Grilled Wild Turkey Rolls

Since I have been the queen of slacking on my blog lately, I decided that since I had reached over 10,000 views, I really need to get back in the saddle and give all of my amazing faithful followers some more yummy recipes.  Would you believe me if I told you that I was just giving you all time to try all of my recipes for the past month so I wouldn’t overwhelm you with new recipes? ….No?… Well, it was worth a try 🙂 My camera is at maximum capacity with all of the pictures of the yummy recipes I have for you.  If I only had a little elf who could take all of the thoughts and recipes out of my head along with the pictures from my camera and post them for me.

This recipe was so off the charts-amazing! My husband, Shawn went turkey hunting in Kansas City and brought home a beautiful giant turkey.  I had no clue what to do with it as I have never cooked wild turkey before.  Word on the street was, I had to marinade the breasts, cube it and wrap it in bacon with a slice of jalapeno.  I didn’t know what marinade to use so I made one myself and the whole package was dyne-o-mite!

Of course, most of us don’t have wild turkey breasts readily available; however, I am totally convinced you could wrap anything in bacon and add a jalapeno and it would be fabulous.  I also heard that adding a little cube of cream cheese in the middle makes them Turkey Poppers *drool*.

Ingredients:

Marinade:

1/4 cup olive oil

2 Tbsp white vinegar

2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

1/2 tsp ground pepper

2 cloves minced garlic or 1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1 lb thick cut peppered bacon.  You will get 2 rolls for each piece of bacon so plan accordingly with the number of mouths you will be feeding.  I ALWAYS buy my bacon at the butcher counter.  At most grocery stores, you can find super thick, meaty, peppered bacon for right around the same price (or cheaper when it’s on sale) as the pre-packaged bacon where you get 2 square inches of a window to guess if the bacon actually looks that good or if they have laid it in such a way that the only actual meat on the bacon is showing in that little window.  Seriously, that just isn’t fair.

1 can pickled, sliced jalapenos.  If you are not a big fan of super spicy stuff, get the “tamed” jalapenos.  They still have all that yummy flavor without lighting your mouth on fire.

1-1 and 1/2 lbs wild turkey breast or meat of your choice. Again, plan accordingly with your bacon slices.  You will be cutting your meat into 1 and 1/2″ cubes.  I think sirloin, chicken breast, turkey breast, and venison would all be really delicious choices.   The turkey breast I used was somewhere around 2-3 lbs so I had about 1 lb extra marinated meat I just froze for next time.

Directions:

Cut meat into 1 and 1/2″ cubes.  Mix marinade.  Let meat marinade for a minimum of 2 hours. (Seriously, check out that giant turkey breast! It took up my entire cutting board!)

Cut each piece of bacon in half.  Place one slice of jalapeno and once cube of turkey into center of bacon slice.  Tightly roll bacon over turkey and hold in place with a toothpick.

After cleaning your grill, heat grill to medium heat (around 300-350 degrees).  Place rolls on sides and cook slowly turning every few minutes.  Be sure to keep a spray bottle handy because you will be chasing flare-ups from the bacon grease the entire time.  Once, the bacon is fully cooked, your meat should also be fully cooked.  Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.  If you are making these for party favors, they will stay plenty juicy in a warm oven until ready to serve.  They are also really amazing the next day so don’t throw out your leftovers!

Rosemary French Rolls

I have a big time weakness for bread.  Italian restaurants are a serious danger for me.  Now, mix bread with a pinch of rosemary and for some reason, I just can’t stop myself.  This recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks “Pillsbury Complete Book of Baking”  My little family of four put down a dozen of them tonight and we wanted more.  They are so soft and moist on the inside but a little crunchy on top…mmmm…mmm…mmm!

Ingredients:

2 to 2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 pkg. fast acting yeast (or 2 and 1/4 teaspoons)

1 cup water

1 egg white, beaten

dried rosemary leaves, crushed

Directions:

 

In a large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, salt and yeast: mix well.  In a small saucepan, heat water until very warm (120-130 degrees).  Add warm water to flour mixture.  Blend at low-speed until moistened; beat 2 minutes at medium speed.  By hand, sir in an additional 1/2 to 1 cup flour until dough pulls cleanly away from sides of bowl.

On floured surface, knead in 1/2 cup flour until dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.  Place dough in greased bowl; cover loosely with plastic wrap.  Let rise in warm place until light and doubled in size, about 30 minutes. A good way to check if your dough is doubled in size is to do the “poke test.”  Poke your finger into the top of the dough.  If the dent stays, your dough is ready, if it bounces back, you need to let it keep rising.

Grease large cookie sheet. Punch down dough several times to remove all air bubbles.  Divide dough into 12 pieces; shape into balls.  Place on greased cookie sheet.  Cover with greased plastic wrap.  let rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 15 minutes.

Place shallow pan half full of hot water on lower oven rack. (I suggest getting it to your stove top and adding water there instead of trying to walk a cookie tray with water from your sink, trust me – I had to mop up my floor 🙂 ) Also, when you open the oven door after placing the pan of water in, don’t put your face anywhere near the oven door.  I think I permanently melted my maskara onto my eyelashes.

Heat oven to 425 degrees.  Uncover dough.  Brush rolls with egg white; sprinkle with rosemary.  Bake at 425 degrees for 14-21 minutes or until light golden brown.  Immediately remove from cookie sheet; cool on wire rack.