How to Cook Your Holiday Dinner without an Oven

Two days before Thanksgiving my oven quit.  Definitely not good timing - as if any time is a good time for the oven to quit.

I had plans for Wednesday, plans that involved lots of baking.  I was going to cook the turkey in my roaster oven while I used the oven to bake pies and rolls.  Without a working oven, those plans changed.  Thankfully I had already baked a pie on Tuesday afternoon, before the oven quit, so I only had two more to bake.  And the rolls, and - well, the oven plays a very important part in fixing any big family dinner.  How do you cook everything without an oven?



Use the roaster oven!  Yep, that's right, those pies and rolls can be baked in the roaster oven.  It's not just for turkeys and big pots of chili.  Preheat the roaster with the rack, then place the unbaked pie on the rack and bake.  Do not remove the lid to check it, because that will let the heat out - at least until the designated baking time is up.  I found that my pies needed more time in the roaster than in the regular oven, so next time I will just bake them longer before I check on them. 

German Chocolate Pie

You may also need to adjust your baking times, but try the regular recipe time first.  An advantage to knowing you can bake in your roaster oven?  You can use it in the summer time when you want to bake, and you don't want to heat up your whole kitchen!

I baked my pies and my turkey in the roaster oven.  It took longer because I couldn't do it all at the same time - one pie at a time and then the turkey - but I did get it done.  Instead of baking the rolls on Wednesday like I'd planned, I mixed them up and formed them into rolls after letting them raise the first time, and then I covered them and refrigerated them overnight.  The next day I pulled them out of the fridge and let them warm up and raise (about 1-1/2 hours), and then I baked them in the roaster oven.


Use crock pots!  Another option for cooking that holiday dinner without an oven is to use crock pots - in addition to the roaster oven.  I bought a triple crock pot last year, and that thing really came in handy.  I mixed up my dressing, and instead of baking it in the oven like I would normally have done, I greased a crock pot (actually I needed 2 of them), spooned the uncooked dressing in, and cooked it on high for about 4 hours.  It turned out great.  Same thing with my sweet potatoes.  I boiled them first, then peeled and sliced them, and layered them into another greased crock with a butter and brown sugar syrup.  Again, normally I would have put the sweet potatoes into a casserole dish and baked them, but they turned out just fine in the crock pot.  Yummy!

The mashed potatoes were, of course, boiled on top of the stove, and I made the gravy on the stove, too - as usual.  I warmed the turkey in the roaster oven the same way I would have done it in the oven - put some of the sliced turkey in a 13x9 cake pan, add some broth to keep it moist, cover with foil.  The hardest part was getting the pan of turkey out of the roaster oven without burning myself when it was time to eat, but I managed.

Yes, it would have been easier to cook Thanksgiving dinner if I'd had the use of my oven, but everything still turned out great.  It just took a little extra planning and time.

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Cornbread - Sweet or Not?

I usually just use the cornbread recipe in my cookbook, and it's not bad, but the other day I went searching online for a 'buttermilk' cornbread recipe, because I had some soured milk I wanted to use.  I used some for waffles, and I needed a recipe to use the rest.

I found this recipe - I used a bit less sugar and used whole wheat flour, also didn't follow the original directions, because this made more sense to me.

Grandmother's Buttermilk Cornbread

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk (or soured milk)
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup flour (I used whole wheat)
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Place butter in 9 or 10-inch cast iron skillet and put the skillet into the oven.  Preheat oven, with skillet, to 375°
2. In medium bowl, lightly beat eggs; stir in sugar and buttermilk
3. Measure cornmeal, flour, baking soda, and salt into bowl; Using measuring spoon, lightly mix dry ingredients together without mixing them into the liquid ingredients, then mix the dry ingredients into the liquid until well blended
4. Remove skillet from oven and mix melted butter into batter
5. Pour batter into the hot buttered skillet; bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

My husband said he liked this cornbread better than the usual cornbread, so I definitely need to keep this recipe.

Tonight I thought I'd try something a bit different and made this Southern Cornbread recipe.

Southern Cornbread

Ingredients:

• 6 Tbsp butter
• 1 egg (optional)
• 1-1/4 cups buttermilk
• 2 cups cornmeal OR 1 1/2 cups cornmeal and 1/2 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tbsp sugar (optional)

Directions:

1. Place butter in 9 or 10-inch cast iron skillet and put the skillet into the oven.  Preheat oven, with skillet, to 400°
2. In medium bowl, lightly beat egg; stir in buttermilk
3. Measure cornmeal, flour, baking soda, salt and sugar into bowl; Using measuring spoon, lightly mix dry ingredients together without mixing them into the liquid ingredients, then mix the dry ingredients into the liquid until well blended
4. Remove skillet from oven and mix melted butter into batter
5. Pour batter into the hot buttered skillet; bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Let the bread rest for 10-30 minutes in the skillet before cutting it into wedges and serving

I used 1-1/2 cups cornmeal and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour.  I also used the egg and the 2 Tablespoons sugar.  I liked it, especially in my soup.  It is definitely not sweet, so I'm sure my husband will still prefer the other recipe.  It's also quite crumbly - good when you're putting it in soup, but not so great if you just want to eat cornbread with butter.  Now, cornbread with butter and molasses that you eat with a fork - it works quite well for that.

How do you like your cornbread?  Sweet or not?

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Pizza Crust

This is the pizza crust recipe from the cookbook that came with my first bread machine.

Pizza Crust

Ingredients:

• 1 cup water
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 cups flour
• 2-1/4 tsp. yeast

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients into bread maker in the order given; use Dough cycle.
2. When dough is ready, divide in half and let rest for 10 minutes.  Then roll or pat each half into a 12-inch circle on a lightly floured surface.  Place on prepared pizza pans; cover and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes.
3. Bake each crust in preheated 400° oven 5-10 minutes, or until lightly browned.
4. Remove from oven and spread with favorite pizza toppings.  return to oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until cheese and toppings are melted and bubbling.

I found this next recipe on Pinterest and used it last time I made pizza, because I couldn't find the bread machine cookbook.  I just used my bread machine with these ingredients.  I liked this one a lot, so I'm trying to compare the two recipes to see what the difference is.  It looks like - more water, more flour, more salt.

Basic Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

• 1-3/4 cups warm water
• 2 T olive oil
• 1½ tsp. salt
• 4 cups bread flour
• 2¼ tsp. yeast

 Follow above directions, or click on the recipe name for the original recipe directions and tips.
 

Update: I loved this crust fresh, but froze half of it as suggested in the recipe.  I did like she said, "Freeze the dough until it is ready to be used.   The day you plan to use the dough, transfer it to the refrigerator in the morning to thaw in time for dinner that evening." and, "Before making the pizza, take the dough out of the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes to take off the chill." - and it just wasn't very good at all.  Maybe if I get a pizza stone? I really need to get one.  But, for now, as easy as the dough is to make in the bread machine, there's really no reason not to make it fresh - except that I don't always need to make two pizzas.

I've also been experimenting with using my sourdough starter:

Sourdough Pizza Crust

Ingredients:

• 1cup starter
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 cup unbleached flour

Mix and allow to sit until active and bubbly.  Then stir in:

• 1 T olive oil
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Add to make a soft dough:

• 1 to 1-1/2 cups unbleached flour

Use additional flour for kneading.

Directions:

1. After mixing and kneading, let rise 2 hours or until doubled in size.
2. Punch down and let rest, covered, for 10 minutes.  Then roll or pat each half into a 12-inch circle on a lightly floured surface.  Place on prepared pizza pans; cover and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes.
3. Bake each crust in preheated 400° oven 5-10 minutes, or until lightly browned.
4. Remove from oven and spread with favorite pizza toppings.  return to oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until cheese and toppings are melted and bubbling.

Now to figure out which recipe I like best. Right now I'm thinking the middle one - the one I found on Pinterest, but I also like the sourdough recipe. I just have to remember to start in plenty of time for that one, or dinner is late. Like tonight.