Sixty-nine years ago today, Gil’s grandparents introduced his mother to the world. One year ago today, we introduced Rufus into our lives. March 8th is a big day around here.
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more after the jump
Celebrate the season! Just take it easy at the office party, or you’ll be sending an email like the one I received a few years ago:
You’re the last person I remember talking to on Wednesday night. Everything kind of went black at some point & I don’t remember how I got home. All I know is that I woke up on my living room floor Thursday morning, covered in candle wax. How much of an ass did I make of myself at the party? And how embarrassed should I be today?
For the 2007 Advent Calendar, click here.
recipes after the jump
brined & roasted turkey breast with roasted onions, garlicky savoy cabbage, and caramelized apples
Any of you who’ve seen me on Facebook this week know I’ve been ever-so-slightly stressing over cooking Thanksgiving dinner for seven. It isn’t the number of people or even cooking a full meal for them, it’s the turkey that’s getting to me. Can someone please explain the allure of turkey? I’ve never been a fan, and always managed to avoid more than the token piece whenever it was served. It isn’t even that it’s usually dry, because I’m more of a dark meat fan. It’s just so … dull, more like a meat substitute than real meat.
Given my indifference to the bird, it should come as no surprise that I have no experience cooking it. So, observing (for the first time in my life) the rule that you never serve anything to guests you haven’t made at least once before, I did a dry run a couple of weeks ago using Alton Brown’s brine recipe. It garnered rave reviews online, but I thought the turkey was still meh, though moistly meh, granted. So hey, that’s something.
But last week the heavens parted when I read the LA Times article on the Zuni Café method of roasting a turkey and decided to give that a try, as it promises flavorful turkey with delicious crispy skin. The problem is, I had to start it Sunday because I didn’t want to deal with it before work at 5am Monday, so it’ll brine a little bit longer than the 3 days + 8 hours recommended in the recipe. Claudia warned me against it, but I’m an irrepresible risk-taker. Hell, I’m a maverick. (I just had to find a way to get that in there, sorry.) And I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the extra day of salting doesn’t ruin the bird, but we’ll have plenty of sides to munch on if it isn’t great.
So my menu, traditional though it may be, is:
turkey
roasted sweet potato and butternut squash soup
wild rice salad
mashed potatoes and gravy
roasted asparagus with parmesan
corn pudding
cranberry chutney (I can’t find this recipe online, but it came from the November 2008 issue of Martha Stewart Living)
apple crisp
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! May your birds be juicy and your desserts plentiful.
Gil spent the better part of the week in Atlanta for a conference, so he and Ru are awfully happy to be reunited.
Cute, but I think I’ve just taken the poster shot for NAMDLA.
Grocery shopping with Gil is always an interesting experience. I enjoy lingering in gourmet or international groceries, but at the local Stop & Shop my goal is to get what I need and leave before despair over the state of the produce grips my soul. Gil sees it as an occasion to document the bizarre items that I swear don’t exist on the shelves until he calls them into being.
Because the pictures are starting to pile up, he’s started a regular Tuesday series called Lost in the Supermarket. Stop by every week to see his latest perplexing find!
This week he presents the doubleplusunkosher edition:
Looks like I’ve been tagged. Since I performed so abysmally last time this happened (by taking at least three months to respond to only one question), I made an effort to be more up-to-date here.
Seven Random/Weird Facts About Myself
1. Gonna start out with a bang, here: I have dextrocardia with situs inversus. Another way to put it is all of my internal organs are flipped left-to-right. Yet another way is to say I’m ass-backwards, as many of you have long suspected.
2. The only celebrity I’ve ever been excited to see on the street was Gilbert Gottfried. Seriously. I nearly hugged him, but didn’t want to freak him out.
3. There’s “IM Amy” and “In-person Amy” and never the twain shall meet.
4. I hate parties. As soon as the invitation comes, I get anxious about actually having to talk to people and count the days till it’s over. And then the party comes and I’m fine — sometimes. Social butterfly, not so much.
5. I was an accompanist at several churches growing up, and served as Minister of Music at a Unity church before moving to NY.
6. I’m related to Ron Guidry, but only through marriage, so I still have an excuse for my complete lack of athletic ability.
7. The State of my Hair … is BAD.
My Seven Favorite Blogs
Most of these blogs have too much going on for me to tag, but I’m supposed to pick my favorites, not only the accessible ones. So here they are.
1. I couldn’t have made it through the last year without Andrew Sullivan.
2. I may not be Afrobella’s target audience, but I love her writing, her wit, and her generosity of spirit.
3. Every post at Matt Bites is an inspiration. If someday I can be half the blogger, cook, and photographer he is, I’ll be a very happy woman.
4. Cuz she’s Fly!
5. Khoi Vinh’s Subtraction helps me to structure my thinking, especially about web design.
6. From movies to films and current events, The House Next Door’s got you covered.
7. Even if you don’t agree with their politics (though I tend to), the heds alone are worth a visit to Reason Hit & Run.
I’m not going to tag anyone, but if you’d like to play along on your blog, link back to this post so everyone can check out your responses!
The daily commute into the city may be rough, but Ringwood really is a beautiful place to live. Gil and I took Rufus for a walk around the lake this morning, and I brought my camera along to show you some of the gorgeous views.
more photos after the jump
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If Sarah Palin were your mom, what would your name be?
via The Agitator
I was craving buttermilk biscuits this morning, but went down the rabbit hole of recipes and ended up worshiping before the blueberry streusel scone. Despite the sugary topping, it wasn’t overly sweet, so I didn’t feel too guilty about having it for breakfast.
Despite the previous sentence, it’ll be great for dessert later in the day.
It was my first experience making scones (though very untraditional and American they were), so I was concerned it would be a complete disaster like so many of my other baking projects are. But they aren’t pastry, so I needn’t have worried. The most difficult thing in the whole process is making sure you don’t overwork the dough so the scones stay tender.
After kneading the dough 4 or 5 times on a lightly floured board, shape it into a disk about seven inches in diameter and and inch-and-a-half thick.
Cut it into eight wedges.
My dough was a little wet, I thought, but the finished product was just fine, so what do I know?
Arrange the wedges on a baking sheet lined with parchment and top with streusel.
Oh, streusel, how could I ever stay mad at you?
Bake, then set the scones on a wire rack to cool just enough so you don’t burn your fingers as you tear into them like a wild animal. Were you raised in a barn? Sheesh.
Fancy backlighting
And take just one more photo, if you can stand it.
Sconehenge!
My parents are going to try to head home today! St. Charles Parish residents got very lucky this time around: The storm surge wasn’t as bad as expected, so there was no flooding. It sounds like the damage to the area was comparable to the damage done by Katrina (and exactly what you’d expect from a hurricane) — quite a few downed power lines (some live), trees, and limbs, and a roof gone missing here and there. They won’t have power for a while and no stores or gas stations will be open, but people are heading back to hook up their generators and rough it, relatively speaking.
