Thanksgiving 2008.2-- Roast Brined Turkey (p. 443) and Mashed Winter Squash (p. 308) plus dogs in costume!

On to the most important part of the Thanksgiving meal...the turkey! I decided to make Roast Brined Turkey (p. 443).

First step, brining the turkey. This was a slight problem...Josh and I were driving in on Wednesday, after he got off of work. This meant we got in around 1 am Thanksgiving morning. Another problem--what the heck should we brine the turkey in? I figured that a Styrofoam cooler would be as good as anything else--I got it at the grocery store.

The cooler:



The turkey, during it's rinse. I giggled the whole time--I don't know what it is about naked poultry but it makes me laugh every time.



The turkey then got dunked into the cooler and covered with two gallons of water and four cups of kosher salt (that is a LOT of salt). We turned the turkey at the six hour mark so that both sides would get brined, since it wasn't entirely covered. This picture was taken when the turkey was finished.




After the turkey has brined for 12 hours, we took it out and rinsed it well. This was difficult--how do you know it's fully rinsed off?




An onion, carrot, and celery were then cut up to be shoved up the turkeys hole. When I pulled them out at the end, Josh was very impressed, like it was a clown car.




The turkey was set on the rack of the roasting pan (my roasting pan that I have to haul back and forth every Thanksgiving). I was glad I had a roasting pan because if you don't have one, TJOC recommends that you "prop it up with crumpled aluminum foil" and that sounds complex to me. We seasoned the breast-side first because it was supposed to start cooking breast-side down.



TJOC doesn't recommend seasoning, but that doesn't seem like a good idea. So mom seasoned it with all kinds of spices.



And then quite a bit of melted butter (this part actually is in TJOC) was smeared all over the turkey and it was popped into the oven. About two and a half hours in...you are supposed to flip the turkey.


"What?" you, the reader, exclaim.

You flip the turkey. TJOC says "wearing heat-resistant mitts or protecting your hand with paper towels, grasp the turkey at both ends and turn breast side up." PAPER TOWELS?? To pick up a boiling hot turkey?? I decided this was the perfect opportunity for Josh and his brother to get involved in TJOTJOC.

The turkey, pre-flip:



Getting ready to flip the turkey, and, yes, holding it with paper towels:




Why the paper towels? The turkey was greasy (remember the melted butter?). I protected the metal handles with dishclothes so they wouldn't burn themselves. And BAM!



The turkey, post-flip. I have to say, the flip does not make for a particularly beautiful turkey--it kinda looked to me like it had six-pack abs. I'm imagining it tells you to flip because the dark meat cooks slower than the white meat and the flipping allows for the dark meat to cook for a longer time.

Like an idiot, I managed to not get a picture of the finished project (I was in quite a bit of pain by the end of the cooking and was trying to get all of the final pieces figured out (mashed potatoes, heating up the mashed squash, the gravy). It fell through the cracks :(

Josh and his brother Jordan carving the turkey--and my mother's electric carving set getting it's once a year use:




The beautiful turkey, being carved:



Yum! The turkey was a bit salty but EXTREMELY juicy. It would be really difficult to overcook this turkey making it an excellent first turkey for me to have made...a starter turkey!


On to Mashed Winter Squash (p. 308). This was the BIGGEST PITA of the entire Thanksgiving meal.

The recipe doesn't look hard at all. Bake some winter squash and mash it with some butter, brown sugar, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cream. Easy enough, right? Except for I baked the squash until it seemed done. Tried scooping it out--it wasn't done. Put it back in the oven. Tried again, same problem. Tried it again. Honestly, this squash took about four hours on a day where we had very little extra time. I have to make this recipe once more (Mashed Winter Squash II), unfortunately, but that will be the LAST time I ever make it. Was it good? Sure, but not good enough to be worth the trouble. The mashed potatoes were good, too, and took about a half an hour.

I was so angry with this recipe I could barely force myself to take the one picture I did.








And here are some adorable holiday pictures!


Santa Duchess! She has such an impressive beard!




And Marilyn Gracie...such a bombshell!

T-day '08.1-White Bean Dip with Rosemary & Garlic (p.73),Cheddar Cheese Ball (p.75), Uncooked Cranberry Relish (p.222)&Cooked Cranberry Relish (p.221)

Thanksgiving! This is my second TJOC Thanksgiving! Unfortunately, I felt TERRIBLE. The plan had been that I would do all the cooking on Thanksgiving, allowing me to knock off several more TJOC recipes--and I STUCK TO IT. Let me tell you, adreneline is powerful and all of my stress torpedoed be through the day (although I paid for it later)--I was able to cook Thanksgiving supper (I feel strongly that the meal should be eaten in the evening, not at three). This post is going to be broken into two blogs because there is just way too much to post about!

Like last year, our Thanksgiving was very small--just Josh, his brother, mom, and me. Even so--we made the whole feast.


To start off the holiday, I made a couple hors d'oeuvres for lunch. First up, White Bean Dip with Rosemary and Garlic (p. 73). Josh isn't a big bean fan but he is a HUGE garlic fan, so I hoped that would make up for it.

First step, cook minced rosemary (straight off of mom's rosemary bush--but rosemary does NOT like mincing), garlic, and pepper in some hot olive oil.



Watch it--this is a dangerous step. The olive oil popped right into my face! It was terrifying and it hurt. The white beans and the garlic mixture are stirred together.



Mash it down and there you have it--white bean dip!



It was delicious and garlicy. I think it would be perfect for a potluck or a dinner for vegetarians/vegans. The recipe is online (although you should buy your own copy of TJOC!).

Next up, a Cheddar Cheese Ball (p. 75)--deliciously retro! TJOC has 3 cheese ball recipes. I assumed there would be more in the older versions of TJOC--but my 1953 TJOC only has two recipes, so I'm obviously wrong. It also has a recipe for Mayonaise Puffs, which I may have to make as I'm seriously considering having a monthly "Retro TJOC" entry--any opinions? Would you like the addition?

First step...mix shredded cheese, a little cream cheese, some bacon (cooked of course!), a couple tablespoons of milk, a bit of horseradish, and some salt in the tiny food processor. This was NOT an easy task and at several times in the blending, smoke came from the processor (don't worry, it didn't break).



Place the mixture on a piece of wax paper:




Now wrap the cheese mixture into a cheese ball...



Unwrap the ball (in a perfect world, you would refrigerate this for a day, but we were low on time, so it didn't get chilled at all). Roll it in walnuts or pecans and there you have it! A perfect, beautiful cheese ball!



So how was it? Very tasty! I would go so far as to say exceptionally tasty. It was great on crackers and had a great smoky bacony flavor. Next time I would like to make it with smoked cheddar...that would make it even better I think. Again, perfect for a potluck.








Oddly, there were two cranberry sauces on the menu. Why two? Because I wanted to make a cooked cranberry sauce and mom likes the uncooked, so we made both. Mom mentioned that this must mean we've made all of the cranberry recipes in TJOC--we haven't even made half of them (there are five cranberry sauce recipes in TJOC).

The first cranberry recipe was Uncooked Cranberry Relish (p. 222). The first step was to chop the cranberries and the orange (half of both) in the food processor. Unfortunately, mom has the same tiny food processor that I do and this was not an easy task.

The orange looked delicious--and it didn't have any seeds, which was nice.



The processor was too small for the cranberries.




I think that the orange peel was supposed to get chopped up into the mixture. That did not happen. The orange rinds were chewed up but not chopped up. We decided to just throw them out.





And back to processing:



(It was nice to have mom as a model!) A cup of sugar is then added in and the cranberries sit for a day in the refrigerator. I don't have an after picture, you will just have to use your imagination.

The cranberries were good although not as good as my mom's normal uncooked cranberry relish. I don't imagine this recipe will be made again in the future.


The second cranberry recipe, for me, was the Cooked Cranberry Relish (p. 221). The recipe was easy--cranberries, sugar, water, and orange juice mixed in a skillet, and then simmered until the cranberries "pop" and the relish is "thickened".



I found the popping to be a little intimidating. It cooked down quite a bit and was really tasty--although really sour. If you like cooked cranberries this is a really good recipe. I think it would be even better with the (suggest) add-ins of a couple tablespoons of balsamic vinegar or port and some dried cherries. Maybe next year!

Tuna Salad (p. 164), Tuna melt (p. 182), Panned or Sicilian Spinach (p. 306), and Ginger soy sauce (p. 571)

This is the lost blog of November.

Many of you know that although I date these the day I actually cooked them, I often blog about them considerably later. While leafing through TJOC recently I noticed a couple recipes that I KNEW I made weren't marked and when I searched the blog, I noticed that they weren't blogged about. So I'm correcting the problem, about two months too late.

Most of my regular readers know that there aren't many foods that I extremely dislike. Onions are one, although I'm growing to hate them less and include them in most TJOC recipes. Bell peppers--always get cut from recipes. And my number one enemy:

This guy.





Tuna. Canned tuna is so disgusting that even the smell makes me nauseous.

Fortunately, Josh loves tuna. Honestly, we have a grocery stores worth of tuna in this house. And he happily eats all of the TJOC tuna recipes.

I made Tuna Salad (p. 164). I'm just not much of a meat salad type person (although I've developed a curried chicken salad that is amazing!).

The recipe is easy. Mix tuna, celery, and mayonnaise. And you are finished.





It's a pretty boring recipe but it is really easy. If you tuna lovers are anything like me, you have your favorite additions to the meat salad. This recipe is extremely bare-bones.

So what did I do with this boring tuna salad?

Made a tuna melt (p. 182)!

Once you have the tuna salad you are halfway to a tuna melt.

Take a few slices of toast, spread tuna salad on them, and top it with some grated Monterey Jack cheese.



And then broil:



I made the tuna melts in the toaster over. I really recommend using a toaster oven when you don't want heat up the house.

Josh said the tuna wraps were tasty, although he said I piled the tuna way too high. They must have been good because after he ate those two, he made himself another :) Even so, it's likely that's the last tuna melt I will ever be making.

I ate Panned or Sicilian Spinach (p. 306) instead of the tuna melts.

The first step was to trim and wash a pound of spinach. I always find this step to be annoying--I really hate washing vegetables.




In a skillet, I sauteed garlic (a lot of garlic--a LOT of garlic--far more than TJOC's recommendation) in olive oil.



The spinach was then added to the garlic. TJOC recommends cooking it for about 3-5 minutes but high altitude struck again and it took about twenty minutes.




The recipe recommends making a dipping sauce so I made Ginger soy sauce (p. 571).

This is an easy recipe. Start with ginger. I used my ginger from a tube (it looks gross but it IS real ginger).




Add a half-cup of soy sauce. That is a LOT of soy sauce.





How was it? Good but my mother makes a version of this that is much much better. Mom's recipe includes potatoes...and I thought the soy sauce was too soy saucey for spinach. I don't' think I would bother with the sauce again.


What was Josh doing while I was making tuna melts? Working on his beloved 1969 classic car with the dog. I told him that I would put their picture on the blog :) Who among my readers knows what kind of car this is?

Meatloaf I (p. 512), Meat Loaf Sandwich (p. 183), Thousand Island Dressing (p. 576), and Cabbage, Potatoes, and Ham (p. 263)

Meatloaf is something that I never really liked growing up. But the recipe looked fairly easy and I figured it was time to make something I wasn't really looking forward to. Unfortunately, there is actually a fairly significant list of recipes I'm not looking forward to and I have to sprinkle them throughout otherwise I'm afraid that I'm going to have a year of eating gross foods (granted, they might be better than I expect--terrines were on that list and the terrine on Top Chef looked pretty tasty, so I could be wrong). Mom always made meat loaf when I was growing up and I never really liked it--likely because she always jammed it full of onions and I don't really care for onions unless all the flavor is cooked out of them.

I made Meatloaf I (p. 512). It's a simple meatloaf recipe.

First step--mix beef (it specifies both chuck and round but I just used the generic ground beef from CostCo), onions, bread crumbs, catsup, parsley, eggs, tyme, salt, and pepper.



Mix it with your hands! It's so gushy--this part always reminds me of being a little kid and playing with play-doh (I LOVED play-doh!). The parsley isn't very well cut up--I really want one of those herb strippers from Williams-Sonoma because I get pretty bored with chopping parsley pretty quickly.

Stuff the meat mixture into a loaf pan. The recipe says to "mound" the mixture. I'm not sure how you are supposed to do that so I didn't really worry about it. Amusingly, after I raved about this recipe to my mom and she made it, she mentioned the same problem.

See...my lack of sniping the parsley means I have tiny bushes in the landscape of my meatloaf...



Bake it for until it's 160 degrees--and use your meat thermometer! It is supposed to "pull" away from sides, which it did.




How was it? REALLY good. I mean REALLY good. As someone who doesn't usually like meatloaf, this was DAMN good. I don't know why--there is nothing at all special or odd in the recipe. It must be the proportions. But it was just amazing. Mom said hers was great too when she made it so I have to put this on the "you should make immediately" list.

To optimize the meatloaf, I decide to make a Meat Loaf Sandwich (p. 183) for Josh. The bad part of this was that the second ingredient is either green goddess or thousand island dressing, neither of which I had. I decided to make Thousand Island Dressing (p. 576) so I could finish the sandwich recipe.


This recipe was really easy. Mix mayo, chili sauce or catsup (I used half of each), one hard-boiled egg, pickle relish, onion, chives (I used freeze dried), parsley, salt, and pepper.




The dressing was really tasty--much better than any thousand island dressing I've ever had out of a bottle. So far, the dressings in TJOC are perfection!

Back to the sandwich...

Bread, lettuce (I think I used spinach), onion, some meatloaf, and the dressing (which isn't included in this picture).



Josh said it was extremely tasty and went back for seconds, so if you make meatloaf, seriously considering making a meatloaf sandwich with your leftovers.

Cabbage is wonderfully cheap in the fall/winter so I decided to make Cabbage, Potatoes, and Ham (p. 263). The first step is to simmer some smoked ham hocks in some water




A cabbage is then added (trimmed, cored, and quartered...I still don't know how to core a cabbage so I just cut out the middle) and some potatoes (the recipe says quartered but I cut it into slightly smaller chunks).





The vegetables are then simmered for a while and drained, leading to...




So how was it? Really good! Not as good as the green bean, ham, potato mixture that I made a couple months ago...but still really good. And cheap! Good for the bad economic times :)

This is going to be another example of posting several blogs at once, so make sure to read them all! I'm also going to try to update the index, too.

Caramel Cupcakes (p. 738) , Quick Caramel Cake (722), and Caramel Icing (p. 792)

I'm going to do something I never do...I'm going to post these two posts as today and yesterday even though I cooked them weeks ago. Why? (I'm editing these to show that they were made weeks ago--I hate falsifying blog posts!). After I spent the whole day cooking (the dishes in these two posts) I started feeling absolutely terrible. And that is how I've been since and how I feel still. I have had more tests and specialist appointments in the last two and a half weeks then you could imagine. Apparently, it's either my kidneys or my gallbladder but the problem isn't solved yet and I can't stand for long enough to cook (and I was doing so well!). How am I going to do Thanksgiving? That's something for Percoset and I to worry about but it WILL happen. Thanksgiving is one of the best holidays for a LOT of TJOC recipes to get knocked out!


I decided to make cupcakes and thought I would try TJOC's baking recipes out again. As many of you know, I typically love baking, but I don't love baking at high altitude.

Looking over the cupcakes I decided to make Caramel Cupcakes (p. 738) which means that I have also made the Quick Caramel Cake (p. 722) because it's the exact same recipe (remember, sometimes TJOC reads like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure novel). Compounding this is the fact that the QCC tells you to make the Lightning Cake (p. 722) using brown sugar instead of white sugar and add nuts. So really, by making the one recipe, you have cooked through three of the recipes.

Everything should be at room temperature, so I set out the milk, eggs, and butter, and let them warm to room temperature.




This is a one-bowl cake so the dry ingredients (cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) are added and then the eggs, milk, and vanilla are added to the same bowl.




I don't know why I wasn't using my Kitchenaide but I used a hand mixer for the recipe. Next, the butter is mixed in. I adjusted everything in this recipe--I used more flour and milk and less sugar and baking powder, although it's still a bit of a crapshoot when it comes to adjusting for altitude.





The batter is beat for a while.



I folded in some chopped pecans at this point.

And the batter is dolloped into the cupcake pans!







On to the icing...the recipe recommends Caramel Icing (p. 792). Reading the recipe I realized that this is pretty much candy, so bring out the candy thermometer!

First step, combine brown sugar and heavy cream and stir, over heat, until dissolved. Cook until about 240 degrees. It already looked like caramel to me!

It goes from this:





To this:



Angry! As always with candy, DON'T STIR IT!

Remove it from the heat and float butter on the top. Then cool until 110 degrees.




This takes forever, so be prepared.




Eventually, it's cool enough. Add some vanilla and beat until cool, thick, and creamy (very vague, I hate directions like this). I beat it until it looked like this:



At this point, the butter was not soaking in at all. I've never made caramel's...is it normal for the butter to just leak around the candy? And if so, what's the point of adding it?

And the cupcakes are frosted!



How were they? First off, ugly. These cupcakes are not attractive, so don't make them for the annual bakesale. The cake part tasted like a fat cookie and the icing was more or less candy. So if you like big cookies frosted with candy, these are TOTALLY the cupcakes for you.