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United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

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Thursday, November 28, 2002

End in sight...turducken out, resting. scrapped the glazed carrots and hollandaise, onions almost caramelized, broccoli steaming, mushrooms ready to saute, then giblet gravy and dinner shortly after 6pm. A little friction because of the lateness, but it vanishes when we realize why we're doing all this - no matter how rough it's been this year, there are still many reasons to be thankful. Happy Thanksgiving!   5:44:49 PM    comment []

Another midstream adjustment...and the 5:00pm target dinner time looks good. Elizabeth helped me, uh, flip the bird about 20 minutes ago. With the Polder probe inserted on the back side, between the wings, the temperatire read 154F - 9 degrees mores than the breast. The boys are watching Evil Dead and many of the scenes remind me of the hours spent deboning 3 birds, not so long ago. I kicked the oven up to 300F to brown the bird-thing a little better. Basting seems in order too, looks like I'm following the endgame of the NYT recipe at this point. 4:00:13 PM    comment []

Liz wants to be called Elizabeth today. Right now, she's peeling potatoes, so I guess that's compensation. The bird is only at 138F and I'd hoped it would be almost done by now, but dinner's at 5 and there's time. We're turning it over when it hits 145F. All those bones. They simmered in the stock pot overnight with carrots, celery, and onion. Just drained it and the aroma was hypnotic. The stock is rich and slightly orange. It will be made into gravy in the pan the mushrooms saute in, with the giblets cut up and thrown in. The "boys" just arrived...gotta go. 2:41:05 PM    comment []

Successive Approximation: Checked Out Newton's Law Of Heating And Cooling first, then I took the foil off the turducken and moved the thermometer probe to the edge of the roasting pan (from the top of the oven). Another probe was inserted into the thick of the breast, it's reading 123F and the probe at the bottom reads lower than it did at the top. I've forgotten how to do math, the hell with Newton, the oven needs to be a little warmer if this thing is gonna be done by 3pm. 11:44:58 AM    comment []

Going on the menu... Horseradish Mashed Potatoes with Caramelized Onions  (adding parsips too) Cranberry-Orange Rellish (not blended, slowly cooked until the cranberries pop) Glazed Carrots Broccoli with Hollandaise Sauteed Mushroom Potpourri (potrobellos, enokis, oyster) maybe more to come... 11:36:07 AM    comment []

Operation Haggis helped defeat Hitler! The fictional invasion of Norway was given a humbler name, Operation Omnibus. Codenames bestowed on Mutt and Jeff's other exploits almost descended into farce. They include Operations Porridge, Oatmeal, Guy Fawkes and Haggis. But Germany appears to have believed them all. Thanks to Jan Haugland at Secular Blasphemy for reminding me of the crucial role of offal in human history! 5:00:35 AM    comment []

Scott Rosenberg quoted in the New York Times! Unfortunately, the article is entitled Telling All Online: It's a Man's World (Isn't It?). The story is old by the time you read it. Look at the top four Salon blog rankings at 4am, the women are being read: 1.  the reverse cowgirl's blog   86   2.  Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment   69   3.  Driver 8   25   4.  The Julie/Julia Project   19     4:10:48 AM    comment []

Coming Home To Roast It's quarter to three, there's no one in the place Except you and me So set 'em' up Joe, I got a little story I think you should know We're drinking my friend, to the end Of a brief episode Make it one for my baby And one more for the road I always like to sing to my bird when it goes into the oven to roast. Technically, blah, blah, this isn't a single bird, it's more like The Three Faces Of Eve. It did go in at quarter to three and now I'm having a glass of wine. The final assembly, trussing and boning took nearly three hours, bringing the total prep time close to the 6 hours advertised. Maybe John Madden is smarter than he acts, ordering them already fixed and brought in to the broadcast booth. I never would have started this, had I known. Luckily, no knife cuts on myself - despite all that boning. No needle marks either, though I had to do a lot of repair work on the turkey skin to sew it all together. The stitching requires two people, the recipes agree. I was going to enlist Liz to be person number two, but realized about the time the stuffing was finished, 5pm, that I had no idea when that would be. The dressing had to chill at least 6 hours for food safety. So I decided to emulate our President and go it alone. Putting the layered and stuffed assemblage in a large stainless steel bowl brought the edges close enough to begin. A trio of stitches at the top, bottom, and middle secured it adequately to begin the blanket stitches. It was really easier than many of the other steps, but still time consuming. I'm using a clothes pin to fasten the thermometer probe to the broiler element at the top of the stove. The temperature dial on the oven is accurate in the 250F to 400F range, but is totally wacky below that. So I put the thermometer in and started the preheat at 1am. The NYT recipe says use a 250F oven, but every other one I've found says 190F. The heating element comes on at about 180F, then the temperature quickly goes to 200F and gradually coasts back down to 180F. That's close enough. The turducken is resting on a bed of celery, carrots and onion, covered with a blanket of foil. Say Good Night, Gracie. 3:14:37 AM    comment []