bushey
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Posts posted by bushey
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Rich, LOL!
Actually, the problem with "rest period" in our kitchen is my husband -- he has a thing about having hot food hot, which is a good thing but is also a very nudnik thing. He hovers around saying "the turkey's going to get cold!" and threatens to get in there and do the carving himself......which would result in a hot, yet unattractive bird
.Maybe I need to distract him with many glasses of wine and tending the fire.
(edited for redundancy and repetition)
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Not allowing meats and poultry to rest before carving.
Guilty as charged......every time we cook a turkey or roast I vow to organize my time better so I can let it rest, yet I always seems to be carving it five minutes after I take it out of the oven.
Just like Linus and the Great Pumpkin: this year, it will be different.
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I swear by my Michael Graves design teakettle from Target "put your lips together and blow". I've had it for about four years and it still looks great. Every once in a while they change the whistle mechanism; mine is the shape of a coach's or referree's whistle but I've seen them with a trumpet shape as well.
Sounds like you're happy with your choice -- enjoy!
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Cakewalk -- I meant simple as in pretty simple to prepare, no last minute fussing, and no dish with over-the-top ingredients.
A friend at work just gave me her two-to-three hour method for cooking turkey and I'm looking forward to trying it. Completely cover roasting pan with a tight seal of foil over turkey -- add a couple of cups of liquid such as water, wine and or broth and some chopped aromatic vegetables -- and cook at 450 for one hour. Uncover turkey, lower heat to 400 and cook for another one to one-and-a-half hours. Will report back on success or failure
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Thanks for the link. Looks almost too pretty to eat.
I agree about the bitter edge appeal of broccoli rabe. We alternate between straight saute with garlic, oil and red pepper, melted rabe and broccoli rabe and sausage (mixed sweet and hot Italian). I also love it as part of pasta with bitter greens, alongside escarole and chicory, with some pine nuts and raisins all sauteed in EVOO and garlic. Mmmmmmmmmm.
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Thanks, Cathy. The signature line isn't really new, but I haven't been posting much is the past few weeks. It was inspired by a bumper sticker I saw locally.
What is romanesco broccoli?
We love broccoli rabe and have it as often as possible. A local paper ran an Alice Waters recipe for melted broccoli rabe that is insanely delicious --saute blanched rabe and slivered garlic in olive oil over low heat and add a little water after about 5 minutes or so. Continue to cook slowly, season with s & p and a dash of cayenne, then drizzle in heavy cream (approx 1/4 - 1/2 cup) and cook until absorbed. Total cooking time is about 15-20 minutes and the results are divine.
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I want to go to jaybee's for the wine -- forget whatever else he's serving.
The Selbach Oster is one of my all time favorite white wines and I love chianti, though I haven't had one older than '97 in a while.We're still undecided about our wines. There will only be three of us drinking (small gathering). I was wine shopping with a friend the other day to put together a case for her mom's birthday and I picked up a few contenders: Thivin Cote de Brouilly, Strub Niersteiner Riesling Kabinett, and Protocolo Tinto, an inexpensive, delicious Spanish red.
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I'm mad for salt and pepper seafood but beg to differ on the gewurz recommendation -- to me it cries out for a frosty pilsner-type beer.
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We'll be a small group this year so we're trying to keep it simple.
Nibbles: cheddar cheese, assorted olives
Field greens with sliced beets and camembert, sherry vinaigrette
Mushroom barley soup (sister-in-law)
Roast marinated turkey
Cornbread stuffing
Acorn squash and swiss chard gratin (from Chefshop, new recipe)
Heart attack mashed potatoes (butter, cream cheese, sour cream)
Brussel Sprouts
Sour cream coffee cake (husband)
Chocolate Mousse
Razzleberry Pie (Marie Callender) a la mode
Haven't quite decided on wine yet. Probably a Cote de Brouilly or Cote du Rhone.
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Then again, my mother-in-law called it "filling."?!?
LOL! Sounds as pleasant as a visit to the dentist.
Suzanne, it's my favorite part of the meal too, and my husband's. For the past week or so he's been dropping hints like "I hope you make enough stuffing this year." I have to watch him like a hawk though, when he cleans up after dinner.....he tends to toss the leftover gravy (pan drippings, actually, I've never been able to do a "real" gravy) and I wanna know how you can have great day-after snacks of reheated stuffing without the gravy?
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Part of the fun I have in making stuffing throwing away the recipe and improvising. I'll start with Pepperidge Farm Cornbread Stuffing Mix and jazz it up with some leftover homemade cornbread that I stashed in the freezer. Sauteed portabellos, celery, carrots, onions and garlic. Some fresh corn off the cob if I can find it or a can of Niblets. Lots of chicken broth and butter.......and cream sounds wonderful. But every time I try to get too fancy with the stuffing (dried fruit, chestnuts, sage) my family and friends they beg for the "usual" stuffing. (Except for my husband, who sometimes remembers fondly his ex's sausage and apple stuffing. I throw him the dagger eyes
)I prefer to bake the stuffing in a separate casserole and baste frequently with the juices from the turkey -- partly because I like the crusty parts of the stuffing best and partly because a stuffed turkey takes longer to cook and I'm usually running a bit behind schedule.
Here's a question: what's the difference between stuffing and dressing? Is it just regional differences in nomenclature or is there a substantive difference?
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After all the brouhaha about kosher turkeys, I bought an Empire for Rosh Hashannah this year and was unimpressed. I prefer the Waybest fresh turkeys my market orders.
Every few years I change my method of cooking turkey, but the only method I've ever found that results in a consistently wonderful turkey is to marinate it for 24 hours before roasting. I guess you could consider it akin to brining, but it is easier and doesn't require any special equipment like large buckets.
The marinade I use is a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, a couple of tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and soy sauce, chopped garlic, chopped shallots and fresh thyme. It only makes a small amount, but you rub it all over the turkey and slide it under the skin on the breast side. Some of it will drip down in the bowl, so it's a good idea to turn to turkey a few times to make sure it gets coated on all sides. When roasted, the turkey has a beautiful mahogany colored crisp skin and the breast meat is unbelievable.
Another method is to drape the turkey in butter-soaked cheesecloth. That's how I made my first ever turkey and it was darn good.
I've become a convert to cooking the stuffing in a separate casserole because it reduces the roasting time and you get that nice crust (which is arguably the best part). I make sure to baste the casserole frequently with the juices from the roasting pan to give it that turkey flavor.
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For pilsner-type beers, I like Pilsner Urquell and Czechvar.
Paper City Brewery, in Holyoke, MA, has a great lineup of microbrews. clickety. They're available at Table and Vine and Bread & Circus locally, but I'm not sure if other Whole Foods markets would carry the line.
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Green Mountain Gringo -- the tortilla strips and the fire-roasted salsa.
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By "cold" do we mean "chilled", as in right from the refrigerator? Or cold as in room temperature or a bit less?
Took the words right out of my mouth.
I prefer cold as in room temperature. The flavor seems much better to me than fridge-cold meat. I love cold fried or bbq chicken best, followed by cold steak sliced thin and added to a salad.
Meatloaf: never. It was bad enough having to eat it hot, but when my mom would start in with "this will make a lovely sandwich for lunch tomorrow with ketchup" it was hard to stop the gag reflex. My dad loved it, though. I think the only time he ever had my mom pack lunch for him was when we had leftover meatloaf.
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The ones I keep going back to are Cholula and Frank's. I use them on pretty much anything and everything. We also always have a bottle of hot oil (my name for any brand of spicy sesame oil) on hand for stir fries and dishes that don't call for a tomato-based flavor.
Mr. bushey likes the scotch bonnet pepper sauces and mustard based hot sauces, but I'm blanking on the names right now.
Every once in a while I browse through the housewares department at TJ Maxx or Marshall's and pick up a bottle or two I've never tried before, just for fun. The condiment company Jasmine & Bread used to have a Caribbean hot sauce that was unbelievable, but I don't know if they make it anymore.
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For eating raw and garnishing, I prefer curly parsley. For cooking, I prefer flat parsley. My family mostly dislikes parsley or is indifferent to it and they tease me most mercilessly whenever I use it (there goes Mom and her parsley again).
My favorite reference to parsley is in Dr. Seuss' book Scrambled Eggs Super (which I heartily recommend to all foodies, and is best read alound):
"And parsley, quite sparsely.
Just forty-nine sprigs"
I may have the exact number wrong, but you get the gist.
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I'm going to have to try these recipes, though I confess to having very bad luck with making brownies from scratch. Cookies, cakes, and other baked goods come out great but my brownies never seem to be as good as everyone else's.
I usually keep a couple of boxes of whatever-brownie-mix-is-on-sale in the house for the kids to make whenever they feel like it. Last night my daughter made a batch of Betty Crocker brownies and swirled some raspberry jam into them. Yum! were they good. I even packed a couple for my afternoon tea break.
The edge pieces are definitely the best; corners are divine.
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It's been way too long since I've planned a trip to Paris but I used to get a real kick out of using the pages jaunes to figure out exactly where a hotel or shop was located. Next best thing to being there.
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I love braised short ribs and use a recipe I got from chefshop.com. The original recipe is for oxtail, but a note says short ribs can be subsituted and it's become one of our winter Sunday staples. It's a basic braising recipe -- will check it later tonight and if there's anything extraordinary about it I'll send you the recipe. I serve it atop pureed parsnips and potatoes (from Bittman's How to Cook Everything) and the combination is sublime.
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In the stack on my nighttable: A Gesture Life by Chang Rae Lee, The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher, The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden and a whole slew of magazines, including several week's worth of The New Yorker, Real Simple, Gourmet, Shape (hey, something's gotta offset the eating
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Oraklet, maybe you could add some additional special occasions to the calendar when you can put out the good stuff. We do our birthday dinners in the dining room with tablecloth, linen napkins and candles. The kids really enjoy it and see it as special. Plus, their table manners are always better in the dining room and they try harder to make interesting conversation. Once in a while we do Sunday brunch in the dining room as well.
Funny, when we have small gatherings we tend to have nibbles/drinks and sometimes starters in the living room where we can sit around and be relaxed, then main course at the dining table. Dessert is usually in the living room as well, or sometimes if it's just a party for four we hang out in the kitchen for dessert.
TV is banned during all meal times -- it's not even close to the kitchen. Telephones are also during our dinner hour. That's what answering machines are for.
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Check on the Oxy-Clean, do you have any advice on candle wax drippings?
Check here on the Oxy-clean, too, which I;ve just started using. Will have to try on table linens once I've acquired some decent ones.
Candle wax!!!!! On Rosh Hashannah eve I lit a few pillar candles on a tray on the sideboard. Toward the end of the evening we noticed that an additional pillar candle had been lit by my daughter. I started to say that I had purposely left it out because of a huge "hole" in the wax when I realized that it had dripped copiously all over the mahogany sideboard (it had been on a glass coaster). We got most of it up right away but there are a few drips and smudges left and I can't remember the Martha Stewart or Heloise tips for removing wax. Can anyone help?
Thanks for all of the suggestions and encouragement on collecting old china. Unfortunately the September Brimfield fell on a busy weekend for us so I had to miss it. I'll probably go with a burgundy and gold theme since our dining room walls are burgundy and we have a (mismatched) collection of china teacups and saucers that my mother-in-law collected during the years she worked in Fine China at a department store.
I've also noticed that Target and Pier 1 have interesting chargers, rectangular plates and Asian influenced pieces.
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I was just thinking about table settings last weekend when getting ready for our holiday evening dinner. I would love to set a beautiful table with matching china and great flatware but these items never seem to make it to the top of the priority list. Though I've gone through the wedding thing twice, I never registered for china or crystal and now That I would love to use it the price seems daunting (okay, my taste has gotten more expensive, what can I say?)
The joke in our household is that my husband inherited china service for six from his first marriage. In a pattern I hate (Minton Grasmere). They even split the serving pieces 50-50. Note to self: list the china on eBay. When we host family dinners I use a set of glass dishes from Corning so at least we all have the same dishes. For a small gathering I'll use the (dreaded) china. Every so often I fantasize about taking a fistful of cash and hitting the Brimfield fair to find service for at least 16 in mismatched but matching (if you know what I mean) antique china.
My biggest problem is tablecloths. How do you get them really clean? Do most folks send the linens out to the cleaners or launder at home? I haven't yet found stain resistant cloths that are attractive and truly resist stains
Latkes - the Topic!
in Cooking
Posted
I should have read this thread yesterday, before I made my latkes.
Followed my favorite usual recipe, from Mollie Katzen's book Still Life with Menu. Calls for parboiling shredded potatoes for a few minutes before mixing with the grated onion, flour, eggs and seasoning. I usually add in some ground cumin and cayenne for a little kick. The advantage of this method is that the batter doesn't brown and the potatoes never have that slightly raw taste. Fried them in peanut oil this year and was very happy with the results. They were light and crispy and vanished quickly.
I promised the kids I'd make latkes at least one more time before the end of Hanukkah -- I'll try the hand grated, wrung-out, potato starch added back in method and see how it turns out.
Interesting info about the Jewish community in Alsace. Our new cantor was born and grew up in Strasbourg.