Brine Your Turkey for Thanksgiving!

In honor of the release of my cookbook Starke Deadly Delicious Recipes and Thanksgiving, here's how to brine your turkey!

INGREDIENTS:

12 cups water, divided

1 cup sea salt (do not use regular salt as bird will be too salty)

1-2 cups sugar (I use brown sugar and sometimes omit)

1 cup apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons sage

2 tablespoons thyme

2 tablespoons rosemary

1 tablespoon pepper

4 cups ice

DIRECTIONS:

Bring 4 cups of water to a simmering boil. Add salt and sugar. Stir until the sugar has completely dissolved. Turn off the heat. Stir in 8 cups cold water, apple cider vinegar, sage, thyme, rosemary, pepper, and ice. The brine is ready.

Remove giblets and neck from the cavity. Rinse the outside and inside of a thawed turkey. Using paper towels, pat the turkey dry. Completely submerge the turkey in whatever you can find that is food safe. Allow the turkey to marinate for 8-12 hours for a small turkey (8-10 lbs) and up to 20 hours for a really big bird. Do not go past 20 hours because bird may become too salty. Rinse turkey and pat dry before adding additional seasoning, butter, or oil in preparation for roasting.

Note: brined birds can cook faster than a turkey that has not been brined, as the salt breaks down the muscle tissues, so check the bird more often so it doesn't become overcooked.

AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

A Recipe to Honor Dad on Veteran's Day

VETERAN'S DAY THANKS TO ALL VETERANS!

In honor of my dad and all the other veteran's, here's one of his absolute favorite recipes. This is one of the recipes in my upcoming Starke Deadly Delicious Recipes. Enjoy, and please thank our veterans today.

SALMON PATTIES

These are so tasty! And so easy and cheap! And healthy too!

Ingredients:

1 can canned salmon (wild caught is best)

1 cup quick cook oatmeal

4 eggs or egg substitute, if eggs whisk until smooth

1 teaspoon garlic

1 teaspoon granulated onion

1 teaspoon sage (my favorite, it makes these delicious)

Other spices if you want (optional) , a teaspoon of chili powder, teaspoon of cumin, teaspoon of celery seed (good!), 1 teaspoon lime juice, and teaspoon of black pepper

Drain can of salmon (I like to drain the juice into a bowl and feed to my pets, they love it!) Place salmon in large mixing bowl. Now, I prefer to remove the skin from the salmon (and feed to the animals) because the black skin looks nasty to me in the finished product. But the skin is edible and full of good fat, so if you don’t mind the look, keep the skin. Mush the salmon with a fork until fairly fine and then add oatmeal and eggs and spices. Mix well. Let set so the oatmeal softens, about 5 minutes. Heat a skillet on the stove to medium heat; pour a small amount of oil in the bottom. Make patties of salmon mixture and place (carefully-hot oil!) in pan. Place cover on skillet and let cook a good 3-5 minutes until you see patties are cooked on bottom, then flip and cook on top and done! (Note: this mixture makes a lot of patties, so I do two skillets at once.)

Easy Cocktail Sauce: Into a small bowl pour about a half cup of ketchup. Add a teaspoon or to taste of ground horseradish.