the vague and nefarious "something else." Because the problem was that the list of possibilities was pretty short. Chicken was too common. Ham was a possibility, but that's what we usually had for Easter. We didn't really do fancy beef or pork roasts.

So, we were back to turkey again. Or sometimes ham.

And that got me thinking ... and thinking ... and portmanteau-ing. I mean, if you can stuff a duck inside a turkey, why not stuff a ham in there?

Yes, I'm serious. One problem with the turducken is that it has to cook for a long time for all the meats to cook. But I figured that a fully-cooked ham only had to get warm, so I could pull it out of the oven as soon as the turkey was done.

So, I bought a 10-pound turkey and a 10-pound bone-in ham. I de-boned a turkey, leaving just the leg bones (I removed the thigh bones) and all the wing bones. For easier access, I cut it at the backbone, so I could lay it flat.

Then, I took the bone-in ham and removed those bones. I also removed the tough skin and some of the excess fat. And then I put some seasoned bread crumbs inside the turkey put the ham on top of that, and then wrapped the turkey around the ham and skewered it shut.

In retrospect, I would have been better off using one of those rolled boneless hams, because getting the ham to fit neatly was a bit of a chore. I had way more ham than I needed, but the shape wasn't optimal for getting it to fit inside the bird.

But I got it done. It took about an hour for the prep, and then I popped it into the oven and roasted it just like I'd roast a turkey. It took a bit under 3 hours for the turkey to be fully cooked.

And that was that.

The neat thing about having the bones removed from the turkey was that after I removed the legs, I could slice straight through the bird and have slices of ham surrounded turkey. Like this:

Presenting the Turham!

Next time I might also use less ham and have a slightly thicker layer of stuffing instead of the thin layer of bread crumbs. but overall, I think it was a pretty successful attempt.

What do you think? Would you do it?

Three-Pepper Shrimp and Pasta

I love it when an idea comes together. I wanted to make a shrimp and pasta dish, but I didn't want to go with the usual tomato sauce. But I wanted it to be colorful. So, I turned to my good friend, roasted red peppers.

With the red and the green, this is a pretty festive dish, and perfect for a holiday or pre-holiday meal with the typical colors of Christmas.

In the summer when peppers are plentiful and cheap, I roast my own, but in winter, I'm perfectly happy to buy them. Luckily, they're a lot more plentiful these days than back when you could only buy them in tiny jars.

You might think that 1/4 cup of olive oil is a lot, but think about it - there's pretty much no other fat here, and it's four servings. That's only 1 tablespoon of oil per serving, and you have to figure that there will be some left in the bottom of the bowl or the pot. There's probably more oil in the salad dressing that you're slathering on your lettuce. Or more butter on your toast.

If you wanted to, you could make this with twice as much pasta to stretch it a bit, but I liked this ratio of shrimp and vegetables to the pasta. Don't get me wrong - I love pasta. But I also love shrimp.

This is a great dish when you don't have a lot of time to cook - everything cooks pretty quickly, so you can have everything done in the time it takes to cook your pasta. To make it an even more convenient after-work meal, you can have the vegetables prepped ahead of time, so you can just throw them in the pan.

I used frozen, peeled, medium-sized tail-off shrimp, but fresh would be wonderful. However, I live pretty far from oceans here, so the "fresh" shrimp at most places is frozen shrimp that has been thawed. Or, it's insanely expensive it it really is fresh.

Frozen shrimp is just fine with me. You can toss it in the pan frozen, or thaw first - either way works with a slight change in directions.

For a more upscale meal, you could opt for larger shrimp. Like, you know, if you were serving this on Christmas Eve.

This post was sponsored by Carapelli, and I used their Extra Virgin Olive Oil for this dish. Check out the GIVEAWAY after the recipe.

Three-Pepper Shrimp and Pasta
Makes 4 servings

1/4 cup Carapelli Extra Virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced into thin half-moons
1 green pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced or put through a garlic press
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
Generous pinch of salt
1 cup roasted red bell peppers, roughly chopped
10 ounces frozen peeled, tail-off shrimp
1/2 pound uncooked thin spaghetti, cooked al dente

Heat the oil in a large saute pan until it's warm - but you don't want it smoking hot. Add the onion and green pepper and stir. Add the garlic, pepper flakes, marjoram, and salt. Stir again. Cook, stirring as needed until the vegetables are almost cooked through. Add the red peppers.

If you're using frozen shrimp, add them now and cook until they're thawed and beginning to cook. If you're using thawed or fresh shrimp, add the shrimp and al dente pasta at the same time. Cook until the shrimp are cooked through and the liquid has been mostly absorbed. If the pan becomes dry and the shrimp aren't quite done, add a bit of the pasta cooking water and continue cooking.

Serve hot.

This post is sponsored by Carapelli through Virtual Potluck, a fun group of bloggers that you really ought to meet! I received product to use and compensation for creating the recipe, but all words are my own.

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Chicken, rice, broccoli, and cheese - but fancy!

Is it just me, or does any sort of rolled, stuffed meat seem more fancy than if you served the same things side-by-side? Take, for example, this stuffed chicken breast. It looks fancy. It looks like a lot of work. But really, it's pretty simple.

When I was chatting with Green Giant about their frozen vegetable selections and about me creating a recipe, the first thing I thought of was the frozen rice, broccoli, and cheese mix that I bought.

When I picked it up, I thought it would be interesting as a light lunch - I happen to adore rice, so it made perfect sense to me.

But then ... I don't know, maybe it was visions of Chicken Cordon Blue that entered m brainspace, but then I started thinking about stuffing the rice into some chicken breasts.

Or, I guess I wasn't really stuffing. I flattened the chicken breasts and rolled it around the filling.

If you're a little intimidated about the process, don't worry about it. Flattening chicken breasts is simple, particularly if you start with boneless, skinless breasts. And pounding on them is a great stress reliever.

Even if you're not stressed, it's kind of fun.

Cheesy Rice and Broccoli Stuffed Chicken Breasts

1 package (12 ounces) Green Giant cheesy rice and broccoli

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (approximately 9 ounces each)

Olive oil

Stock or water, as needed

1 package (7 ounces) Green Giant Steamers Antioxidant Blend (for a side dish)

Cook the cheesy rice and broccoli according to package directions, then refrigerate. It's easier to work with when it's chilled, or at least not hot.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

One at a time, put the chicken breasts in a plastic bag (this makes it easier, but isn't strictly necessary) and pound it to approximately 1/4 inch thick using the flat side of a meat mallet. No meat mallet? Use a small, heavy sauce pot or a small cast iron frying pan, or any other similar small, heavy object.

Put 1/4 of the filling onto the flattened breast and roll it up. Where you put that filling and which way you roll is up to you - make it easy on yourself. Secure the chicken so it doesn't unroll. What I did was use a metal skewer to hold it temporarily, then I used kitchen string to tie it in three places to secure the roll, then one string lengthwise to make sure the filling didn't escape from the ends.

But whatever way you want to do it is fine. Toothpicks are great. Count them, so you know how many your need to remove before you serve, and use the same number on each roll.

Heat the oil in a heavy, oven-proof pan (I used a cast iron pan) and brown the chicken on all sides, turning the pieces as needed to get a nice, even browning all around.

When the chicken has browned, turn off the heat and add water, stock, or wine so there's about an inch of liquid in the pan. How much you'll need depends on the size of the pan.

Place the pan in the oven and cook until the chicken is cooked through. Use a meat thermometer, stabbing in several places. You want to reach 160 degrees - since these are so small, there's not a lot of carryover cooking.

Remove the chicken from the pan. If you want to pan a gravy, sprinkle some flour - a tablespoon or so ought to be enough) and heat the pan on the stove until the liquid boils and the mixture thickens. Serve the chicken with the gravy.

The chicken cuts better and the filling stays in place better if it's cold, so you can refrigerate this, then slice, gently reheat (in the oven or microwave - carefully!) and serve. For a family meal, you can leave them whole or slice in half to show the inside. If a little filling falls out, it's no big deal.

I served this with another Green Giant side dish - the Antioxident Blend with broccoli, carrots, and red and yellow bell peppers. I thought it was the perfect match since it repeated the broccoli, but then added the vibrant color from the carrots and peppers. A few slices of blood orange added some fresh zip and more color.

This post is sponsored by Green Giant, but all words are my own.