Tuesday, November 23, 2010
T-Day: 2 Days to Trencherman's Feast
I've been very late on this year's Thanksgiving Day menu listing.
After 20 years of slaving over a hot antiquated stove, the Ever-Loving Wife and I decided to stimulate the economy this year and we upgraded from a barely-detect-the-flame stove to a heat spitting model. Gas, for sure, but a 5 burner special that should serve us well for a while. T-Day will be the Testo Supremo & we'll see if Consumer's Reports was accurate in their high judgement of the cooking instrument.
Milling around circling the table munching foods:
1) Pick salami (since Gavrilovic is not available)
2) Cheeses
3) Nuts & Berries & other bear-ameanable hand foods.
The start of the meal commences with a shot of Slivovica (n.b. NSFW!!), as it is necessary to clear one's throat and one's mind before setting forth on a solid meal of food, drink, and friends.
Roots, the vegetables not the Band and other introductory platings:
1) Ginger Carrot Soup
2) Lemony Brussels Sprout Slaw
3) Mushrooms Berkeley - the old Traditional
4) Mashed Russet and Golden potatoes made with goat's milk, sweet butter and crème fraiche because...well, it's time for deep sleep. A olive oil-garlic "sauce" is sprinkled on for those in need of sprinkling.
5) A mystery vegetable to be determined on the last pre-cooking shopping day. Color seems to be the chief desired quality, at this point.
De-Feathered Fare:
1) (You cut the Toikey without me) Turkey Breast, brined to within a feather of its ability to absorb flavor in a rosemary-garlic clove-peppercorn bath for a full 18 hours. The local favored purveyor of all things flightless has changed his supplier this year, so we will be rolling the dice on the Turkey this year.
2) Fried chicken a la Panko, cuz we want to eat Fried & Healthy (all served with a dollop of Self Delusion Sauce). And...some of us still enjoy the cluck more than the gobble.
Associates Vying for Munching Attention:
1) The Ever-Loving Wife's Homemade Bread, slices of which disappear off the table in ever-increasing temerarious style even before seats have been taken.
2) Cranberry sauce form scratch- The Ever-Loving Wife's secret recipe of which she is the sole living keeper thereof.
3) Wild Rice, Almond & Mushroom Stuffing/Pilaf (Your choice of ending words.....). This will simply be a side dish hopefully satisfying on its own merits and will not be stuffing since there's not a bird to stuff, simply the Turkey Breast...and stuffing seems false to me.
4)
Justified Desserts:
A slight twist here. In previous years, this pecan pie was the beginning course. It was always well-received and I may be tarred and feathered for going with
1) this version of the Pecan Pie this year. But....how can you resist the adjective "Deep" when placed in front of "Pie". I, unfortunately, could not. So, we shall see and we shall taste.
2) Pumpkin Pie or Apple Pie - The Ever-Loving Wife is keeping mum on which of these will be coming out of the oven.
3) Sorbets of the pallate-clearing sort.
4) Promised mystery desserts ferried in by dinner guests.... We will be checking papers.
In Vino give me that ol' Veritas:
With suggestions from the best wine store in the greater Philly-Wilmington area, IMHO, the following choices will be poured at various times.
1) Beaujolais-Villages Tracot Domaine Jean-Paul Dubost 2009
2) Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro Rive del Ciliegie Francesco Vezzelli 2008
3) Rheinhessen Beerenauslese Pius Weingut Keller 2009
Beer choices from Delaware's own will be in the ice bucket.
Finishing off will be assorted teas, nibbly chocolates, and Turkish coffee (or Americano).
I'm leaving all of the interesting conversation to the incredibly interesting guests that day. Doing the cooking makes it very easy for me to beg off on the opinionating and the story-telling. Which is good, because the cast of performers that day is quite impressive in experience, in age,& in wisdom. Plus, there are fine voices in the folks that will be sitting around the table so singing will be welcomed & encouraged.
...and on the stereo, set way down low, will be some Grant Green, Ella (in Hollywood), and Brad Mehldau.
Thanksgiving Day. Almost probably my favorite day of the year. I lift a stamful of Slivovica to you my gentle readers and wish you all of the best at whatever gathering you find yourself at on Thursday!!
Labels: Domestic Burdens, Food Issues, Holidays
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Postings are DUE!
Folks,
Got back from a fabuloso vacation out West in Montana and southern Alberta. Some pics will be posted. It was my first trip to Montana and a long long delayed trip to a place of infinite peace and beauty, Banff National Park. More later as the positive vibes all settle down into the written word. I know where I'd like my ashes to be scattered....
Labels: Holidays
Monday, July 20, 2009
The Long Voyage
(Hector Zazou's "The Long Voyage", with Suzanne Vega and John Cale, makes for a fine hum on this summer's journies.)
For all of those readers off on their summer adventures, may there be many memories created and dangerous moments safely skirted. What is summer but a sweet whiff of the scythe's passing by?
Labels: Holidays
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
A Sage Thanksgiving
Since there are more tried and true observations/rules of decorum for the upcoming holidays, I offer you this.
Thanksgiving Rules Revised (New Yorker 12/01/2003)
By Bruce McCall (famous Canadian gone south)
(as typed painstakingly by yours truly)
Post this document within ten feet of all liquor cabinets, TV sets, sofas, and any distant relations who are still sitting or standing upright.
Article XII of the 1663 Jamestown Convention has been amended as of this date to include the following:
1) Thanksgiving-dinner guests are no longer required to play Scrabble, Go Fish, or Monoploy with children under the age of ten. Withholding of liquor is coercion.
2) A shaker of Martinis no longer has official standing as Thanksgiving breakfast. Early risers: the Thanksgiving Day cocktail hour now begins only after you have arrived at the venue and parked your car, and never before sunrise.
3) You cannot decline the Kansas Riesling served with dinner out of professional adherence to the claim that "the official Thanksgiving mascot is the 101-proof Wild Turkey." This is apocryphal.
4) The mandatory minimum number of guests related by blood to the host/hostess is increased to sixteen. Seating them on the sun porch, in the attic, or in the basement for the Thanksgiving meal is no longer permissible, nor is the requirement that they wear bags over their heads and/or name tags. Asking how they’re doing remains optional.
5) In-laws must now be accorded full human status. Their chairs must face the dinner table, and they must be offered a choice of dark or white meat.
6) Native American guests must no be offered bourbon, Scotch, gin, or other alcoholic beverages by name. They must not be described as "heap strong firewater".
7) When you are handed a family scrapbook or photo album, you must keep such article in your possession for at least a hundred and twenty seconds (or 120 silent repetitions of“Thanksgiving stuffing”) before passing it on to the next person. You may not ask if your hundred and twenty seconds are up.
8) Precocious children under 12 years of age may now be fitted with muzzles by a non-parent after the first hour.
9) Reminiscences that touch upon parental favoritism, unpaid personal loans, and arrests of blood relations’ children are discouraged.
10) You are entitled to ten naps per twelve-hour Thanksgiving Day period. Moments after 4 P.M., when time itself seems to have stopped, do not count as naps. Do not commence a nap when a blood relation older than you is addressing you directly.
11) You will be videotaped by your most moronic relation. Failing to cooperate by smiling/making funny faces/rushing the lens carries the penalty of spending next Thanksgiving at this relation’s house. Keep in mind that whatever your cooperation level is, there is always a possibility your potentially embarrassing behaviour may end up with 15,798 view on YouTube.
12) Vacating the premises before Thanksgiving dinner is served in order to "get a breath of fresh air", "check the pressure in the tires", or "watch shooting stars" will now be considered a desertion of familial responsibilities, punishable by talking college football with an in-law for thirty minutes without the aid of an alcoholic beverage.
13) The host/hostess cannot depart the house, for any reason, until one hour after the last guest has left, been expelled, or vanished. (Check corners, crawl spaces, and under the dinner table before lights-out.)
Happy Thanksgiving!!*
*"Happy Thanksgiving!!" is meant only as an encouraging phrase and will not be necessarily insure a result like on depicted in the Norman Rockwell painting.
Thanksgiving Rules Revised (New Yorker 12/01/2003)
By Bruce McCall (famous Canadian gone south)
(as typed painstakingly by yours truly)
Post this document within ten feet of all liquor cabinets, TV sets, sofas, and any distant relations who are still sitting or standing upright.
Article XII of the 1663 Jamestown Convention has been amended as of this date to include the following:
1) Thanksgiving-dinner guests are no longer required to play Scrabble, Go Fish, or Monoploy with children under the age of ten. Withholding of liquor is coercion.
2) A shaker of Martinis no longer has official standing as Thanksgiving breakfast. Early risers: the Thanksgiving Day cocktail hour now begins only after you have arrived at the venue and parked your car, and never before sunrise.
3) You cannot decline the Kansas Riesling served with dinner out of professional adherence to the claim that "the official Thanksgiving mascot is the 101-proof Wild Turkey." This is apocryphal.
4) The mandatory minimum number of guests related by blood to the host/hostess is increased to sixteen. Seating them on the sun porch, in the attic, or in the basement for the Thanksgiving meal is no longer permissible, nor is the requirement that they wear bags over their heads and/or name tags. Asking how they’re doing remains optional.
5) In-laws must now be accorded full human status. Their chairs must face the dinner table, and they must be offered a choice of dark or white meat.
6) Native American guests must no be offered bourbon, Scotch, gin, or other alcoholic beverages by name. They must not be described as "heap strong firewater".
7) When you are handed a family scrapbook or photo album, you must keep such article in your possession for at least a hundred and twenty seconds (or 120 silent repetitions of“Thanksgiving stuffing”) before passing it on to the next person. You may not ask if your hundred and twenty seconds are up.
8) Precocious children under 12 years of age may now be fitted with muzzles by a non-parent after the first hour.
9) Reminiscences that touch upon parental favoritism, unpaid personal loans, and arrests of blood relations’ children are discouraged.
10) You are entitled to ten naps per twelve-hour Thanksgiving Day period. Moments after 4 P.M., when time itself seems to have stopped, do not count as naps. Do not commence a nap when a blood relation older than you is addressing you directly.
11) You will be videotaped by your most moronic relation. Failing to cooperate by smiling/making funny faces/rushing the lens carries the penalty of spending next Thanksgiving at this relation’s house. Keep in mind that whatever your cooperation level is, there is always a possibility your potentially embarrassing behaviour may end up with 15,798 view on YouTube.
12) Vacating the premises before Thanksgiving dinner is served in order to "get a breath of fresh air", "check the pressure in the tires", or "watch shooting stars" will now be considered a desertion of familial responsibilities, punishable by talking college football with an in-law for thirty minutes without the aid of an alcoholic beverage.
13) The host/hostess cannot depart the house, for any reason, until one hour after the last guest has left, been expelled, or vanished. (Check corners, crawl spaces, and under the dinner table before lights-out.)
Happy Thanksgiving!!*
*"Happy Thanksgiving!!" is meant only as an encouraging phrase and will not be necessarily insure a result like on depicted in the Norman Rockwell painting.
Monday, December 25, 2006
Merry to All
Two excellent Christmas Eve parties with dear friends, fabulous feast, and even roast beast was a great way to enter today's celebrations. Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and the most enjoyable of family gatherings. A smattering of snow would be most appreciated, Santa!
And, to top off a fine Christmas morning (even though hopes of snow will most probably stay as mere hopes), here's a wonderful version of that pa-rump-pa-pum-pum song from the merely too-talented Chazzy-G, co-host extraordinnaire.
Labels: Holidays
Friday, December 22, 2006
Ahhhhhh, SNOW
I'm not a huge fan of the song "White Christmas", although I love the film. I like the song...but there are ones I adore (is that too strong of a word for a guy who shaves?) these songs.
Snow (..and a different version of Snow...)
Sisters, a la Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby. Check out the Binger. He's close to collapsing from laughter at quite a few spots. I would love to have seen the different takes they had to do for this song.
And a different version of Sisters
Love.
Choreography.
I'll be back in a few days. Posting this reminded me I've to see "White Christmas" this year. A sin, in my book.
Snow (..and a different version of Snow...)
Sisters, a la Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby. Check out the Binger. He's close to collapsing from laughter at quite a few spots. I would love to have seen the different takes they had to do for this song.
And a different version of Sisters
Love.
Choreography.
I'll be back in a few days. Posting this reminded me I've to see "White Christmas" this year. A sin, in my book.
Labels: Holidays
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Holiday Pix
Have a look-see at Blogzira's pix here and here as well. The photo shown is one of the examples of her winter scenes in Ingerlund.Labels: Holidays
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
What's the Meme Under the Tree?
In a Christmas spirit, looted from Whisky Prajer who linked, in turn, from here.
The Twenty Question Christmas Grilling
Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? : Sorry, this isn't an "or" question. If we'd been outside and the weather was delightfully frightful, hot chocolate from scratch can't be beat. If muttering around the house is causing joy to be slowly leached from the other denizens, a chilly egg nog with a splash (or two) of Myers Dark Rum soothes this savage beast.
Does Santa wrap presents, or just stick them under the tree? : The two-headed and four-armed Santa stays up late on the third floor or retreats to the basement and measures and cuts and wraps and bow-ties until all 20 fingers are band-aided and strips of wrapping paper of unuseable lengths are carpeting the floor. A minimum of 3 self-jabs by scissors is de rigeur.
Coloured lights on tree, or white? : White or clear.
(Part B of that question): Lights on tree, still or flickering? : Flickering (me). Still (Ever-loving Wife)
Do you hang mistletoe?: No mistletoe, but a hole-y sock is hung with not much care to remind us to give out many wet & messy kisses or get the boot! Err, sock, I mean.
When do you put your decorations up? Week or two (or three) after Thanksgiving.
What is your favourite holiday dish? Nothing like a plateful of Sarma, though it's tough getting the real sour cabbage without trekking all the way to Queens, NY.
What is your favourite holiday memory as a child? One of my cousin's grandparents owned a farm situated on the slope of a mountain by the River Una in Croatia. On the other side of the river was Bosnia. One Christmas, about 15 cousins, their families, and ours invaded and occupied the farmhouse for a week. Heavy snow fell each day. Each room was heated at night with 4-5 feather blankets and a wooden stove. We stayed outside strumpetting through the snow, skiing down the mountain, sleighing on the hills and on the road. Then, after much yelling from inside the house in our general direction, we'd troop in from the moonlit fields and plop ourselves on the wooden benches at the long wooden kitchen table. We seemingly emptied the food cellar each night and then dragged ourselves upstairs to one of the 8 bedrooms. Under the covers, we peeked at the stove's "eyes", the flames flickering warmth our way. I don't remember gifts actually being exchanged at all that Christmas. We walked a few kilometers to a small Catholic church, packed to the max with heavy-breathing people. I couldn't believe anything could top each day's memories with my cousins in that glorious village.
Years later, the village and this beautiful old house were burnt to the ground during the breakup of Yugoslavia. My cousin's gone back; he now owns the land but he doesn't live there. There are no structures left. He has no desire to build any replica of that grand old ship of a house.
When did you learn the truth about Santa? Age four. In Croatia, Djed Mraz comes with the Devil on Dec. 6th. The latter scared the hell out of me; the former didn't have the chops to clear the fear. I gave up on the old goat.
Do you open gifts on Christmas Eve? Never! It's Christmas Day for the kids to go through their stockings and then open one gift. Usually, it's called the Big Gift. Then, each day after Christmas until January 7th, the kids open up one gift. We started the 12 days when the kids were very, very young. It had nothing to do with the song, but rather the Ever-Loving Wife (ELW)'s observations that opening up all the gifts on one day was a highly concentrated pleasure in a minimal amount of time. Sounds familiar? So, we started the One-a-Day thing and found that the kids seemed to appreciate and play with each gift rather than heaving it on that stack accumulating in the corner. The kids are, well, not kids now. Yet, they insist on the 12 day program even today.
How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I'm in charge of cutting the tree down. putting it in the holder, and stringing on the lights. My Christmas ornament hanging days are over as I seem to have lost the Touch of Placement soon after we exchanged marriage vows. I sit back in the couch and cherish my small glass of sherry while the tree is transformed into a thing of beauty.
Snow: love it, or hate it? Adore it. Lots of it. The light fluffy kind, not the heavy wet wear-you-down as you walk kind.
Can you ice skate? Absolument! Although, my thighs sure seem to be burning a lot sooner than I'd like to remember. Bauer Black Panthers are still sharpened.
Can you remember your favourite gift? The ELW gave me a one day course at Stonecreek Studios. It convinced me that I need to win the lottery to go anywhere with this career. It was a fabulous day playing with state-of-the-art equipment. Dials! Meters!
What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? Having a long overdrawn dinner with too much food, too much talk, and too much laughing with my family with no plans/commitments afterwards on one of the days during the holidays.
What is your favourite holiday tradition? Christmas morning baking of cinnamon buns, as done by the ELW. Kids spinning ever tighter circles around the gift that they'll open that day.
What tops your tree? We don't put anything right on top of the tree, but we do have an angel made of palm leaves that hangs off to one side of the highest branch. Sort of at the top, but never there. And, yes, his name is Sisyphus, which makes it all a bit corny.
Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? I'm with Mr. WP on this one 100%. So long as kids are involved, giving.
What is your favourite Christmas song? Charles Brown's "Merry Christmas, Baby"
Candy canes? Concocted by the same sadist who cooked up Candy Corn. Never ever tasted a cane I'd finish. Last on I probably licked was in early grammar school. Still have an awful taste memory of that brittle stuff.
My favourite Holiday Dessert: Pecan Pie w/ Rum. Yep, I had it at Thanksgiving. Yeah, I'll have it at Christmas. Although... my mom makes some Croatian cookies (which she hasn't given me a recipe for) that are to die for.
Labels: Holidays
Monday, December 11, 2006
Stephenesque's Days of Christmas
For someone steeped in the high mass of Comedy and its many levels, Stephenesque's protective armor of Irony & Sardonicism seems to be weakening under the stress of the Christmas season. It's proving tough going to hide the warm beating heart we all know he has somewhere within the recesses of his temple.
Have you lit your first Advent candle? Well, then you could start here.
Move on to here and here.
..And he gets almost downright soppy with this entry.
Have you lit your first Advent candle? Well, then you could start here.
Move on to here and here.
..And he gets almost downright soppy with this entry.
Labels: Holidays
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Holiday Flicks
I bid you all adieu from my self-imposed Blog-O-Day for the month of November with the following list of my favorite Christmas time movies. Please notice that I used the time window of Christmas time which nowadays stretches from at least the first week before Thanksgiving to the 7th day of January. Yeah, yeah, I’m stretching it, but I’m just trying to stay modern.Two movies usually not associated with Christmas and hardly ever played, even during holidays, on commercial television are Diner and Nobody’s Fool. Aside from being great holiday movies, these two movies are in my favorite 20 movies pile.
Nobody’s Fool
"Mr. Sullivan, you're wearing a necktie. Are you in trouble with the law again?"
In Robert Benton’s most excellent and faithful rendition of Robert Russo’s fine novel Nobody’s Fool, a superb cast of Paul Newman, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, and the supremely divine Jessica Tandy (who died before the film was completed). Bit parts were aged wine performances by Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Dylan Walsh, and Gene Saks.
The script is to die for; complete sentences were transferred out of Russo’s book. It’s a story of redemption, kindness, hate, the web of small town social interactions, and, in its own quirky way, love. The visible action falls into the Thanksgiving to Christmas time period of one year but the ghosts of the past are forever weaving in and out of the scenes. Jessica Tandy and Paul Newman work off each other with an ease that only comes with age. The little tics, the slight smiles, the clever banter, the ease the comfort; you’ll be stopping and replaying some scenes quite a few times.
I’ve seen this movie at least ten times and it has not lost its shine. I’ve read Russo’s book at least two times and hopefully you will read it as well after seeing this movie. This is about as perfect a movie as one can see.
Diner
"You know what word I'm not comfortable with? Nuance. It's not a real word. Like gesture. Gesture's a real word. With gesture you know where you stand. But nuance? I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong."
Barry Levinson's first major movie, Diner, takes place a few days before and then after Christmas, 1959 in Baltimore, Levinson’s home town. In addition to directing Mr. Levinson provided a great script with quite a fewmemorable lines. As most of you know, great movie lines are a necessity for how you maintain any close relationship. The movie line should be insightful and funny. Brevity is a good thing as well since memorization is not one of our strongest suits these days of instnat information access. The great lines associate persons, actions, past relations and future plans into one quip that allows you to merely say 5-10 words to a person and have that person (who is hopefully as enamored of the same movies as are you) comprehend the specific and unique feeling/thought that your are having. Mouthing a movie line can give you cache that your own words could never match. You should be careful not to overuse movie lines as then you’ll be viewed as a parrot and not the self-deluded original person you think you are. As this exchange synopsizes:
"Beth: That's very mature Fenwick.
Fenwick: Fuck Mature!"
Blackadder's Christmas Carol
"Baldrick, you wouldn't see a subtle plan if it painted itself purple and danced naked on top of a harpsichord, singing "Subtle plans are here again!""
Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Jim Broadbent, Patsy Byrnes, and Robbie Coltrane gather together and demolish any vestige of human kindness possibly associated with Christmas. The result is that you’ll be laughing all the way through while recognizing the types portrayed in this Brit tv series. . Some favorite lines are here.
White Christmas
"Well how do you like that? Not so much as a "kiss my foot" or "have an apple"."
If there’s an older movie that I’d gladly see each Christmas, it would be this Michael Curtiz directed musical comedy. The Script, as with all of the other movies listed here, is excellent with quite a few choice words to throw out. Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye are a delight, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney get to exercise their pipes on a regular basis and dancer Vera-Ellen is the va-voom factor in this movie. There’s snow, good deeds gone bad, songs inserted into dialogue with the minimal need to suspend belief, and positive vibes a plenty. There’s even George Chakiris in his pre-Sharks days taking a spin with Vera-Ellen.
The Family Stone
"Don't dilly-dally there, pretty lady. We're all gonna be down here talking about you."
To borrow something from Bertrand Blier, you’ll be getting out your handkerchiefs for this recent Christmas movie. Strong performances by Craig T. Nelson, Diane Keaton, Luke Wilson, and the divine Claire Danes and quite decent acting by Sarah Jessica Parker and Dermot Mulroney, without excessive emoting on anyone’s part, make this movie worth watching each year. There is quite a bit of sadness at the end but it’s handled with a minimalism that gives credence to the emotion rather than blanketing the movie with easy tears. The family dynamics are well-portrayed and (mostly) not sugar-coated. The cinematography, from the beginning, makes you feel as if you’re snowed in. An excellent movie to cuddle up in a blanket with folks you want to score points with to prove you can do empathy.
*** Addendum ***
The ever-loving wife, on a visit to see what verbal concoctions I'd been brewing up on the third floor, noticed that I'd neglected to mention one of the all-time best Office work/Christmas season movies, namely,
Desk Set
Bunny Watson: "I don't smoke, I only drink champagne when I'm lucky enough to get it, my hair is naturally natural, I live alone... and so do you.
Richard Sumner: How do you know that?
Bunny Watson: Because you're wearing one brown sock and one black sock.
Ignorance can be bliss and blissful is what I aim to be when I watch this movie so I'll ignore all of the tomes tumbling lately from the upended rumour/gossip/trash bins regarding the personal lives of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. Desk Set was originally a play written by William Marchant. The screen play was written by Phoebe Ephron, who also produced Nora Ephron and Amy Ephron. Spencer & Tracy, in their last film together, are, as per their usual, a lively pair. A job interview on the roof of a building on a cold winter's day is especially memorable as is a vaudevillian style piece involving an apartment, wet clothes, 2 men, 1 woman, and a bath robe. Enough said about that. Rent the movie. Granted, Christmas is almost an afterthought here. But the movie does take place during this time of year and renders a legitimate idea of what Christmas office parties were like in the days of No Casual Days. Remember Christmas Office Parties? Nah, neither do I. I've heard tall tales rendered of them prior to the current Dark Age of Litigation that has killed them off like dinosaurs.
How was this 30 straight days of posting? Let me direct you to Mr. Sgazaetti over at Isolglossia for his final word. I could not have stated it any better and certainly not as humorously as he has.
Labels: Holidays
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Hot Flush
Yesterday's Feast began a while back with giddy anticipation.The menu.
The Philly Italian Market shopping.
The stove time management spreadsheet.
I even got to dust off some Operations Research calculation models I hadn't seen since the previous century's MBA days.
It's as if all of my professional and life training was comng together for this day.
Then, on top of all that, I got to do one of my favorite things. Drive long distances. If I'd been born a few decades earlier, I could have had my dream job.
A chauffeur to the rich. On my long distnace trips, it's quite easy imagining doing my best John Williams (II) to my daughter's Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina. Well, she is my Ms. Hepburn, so I'll just fake the Brit accent for self-delusional reasons.
Seriously. Since I was a kid I thought that chauffeurs had the life (and the uniform). I'm not referring to the prom chauffeurs. No, those other guys driving foreign-made limoes, not extended Hummers, SUV's, or half-block long Caddies. A semblance of riches without the assemblance of wealth so taxing on one's spirit. Some would say that being someone's servant was offputting, but let me prick that balloon of snobbery right there. Aren't most of us, to some extent, involved in servitude? Being a chauffeur, to me, was a position where you admitted, right off the bat, that you were a servant and then moved on with the enjoyment of your life.
These are some of the goofball ideas that would roll in as I rolled on down the PA Tpke. Music was plentiful and it was "I'm so alone" loud. Or, as the ever-loving wife puts it, at Bachelor Volume. The weather was crisp and clear. What a better way to spend your day than bringing your daughter home for the holidays?
Meal preparations went exceedingly well with no dust-ups. Our guests were all that one can hope for. Funny, engaging, and hungry. Hopefully, next year, same cast same venue. Candles were lit for the dishwashing machine as it seemed to be on the the Möbius strip of continual loads. The dish brigade fed the sudsing machine as it cleaned up course after course.
The celebration ended the next day with the traditional Boiling of the Sink Drain. Large pots of steaming water were poured down the kitchen drain, cleansing the pipe-clogging remnants of butter-infused meats, pies, and side-dishes. We stewed around like fat ticks wishing a tasty purge were available for us as well. Well, I hear carols being sung and bells being rung so I know Christmas tolls for us in a short month.
Labels: Holidays
Friday, November 24, 2006
Just a Pie
As Mr. Sgazzetti has pointed out on several occasions, and I liberally paraphrase this, "The only thing better than a pie is many pies".
Mathematically, that's reducible to "Pie are Squared". As weightedly hinted at by Whisky Prajer, here's my (not wholly plagiarized) recipe for a Rum Pecan Pie.
This version of Pecan Pie is a touch different. Heavily borrowed from Mark Bittman’s excellent How to Cook Everything, the procedure and ingredients are as follows.
For the pie crust, simply follow Mr. Bittman’s recipe to the letter. I used his Pre-baked Flaky Pie Crust directions found on pp 685-686 of the hardcover version.
I've used other versions of a pecan pie recipe and found the following works out the best for me. Usually. It requires a minimum of corn syrup (FYI, Mr. Bittman uses none) as a tip of the hat to Southern style versions of pecan pie. It also asks for a leap of faith. More on that a bit later.
For the filling, you’ll need:
2 ¼ cups of shelled pecans
5 eggs
1 cup sugar ( I like to use Trader Joe’s Evaporated Cane Sugar which has a better aftertaste than refined sugar and seems to have a lighter touch of sweetness. All of this could, of course, be imagined and evidence that I’ve been completely duped by the ivory toned whiteness of the sugar.)
¼ cup of brown sugar (You could use the Evaporated Cane Sugar and just cut out the brown sugar)
2 tablespoons of Dark Corn Syrup
A pinch of salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) of butter, melted
2 heaping tablespoons of Myers Dark Rum
(I can’t vouch for other dark rums. Any time a recipe calls for rum, I reach out for Myers. It’s a bit more expensive but it has no nasty back taste and there’s a deep fullness to the taste. What’s heaping? Hold the tablespoon over the filling. Start pouring, filling the tablespoon at a moderate clip, flipping the tablespoon, and refilling the tablespoon one more time. After you’ve filled the tablespoon the second time, you stop pouring. That would be 2 heaping tablespoon. What is one heaping teaspoon? Only a Buddhist could answer that question.)
1 Tablespoon of pure Vanilla Extract
A pinch for the cook. Indications of love go a long way when you're in the confines of a hot kitchen.
What to do with all of this stuff:
1) After you’ve baked the crust as per the instructions above, spread out all of the pecans onto a large enough baking sheet. Put it into the still hot oven (425 degrees) and leave them there for about 4-6 minutes. Occasionally (o.k., after 3 minutes) pull out the sheet and stir the pecans around so both sides are roasted. After the pecans are hot to the touch, pull out the sheet. Take half of the nuts (or more, if you prefer small size to large) and mince them up. If you’re a real nutcase about pecans, take half of the un-minced nuts and put them through into a thoroughly cleaned coffee grinder. Grind until you have a powdery consistency, but before you’ve ground the pecans into a paste. Leave the different-sized pecans off to the side.
2) Beat the eggs well. Very well; your wrist should be screaming for Bengay. When the eggs are very foamy, add the sugars, salt, corn syrup, and melted butter. Stir a few times to combine the ingredients.
3) Pour this concoction into a non-stick frying pan (I use a small non-stick wok-ish type pan for this) and place on low-medium heat, stirring continuously. The mixture will start getting thicker, almost taking on the consistency of scrambled eggs. Since you have 5 eggs in that mixture, it will start smelling eggy as well. This is where the mentioned leap of fate is required. You may think you’re making an omelet at this point...and you will be if you don’t stop at the correct point. When the mixture is hot to the touch and it’s still coagulating, take it off of the burner immediately. If the mixture has started to boil, you’re past the point of pie and well into omelet. A very, very sweet omelot, but an omelot nonetheless.
4) If the mixture is not an omelet, add the dark rum, vanilla, and all of the pecan permutations and stir well. You should be looking at a thick pool of brown, once you’re finished.
5) Pour the mixture into the still-hot pie crust and bake for 30-35-minutes. The mixture should still be moist and, if you lightly shake the pie, some wobbling should be on display. If there’s no wobble, you may have over-baked the pie. Not to worry! Eating it requires just a bit more milk or vanilla ice cream generously heaped on the Rum Pecan Pie. Besides, once the pie is served, folks are well into that "I have eaten and I am full." part of the dinner, so an appearance of pie, in any level of doneness, will usually be accompanied by an initial groan. Calm the growing groans by offering coffee, tea, or some single malt. Behold how the liquids soothe the roils of Eater's Anguish.
6) Let the pie rest on a cooling rack for 20-30 minutes before serving. Ignore all of the Siren's Pleas, even though some folks love to put a dollop of ice cream on top and slice a piece of scalding hot pie so as to burn their tongue and simultaneoulsy cool it. This serving methodology is not recommended, though it makes for great dinner theatre, something you may want to consider if family stories, having been unfastened by the single malt, are too freely being let loose.
As Mark Bittman points out, the main difference between this pecan pie recipe and most others is the minimal use of corn syrup. In his own recipe, Mr. Bittman does not use any corn syrup at all. The concoction that you are making is more custard-like than the usual super-sweet corn syrup version. It tastes different. I will not say it’s better. As with most things food, it’ll be your own taste buds that’ll make the decision for you. The one thing that I can say for sure is that this recipe won’t leave that sweet & harsh corn syrup in the back of your throat. Now, if that’s what you’re after than you can go here.
Mathematically, that's reducible to "Pie are Squared". As weightedly hinted at by Whisky Prajer, here's my (not wholly plagiarized) recipe for a Rum Pecan Pie.
This version of Pecan Pie is a touch different. Heavily borrowed from Mark Bittman’s excellent How to Cook Everything, the procedure and ingredients are as follows.
For the pie crust, simply follow Mr. Bittman’s recipe to the letter. I used his Pre-baked Flaky Pie Crust directions found on pp 685-686 of the hardcover version.
I've used other versions of a pecan pie recipe and found the following works out the best for me. Usually. It requires a minimum of corn syrup (FYI, Mr. Bittman uses none) as a tip of the hat to Southern style versions of pecan pie. It also asks for a leap of faith. More on that a bit later.
For the filling, you’ll need:
2 ¼ cups of shelled pecans
5 eggs
1 cup sugar ( I like to use Trader Joe’s Evaporated Cane Sugar which has a better aftertaste than refined sugar and seems to have a lighter touch of sweetness. All of this could, of course, be imagined and evidence that I’ve been completely duped by the ivory toned whiteness of the sugar.)
¼ cup of brown sugar (You could use the Evaporated Cane Sugar and just cut out the brown sugar)
2 tablespoons of Dark Corn Syrup
A pinch of salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) of butter, melted
2 heaping tablespoons of Myers Dark Rum
(I can’t vouch for other dark rums. Any time a recipe calls for rum, I reach out for Myers. It’s a bit more expensive but it has no nasty back taste and there’s a deep fullness to the taste. What’s heaping? Hold the tablespoon over the filling. Start pouring, filling the tablespoon at a moderate clip, flipping the tablespoon, and refilling the tablespoon one more time. After you’ve filled the tablespoon the second time, you stop pouring. That would be 2 heaping tablespoon. What is one heaping teaspoon? Only a Buddhist could answer that question.)
1 Tablespoon of pure Vanilla Extract
A pinch for the cook. Indications of love go a long way when you're in the confines of a hot kitchen.
What to do with all of this stuff:
1) After you’ve baked the crust as per the instructions above, spread out all of the pecans onto a large enough baking sheet. Put it into the still hot oven (425 degrees) and leave them there for about 4-6 minutes. Occasionally (o.k., after 3 minutes) pull out the sheet and stir the pecans around so both sides are roasted. After the pecans are hot to the touch, pull out the sheet. Take half of the nuts (or more, if you prefer small size to large) and mince them up. If you’re a real nutcase about pecans, take half of the un-minced nuts and put them through into a thoroughly cleaned coffee grinder. Grind until you have a powdery consistency, but before you’ve ground the pecans into a paste. Leave the different-sized pecans off to the side.
2) Beat the eggs well. Very well; your wrist should be screaming for Bengay. When the eggs are very foamy, add the sugars, salt, corn syrup, and melted butter. Stir a few times to combine the ingredients.
3) Pour this concoction into a non-stick frying pan (I use a small non-stick wok-ish type pan for this) and place on low-medium heat, stirring continuously. The mixture will start getting thicker, almost taking on the consistency of scrambled eggs. Since you have 5 eggs in that mixture, it will start smelling eggy as well. This is where the mentioned leap of fate is required. You may think you’re making an omelet at this point...and you will be if you don’t stop at the correct point. When the mixture is hot to the touch and it’s still coagulating, take it off of the burner immediately. If the mixture has started to boil, you’re past the point of pie and well into omelet. A very, very sweet omelot, but an omelot nonetheless.
4) If the mixture is not an omelet, add the dark rum, vanilla, and all of the pecan permutations and stir well. You should be looking at a thick pool of brown, once you’re finished.
5) Pour the mixture into the still-hot pie crust and bake for 30-35-minutes. The mixture should still be moist and, if you lightly shake the pie, some wobbling should be on display. If there’s no wobble, you may have over-baked the pie. Not to worry! Eating it requires just a bit more milk or vanilla ice cream generously heaped on the Rum Pecan Pie. Besides, once the pie is served, folks are well into that "I have eaten and I am full." part of the dinner, so an appearance of pie, in any level of doneness, will usually be accompanied by an initial groan. Calm the growing groans by offering coffee, tea, or some single malt. Behold how the liquids soothe the roils of Eater's Anguish.
6) Let the pie rest on a cooling rack for 20-30 minutes before serving. Ignore all of the Siren's Pleas, even though some folks love to put a dollop of ice cream on top and slice a piece of scalding hot pie so as to burn their tongue and simultaneoulsy cool it. This serving methodology is not recommended, though it makes for great dinner theatre, something you may want to consider if family stories, having been unfastened by the single malt, are too freely being let loose.
As Mark Bittman points out, the main difference between this pecan pie recipe and most others is the minimal use of corn syrup. In his own recipe, Mr. Bittman does not use any corn syrup at all. The concoction that you are making is more custard-like than the usual super-sweet corn syrup version. It tastes different. I will not say it’s better. As with most things food, it’ll be your own taste buds that’ll make the decision for you. The one thing that I can say for sure is that this recipe won’t leave that sweet & harsh corn syrup in the back of your throat. Now, if that’s what you’re after than you can go here.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
A Pre-emptive Toast
...but how does one feel?
One grows used to the weather,
The landscape and that;
And the sublime comes down
To the spirit itself,
The spirit and space,
The empty spirit
In vacant space.
What wine does one drink?
What bread does one eat?
Excerpt from The American Sublime by Wallace Stevens
Kenneth Roxroth, listening to our conversations, said: "You don't know how to talk to each other, you just exchage monologues." He hit upon a trait of Central Europeans (not only Poles?). But we are aware of it and it makes us uneasy, for the personalline and the tribal line intersect here. Me? Or the civilization in whcih I was raised.
Monologues by Czeslaw Milosz
Excuse the glasses filled and soon to be held high above our heads. Preparations are in high gear and the weather is co-operating. It's been raining all day and the high winds have been whipping the hurtful droplets into our faces and into our clothes. The food items have all been plucked and parking dilemnas minimized. Everyone seems eager to get out of the weather and into the comfort of home, firing up the stoves, equipping the kids with potato peelers, colanders and newspapers. Turkey and chicken are washed and zested up. Pies appear from small piles of flour, nuts, or pudding-like pumpkin. Plates of salami and cheeses float around, islands of sinful nourishment to stoke the nighttime cooks.
I wish all you cooking tonight and tomorrow good cheer and may your burns be minimal but not so small that you couldn;t coax a conversation from them.
Labels: Holidays
Friday, November 17, 2006
The Big Meal
I love cooking the Thanksgiving meal. It’s the closest our kitchen gets to being the place of boiling oil and flesh and personal intrigue that Anthony Bourdain chronicled in his Kitchen Confidential. Our kitchen is long and narrow. Very narrow. If both my ever-loving spouse and I are in the room simultaneously, you’d be hard-pressed to slip a Santoku between us. Just as a note, the closeness is not due to our oversampling of boiling/frying/baking foods as they're being prepared. Like I said, our kitchen is narrow; it is the Kate Moss of kitchen designs. Over the years we’ve practiced a dervish-like dance of knives and colanders, with the clinking of steel and crashing of pots being our musical background. For certain meals, one or the other retreats from the preparation field as we know there would be calamities of a disproportionate size.
Thanksgiving brings its own big honking toot. Foods only made once a year, visitors unfamiliar with the holiday family drama, time schedules limited by one stove and one oven. And that stove/oven? Over 20 years old and limited in its BTU output; you light the gas burners, put your head, sideways, on the stove top, and blow in hopes of adding additional oxygen to increase the heat. Somehow, it always works out. The finished items have a certain enjoyable edibility, which on occasion and with enough spices and luck, turn out almost wonderful. Well, memorable at least. An excess of food is always made. We tend to spread our bets on taste by going for the multiple plates rather than just 3 or 4 dishes. Our more successful T-day meals, statistically speaking, end up with the cooks suffering a higher proportion of nicks and burns. Following this reasoning, our best Thanksgiving would be one where my ever-loving spouse or I would lose a digit or limb. Our dreams of retirement somewhere later in this century preclude loss of any body parts, so we’ve refused, thus far, to destructure ourselves for the sake of a meal.
So, tentatively, here's where we hope to end up next Thursday.
Most Important Ingredients
Friends who kindly accepted a seat at our table on Thanksgiving.
A Beginning
A short glass of homemade Rakija
Živeli!
On the Plate
Juha/Chicken Soup w/ Noklice
Fresh Cranberry Sauce (w/ Orange rind)
Mushrooms Berkeley
8 lb Turkey Breast (Brined o’nite with water, Kosher salt, rosemary, peppercorns, ginger root, celery, oranges)
5 lbs of fried Chicken Breast & Tenderlings
Mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes
Baked Jarslberg Macaroni w/ Bechenel (mucho!) cream sauce
String Beans with Garlic and Ginger (Thank you NYT Wed. food section!)
Basmati Rice and Green Peas w/ Meyer lemon-infused grapeseed oil
Homemade Bread
Couch Food
Pecan-Rum Pie
Pumpkin cream Pie
Vanilla & Strawberry Ice Cream
Loose teas, coffees (a current favorite here in the sticks is New Mexico Pinon Coffee)
The Liquids
Apollinaris
Gerolsteiner
Perrier Lemon
Nouveau Beaujolais
2003 Corzano e Paterno Il Corzano Rosso Toscano
2004 Freiherr von Heddesdorff Winninger Uhlen Riesling Spatlese Trocken
Other medicinals available
On the (CD) Platter
Herbie Hancock – The Piano
Charlie Haden Hank Jones – Steal Away
Duke Ellington & Ray Brown – This One’s for Blanton
Bill Charlap Trio – Written in the Stars
Peggy Lee – Trav'lin' Light
Bill Charlap - Stardust
Tomorrow, Saturday, off early to Italian Market in Philly for salami, peppers, mascarpone, mozzarella, and something else that may strike my fancy. Food & friends on Thursday! What can be better?
How are your (American) Thanksgiving plans coming together?
Note Bene: The all important after-Thanksgiving recipe for Turkey Chile has been provided by Whisky Prajer here. Not being a turkey fan, I was most pleased to use this recipe last year to salvage the remains of T-day. Can't say enough about this recipe. A bowl of this chili, a hunk of crusty Italian bread, and a bottle of brew and you'll be enjoying Black Friday as you relax the day after.
Note Bene duo: Searchie has provided some gems of recipes. I can't believe she actually provided the recipe for Grand Marnier-Apricot-Sausage Stuffing, in particular. And all without being under duress. Next T-day, I'll definitely be trying these out. This year, unfortunately, the meal is like one of those super giant tankers. Once the course is set, it takes forever to make a turn. Thanks, Searchie!
Labels: Holidays
