The Walsh Cookbook

I have only made 3 turkeys in my life so I do not claim to be an expert. But if there is one thing I know, I know this brine makes a delicious turkey! When I first read the recipe I thought the idea of orange peels was very weird. But when the turkey was done, I had a bite of the skin that an orange peel had been sitting on for several hours and it was an amazing! The rest of the turkey was nice and moist and flavorful and delicious.   This recipe is slightly altered from the Pioneer Woman's recipe for turkey brine. 

The weather this week has been.... dreary. It's cold and rainy. And cold. And rainy. Not unusual weather for Portland though! While I was walking across the Costco parking lot yesterday getting thoroughly soaked and wind blown, I knew there was only one thing that could warm me up. Crab and Brie soup.  This recipe is based on my favorite soup from a restaurant in Salt Lake called Big City Soup. I was relatively heart broken when I came home for Fall Break in college and found out it had closed and there was no Crab and Brie soup waiting to welcome me home. Luckily, my mom is a PRETTY good cook and figured out the basic recipe and it is an excellent replacement.  This recipe serves 4-5 people and you absolutely have to serve it with crusty bread to dip in the soup. Yummmmmm! One year ago:   Thanksgiving Stuffing  

I don't know how it started that I always make this around Halloween time, but it has become a family tradition.  I make massive quantities of it and send it off to our kids in London, San Jose, Oregon or wherever they might happen to be.  Most of us Old Folks grew up calling this Nuts and Bolts, but it seems to be more commonly known as Chex Mix these days.   This is a version that is rather heavily adapted from a Canadian cookbook that Lynn Kestle gave me; it's easy and it is definitely our family favorite.  Feel free to add in or adjust whatever you like to make it to your taste.  We like it with extra Worcestershire sauce and lots of hot sauce.  We tend to not eat the cute smiling goldfish due to an unfortunate incident involving a long, hot car trip to California when Erin was a toddler that forever scarred Kevin and I from eating any kind of cheese cracker.  I shall not elaborate here, but I still put the goldfish in because they are cute...