Cooking with Tim

I am cooking frequently with a Franklin Chef Vertisserie Plus that I acquired for free. It is basically a rotisserie, except it spins on a vertical axis. I have been cooking pork loins, chicken, cuts of beef, and anything I can skewer and fit inside. I have been very pleased with it. Everything comes out tasty and very juicy. It has a non-stick pan on the top to that cooks veggies very well. Guess what I cooked yesterday? Correct, a turkey breast.

The recipe for the turkey breast called for coating the carcass with poultry spices. After spearing the turkey, or setting it on the poultry attachment, the recipe called for making a pocket on the front of the breast, between the skin and the breast meat, as big as it could be made leaving 1/2 inch connected on the bottom and sides. Next the pocket is filled with mashed whole berry cranberry sauce. Finally cook for an hour and 45 minutes. The pocket ended up burning, and finally breaking after a while. I had to use bicycle spokes to hold it into place to finish the cooking- what else is a cyclist going to have floating around the house? In the end, I had one fantastic turkey!

I had a great Thanksgiving with family! The turkey was presented on a platter surrounded by baked apples and pears, which my gf contributed. We had ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes with cheese, string beans, sweet potatoes, and all kinds of good stuff. Desert was pumpkin pie and pecan pie.

I hope everybody's Thanksgiving was as good as mine! I have much to be thankful for, and always try to keep that in mind. I will need a few bike rides to work off the treats.

      your note []

Confederate flag wavers plan to protest KKK rally.

With both sides waving the Confederate battle flag, how will you be able to tell the two sides apart? Of course, one side obviously went to an after Thanksgiving white sale on the way to the march.

To steal a Richard Pryor line: I hope they march through the projects; they could use the sheets.

      your note []

Bush cuts federal employee's raise.

How many of these people voted for him? How do they feel now?

This won't be the last blow to the American middle class by Bush and the Republican administration.

      your note []

Paul Krugman of the New York Times on the media.

This week Al Gore said the obvious. "The media is kind of weird these days on politics," he told The New York Observer, "and there are some major institutional voices that are, truthfully speaking, part and parcel of the Republican Party."

The reaction from most journalists in the "liberal media" was embarrassed silence. I don't quite understand why, but there are some things that you're not supposed to say, precisely because they're so clearly true.

With the abolishment of the fairness doctrine in the '80's and loosened restrictions on media ownership, major media has a vested interest in supporting Republican policies that favor major corporations. Any sense of fair and balanced reporting has vanished, and blatant partisan bias has become the norm.

      your note []