Monday, November 28, 2011

Holiday Review

I'm writing a review of the Thanksgiving meal I've been harping about for the past two blog entries.

The upshot: dry brining the turkey was an excellent idea. You do have to start about a week early, and the turkey takes up valuable refrigerator space during that time, but the results were superb: just in the process of carving the turkey, a good cup of clear fragrant juices oozed from the bird, and even the topmost breast meat was tender and moist.

I have yet to find a recipe for candied yams that satisfies me. I think I may have to look at boiling and mashing them, at least slightly, next year: baking alone doesn't seem to be doing it. Still, with brown sugar and pecans and butter, they weren't that bad, just a little crunchy.

The green bean casserole, at least as extolled by the Campbell's soup website, is way too slimy and salty for my taste. And mixing it all in the casserole dish doesn't cut it for me, either. The recipe will definitely get a major tweak for next year.

The cornbread stuffing worked really well, especially with apples and blueberries added in.

I need turkey gravy-making classes. It came out thin, without much taste, but without lumps. Then again, I was definitely burning out on my cooking vibe by that time, so lack of focus may have had a lot to do with it.

All in all, it was a great meal for two. I kind of like spending the holiday with just us. No compromise on who had control of the TV remote; no folks crowding the kitchen, telling how cooking that this way would make it so much better; no minor thoughts of when everyone was going to start leaving while in your postprandial trypyophan haze. And I was a really good cook and stripped the carcass after the meal instead of just shoving it into the fridge.

Now I have admit that Steve and I did go out shopping on Black Friday, but did not buy any presents. In fact, we only bought underwear, four pairs a piece. It was rather what cousin Robin calls a "ninja run": in and out with very little diversion.

Returning home after our consumer adventure in the underwear aisle there was, of course, the Friday leftovers replay (where we heated up the backup jar of turkey gravy from the store). Saturdays are traditionally our "date night" and we went out for seafood to take a break from the turkey.

On Sunday, I paid homage to dad by making turkey a la king. This was a tradition in our house when I was a kid (he made it, as well as clam chowder on Christmas and New Year's eves).

I checked with my sister Kittie, who seems to have ended up the repository of family traditions and recipes, and she did not have a recipe for the a la king, but said, "When in doubt, go to 'The Joy of Cooking,' because that's what mom or dad would have done."

I did, and found a great recipe for chicken a la king which I adapted into the version I remember from my youth (the results of which are depicted here). It was a great way to tie up the holiday weekend.

We didn't get to putting up the tree, but we did get all the laundry done (including the several sets of sheets that had been passed over in previous weeks).

Now all I have to do is dust off the Christmas carols CDs (much to Steve's chagrin). We picked up some egg nog over the weekend, so we're ready to roll.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Turkey To Come

The making of the Thanksgiving feast has overtaken me.

This is the first time I've cooked the whole thing (in my younger days, I was in charge of making the mashed potatoes) and I've gotten immersed in searching for recipes and planning out the whole thing so that, hopefully, everything will hit the table at the same time.



As for the turkey, I'm trying a new technique that's all the rage this year: dry brining. It consists of rubbing the turkey (thawed and dried) with kosher salt and seasonings, then curing it in a large zip-lock bag for three days before cooking. At the end of the first day you rub the turkey through the bag, working the salt and spices into the bird; the end of the second day (shown in video above), you rub the bird again and put it back in the refrigerator breast side down; the end of the third day, you remove the turkey from the bag and let it sit for eight hours (or more) in the refrigerator to dry. Then you cook it normally. I'll tell you how it turns out.

I'm determined to be so organized that I won't forget anything, so I went out today and picked up a platter for the turkey (even at only 9 1/2 pounds, we still don't have a platter large enough), and skewers to hold in the stuffing while cooking (the recipe calls for inverting the turkey for the first 30 minutes in a 425° oven, then turning it breast side up for another 2 hours at 325°, basting, etc.).

One thing I've realized is that I'm really picky about recipes. Looking for a candied yams recipe, I ended up taking three different versions and coming up with my own hybrid. I'll let you know how that turns out, too.

Then there's green bean casserole with crunchy onions, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce and biscuits. I'm cutting corners some, using a packaged mix for the stuffing (but spiffing it up with ingredients of my own), and instant potatoes (I don't have enough pots to boil fresh ones and get everything else cooked), but I'm making the gravy from scratch. Also cutting corners, I purchased a baked pumpkin pie and a can of heavy whipping cream rather than attempting to do them myself.

One more run to the store tomorrow for extra milk (just in case) and egg nog. Also, Rice Krispies, since I have a huge bag of mini-marshmallows and I'm only using a cup of them on the yams, so Rice Krispie treats over the weekend are in order (either that or let them go stale and throw them out in a couple weeks).

So, I've got five pages of recipes, schedules and timelines printed out and sitting in the kitchen. The roasting pan just fits into the oven with enough room left over to squeeze in the yams and casserole. I'm starting at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, and the meal should hit the table about 3:15 p.m. (hopefully in tastefully presented dinnerware and not hurled in hysterical fistfuls from the kitchen).

I'll let you know how that turns out, too.

But, one thing's for sure: I'm thankful. There's so much to be thankful for, so much bounty in my life. Sure, I got things I like to bitch or whine about (you longtime readers know them by heart), but I look around and all I see are blessings in my life. Here's hoping you have the same experience for your Thanksgiving.

And, if you're lucky, we'll get enough holiday spirit together to put up the Christmas tree this weekend. If such is the case, I'm sure I'll have my annual tree picture posted in the near future.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Here Come the Holidays

Been a week or so since I've dropped in to write a post. Nothing much going on. The weather has finally settled into fall, and we've actually had several storms drop rain every week or so. (This is major news in Southern California: only here does a storm that drops less than an inch of rain get "team coverage" on the nightly news.) The temperatures are in the 60s and 70s, and it gets cool enough at night that we can use the comforter on the bed rather than sleeping under just a sheet or light blanket.

I browsed YouTube for some sort of Thanksgiving cartoon or short to place here for your entertainment, but nothing inspiring was found. And nothing worth picture-taking has occurred since the last entry, so no new photos are available for sharing.

I'm still checking in with Pasadena City College, still waiting for the selection committee to review the applications and select interview candidates for the job over there. The rest of the job market has gone into another dry period: If you don't have three to five years of experience in web design with an ad agency or in-house marketing department, no one wants to speak to you, unless you can translate the Bible into JavaScript; then there's a chance you might get an interview. And all the postings are for positions that are doing the work of two people, designer and developer.

For Thanksgiving this year, we've decided to forgo having it at a restaurant in lieu of cooking it at home, which means me cooking it at home. I've never done this solo before, so it should be an interesting experience. I can't see how it would be much different from any other meal where you have numerous dishes that all have to be ready at the same time; just takes some cyphering and one or two accurate timers, that's all.

The smallest turkey we could find at the store was nine pounds, three ounces. Luckily, it fits into the freezer. I'm adding to that stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, candied yams, green bean casserole and biscuits (and pumpkin pie with whipped cream, of course). So far, it's just the two of us, although there's enough to invite a couple other people over if the occasion arises.

But I refuse to become a pawn in the corporate machinations of Black Friday, which is becoming Gray Thursday Evening/Black Friday this year. Yes, corporate big box stores are opening Thursday evening so that shoppers, still high on their L-tryptophan load, can start spending as soon as electronically possible.

It's odd that we have a nationwide protest in Occupy (your town here), the people protesting corporate power and greed, and yet there is a muddle-headed, malleable middle class willing to abandon their families on the most sacred of secular U.S. holidays to fork over their hard-earned cash (or credit) to feed these soulless, amoral entities whenever marketed to do so. (Well, they're people, too, right? The corporations, I mean, not those faceless consumers-units upon which they feed.) There is protesting and rioting in the streets of most major American cities and those in power don't really seem to understand the import of that. I'm astonished.

In any case, we've decided to move our banking over to a local credit union (it is presently with a monster corporate bank that has frozen our equity line of credit for no other reason than they wanted to. My personal line of credit is still available … at a whopping 17% interest). I have a CD maturing in December, and plan to use that the open the new accounts, then close out everything with the old bank.

Maybe Thanksgiving weekend would be a good time to put up the Christmas decorations at home. I'm hoping that the pre-lighted tree we got last year will make the process a whole lot easier. Getting that holiday chore out of the way would be a good idea, and perhaps leave time in the weeks ahead to add one or two new pieces to the decorations (a garland for the entry stairs would be nice, if the price is right).

As far as the future goes, next month will be the determining point: If I start up a studio of my own instead of getting a job, then I'm going to need to make my major purchases before the 31st in order to get all the tax breaks I can. It's not a whole giant pile of money I'll need to spend, but it's enough to make my income taxes for this last year go away.

So, come on PCC: make with the interview next month so I can know where I stand by Christmas Day. And if I do go into business for myself, there will be one amazing shopping spree the week after Christmas.