Thanksgiving 2010. Part 3: Veggies

This was easy.

I opened a can of peas*.
I opened a can of corn.
I drained them and dumped them in bowls and nuked them.

The end.
P.S. I also put fancy spoons in the bowls to jazz them up a little.

*I would have preferred frozen peas because their texture is so much better, but because it was such a busy stressful day, the can was the easy route.

Thanksgiving 2010. Part 2: Sweet Potatoes

American Thanksgiving has a few major differences from the Canadian version (besides the pilgrim dudes in the hats with the buckles - we don't have those). For example, sweet potato casserole was new to me when I came to Maryland. It has variations, but it's essentially seasoned mashed sweet potatoes baked in the oven with little marshmallows melty and browned on top. My in-laws do it very well, but it's not what I'm used to, so this was my chance to show everyone my way. I kept my sweet potatoes very simple for my Thanksgiving dinner.

I peeled several sweet potatoes and cut them into rounds, then cut each round in four to make triangle-ish shapes. I was trying to make them look pretty. I tossed them with olive oil and thyme and rosemary, and some salt and pepper. Then they went onto a cookie sheet for about a half hour at 325 - the amount of time needed totally depends on how thick the slices are, so I checked them often with a fork. If they overcook, they fall apart. I stirred them around a couple of times as they cooked, too, so all the sides had a chance to brown a bit against the cookie sheet.

I made them the day before Thanksgiving and reheated them in the microwave, because my oven is very small and nothing else could fit in there with the turkey. I think they lost a little by being nuked - they taste so wonderful when they're freshly roasted and have some slightly crispy bits. It's my absolute favorite way to eat sweet potatoes, and I cook them like this often.

Thanksgiving 2010. Part 1: Stuffing

I saw no need to wait until November for Thanksgiving, since my internal Canadian-made clock was telling me to crave turkey once October arrived. Sure, the in-laws were surprised by the invitation to Thanksgiving at my place, a month early, and the supplies were harder to come by since it's not quite turkey season in Maryland yet, but I was going to make it happen.

I'll be stretching out the Thanksgiving posts because it's a lot to report (and read) in one shot. And no pictures until the end, because I want it to be a surprise! Ok, that's really because I didn't manage to take pictures of the process, since I had my hands up a turkey's butt for at least a portion of that morning and it's hard to work a camera in that situation. Butter and electronics don't mix.

Let us begin with the stuffing!

Mom's recipe called for two boxes of "Grissol" brand seasoned stuffing breadcrumbs, but I couldn't find that here. I had to tweak the recipe to work with what I did have, so I ended up with:

One 15 oz bag of seasoned stuffing mix
One large onion, diced
5 ribs of celery, diced
1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter
Some sage, thyme, and black pepper

I could have gone totally hands-on and made breadcrumbs from scratch, but this was my first try at an entire Thanksgiving dinner all by myself, and I needed all the shortcuts I could get.

I fried up an onion and all that celery in the 1/2 cup of butter, dumping in some sage and thyme till it smelled really, really good. I would guess about a tsp of thyme and a little less of ground sage. I added some fresh-ground pepper, mostly because I love my pepper mill and like to use it for everything. I stopped when the veggies started to soften, but I left them with some crunch because I like that in my stuffing. If you don't like crunch, feel free to cook the life out of your celery and onion.

I dumped the stuffing bag in the biggest mixing bowl I had and slowly added 2 cups of warm chicken broth per the package directions. The directions actually said water, but why do that when you can use broth? I mixed in the buttery onions and celery from the pan and tossed it so the crunchy bits were evenly distributed.

The next step, of course, was to stuff the bird. I mostly tried to use a huge spoon, because the wet stuffing and the cold insides of a turkey's body cavity gross me out a little, but I ended up getting my hands in because the spoon wasn't getting in there properly. Maybe if I could have stood the turkey on his head it would have worked, but I didn't have a turkey-holding assistant.

I was surprised to see that I had stuffing left over, since the bag said it was for a 14-16lb turkey and mine was bigger than that. Maybe I didn't pack the bird efficiently enough. Either way, I was glad, because I don't like in-the-bird stuffing. It's wet and tastes like turkey guts. I like mine cooked outside the bird, so it can get crunchy on top. I buttered an 8x8 pan, filled it with stuffing, and ended up cooking it for 20 minutes at about 325, then kicking the broiler on for a couple of minutes to brown the top. Deliciousness. Next time I will make more stuffing so I can have a bigger pan full of the good kind.

Roast chicken (and purple rice)

I decided to make a roast chicken this weekend in preparation for the Thanksgiving dinner I'm hosting next weekend for the in-laws. I had a recipe from my good friend Tasha, but I ended up going with a variation on my Mom's usual way instead. I'll get to yours soon, Tasha! I promise!

First of all it was a much bigger chicken than the recipe called for. Almost twice the weight. So it took much longer to cook, leaving us with an extremely late dinner. Luckily I tried this on the weekend, so it wasn't too bad. Had I tried this after work, we'd have been eating around 1am!


Roasty Chicken

I took the guts out of the chicken and rinsed it off and patted it dry. I snipped off some sprigs from my thyme, sage and oregano plants in the sunroom, minced them, and then stirred them into a small bowl (a little over 1/4 cup) of olive oil with some salt and fresh pepper. I'd say it approximated a tablespoon of each spice, so it looked like oiled herbs instead of herbed oil. I cut 3 ribs of celery into inch-long pieces, and a large onion into rough wedges. Those went into the cavity along with the juice from one squeezed lemon. I used a trick I got from Rachael Ray and microwaved the lemon for a few seconds before squeezing it, and it helped get a lot more juice out of it. Then I rubbed the oily mixture all over the outside of the chicken and stuck it in the oven at 350 for what seemed like forever. It was a nearly 8 pound chicken, and it took about two and a half hours. I kept checking it with the meat thermometer and it just never got to the right temperature, so I just left it there until it did. After a while I needed to put foil over the breast because it was getting too brown.


It did end up delicious, though. We ate a ton of it that first night, and there was plenty for leftovers afterwards.


Purple Rice

For this I followed a recipe from "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman, which Tasha gave to us as a wedding present. The real name for this is "Pilaf with Wine and Tomatoes" but, well, you'll see.

The recipe is:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup diced onion
1 1/2 cups rice
1 cup dry white wine (red will also do fine*) *you may be seeing where this is leading
2 cups chicken stock
Small can diced tomatoes

I cooked the onion in the oil until it got soft, then stirred in the rice to coat it completely. Then I added the wine. I used red because I had some left over from a few nights before. I let it cook down for a couple of minutes , then added the stock and tomatoes (I drained the tomatoes, even though the recipe says you don't have to). I let it simmer on medium for about 15-20 minutes - check often, because when the liquid is gone the rice should be done, and if you leave it longer you'll get a crust of burned rice at the bottom of the pot.

The flavor was amazing! It tasted quite a bit like wine, which I enjoyed. The only weird thing is that it was completely purple because I used red wine! If you think purple rice will weird you out, use white wine and I'm sure it'll be just as good. We were completely entertained by eating purple rice, though, so I think I'll always use red for this recipe.

What's for Dinner: Broccoli Cheddar Soup

I wanted to find a good broccoli & cheddar soup recipe because our CSA delivery included a huge bunch of floppy broccoli, and I couldn't figure out another way to eat it without the floppiness bugging me. I found some recipes online claiming to be copies of Panera Bread's famous Broccoli Cheddar soup, so I took the best one and tweaked it to my liking. The result was incredible and I have so many people asking me about it, I figured maybe I should give it to the Internet. Fly, little recipe, fly!

Awesome BroccoCheddar Soup:

1/2 large onion, diced
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups whole milk
2 cups chicken stock (or veg broth)
1 pound fresh broccoli, chopped to bits (use stems too)
1 cup carrots, julienned
8 ounces grated sharp cheddar
salt and pepper to taste

How-to:

Saute onion in a pat of butter. Set aside, because it's easier to make a roux without onions in the way. Melt the butter in your pot and stir in flour using a whisk. Keep whisking over medium heat for 3-5 minutes until you have a lovely paste. Stir constantly and slowly add the milk, then the chicken/veg stock, whisking like crazy. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the broccoli, carrots and onions. Cook over low heat until the veggies are tender, about 15 minutes if you've cut the pieces pretty small. Test tenderness with a fork. Puree using a stick blender, or use a regular blender, in batches. Return to pot over low heat and add the grated cheese; stir until well blended. Serve with crusty baguette, or don't bother making this soup at all. :p

The best thing about this recipe is that it's super flexible. Keep some extra milk/broth nearby in case you decide it's too thick when you're done. The second time I made it I had more broccoli so I used it all, and needed to add some more liquid after the veg-cooking phase. I tried using half sharp cheddar and half lowfat cheddar, and I recommend against it. the lowfat stuff doesn't melt worth a damn and you get weird stringy cheese bits. Still tasty but looks funny. I also recommend adding more carrots, but until I get a mandoline slicer I'm julienning by hand and that's bloody tedious. I suppose you could go to a salad bar and get a bunch of pre-shredded carrot to make your life easier.

Long weekend

It's Labor Day weekend and I'm delighted to have an extra day off. We went out on Saturday and Sunday, but today is lazy housework day. In that we should be doing housework but we're too lazy. Well, speaking for myself, at least. Dave's out sweating with the lawnmower making our yard beautiful and removing pristine bug habitat with each pass of the blades. Sorry, crickets (and spiders and ticks and walking-stick-bugs and mantises and stinkbugs and ants and grasshoppers), find another yard to play in.

I finished the laundry and need to move on to vacuuming before the cat hair consolidates itself into a new cat, but the internet beckons with its warm computery glow.

Meanwhile, dinner is marinating in the fridge - pork tenderloin in a "red wine and shallot" marinade I picked up at Giant. I was going to try Mom's fantastic five-spice pork recipe, but I couldn't find the five-spice powder, even in the "Asian foods" section of the store. A trip to an Asian grocery is in my future.

I'm happy to report that the roasting pan I picked up at Costco yesterday fits in my tiny oven. I can cook a tiny turkey in there now if I want! I'm adjusting to the new kitchen, but the layout is still bugging me a little. An ideal kitchen has that fridge/sink/stove triangle going on, but in my kitchen, the fridge is along the same wall as the stove (and pretty far away) and the sink is right beside the stove. All my prep work has to happen behind me on the counter, so I'm twirling in little circles all the time as I grab ingredients to toss into my pan on the stove! Oh well. I've made a few good meals in the kitchen despite the layout, so I must be doing something right!

Faux Poutine

I have now tried "poutine" at two different restaurants in the area. Neither of them got it right, sadly.

First was Houlihan's, with their "disco fries". Shoestring fries in a beef/mushroom gravy with shredded cheese (mozzarella, I think). They also tossed in little pieces of shredded pot roast, which was a nice addition. I don't think I can go back to that place now without having this again, so I'd say they did a good job.

Then this weekend we tried a spot called Victoria's, which had "poutine" on the appetizer menu. It was "duck fat fries" with duck gravy and duck confit (which, I learned, means little bits of duck roasted in its own fat and juices). It was... fat. The fries were super crispy and pretty dark, and I'm not sure if that's a result of them being cooked in duck fat or their being overcooked in duck fat. Either way, not too impressed with that one, because of an odd deep-fryer aftertaste. And an overall lack of cheese. Needed more cheese.

My friend is visiting from Montreal next week, and I'm going to ask her to bring me some of the proper cheese so I can make poutine here. I'm thinking that a housewarming party is a great excuse to make it.

Successful Project!

We changed the light fixtures in two places and it went according to plan. Miraculous! The hallway had an old-fashioned hanging fixture with "candle" lightbulbs in it. Not really my thing. Swapped that out for one of those flush-mount boob-looking things, and it looks great. Plus we put in CFL bulbs so we can save a few bucks. Those things are great but they don't get bright very fast, which is frustrating.

This is the old hall light:

FYI - CFLs on ridiculous sale at Costco thanks to a manufacturer's rebate. $0.99 for a four-pack. We have enough to last us for years!

The whole process went really well, from removing the old light, to hooking up the bracket and wiring, and putting up the new light. The hardest past was how I had to hold up the new light, statue-of-liberty-style, for several minutes while Dave hooked up the wires and screwed the bracket into the junction box. Nobody brought me any tired, poor, or huddled masses while I was holding aloft my light fixture, although Mojo did bring me a rubber band he wanted me to play with.

For the record, the manufacturer is obviously encouraging me to call it a boob-light, because the instructions refer to a nipple. I have proof!

We put an identical flush boob-light in the office, too, replacing the old glass square that was up there. The new fixtures were on sale at Lowes so we got two for the price of one.

Restaurant Night: Uno's

We went out to Uno's for dinner last night. We discovered that their boneless wings in the "Wowza" sauce are actually pretty yummy, despite the silliness of the name "Wowza sauce".

Dave got a lobster wrap from their special summer menu and was pretty impressed with it. I got steak skewers, which I've gotten before and really liked. Partway through the meal, I bit down into a peppercorn and took it out of my mouth so as not to chip a tooth. It was a shiny, translucent peppercorn. As hard and clear as glass. In fact, it was glass. I poked at the rest of the food on my plate and found a half dozen more millimeter-sized shards of glass coating my steak.

The waiter was properly horrified. The manager, on the other hand, told me it was probably just the coarse salt they use to season their steaks. Right. Last I checked, salt was salty. And dissolves in liquid. And is not glass.

They comped the meal and our appetizer. I guess they must have known Dave enjoyed his lobster wrap, because they still wanted us to pay for that. I guess they couldn't pay for the lobster meal because then they'd be expected to put out? They were going to make me a fresh plate, or a free dessert, but I was too preoccupied with wondering how far the shards of glass I'd probably already consumed would make it in my intestines before cutting me up inside. Sort of lost my appetite, you know?

Shit happens. Maybe someone broke a glass back there and didn't get all the little bits swept up off the counter. But please don't try to tell me that was salt!

New Home Adventures

We have a lovely new home in a fantastic area. Big yard, swimming pool, 5 minutes from the mall and in a great school district for the eventual kidlets. Unfortunately, we're discovering that it's a lot more of a fixer-upper than we had bargained for. They let the place go a little, and it's also a pretty old house, so we've got a lot of work to do. I'll be posting about our adventures bit by bit - there have been dozens of stories so far, and I'm sure I'll have enough for a whole lot of blogging this summer.

We need a new air conditioner, because ours isn't working right (when it works at all). Luckily, we have a home warranty! Unluckily, they are stinking weasels and refused to cover any repair or replacement because the last tech who serviced it messed up and overloaded it with freon. This was long before we moved in, obviously. Who knows how they can get away with this, but we argued with them for over a month and got nowhere but frustrated. It would feel so good to take them to court or something, but making it into a legal battle will take more money and energy than we can manage right now. And fine print's a bitch - they'd probably win.

So. Got a few estimates for replacing the unit. We even got one from the warranty company, who's happy enough to do the work as long as the money comes from our pockets. Even the best estimates are in the thousands, which sucks, but we resigned ourselves to kissing our money goodbye and wishing it well. But when the company we were going with came over to have a better look at the situation, they said we need to cut a hole in the ceiling to get at the old air handler. It looks like it was installed many many years ago when the roof was being replaced, and they just stuck it in from outside. The access hole we have in the closet isn't big enough for the guys to work with. And, of course, they upped the price because our attic's so tiny and they'll need two days to install everything. Back to calling for more estimates. Meanwhile, a handyman is coming tomorrow to hack at the ceiling anyway, because unless we can find a midget HVAC crew, we need a bigger access hatch.

I'm trying not to be discouraged, but at this point we'll have the a/c unit installed by September.

I guess whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I'm going to be goddamn IronMan by the end of this year.