Don't Stop the Dance

Zoe Saldana photo credit. 

Nineteen eighty-five just might represent the apogee of the music video. Weak, qualified statements don't make for good arguments, however, so I'll take a deep breath and say it: The Eighties were the Golden Age of Music Video.

There. Solidity. Definition.

I've taken to asking people what one tune they can point to that categorically changed their lives. Music's a universal, so I figure that it's a useful common denominator that written or spoken language isn't. Others, strangers, musicians, express what we feel better than ourselves.

And although this isn't my all-time-change-tune, it's from 1985. The Golden Age. Let's not change the dance, eh?




Bottoms Up, Looking Back In Wisdomers.

Butternut Coconut Jam

With an abundance of butternut squash thanks to my CSA, I set out to try something different.  A quick perusal of my saved recipes and I found my inspiration.  Butternut coconut jam.  Oh yes.  Grated squash, cooked down to a jam-like consistency?  Awesome.

A unique addition to a cheese plate, this jam goes perfectly well with an assertive cheese.  I tried it with goat cheese, surprising no one :)

crostini w/goat cheese and butternut coconut jam

It also worked well in a pork tenderloin (1lb) that I stuffed with sage (1-2T), butternut coconut jam (1/2c) and gorgonzola (~1/3c).  I didn't write down an exact recipe, but it was similar to this technique.

stuffed pork tenderloin w/roasted brussels, sweet potatoes, onions and cranberries

Some other potential uses for the jam:
     as a cupcake filling
     inside a grilled cheese (w/sage or rosemary, nuts and/or apples)
     stirred into oatmeal
     on top of goat cheese ice cream
     in a fall s'more, between homemade graham crackers and marshmallows

Butternut Coconut Jam
adapted from The Kitch'n
Yield:

1 butternut squash (2-2.5lbs)
2c unsweetened almond milk
1 1/2c evaporated cane juice (or granulated sugar)
1/2c dark brown sugar (mine was unpacked)
1 cinnamon stick
8 whole cloves
2 vanilla beans
1c dried unsweetened coconut

Peel the butternut squash and cut into pieces.  Grate the squash (I used my food processor), or cut into small pieces.  Add squash, milk, sugars and spices into a large, heavy pot.  Split the vanilla beans and scrape out the seeds and add to the squash along with the scraped pods.  Cover and cook over medium heat until the squash is soft and tender (~15min or so).

Once the squash is tender, remove the cover and continue to cook on medium heat, stirring frequently until the mixture is reduced and thick like...  jam :)  Mine took ~1hr or so.  Remove from pan from the heat and stir in the coconut.  Once cool, fish out the cloves, cinnamon stick and vanilla bean pods.  I left the jam as-is as I wanted to retain some texture, but if you prefer a smooth jam mash or puree the mixture.  Store in the refrigerator.



How would you eat this butternut coconut jam?  Check back later this week for another use!

All The Power. Women Have All the Power.

 Elisabetta Gregoraci photo credit.

I know she was testing me, because no other explanation works.


The casually over-opened blouse, the lingering lean-over, these are the weapons of war. It's not a conventional war - in the parlance, this is an asymmetric battle.

Winning and losing are fuzzily defined. For instance, do I win or lose by giving into temptation, allowing my gaze to drop below her neck?  The upside is that I see some bra, definitely, and some portion of breast.
 .
If I steel myself and exhibit self-restraint by not checking her out, does she notice and figure that she needs more firepower next time? Or is she disgusted by failure to compliment her with a gaze at her goodies? 

Either way, I am outgunned and suffer from hopeless intelligence.


Bottoms Up, Wandering Eyes.

Look Ma Stuffed Tomatoes

On the phone with mom the other day I felt like a triple dirtbag. 1) I got super busy and didn't call her on her birthday. 2) I remembered as I was falling asleep that I needed to call her in the morning to make up for it, but then I overslept and was late and it slipped my mind. 3) Now I'm on the phone with my mom two days late and apologizing for not calling her on her birthday or the day after. Triple dirtbag. Then she lays this on me, "I've been reading your food blog. You're getting a little too precious with it."

A too-precious triple dirtbag. I hang my head.

So this one's for my ma, who taught me by example that you can make dinner out of whatever is in the pantry plus whatever anybody happened to bring home dead, to not waste anything, and now how not to be precious. Mom always bought in bulk and stored things in the freezer because you never know when you're going to need something, and that's a habit I've picked up as well.

I was responsible for a side dish for the buffet at the Mydyette-Hunter Thanksgiving feast, and not knowing precisely what people would want to eat, I got it in my head to make some stuffed baked tomatoes. Seemed like nobody could really object to a tomato. For the stuffing I imagined a savory pilaf, nothing too heavy. I started the rice by sweating some onion and garlic in a sauce pan with olive oil, then added the rice, some saffron, water and Vegeta. I didn't have any stock. Shame on me for not having stock. For normal fluffy rice I use 2 parts liquid to one part rice, but this was going to be cooked twice, so I cut the liquid back by about a third. I wanted the rice to be al dente when I stuffed the tomatoes with it so it would absorb the cooking juices from the tomato to complete its hydration.

In preparation I had got a bunch of hothouse tomatoes, so I cut the tops off them to make little hats and saved the tops on a wet paper towel in the fridge. I cut around the perimeter of each one to a depth of about an inch and a half, then hollowed out the insides with a spoon. I saved the insides in a big bowl and salted them to get the liquid to render. I'd need the liquid later.

When the rice was done to the point I could use it, I dumped it into a big mixing bowl to cool off, and added a bunch of chopped cashews. I tasted the mixture and it was good, but could use a little more complexity, so I went to the freezer, where I keep the pine nuts I buy in bulk (thank you mom), put a handful of pine nuts on the fire with some butter and browned them, then added them to the rice. They were toasty delicious. When the rice mixture was cool enough to handle, I chopped a couple of scallions, some cilantro and a bunch of mint leaves and stirred them in along with some olive oil and crushed Mexican oregano. The rice was a little too firm for easy packing into the tomatoes, so I ladled some tomato liquor from the bowl of middles into the rice to loosen it. I also tried a sip of the tomato liquor and it was delicious. Maybe Devin can devise another cocktail with it and open franchises in New Orleans. Sell them in big tomato-shaped goblets all shaved ice and rimmed with Old Bay. Call it a Tomatogarita or a Hurri-Tomatocane or a Mai-Tomato-Tai. Hang them off the necks of revelers with a lanyard and a long bendy straw. Have a mascot like the Kool-Aid man except a big tomato guy. People need work, why not. Franchise people in New Orleans call me.

I stuffed the tomatoes with the rice and arranged them in a shallow baking dish. I put the dish in the fridge to wait for morning, but reserved four of them for Heather's dinner. Those four went into a small tin and got baked in a 350 oven for about 30 minutes covered in foil. When they were soft and giving, I doused them with another little shot of the tomato liquor to refresh the rice, then shredded some parmigiano on top, drizzled them with olive oil and  browned them under the broiler for a few minutes. To balance them on the plate, I cut some croutons from some leftover skillet soda bread I made after watching Jacques Pepin do it on TV.

The tomatoes were delicious. The hot, astringent juice made a perfect compliment to the sturdy, rich interior, and the par-cooked rice didn't degenerate into mush. The tomatoes I cooked for Thanksgiving got a little mound of bread crumb mix made of panko, parmigiano, olive oil and black pepper instead of the cheese, and it browned to a nicer effect, adding a crisply toasted element. I had intended to put the little tomato hats back on for presentation but forgot all about them. If anybody has a suggestion for what to do with the little tomato hats, please let me know.* When we ate the tomatoes at Thanksgiving, I heard from the other guests about a supposed pine nut shortage that had recently crippled kitchens all over, and felt an unusual pride in having learned to buy in bulk.

Thank you mom, and happy birthday.

Mom in Hawaii for our wedding. We bought in bulk.

*You get a little tomato hat with your Tomatogarita.

The Best Post-Thanksgiving Comfort Food: Turkey Dumpling Stew

Usually on Thanksgiving between 20-25 people come over for dinner. This year we had a smaller group. With 15, we had time to talk and there wasn't quite as much work getting the meal ready. Out of habit, though, we bought the same size turkey we always buy, a 25 pounder. So we assumed we'd have a lot of food left over, enough for several days of sandwiches.

When we looked in the refrigerator on Friday, we were surprised that we had very little cranberry sauce, almost no stuffing, and only enough white meat for a couple of sandwiches. But, happily, we did have a lot of dark meat and almost a gallon of turkey stock we'd made Thanksgiving night.

For our day after Thanksgiving dinner, I didn't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen and I wanted a good comfort meal. Dumplings with anything is always great, but with richly flavored turkey stew, there's nothing more satisfying.

Turkey Stew with Dumplings and Vegetables

Yield: 4-6 servings

Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

4 cups cooked, shredded turkey dark meat

6 cups turkey stock (fat removed)

2 carrots (washed, peeled, ends removed, chopped into thick rounds)

2 sweet potatoes (cooked, skins removed, roughly chopped)

1 medium yellow onion (peeled, ends removed, roughly chopped)

1 ear of corn (kernels removed) or 1 cup of canned or frozen corn

1 celery stalk (washed, ends removed, roughly chopped)

1/2 cup brown or shiitake mushrooms (washed, thinly sliced)

4 garlic cloves (peeled, finely chopped)

1/2 cup Italian parsley (leaves only, finely chopped)

1 small bunch spinach (washed thoroughly, stems removed)

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon sweet butter

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 - 3/4 cup half and half

Olive oil

Sea salt and pepper

Method

In a dutch oven or a frying pan with tall sides, sauté the carrots, garlic, celery, mushrooms, onions, corn, and parsley in olive oil until lightly browned. Season with sea salt and pepper. Add the shredded turkey, cooked sweet potatoes, and turkey stock. Simmer. Drop in the spinach and cook for 10 minutes or until the spinach has wilted. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

To make the dumplings, mix together the flour, baking soda, sugar, season with sea salt and pepper in a bowl. Finely chop the butter, add to the flour and mix well. Slowly pour in the half and half, stirring until the batter has a thick consistency. Using 2 spoons, make dumplings and ease them them into the hot liquid.

Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve with a salad and a baguette.

Variations

Add 2 tablespoons finely chopped scallions or Italian parsley to the dumplings.

Add 2 tablespoons finely chopped roasted red peppers to the dumplings.

Apple Crisp

I hope everyone in the states had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday!  I'm still feeling quite grateful, for my family, for my friends... for you.  Thank you for reading and for making me smile with every comment :)

Guess what I made for you?  Apple crisp!  Fitting, I think, as apple crisp makes me think of my mom.  Along with blueberry and strawberry-rhubarb pies, it is one of her go-to desserts in the fall.

Apple Crisp w/Rosemary & Honey
Recipe by Shannon

5-6 lg apples
1T arrowroot
1t fresh lemon juice
1/2-1t freshly chopped rosemary
1t vanilla extract
1/4c clover honey

1/3c oat flour (ground oats)
1/3c brown sugar
1/3c rolled oats
1/3c chopped pecans or walnuts
1/4t salt
1/4-1/2t freshly grated nutmeg
2T extra virgin olive oil (or melted butter)

Preheat oven to 350deg.

Add chopped apples to a large bowl.  Add arrowroot, lemon juice, rosemary, vanilla and honey and toss to combine.  Pour into a large casserole (a 9x13" pan or two smaller ones).

In a small bowl, combine flour, sugar, oats, nuts, salt and nutmeg.  Add oil and stir together.  Sprinkle over the apple mixture.  Bake, until the topping is browned and apples bubbling, ~30-45min.

In case you were looking for recipes to use some leftover turkey...
Curried Turkey Salad
Crustless Turkey and Spinach Quiche
Spicy Turkey Soup w/Yogurt, Chickpeas & Mint
Sweet Potato Hash with Turkey & Eggs


What was the best thing you ate yesterday??

I Want to Buy You Shoes. Not Really.

People are such sticklers for what's right and wrong to say on a date. Or what to/not to wear. Enthusiasm for strippers creates contempt. And honesty gets you ejected from the train one stop short of that.

Then again, there might be a reason why women react poorly to all of the above. Plus they hate manboobs.

Worth a read.



Bottoms Up, Over-Reachers.

Groupon

Before too long, we won't refer to people as:

This is Amelia - she's from my book club.

It'll be all:

Let me introduce Suzette - we're members of the same swingers' group.

Which has benefits. Instead of ploughing through insufferable Oprah-approved tomes of PC claptrap, we'll be talking about...how that broad likes being ploughed wheelbarrow-style, how that one likes a little suffocation, and how to deal with The Clap. In a mutually supportive and compassionate way, of course. 

Swingers, too, want to make a difference. Or, more accurately, want someone different - a lot of someones different. It's all the same, though, right?

Be careful, however. Not everyone is hip to group sex as the new social networking. Pity Deborah Sherman, who lost her gig with a Denver television station. As the Denver Post delicately asked:

Did her termination have something to do with the story about a prescription-abusing doctor, whom Sherman met on a swinger website? 

Titanic. Debster's been unfairly victimized here, but I sense there's more to the story. Work for an investigative journalist perhaps?



Bottoms Up, Bottoms Uppers.

Cranberry Upside Down Cake

Cranberries are traditionally part of Thanksgiving dinner, but I wanted to come up with a slightly different way to highlight these rubies.  Deciding upon a cranberry upside-down cake, I consulted no fewer than 10 recipes for various upside-down cakes, cranberry and otherwise.  None were quite what I was envisioning, so I got to work on my own recipe.  Maple and orange were invited to the party, and a little semolina flour helped add some depth to the thin layer of cake.

Cranberries swimming in a browned-butter maple caramel

It smelled heavenly while cooking (I mean, it's essentially a browned butter caramel that ends up topping the cake), and it was delicious.   This would be a fantastic addition to your Thanksgiving table, and it might very well end up at mine again!

Cake, pre-bake

The best part about this cake?  It had nothing to do with the creative process of developing the recipe, my healthy modifications, or even how it tasted.  It was who I got to share it with.  Good friends, whom I wouldn't have met had it not been for this blog (thankful!).  We divided and conquered the meal, leaving us with time to catch up, share some laughs, relax and imbibe.

Good living isn't only about the food you eat, it's about who you get to eat it with.

Cranberry Upside-Down Cake
Recipe by Shannon
Serves 8-12

A few notes on this cake;  the cake is not too sweet and could totally pass as breakfast.  The maple sugar imparts a subtle maple flavor, but if you can't find it feel free to substitute the regular stuff.  It also could be baked in a smaller skillet if you prefer a thicker layer of cake, increase the baking time a bit.

4T butter
1c maple sugar, divided
1T maple syrup
1/4c water
2 1/2c cranberries
1c white whole wheat flour
1/2c semolina flour  (or AP flour)
1/4-1/2t orange zest (I eye-balled this)
2t baking powder
1/4t salt
2 lg eggs
1c greek yogurt (I use 2%)
6T neutral oil (I used 2T melted coconut oil and 4T canola)

In an oven-proof 12" skillet, melt butter over medium heat until it starts to brown and smell nutty.  Whisk in 1/2c maple sugar, maple syrup and water and remove from the heat.  Let cool.

Preheat oven to 350deg.

Add cranberries to the skillet once cool, making sure to cover the surface of the skillet.  Sift dry ingredients (flours through salt) together into a medium bowl.  In a separate large bowl, whisk together eggs, yogurt, oil and 1/2c maple sugar.  Add dry ingredients and stir until just combined.  Dollup the batter onto the cranberries and spread into an even layer.   Bake for 35-45min, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes clean.

Cool the cake for 15min.  Place a plate/platter on top of the cake, then flip the skillet over and remove the skillet from on top of the cake.  Serve warm or RT.

Suggested accompaniments:  maple greek yogurt, maple whipped cream or ice cream

**Edited to add:  If you don't have a large enough skillet, you can also prepare this in a springform pan or cake pan.  Simply prepare the caramel sauce in a saucepan, and then pour into your desired pan lined with parchment paper (sprayed with nonstick spray on both sides).  Add cranberries (you might not need as much) and then proceed as above.  Adjust the cooking time according to the size of your pan and thickness of the batter.

As part of the Foodbuzz Featured Publisher program, I have been entered for the chance to win a trip to Greece courtesy of FAGE.  You too can enter to win one of three trips to Greece by entering the FAGE Plain Extraordinary Greek Getaway here:  http://www.fageusa.com/community/fage-greek-getaway.

Buffing Your Lucky

Here's a recipe:

  ~ Find one ripe woman whose divorce finalized within the last week.

  ~ Add five of her sorority sisters in town for the weekend.

  ~  Wrap all six in sexy dresses and tasty heels.

  ~ Supply them with two cars and designated drivers for the night. 

  ~ Marinate the ladies in quality vodka and just enough bar snacks.

Serve to any lecherous man within five-inch heel walking distance.

After a couple of hours and three nightspots, the mission of the night became clear - to find the recently singlefied Sister a new man. In essence, her married Greeks chat up whatever blokes they found with complete deniability - it's not for them, they're finding a new dude for her.

They're buffing her lucky. (Peals of uninhibited laughter.)








Bottoms Up, Pledgers.

Persimmon Apple Spice Bread

Fuyu persimmons

In late fall I look towards the appearance of persimmons in the market.  No, they're not grown locally, but they're in season somewhere, and that's ok in my book.

Trying your first persimmon shouldn't be taken lightly.  One variety (hachiya) is quite astringent when unripe, so you want to be a little careful!  The short, squat variety (fuyu) can be eaten at any time like an apple, but the acorn shaped ones must be ripe (very soft, almost mushy and bright orange) before using the flesh. 

Wanting to embrace the season, I added in another fall favorite, apples!  Together with some Chinese Five Spice I had picked up awhile back,  you've got a deliciously warming quickbread that's perfect for breakfast, a snack, or an addition to brunch.

Persimmon Apple Spice Bread
adapted from Food Blogga
Yield:  5 small loaves

You could certainly bake this in 2 normal loaf pans or even muffin tins, just adjust the baking time accordingly.

1 3/4c white whole wheat flour
3/4c AP flour
1 1/2t baking soda
3/4t baking powder
1t salt
1t Chinese Five Spice
1/2t cinnamon
1/2t nutmeg
1 1/4c evaporated cane juice (or granulated sugar)

3 lg eggs
1/2c oil or melted butter (I used a mix of melted coconut oil and extra virgin olive oil)
1/4c unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2c pureed persimmon pulp (traditionally made from hachiyas, but fuyus will also work)
3/4c chopped apple
3/4c toasted walnuts

Preheat oven to 350deg.

Add the dry ingredients (flour through sugar) to a medium bowl and whisk to combine.  Add toasted walnuts and toss to combine.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs.  Add oil/butter, applesauce and persimmon pulp and whisk to combine.  Add dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined.  Fold in the chopped apples.  Divide into mini loaf pans sprayed with nonstick spray.  Bake for 25-35min, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes clean.  Cool on a rack.

Serve warm or room temp, apple butter optional!  Wrap leftovers tightly in plastic wrap to store for a few days, or freeze to enjoy at a later date.

If you're looking for different persimmon recipes, try  persimmon pudding, fall harvest muffins, persimmon cookies and persimmon date bread!

If you've tried persimmons, how would you describe the taste??  I was struggling with this, but I'd say sweet, with hints of honey or mango.  I'd like to know your thoughts!

Thanksgiving Dinner Recipes: Turkey, Stuffing, Appetizers, Side Dishes & Dessert

For Thanksgiving we keep it simple. We don't brine our turkey or do anything exotic with seasonings.

Friends and family contribute desserts. Cousin Leslie makes a pumpkin pie. Cousin Ron (hopefully) will make homemade ice cream. Our friends Clay and Lesli are having dinner with another friend this year so we'll miss her mixed berry fruit salad.

I've been making miniature chocolate bars, which I think are very cool, so I'll make those as an addition to the dessert table.

We'll straighten up around the house. I'll finally throw out those stacks of newspapers I wanted to go through.

If we have time, we'd like to find a new tablecloth for the dining room table. But if we can't find one, the old one will do since there will be so many platters of food, plates, glasses and silverware on the table you'll be hard pressed to see the tablecloth anyway.

We'll cover the bottom of the oven with aluminum foil so clean up after the meal is easier. Cleaning out the refrigerator makes room for the turkey after we pick it up from the grocery store and so there's space for all those delicious left-overs after the meal.

Besides shopping at the grocery store we'll visit our local farmers market to pick up fresh vegetables for the sides dishes: beets, sweet potatoes, lettuce, celery, carrots, mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, corn, leeks, and onions.

We'll buy an organic turkey and use the neck, heart and gizzard to make stock for the gravy and the liver to make a mushroom-garlic pate.

Even though Thanksgiving is a lot of work, the key is organization. Writing up a menu is the first step, pulling out our favorite recipes, making a shopping list, and finally creating a time-line for the day before Thanksgiving and the day of the meal.

STUFFING, TURKEY AND GRAVY

Corn Bread Stuffing with Sausages, Dried Apricots, and Pecans

The most important part of the meal is the turkey and no turkey is complete without great stuffing.

Over the years my wife has developed a crowd-pleasing stuffing with a contrast of textures: soft (corn bread), spicy (sausage), chewy (dried apricots), and crunchy (pecans).

Yield: 15-20 servings

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

2 boxes corn bread mix

3 celery stalks, washed, ends trimmed, leaves discarded

1 pound mushrooms, brown, shiitake, or portabella, washed, pat dried, finely chopped

2 medium yellow onions, peeled, ends removed, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, peeled, finely chopped

1 stick sweet butter

1 1/2 cups turkey or chicken stock

4 Italian style sweet sausages

1 cup dried apricots, finely chopped

1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped

Sea salt and pepper

Method

Make the corn bread the night before and leave the pan on the counter so the corn bread dries out. Use any cornbread mix you like. My wife uses Jiffy. It's inexpensive and tastes great. The instructions are on the box.

Saute the sausages whole in a frying pan with a little olive oil until browned, remove, cut into bite-sized pieces, and set aside. Pour off the excess fat. Add the celery, mushrooms, onion, and garlic into the pan with the stick of butter and saute. Season with sea salt and pepper. Cook until lightly browned, then add stock and summer 15 minutes.

Cut the cornbread into chunks and crumble into a large mixing bowl. Add the apricots, pecans, and the saute. Stir well and set aside until you're ready to stuff the turkey.

Roast Turkey

The most difficult part about cooking a turkey is size. Even a 15 pound turkey is larger than any roast you'll ever cook, so it's important to have somebody around to help strong-arm the turkey.

The rule of thumb about cooking time is 15-20 minutes per pound at 325 degrees but there are so many variables, you can also use a roasting thermometer and, our preferred method, jiggle-the-leg and if it almost comes off, the turkey's done.

Yield: 20-25 servings

Time: 7-8 hours

Ingredients

1 turkey, 23-25 pounds

Olive oil

Sea salt and pepper

Method

Unwrap the turkey. Remove the packet with the liver, neck, heart, and giblet. Use a pair of pliers to remove the piece of wire that holds the legs. It can be a real pain to get the wire off. Wash the turkey inside and out.  Pat dry on the outside.

Reserve the liver to make a turkey mushroom-garlic pate. 

Put the neck, heart, and giblet into a large saucepan with a lot of water, at least five inches higher than the turkey pieces. Replenish whatever water boils off. Simmer for 2-3 hours or until the meat on the neck falls off if you touch it with a fork. Strain the stock and reserve to use for gravy. Pull the meat off the neck and save to make turkey soup. Use the giblets in the gravy.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

The next step is easier with a friend. Drizzle olive oil on the outside of the turkey. Using your hands spread the oil over the entire bird, front and back. Sprinkle sea salt and black pepper inside the cavity and on the outside.

To put in the stuffing, either my wife or I holds the turkey upright and steady while the other loosely packs the stuffing inside the large cavity, one handful at a time.

Use 8-12 metal skewers and kitchen string to close the large cavity. Carefully turn the turkey over so you can put stuffing into the top area. Use 6-8 skewers and string to close that cavity.

Use any kind of roasting pan. Whether you use a disposable aluminum foil pan or an expensive stainless steel roasting pan from William Sonoma, the result will be the same. The important thing to remember is the pan must be at least 2" wider than the turkey, otherwise as the bird cooks, its juices will drip onto the bottom of your stove and make a mess. To insure that the turkey browns evenly, you'll need a wire rack.

Place the turkey on the rack, breast down and put into the oven. After 30 minutes, reduce the temperature to 350 degrees.

After that, every 30 minutes, baste the turkey with the fat that drips down into the pan. If the skin starts to brown too quickly, put an aluminum tent over the top.

After 3 hours, turn the turkey over. With a large bird this is easier said than done because now the turkey is not only heavy, it's very hot.

Another set of hands is a big help here. My wife and I have choreographed this crucial moment. I lift the roasting pan with the turkey out of the oven, placing it on the cutting board. Michelle stands at the ready with a pot holder in each hand. 

As I lift the rack with the turkey, she removes the pan. I flip the rack with the turkey onto the cutting board, having first put a kitchen towel along the edge to prevent juices from falling to the floor.

We pour all the juices and fat from the pan into a basting bowl, scrapping off the flavor bits on the bottom of the pan to make gravy.

The rack goes back into the pan. The turkey goes onto the rack, breast side up. After a good basting, the turkey goes back in the oven, covered with an aluminum foil tent.

As the turkey continues to cook, if the wing tips and drumstick ends brown too quickly, wrap them in aluminum foil.

Continue basting every 30 minutes. When the turkey is finished, remove from the oven and let rest 5 minutes.

Carve the turkey on a cutting board, removing the wings first, then the legs, thighs, and the breasts. Either place the pieces on the platter whole, to be carved at the table, or sliced for easy serving. Open the cavities and spoon out the stuffing.

Mushroom-Giblet Gravy

While the turkey is cooking, start the gravy.

Yield: 15-20 servings

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

2 medium yellow onions, peeled, ends removed, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, peeled, finely chopped

1 turkey giblet, cooked, grizzle removed, finely chopped

2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary, tarragon, or Italian parsley

1/2 pound mushrooms, brown, shiitake, or portabella, washed, finely chopped or sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups turkey stock made with the turkey heart, giblet and neck

Sea salt and pepper

Method

Place the turkey heart, giblet and neck into a large sauce pan and cover with water. Simmer for 3-4 hours or until the neck meat is falling off the bone. Add water as needed to keep the turkey parts covered. Reserve the giblet for the gravy. Pick the meat off the neck for the gravy as well. Discard the heart.

Sauté the giblet, onions, garlic, fresh herbs, and mushrooms until lightly browned. Add turkey stock and the flavor bits you scraped off the roasting pan, simmer and reduce by 1/3. Taste and adjust the flavors. If too salty, add more stock and a pat of sweet (unsalted) butter.

Reheat before serving.

Turkey Stock

When you're eating Thanksgiving dinner, odds are you aren't thinking about your next meal, but I am. 

Admittedly, it's a bit obsessive, but before I sit down to join the dinner, all the bones and scraps go into a large stock pot filled with water. By the time we're clearing the table, the stock is finished.

Turkey stock is rich and flavorful. Perfect for making soups, stews, and pasta sauce, and like chicken stock, freezes beautifully.

Yield: 15-20 servings

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

1 turkey carcass, skin, scraps

Water

Method

Put the carcass into a large pot. If any of stuffing makes it into the pot, all the better for flavor and richness. Cover the bones with water. Simmer 1 hour. Strain and refrigerate. Pick the meat off the bones to use in a soup or stew.

The stock keeps in the freezer for six months.

SIDE DISHES

Side dishes need to be flavorful and easy to make.

Everyone has their favorites. Here are ours: Roasted Whole Tomatoes, Arugula Salad with Hazelnuts, Carrots, and Avocadoes, Grilled Vegetable Couscous Salad, Blackened Peppers with Capers, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, and, my new favorite, baked sweet potatoes stuffed with a garlic-mushroom sauté.

Baked Sweet Potatoes with Sautéed Shallots, Garlic, and Mushrooms

I prefer sweet potatoes that have a bright orange flesh. Find ones that are slender, appropriate as a single serving. For a dinner party, pick ones that are about the same size.

Yield: 4 servings

Time: 2 1/2 hours

Ingredients

4 sweet potatoes, washed, skins on

2 teaspoons sweet butter

1 cup shallots, peeled, thinly sliced

1 cup brown or shiitake mushrooms, washed, dried, thinly sliced

6 garlic cloves, peeled, finely chopped

1/4 cup Italian parsley leaves only, washed, finely chopped

Olive oil

Sea salt and pepper

Cayenne (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wrap each sweet potato in tin foil, place in the oven, turn every 30 minutes. Depending on your oven and the size of the sweet potatoes, they can take anywhere from 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours. When the sweet potatoes are soft to the touch, they are done.

While the sweet potatoes are in the oven, drizzle olive oil in a frying pan, season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper, and sauté the shallots, garlic, parsley, and mushrooms until lightly browned.

Remove and discard the tin foil. Take a sharp paring knife and slice each sweet potato open the long way. Using your fingers, push the sweet potato in from the ends so the cut section opens like a flower. Add 1/2 teaspoon of butter and a light dusting of cayenne (optional). Top with the shallot-mushroom sauté and serve.

DESSERT

We always have a half dozen desserts, ranging from custards to apple pies with crystalized ginger crusts but my absolute favorite is a light and chocolaty banana cake.

Banana Cake with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts

For a festive presentation we use a castle mould and dust the top with powdered sugar to give the cake a happy snowy look.

Yield: 8-10 servings

Time: 90 minutes

Ingredients

4 ripe bananas

1 1/2 tablespoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sweet butter, room temperature

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup half and half or 1 cup heavy cream

2 1/2 cups white flour

Pinch of sea salt

Pinch of cayenne

1/2 cup raw walnuts

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter and paint the inside of a 9 x 3 round cake pan, then put the pan in the freezer for 30 minutes. (The frozen butter prevents the batter from sticking to the pan.) On a cookie sheet bake the walnuts in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, turning every 5 minutes or so; let cool, roughly chop, and set aside.

In a bowl mash the bananas with a fork, add the baking soda and vanilla. stir well and set aside. In a mixer use the whisk to cream together the softened butter and both sugars. Add the eggs, mashed bananas, half and half (or cream) and whisk until blended. Mix in the flour half a cup at a time, being careful not to over-beat. Remove the bowl from the mixer. Use a rubber spatula to blend in the walnuts and chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the buttered cake pan; it will only fill the pan half-way.

Bake the cake in a 350 oven for 60-70 minutes, turning the pan every 20 minutes so the cake cooks evenly.  Test to see if the cake is done by inserting a wooden skewer. If the top is browning too quickly, lightly lay a sheet of aluminum foil over the top. When the skewer comes out clean, take the cake out of the oven and place on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan, putting it back on the wire rack to finish cooling.

Just before serving, dust the top with powdered sugar and shaved chocolate. Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream.

Planning Thanksgiving So You Don't Make Yourself Crazy

If you are hosting the meal, Thanksgiving is the best of times and the worst of times.

For my mother, Thanksgiving was the best holiday of the year and I agree with her whole heartedly.

Thanksgiving gives us time to pause and enjoy our family and friends.

But hosting the meal can seem daunting. So many details to take care of, so much food to get on the table and so much to clean up.

How do restaurants and caterers deal with the stress of putting on big events?

They plan out every detail so there are no surprises.

The Guest List


Start with the guest list. Most importantly you'll need to know how many people are coming. That will tell you how many chairs you'll need and how big the dinning room table has to be.

These days, many people have dietary restrictions, so it is good to know that as well. Along with the invitation, ask if there are ingredients or foods your guests need to avoid.

If you expect a lot of children, decide where you want them to play and organize that space as carefully as the dinning room.

Recipes


Write up the menu.

If friends and family want to contribute to the meal, work out who will bring what. Give people assignments so you don't end up with three platters of green beans and no pumpkin pie.

Organize your recipes and do the math. Most recipes are written for 4 servings. Given the number of your guests, make the appropriate multiplication.

Go through the ingredient lists for all dishes and write up a master ingredients list. For example, if the stuffing recipe calls for 1 cup of mushrooms and the gravy recipe needs 1/2 cup of mushrooms, you know you need a total of 1 1/2 cups of mushrooms for the meal. Put that on your ingredients list.

Once you have a master list, divide up which ingredients you want to buy at farmers markets, specialty stores (like bakeries and cheese shops) and the supermarket.

We rely on farmers markets for fresh produce. In our neighborhood, four days from Thanksgiving, we'll shop at the Sunday Palisades farmers market for produce that can last most of a week: root vegetables like beets from Underwood Farm or yams and sweet potatoes from Yang Farms and G Farms for pluots and oranges.

For us, the Wednesday Santa Monica farmers market is a good place to pick up leafy greens, berries and fresh fruit. Any farmers market the day before Thanksgiving is going to be crowded, so get there early before the crowds.

If you want a specialty turkey (organic, kosher, heritage), it would be good to order your bird now from your local butcher or supermarket.


Time Line


Just about as important as settling on the menu is understanding what needs to be done and when.

Put into your time line details like when you will clean the house, wash and dry the tablecloth, check and clean all the dishes, silverware and glasses you want to use and, if you don't have enough, when you will pick up what you need to borrow from a friend.

Do you have enough chairs? If not, when you will pick up extra ones and from where.

Also indicate when you will pick up flowers and the turkey.

If you are ordering a cake from a local baker or a ready-to-serve dinner, put that into your time line, and check when they open and close. You wouldn't want your guests to miss enjoying your turkey because you arrived after the store was closed.

To figure out the time line for your menu, sit down at the dining room table with a pad of paper, a pen and a glass of wine or cup of tea and organize the dishes in terms of preparation and cooking time.

Some dishes can be prepped or made the day before. For instance, we always serve a roasted beet salad that we make on Wednesday. We also wash, dry and wrap in aluminum foil the sweet potatoes and baked potatoes that we will cook Thursday.

If you are buying a ready-to-serve meal, you still have to allow time to reheat the dinner. If you are cooking the entire meal, which we love doing even if it makes the day crazy-hectic, you need to account for every minute of the day.

Our kitchen is the size of a New York closet, which I like because I don't have to move much when I want to go from the sink to the stove, but when there are two or more people in that small space, it can get kind of hectic.

In our small kitchen, we have a Wolf stove. I love the six burners, which helps big time on Thanksgiving but because there is only one oven, we have to strategize when to bake our pies since the turkey will monopolize the oven for most of the day.

Planning out the day in as detailed as possible, helps keep the craziness manageable and fun.

We write up a schedule for the day that looks something like this:

6:00am wash and prep the turkey
6:15am saute onions, Italian sausage, shiitake mushrooms, parsley and garlic for the stuffing
6:30am preheat the oven to 350F degrees
7:00am put the turkey in the oven
7:30am make the cranberry sauce

And so on, going hour by hour, we backtime each dish so we know when it has to be cooked so it will be on the table at 3:00pm when we want to serve dinner.


Clean up

Don't forget to preplan clean up.

Work out who will be doing clean up during the meal. As courses are finished, serving platters and plates need to be cleared.

Since our house is small and the kitchen is open to the dining room, we clean as we go. After each course, we are joined by members of the dinner party who help bus the dishes and silverware into the kitchen. After they help clean up between courses, they reset the table with clean plates.

We have a tradition of taking a walk with our friends and family walk around the block after the entrees, before desserts are served. A selected few remain behind to clean up the dining room and kitchen so when everyone returns, desserts are on the table with fresh plates and silverware.

Having organized clean up as part of the meal, the kitchen is in good shape and we can enjoy dessert. With a little bit of planning, Thanksgiving is a lot more fun.

Sexy is as Sexy Does

 Catherine Bell's cleavage credit.

Be advised that anything I write about online dating refers to women only. Although you would think that checking out the opposition [read: other guys hawking their fork] a smart strategy, doing so is beyond me. Comfort with one's sexuality is one thing - deliberately investigating dudes is quite another.

Can't. Tell. Internet. I. Want. To. Look. At. Men.

So I rely on you, dear reader, to tell stories of male profile quirks.

Spectacular as bulk online Lady Catalogues are, my interest is in the detail. One popular specific self-descriptor is that of "sexy", as in:

"...I'm a sexy, giving, mother of two looking to find a real man..."

I see. A cynic might translate this as:

"...I like sex (a lot) but will be restricted by these damn kids and your own dick's reliability..."

But I'm not a cynic. I'm a realist, and therefore think that sexiness lies in the eye of the beholder.  Surely I get to determine if you're sexy?...And your very presence online contraindicates.

Hmmm. Perhaps I am a cynic.




Bottoms Up, Self- Assessors.

Pan Roasted Pineapple in Prosciutto with Li Hing and Umeboshi

My li hing mui obsession continues to find opportunities to express itself. Here's the next shot.

The celeriac skordalia was a big hit with H-Bomb. I call Heather H-Bomb sometimes. She hates it*. The last time I made celeriac I ended up with a little left over, so I needed something to serve on it as a main course. One of my favorite Hawaiian li hing items is fresh pineapple with li hing sprinkled on it. It's totally delicious, spicy and weird. At one of the PRF barbecues I was treated to some grilled pineapple rings wrapped in bacon, served with a spicy barbecue sauce. They were savory, hot and sweet and I thought I could make a version of them spiced up with li hing that would go well with the celeriac.

I'm a fan of bacon as an ingredient in its own right, but not so much of using it to dress up other things. It's such a strong flavor it tends to become the focal point of whatever it's used on, and that aspect has become quite a gimmick problem solver in professional kitchens. Dull menu item? Slap bacon on it, especially if it's incongruous, and tell the wait staff to crow about it and pull a face when they say the word "bacon."  Baconizing the mundane is now a first option, and has already worn out its welcome on me. I've seen bacon-slapped doughnuts, chocolate bars, brownies and baked items, bacon fat-infused coffee, ice cream and jelly. The baconification of restaurant food has even made me tired of the more traditional -- now ubiquitous -- bacon-topped sea food and poultry. My bacon nerves are pretty well shot at the moment, but at the point I was served the bacon-wrapped pineapple mentioned above I was still vulnerable to its charms, and I wanted to do justice to that younger, less jaded response.

Wherever bacon would be rude, I've had some joy substituting prosciutto, which seems to deliver a satisfying savory richness without being an obstacle to what lies beneath it. Lardo does just as well, but tends to read as butter rather than meat, and the celeriac needs a substantial entree to compete with its savory personality, not buttered fruit.

I cut a pineapple ring approximately 1.5" thick, then into six segments, making roughly pyramidal chunks, then dusted them all over with li hing powder, which instantly stained them a brilliant crimson. The color of li hing is probably largely synthetic, since the powder is made from a pickled plum, similar to the light pink umeboshi common to Japanese rice balls. I was intrigued by this difference, so I took out a jar of umeboshi to compare the two. As soon as I opened the jar, it occurred to me to include a piece of umeboshi in the parcel to provide a sour counterpoint to the sweet pineapple. I wrapped a pitted umeboshi plum with each piece of pineapple in the prosciutto, overlapping to bind it to itself closed. Since the pieces would cook quickly, I collected them on a plate to cook simultaneously. I presumed the prosciutto and li hing would be salty enough that I wouldn't need to season the hunks separately.

I pan-roasted the pineapple chunks in a skillet just barely wiped with olive oil. I didn't want to risk trapping any frying oils in the folds of the prosciutto or the crevices of the pineapple underneath. The prosciutto both rendered and crisped nicely, the fat becoming instantly transparent and the meat becoming red and supple before browning and shrinking to enrobe the pineapple. The little things looked cool as hell, and I couldn't resist eating one piping hot. It was delicious and reasonably balanced, though mild, so I made a quick vinaigrette to spice up the plate out of an egg yolk, some Sriracha, mustard, lime juice, soy sauce and garlic. I plated the celeriac skordalia first, then plunked the pineapple chunks on top, doused the plate with the vinaigrette and garnished with some alley mint leaves.

Heather was less taken with the pineapple than I was. "I'm not so into fruit for dinner," she said. I wish I could say I was unhappy she had eaten all the celeriac and left most of the pineapple chunks, but whatever emotional pain I felt was soothed by wolfing the things down like a snuffling pig.

* Really, she hates it.