Archive for November, 2007
Baking Delights is having a giveaway!
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007Another beef recall
Sunday, November 25th, 2007Ahhh, Turkey Day
Thursday, November 22nd, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving, all!
This year, I’m teaching my brother how to handle the turkey breast. (Since it’s just me & him, no sense in a whole turkey.) Honestly, it couldn’t be easier and given that I actually don’t like turkey *that* much – he can cook it next year. :)
I do a salt/sugar (2:1) brine with some peppercorns thrown in. Give that a couple hours, rinse & pat dry. Slather in melted butter and rub in the spices that suit your fancy. McCormick has a “steakhouse grind” that I’ve used and liked on turkey, and I’ll likely go with that again. Roast at 325 until internal temp reaches 165 degrees. Let rest, carve and enjoy!
No fancy or exotic sides – my brother likes to have what we’ve always had since we were kids…which is box stuffing and instant mashed potatoes and crescent rolls. It’s not exactly gourmet, but it makes him happy. A *must* for me is the dish of sweet pickles.
We got a late start today, so by the time we eat, it very well could be midnight. But, in the meantime we’ve got Cheesy Ranch Bacon Dip (details after the jump) and some ready-made spinach dip under the “Simply Enjoy” brand. The spinach dip is kind of “eh” – it’s not seasoned very well, and there are some large chunks of *something* in it that wasn’t chopped up quite right. (Texture of water chestnuts, but who knows.)
We’re skipping dessert cause we need an entire pie in the house like we need a hole in the head. That, and my brother doesn’t actually like pumpkin pie. (I’m not sure we’re really related sometimes.)
Have a lovely day and may nothing burn and all the sides finish at the same time.
Pie Crust Recall
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
Heartland brand Graham Crusts have been recalled.
The somewhat good news (if there is any when it comes to a recall) is that it is due to “undeclared almonds, milk and coconut” and not contamination.
If you’ve got allergies, check your pantry.
Holiday shopping…
Sunday, November 18th, 2007Safeway has saved me again this year – much to my joy and shock. Most of the time they never seem to have what I need, but today they had their act together.
I refuse to believe that I have to do my holiday food shopping a month in advance, so I don’t. I needed a fresh turkey breast (it’s just me & my brother, a whole turkey would be insane) and it’s pointless to get one if it’s so far ahead of time that you have to freeze it anyway, and I don’t want to deal with the defrosting nightmare of a frozen one.
Giant hasn’t had fresh turkey breasts in stock any year I’ve tried to purchase one from them for the holiday. From talking with the butchers, they always order them, but they never seem to actually *get* them, or get near as many as they actually order. I know Wegman’s sells out in no time. But Safeway, every year, they have a good supply of them the weekend before the holiday, and I was able to pick up a nice 6 pounder with a sell-by of 11/24, so no need to do anything but keep it wrapped up in the fridge until brining time.
Yes, if I was smart, I’d pre-order one, but I never think of that far enough ahead of time.
The kicker of all this? I really don’t like turkey that much at all, and in my younger days, I’d threatened that if I was to make Thanksgiving dinner, it would be lasagna.
Simple things
Saturday, November 17th, 2007
My brother is out of town and with holiday cooking looming ahead, I feel no need to do anything elaborate this weekend.
Sometimes it really is the simple things that can be so satisfying, and for me today it was a tuna salad sandwich on toast. I know many think of tuna salad as a horror of decent cuisine, but it’s a comfort food for me that takes me back to Mom making a platter full of them along with soup for dinner for me & my brother. You can’t go wrong with that.
The Next Iron Chef – Finale
Monday, November 12th, 2007
I promise, I won’t screw it up for you – I accidentally found out who won (gotta hate the internet sometimes!) before I had a chance to see it – I won’t give it away.
It was a “traditional” Iron Chef battle for the final, with a great ingredient. None of the weirdness of the previous challenges, just get your ass in the kitchen and cook like a madman. A nice twist – they had the other 3 Iron Chefs do the judging – I’ll be perfectly honest, I was getting very sick of 2 the 3 other judges. (God help me if I ever become famous in the food world, I’ll have 2 enemies right off the bat.)
The guy I wanted to win – didn’t. Not that the winner isn’t a tremendous chef. Hell, either of them could do this – they wouldn’t have gotten this far otherwise!
But you can’t watch this for 6 weeks and not have a favorite by the end. And of course, I can’t help but lean towards someone whose food I’d be more likely to pick off a menu.
So, if you’ve not seen it yet – Food Network will be re-running it a couple more times this week – worth the time. I’ve really enjoyed this series, it’s great competition without the snark of a Hell’s Kitchen or Top Chef.
Cute food pics
Thursday, November 8th, 2007Check your fridge…
Sunday, November 4th, 2007
Cargill’s is recalling ground beef products – distributed in New England & Mid Atlantic. This hits two of my local markets that I regularly shop at – Wegman’s and Giant.
This isn’t helping with my newfound “I don’t want to give myself food poisoning again” issues that are making me somewhat reluctant to get back in the kitchen.
Staying away from the packets…
Sunday, November 4th, 2007Well, if I didn’t have a reason to swear off packet soup bases before, I certainly do now.
Wednesday evening I made vegetable beef soup, tasted lovely, and then I was quite ill on Thursday. I didn’t make a connection… Had the leftovers on Friday and late Friday night, ill again – made the connection at about 3 AM.
I know the beef was cooked thoroughly, through the browning at the start and the hour of simmering (and smelled lovely the whole time), the cutting board and knife and various utensils and pans were squeaky clean, so I don’t know if it actually qualifies as food poisoning or just something in the packet that quite strongly disagreed with me, or just something wrong with the beef that didn’t manifest itself before or during cooking, but the rest of the leftovers have been binned and no way in hell will I be using that packet again.
The good news is that I can eat again and watch cooking shows and Dirty Jobs will no unfortunate consequences. The bad news is that part of me is afraid to cook again for fear of going through this again.
And yes, only an idiot can manage to poison herself twice in the space of 3 days…