(no subject)
So! Thanksgiving. I hope you're all having good ones.
This was the second year I made the meal, and it was at least as good as last year, possibly better. I made a chicken instead of a turkey, since there's just two of us eating it. I stuffed it with onions, celery, and garlic, shoved garlic and butter under the skin, and then rubbed butter over it. While I did that, my cast iron skillet was heating on the stove. I browned the chicken, added the onion and celery that didn't fit in the bird to the pan, and left it breast-down when I put it in the oven, then turned it over at half an hour. At an hour, I turned the oven up. That gave me a beautifully browned chicken with plenty of juices to make a gravy, and oh my god, was it good. Maybe a little dry in the breast meat; I'll leave it breast-down longer next time. Nonetheless, delicious.
Also on the menu were mashed potatoes, carrots, green beans, yams, and rolls. Since the sweet milk roll recipe takes five hours to rise, I went with buttermilk rolls (mostly funny because I'd asked if they wanted rolls or buttermilk biscuits and they voted rolls, BUT GOT BOTH). For the carrots, I wanted to do something different, so yesterday I IMed my dad to get directions on making a glaze. I used pulp-free orange juice, maple syrup, salt, and a tiny bit of sage and boiled it down to a syrup while the carrots boiled (I'd prefer to steam them, but lack a steamer or appropriately sized metal colander). Then I poured the syrup over the carrots and tossed them. Yum.
Starr requested garlic mashed potatoes, so I went ahead and roasted a head of garlic. I cut off the top and peeled off the outer layers of skin, put it in a muffin tin, drizzled olive oil over it, and covered with foil, then roasted at 450F for half an hour. By the time it was done, the garlic was soft and tasty, and the potatoes were boiled. (Roasted garlic is also good with olive oil on sourdough bread, by the way.) I had Starr drain the potatoes and then dumped them into my mixer bowl, added the garlic, and mixed it that way first. Then I added a stick of butter, cut into small pieces, and mixed that. After that, salt, pepper, and some milk to get it to the right consistency, and then Geena transferred them to a ceramic bowl and put them in the microwave to stay warm.
The rolls were dead easy. The only issue was how gross warm buttermilk tastes (I had to heat it to 105-115F, and I gauge that by touch). Other than that, those went smooth and easy. I also miscut them, so we had fifteen instead of sixteen, but since fifteen is easily divisible by three, that's okay.
I did cheat on the yams. We bought canned yams instead of making those entirely from scratch, but I feel justified. I did everything else. Peeling and cooking yams would have been too much. All I did for them was drain about half the juices out, put the rest in a baking dish, sprinkle on brown sugar, cover in marshmallows, dot with butter, and toss on pecans, then bake at 400F until the marshmallows were browned.
The green beans were Starr's responsibility. I did the prep, but she sauteed them. She also made both pies--pumpkin and pecan. She had to make up the pumpkin, but she seasoned it great, and it turned out wonderfully.
Things I would do differently: I would take the chicken out sooner to ensure it's thawed. I'd make the glaze earlier, since it took forever to cook down. I'd probably make the rolls ahead of time. These are things to keep in mind for next time I participate in Thanksgiving cooking.
Things I am thankful for this year:
- That meal. Yum.
- My parents. We have our problems, but they are definitely always there for me; look at how they're moving me home, and bringing Geena along.
- My brother and sister, and how they've got my back.
- My friends.
- My cats.
- The apparent return of my ability to write.
- Moving home.
We were discussing movies today, because we were thinking about seeing one. Starr said, "Damn, Australia's like three hours long!"
Geena and I were in the kitchen at the time. Geena said, "And it looks terrible." She was pretty quiet because she's had a sore throat today, and I think she was washing a bowl.
"I think it looks good." I don't remember what I was making at the time, but I was semi-occupied.
"You liked Appaloosa," Geena countered.
"And you like musicals. We have different taste in movies."
So Starr pipes up, "I don't think Australia is a musical."
Geena and I cracked up, and Starr did not get it at all.
In the end, four hours later, we decided on Transporter 3 tomorrow around 3. Matinee show, and theaters tend to be much emptier on Black Friday than on Thanksgiving.
And babies.
That mage FINALLY grew up. Took her long enough. I bred my white egg; the rest are adopted abandoned ones.
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Scroll.
And Geena's four. I bred her the gold.
Finally, Sara's eggs.
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This was the second year I made the meal, and it was at least as good as last year, possibly better. I made a chicken instead of a turkey, since there's just two of us eating it. I stuffed it with onions, celery, and garlic, shoved garlic and butter under the skin, and then rubbed butter over it. While I did that, my cast iron skillet was heating on the stove. I browned the chicken, added the onion and celery that didn't fit in the bird to the pan, and left it breast-down when I put it in the oven, then turned it over at half an hour. At an hour, I turned the oven up. That gave me a beautifully browned chicken with plenty of juices to make a gravy, and oh my god, was it good. Maybe a little dry in the breast meat; I'll leave it breast-down longer next time. Nonetheless, delicious.
Also on the menu were mashed potatoes, carrots, green beans, yams, and rolls. Since the sweet milk roll recipe takes five hours to rise, I went with buttermilk rolls (mostly funny because I'd asked if they wanted rolls or buttermilk biscuits and they voted rolls, BUT GOT BOTH). For the carrots, I wanted to do something different, so yesterday I IMed my dad to get directions on making a glaze. I used pulp-free orange juice, maple syrup, salt, and a tiny bit of sage and boiled it down to a syrup while the carrots boiled (I'd prefer to steam them, but lack a steamer or appropriately sized metal colander). Then I poured the syrup over the carrots and tossed them. Yum.
Starr requested garlic mashed potatoes, so I went ahead and roasted a head of garlic. I cut off the top and peeled off the outer layers of skin, put it in a muffin tin, drizzled olive oil over it, and covered with foil, then roasted at 450F for half an hour. By the time it was done, the garlic was soft and tasty, and the potatoes were boiled. (Roasted garlic is also good with olive oil on sourdough bread, by the way.) I had Starr drain the potatoes and then dumped them into my mixer bowl, added the garlic, and mixed it that way first. Then I added a stick of butter, cut into small pieces, and mixed that. After that, salt, pepper, and some milk to get it to the right consistency, and then Geena transferred them to a ceramic bowl and put them in the microwave to stay warm.
The rolls were dead easy. The only issue was how gross warm buttermilk tastes (I had to heat it to 105-115F, and I gauge that by touch). Other than that, those went smooth and easy. I also miscut them, so we had fifteen instead of sixteen, but since fifteen is easily divisible by three, that's okay.
I did cheat on the yams. We bought canned yams instead of making those entirely from scratch, but I feel justified. I did everything else. Peeling and cooking yams would have been too much. All I did for them was drain about half the juices out, put the rest in a baking dish, sprinkle on brown sugar, cover in marshmallows, dot with butter, and toss on pecans, then bake at 400F until the marshmallows were browned.
The green beans were Starr's responsibility. I did the prep, but she sauteed them. She also made both pies--pumpkin and pecan. She had to make up the pumpkin, but she seasoned it great, and it turned out wonderfully.
Things I would do differently: I would take the chicken out sooner to ensure it's thawed. I'd make the glaze earlier, since it took forever to cook down. I'd probably make the rolls ahead of time. These are things to keep in mind for next time I participate in Thanksgiving cooking.
Things I am thankful for this year:
- That meal. Yum.
- My parents. We have our problems, but they are definitely always there for me; look at how they're moving me home, and bringing Geena along.
- My brother and sister, and how they've got my back.
- My friends.
- My cats.
- The apparent return of my ability to write.
- Moving home.
We were discussing movies today, because we were thinking about seeing one. Starr said, "Damn, Australia's like three hours long!"
Geena and I were in the kitchen at the time. Geena said, "And it looks terrible." She was pretty quiet because she's had a sore throat today, and I think she was washing a bowl.
"I think it looks good." I don't remember what I was making at the time, but I was semi-occupied.
"You liked Appaloosa," Geena countered.
"And you like musicals. We have different taste in movies."
So Starr pipes up, "I don't think Australia is a musical."
Geena and I cracked up, and Starr did not get it at all.
In the end, four hours later, we decided on Transporter 3 tomorrow around 3. Matinee show, and theaters tend to be much emptier on Black Friday than on Thanksgiving.
And babies.
That mage FINALLY grew up. Took her long enough. I bred my white egg; the rest are adopted abandoned ones.
-|-
-|-
-|-
-|-
Scroll.
And Geena's four. I bred her the gold.
Finally, Sara's eggs.
-|-
-|-
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