Friday, November 26, 2010 The Day After - Making And Taking Stock

This beautiful goose actually didn't yield a great deal of meat. It was quite tasty, but not as abundant as your typical turkey.

Today I shall stick it in a big ass pot with some celery, carrot, onion and herbs and simmer the shit out of it until the bones have excreted all their flavor. That's how you make stock - basically.

Taking stock of yesterday and the faboo meal I cooked up it's easy to see how people get overwhelmed with holiday cooking and feasting. I totally got carried away with the feasting. The lower half of my body right now don't wanna know nothin'! First thing in the morning yesterday I started with the mashed potatoes and turnips, wrapping them in plastic and keeping them warm in the dehydrator all day was pure genius! (Thank you, Glory for the inspiration) My cooking was well ordered and mapped out. I choreographed different dishes from two ovens, thank goodness my neighbor is directly across the hall. I used her oven for the chestnuts and the stuffed pumpkin while mine was occupied with the goose.

I took another tip from Glory and papoosed my goose (took it out at 170 degrees and wrapped it in foil, newspaper and a blanket) so my oven was free to quickly cook my greenbeans. Bing, bang, boom - dinner was ready at 4:30. Not too shabby, I thought.

The food was excellent. The bird may have been overdone, we're not sure because we haven't had goose before, but I thought it was really tasty. And the plumwine, brandy, prune au jus I made was outstanding! Tons of flavor. And the sides...traditional as hell but totally scrumptious. End it all with an apple pecan dessert pizza pie and you got yourself a Thanksgiving!

But the most brilliant tip I can give you is inspired by my brothers girlfriend. Always dress up to the nines - for no one will ever expect you to do dishes. (Not that I would! Dave and I always do the clean-up. But I think if ever I go out to a friends house I shall rent a friggin' ball gown!)

Now, off to make stock in my jammies!

Bang on, my peeps!

-HH

Thursday, November 25, 2010 What I'm Thankful For

The sign of a good person is the ability to laugh. And last night at Fauxsgiving, when Johnny Pluckman dropped a serving dish filled with turkey, not once but twice, Sir Vaney our host came out saw the mess and burst into laughter. Oh yeah, I was with the right bunch of people.

This year has been an absolute joy for me. I'm so thankful to Arcane Malevolence for accepting my dinner invitation. Meeting them, and all the other bands, has just been the coolest thing ever. And having all these dinner parties, as I've said before, has given my life a meaning I never dreamed of.

Thank you, friends. I love you all!

Happy Thanksgiging!

-HH

Monday, November 22, 2010 Holy Shit! Thanksgiving Is This Week!

I'll admit it. I planned more for Pizza Night than I did for the upcoming national celebration of turkey.

And that's not a turkey you see in that photo. It's a goose. Turkeys, like chickens, are pumped up with all sorts of antibiotics that my body doesn't like me ingesting. My allergy, which developed in 1997, ruined the Thanksgiving holiday for me for many years. We usually went out to eat, and restaurants didn't offer organic turkey, so I usually have fish. Very nice, but without turkey it wasn't Thanksgiving.

I've managed to have turkey a few times since organic turkey has become available in my price range. Last year we went to to my husband's ex's and had organic turkey with her husband, child and mother. Oh, yeah. We're well adjusted like that. And the year before my husband cooked organic turkey. And the year before that was the awful year I was forced to eat green beans. Because even though we'd gone out for every Thanksgiving there was a sudden change of plans and we went to a friends house where I was left with no option but green beans or starvation. I think I had bread too.

So since then I've had to be pro-active in my holiday plans. And I feel bad causing the expense. Most people get their turkey free, but the only turkey I can eat costs 75 bucks!

My goose was also 75 bucks! But I look forward to a new tradition in my goose preparations - plus the usual mashed potatoes, turnips, stuffing and...wait for it...wait for it...green beans.

Happy Thanksgiving, my peeps!

-HH

Sunday, November 21, 2010 Backstage at City Limits Diner

As part of my culinary education I had a tour of the kitchen at City Limits Diner. It was massive, awesome, well-planned and CLEAN! OMG! I can still eat there!

My husband and I have been known to shove off the dessert menu at many-a-restaurant in order to hop in the car and get fruit tarts and banana cream pie at City Limits. Out of this world delicious.

They've got a huge operation going on back there. And it's going well, they're cooking 150 Thanksgiving dinners to go! That's 150 turkeys plus all the trimmings!

At some point in the tour Chef Michael asked if we all wanted to be chefs. I shook my head "no." I love cooking for my friends, but if I had to deal with customers who may not be so friendly? No, thank you.

Last week in our class function someone asked for her lamb well-done. So we took some of the lamb, all of which we had prepared rare, and proceeded to cook the hell out of it for her. No lie, the servers came back 4 times and told us the lady was mad and she wanted her lamb. I wanted to go out there and punch her. Well-done takes time, asshole!

This is why I will not be a chef. I shall cook at home and if you don't like it get the fuck out.

Not a good business model - but great for my personal happiness.

I'm making goose for my turkey day! Antibiotics aren't allowed in duck or goose in this country, so I can eat them without worry! And I'm planning on a bunch of sides. Plus we've been invited to "Fauxgiving" with the Arcane gang. So if I think my clothes are tight now I'd better invest in some mumus.

What are you planning for the holiday?

-HH