Turkey Day...

So I've fallen a week behind with my turkey updates. I started writing but never got to posting. Food hasn't really been a top priority lately. Anyway, here we go with the Thanksgiving story:

What's better than a holiday devoted entirely to food?? Thinking.... thinking......... nope, nothing I can think of right now. Ok, maybe Christmas. But Thanksgiving is a truly American holiday. What is Canadian Thanksgiving anyway? (Sorry Canadians but can anyone actually tell me what Canadian Thanksgiving is? I think we had it first).

Thanksgiving was spent with the parents and grandparents down in PA and dad and I volunteered to do the cooking. My dad watches a cooking show called Cook's Country and they had a very interesting turkey and mashed potatoes recipe. The turkey is cooked with salt pork on top of it and then the salt pork is taken off halfway through cooking to let it brown. As I've mentioned, I'm not a big fan of pork products, but this recipe is meant to moisten the turkey. It came out delicious! Everyone agreed that the turkey was incredibly juicy and tender,and my mom even consented to eating some of the white meat instead of the usually more tender dark. I'd highly recommend this method, even though cutting through the salt pork was very difficult. Of course the pork is really disgusting after you cook it. I can't understand why anyone would voluntarily eat that; basically its just fat. Shudder.

The mashed potato recipe is actually quite brilliant and makes so much more sense than the normal way of making mashed potatoes. This method is actually supposed to be used for garlic mashed potatoes but I vetoed the garlic because it didn't seem Thanksgiving appropriate. The big secret is that instead of boiling the potatoes in water, you actually boil them in the cream and then mash them. It worked out really nicely and they got a big thumbs up.

The only other really time consuming cooking activity was making the gravy, for which we used all those nasty inside turkey bits that make gravy so tasty. You cook those up with stock and drippings from the turkey and some flour and voila! Gravy! And good gravy at that!

We made the stuffing the night ahead and gave it the final cook up on the day of. I don't love stuffing, but this one was really tasty and had everything imaginable in it from apples to cranberries to nuts to wild rice. I think in the end the rice was unnecessary, but I hardly ever find rice necessary so I might not be a good judge.

The rest of the menu was pretty simple: Roasted Brussels Sprouts ( not high on my list), steamed green beans, artichokes (cooked by my grandma), baked canned yams ( also courtesy of grandma, rolls and two kinds of cranberry sauce. All in all it was very successful and yielded leftovers of course.

On a related topic, my world has just been rocked because apparently the correct term in "Brussels Sprouts", with an 'S' not Brussel Sprouts. I had no idea.

Here's what the cooking prep and final products looked like.

Some of the ingredients...The turkey is all wrapped up in cheese cloth

Getting a bath
Knife sharpening

Yams!


Various prep and snacks


Festive table decorations





artichoke remains

Table is all ready!

Turkey on the table
Some snacks from earlier
Even though Tom doesn't look golden, he's still delicious!

Driving Madness Continues..

It has been a crazy driving week. I’ve been angry so many times that I think I lost count. Happily though, the ultimate foodie holiday is coming up on Thursday, so there will be lots to report. Dad and I are planning to do the cooking for the family which should be exciting! For some strange reason my vegetarian father has an interest in cooking meat and wants to test out a turkey cooking method involving salt pork. Shrug. Plenty of tasties on the menu, and since grandpa works at a bakery, all baked goods will be provided. Hooray!

Anyway onto road rage....

Here are some thoughts from the road:

Gesturing wildly with your hand outside the window in a non-critical merging situation (i.e your lane is not about to run out and you’re not making a turn) does not make you any more important than anyone else who is trying to merge. But I will still let you in because you look funny and I’m nice.

It’s just rude not to use your turn signal. They were created for a reason, so please, use them because its common courtesy. If I had known you were turning I could have also turned. Thanks a lot.

Please get off your cell phone and use your signal.

Bus drivers are horrible drivers.

Any one driving a large truck or oversized vehicle is a horrible driver.

Cops are the worst example of bad drivers.

Basically everyone on the road is a horrible driver

I literally trust no one on the road at all. I don’t trust that they will stop at stop signs, I don’t trust that they will go the direction they appear to be going, I don’t trust that they won’t go careening into my bumper because they are texting, eating, or just not looking at the road. This is highly problematic.

In closing, I've never been tempted to eat my steering wheel.

If I were to get a job with The Onion, this is the first story I would write

Jersey Man Accidentally Discovers the Function of Turn Signals

In a miraculous accident, a New Jersey man learned that “that little knob on the side of the steering wheel” actually has a function. Grant Oliver was driving on Route 4 on Sunday and was about to shift lanes when he accidentally hit his turn signal. To Oliver’s surprise, drivers in the left lane actually made room for him to enter the lane after the turn signal blinked.

“I had no idea what that knob was for,” Oliver said, “ Up until now I just turned when I wanted to turn and lane shifted when I felt like it and it was always so frustrating that people wouldn’t stop for me or let me in.” Oliver has found his life changed by this so-called turn signal and discovered that its uses are widespread, from signaling at traffic lights to gaining access to highways. Given the scarcity of use of turn signals, Oliver believes he has made a breakthrough in driving technique.

A spokesperson from the NJ Department of Motor Vehicles offered further comment, “ We’ve been trying to get people to use turn signals for years! There’s even an entire section in the driver’s manual on using your turn signal.”

With Oliver’s new discovery, the DMV hopes that the turn signal phenomena will become more widespread, but the question still remains to be seen, can New Jersey drivers get off their phones long enough to find the turn signal?

Crazy Craigslist Findings

This is just too good not to share. I was perusing Craigslist with no particular purpose and I came across the title of "Secret Bread Eating Society" and of course I had to click. I don't care if its real or fake, but its funny. I guess the secret is out. And no, I'm not making this up.

Secret Bread Eating Society (Haskell)

looking to start a group that would meet Bi-weekly, and enjoy eating various forms of Bread....
Chiabatas,Ryes, Artisan,Bagels and Rolls, ect. Butters,marmalades,Jams, ect are ok.
Are you the type of person that Always asks the waiter for,"More bread please" ? Then you are one of us.
We have members that eat so much bread, they can't eat their Entre, and have to bag it to go!
Fat people as well as Skinny people alike, come together, in a non-judgemental setting, and enjoy the pure delight and satisfaction of gorging themselves with BREAD. The Society, changes locations every meeting...hence the name "Secret"

Crazy cakes!!

Oh my goodness, I just have to share this stuff. While writing the last post I started looking at other things written by Kim Conte since she seems to be a food writer and I found a series of hers called "Cake Obsessed". Well I'm obsessed too and I just discovered a great bakery blog. Everything on this website is beautiful.

http://sweetapolita.com/blog/

From Sweetapolita comes a fascinating cake...Yes, they made of cake stuff not veggies. Sort of an odd request for a cake but hey, its certainly pretty. Actually though, what first drew my attention was a completely different cake maker featured by Kim. Here we have the Storm in a teacup...And yet another talented cake artist Debbie Does Cakes created this masterpiece, the steak cake:

Dunkin Donuts Pancake Bites

I know I've been talking about Dunkin Donuts a lot recently, but they seem to be inescapable in my life these days. I hear ads for them constantly on the radio and they are constantly trying to outdo themselves ( and Starbucks). I even got a free coffee from them the other day as my work took me to a gas station/ Dunkin.

Anyway, the latest product from DD is the Pancake Sausage Bites. Essentially its breakfast condensed into a bite, also known as a maple flavored pancake wrapped around a little bite of sausage. Now, in theory, I like this idea, because I like the sweet and savory, and as breakfast foods go, pancakes and sausage are pretty awesome; however, in practicality I am terrified of what sort of meat might be in said sausage ( please refer to my previously mentioned fear of strange meat products, particularly in ground up form). I just wanted to bring some attention to these because they seem like an interesting food invention, but I decided to do a little research before writing the blog post and I found that they already have a pretty good bit of press.

Aol and SlashFoods reviewed them with a fairly positive review, although their picture looked a lot less appetizing than the official DD press picture seen above. This reviewer thought it might be a good idea to chuck the maple flavor and add dipping syrup. Despite the positive review, the write up did mention that just three of these little bites are 300 calories and that the ingredient list is quite lengthy for such a small bite.

I looked at the ingredients and it seems like a lot of preservatives, and a surprising amount of different types of flours and starches. Look for yourself if you like.

Another article I found from the Chicago Tribune also approved of the bites and said everyone needed to stop freaking out about crazy sounding fast foods like the sausage bites of the infamous double down. The Tribune cited another article titled "Dunkin' Donuts Pancake Bites Scare Everyone-- Even Its Employees!" as being a ridiculous overreaction to this food. The author, Kim Conte, had this to say about her experience:

Was it just me being hyper self-conscious or did the employee at Dunkin' Donuts actually snicker when I ordered the new Sausage Pancake Bites?

Nope, nope, I definitely wasn't imagining it because of what happened next: She turned to another employee and said something I couldn't understand; but I do know it ended in "Sausage Pancake Bites," an eye-roll, and then peels of laughter. Yup, they were definitely laughing at me. Oh, and when they called out my order, the male customer next to me muttered, "Ew, gross" and shot me a look of utter disgust.

Having not tried this invention myself, I can't really weigh in yet, but there seem to be a fair batch of mixed reviews. At 300 calories though, I don't know that its really worth it. I'll just have a donut. Yum.

Allentown Adventures!

I had the pleasure of popping down to the Bethlehem/ Allentown area recently and I got to stop in at a few of my favorite places ( all involving food of course because what else does one do in PA?). I was fortunate to be there on a day that the Allentown Farmer's market is open and I went straight for my favorite places, Dan's chicken and Red Barn Produce. Dan's mashed potatoes are to die for, especially when drenched in gravy. YUM!

When I lived in Atown I would buy my produce from Red Barn pretty much every week, or two weeks if I had enough to last that long. I even have a snazzy Red Barn shirt. Since I was just visiting I didn't really need a lot but I picked up some sweet frying peppers and grape tomatoes anyway. The usual guys weren't there either so I couldn't really say hello, but the lady, who I believe is one of the owners was kind enough to let me take some pictures.


Another favorite place is Woody's or the Tavern as it is more correctly known by the locals. There's another place called Woody's but for my generation of college students it will always be Woody's. I don't really know how that happened, but that's what everyone calls it.

Whatever you want to call it, its a fun little place to hang out and very convenient if you happen to live at the college across the street. Woody's has excellent pizza, which I would like to point out is a very serious statement coming from someone who is accustomed to NYC and NJ pizza. The standard is pretty high for me when it comes to pizza, and while I wouldn't call Woody's pizza quite traditional, its certainly very tasty, and much better than the kind that is sold at the farmers market. Yuk. There's a nice selection of bar food including some tasty wings but I've never ventured very far into the food. More importantly there's a very extensive collection of beer.

On this trip my friend SS, who is now a beer expert, introduced me to Mad Elf beer. Wow. Definitely a win. This beer is so smooth you really don't know you're drinking beer. It's made with cherries and honey, and for once, it actually tastes like those things. It really doesn't have a very beery taste at all. What it does have however, is an 11% alcohol content, so its not a good one to have if you're driving anywhere. Fortunately I was not. The company who makes it is Troegs, and according to their website the beer is ruby red. I certainly think that's going to far but it has a reddish tint to it. In any case, I'm hooked, although I don't think this beer comes with a particularly cheap price tag. Still, its a good festive beer for the holidays! And I'm all about the holidays!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I know, I know, Halloween just ended and we haven't even gotten to Thanksgiving yet. It's only the start of November, but when it comes to Christmas, I say its almost never too early to jump on board. Besides, every single store has already switched into Christmas mode, so don't blame me for trying to keep up. While I could go into detail about lots of Christmasy things, I'll try and keep the focus on food here for now.
First off, the return of Red cups to Starbucks is always a wonderful thing. I think J may be the only person who gets as excited ( probably more excited) about this as me. I went in just to get a coffee and I was ecstatic to find that there are Christmas themed cups! Hooray!
Of course, we are still somewhat between seasons, as proved by the pumpkin cream cheese muffin I also acquired at Starbucks. It sort of tasted like a cross between pumpkin pie and gingerbread, so maybe its gearing up for shifting seasons. It was pretty tasty, and I love pumpkin but I don't know that I love it enough to get it again. But interestingly Sbucks told me on their bag that they are removing artificial ingredients and preservatives from their foods. So yay I think!Starbucks may still be holding on to remnants of fall, but Dunkin Donuts has already moved on.. All through October I heard radio ads for Pumpkin Coffee and Donuts ( the donuts are delicious by the way but I never got to try the coffee) but the day it became November they started up ads for Gingerbread Lattes and gingerbread donuts and muffins. These people don't waste any time. I haven't checked a DD to see if the pumpkin stuff is still around but I suspect it is not. I was sort of intrigued by the pumpkin coffee but not anticipating it to be very good since I find their coffee to be very hit and miss normally. I wasn't very enthralled by Starbucks take on the pumpkin latte either. To me it tasted like peaches, but maybe it was just a bad one.

One last thing.... I know it's not food, but it is Christmas and plenty of it looks good enough to eat. Lush just came out with it's holiday catalogue!! This means I should not go near the mall or a lush store any time soon. Sigh. http://www.lushusa.com/shop/

More holiday food updates are sure to come and of course, Thanksgiving is the ultimate foodie holiday so when the time is right we will get there.

Heated Seats and using your turn signal

I would just like to proclaim my love for the heated seats in my car ( well my dad's car that I drive every day). At first I was opposed to leather seating because I don't really like the smell of leather, but once it starts getting cold, I'm all for it! Even if the car is still warming up, the seats heat up pretty quickly and give a nice warm feeling down your back and legs. It's nice if you have cramps or back aches too! So hooray to whichever genius invented this miracle!

Also, I would like to provide a brief manual for using your turn signal, since apparently most people on the road do not know what the use of this simple device is, judging by their lack of usage of it.

Step one: Decide you are going to make a turn before reaching the turning point.
Step two: flick the turn signal in the direction you wish to go
Step three: drive that direction and not any other.

The End