|
navigation
current
archives
links page
profile
|
|
pots and pans
December 01, 2014
Another Thanksgiving weekend behind us, and that is something to
give thanks for right there! I've eaten, I'm beaten, and I feel like I need
to go on a 3-day fast.
On Wednesday night, I went straight home to make pies and do some
housework, and when Spouse got home, he jumped in and did the
vacuuming, dusted the living room, and gave the bathroom a quick
freshen up. Then he ran to Culver's and grabbed us some dinner, after
which I got back on the housework detail and he relaxed a bit, then
made his sweet potatoes and got them into the baking pan, ready for
the oven. Despite all of my best efforts to warn him of the dangers, he
managed to slice his finger on the mandoline. After we did the first aid
bit, he snapped on a rubber glove and finished the sweets, then took
some analgesic and went to bed.
Thursday, we slept in a little bit, then I threw a pan of Pillsbury
cinnamon rolls into the oven to have with the coffee. Spouse managed
to get cleaned up and dressed one-handed. We brought the electric
roaster upstairs and I set it up. While he made his stuffing and panned
it out (one for the freezer and one for the oven), I took my shower and
got into some comfy clothes. We picked up some of the small catering
pans from the dollar store last week, and they made it sooo much easier
to handle the oven stuff. Naturally, since he'd injured his finger, all the
washing up duties fell to me. I cleaned up his stuffing dishes, and we
got the bird into the cooking bag, then into a foil pan, then started in
the roaster. (I hate cleaning the roaster--this way makes cleanup a mere
formality)
And I made myself something from my childhood holidays, since I had
the ingredients. My grandma used to make a cranberry dish that
consisted of three slightly strange ingredients, but resulted in a freaky-
delicious concoction. She never really had a name for it--we always
called it Grandma's Cranberries. A layered dish, always served in a clear
glass bowl, consisting of whole cranberry sauce (straight from the can,
of course) crushed saltines, and Cool Whip, arranged in layers and
allowed to rest in the fridge for several hours. I just made a tiny one in a
Pyrex custard cup, since this was not something Spouse would ever eat.
(I have since found out that this is called "Yifta", and is descended
from a Swedish dish that used lingonberries. Whatever. Grandma's
Cranberries.)
Once that was made, we were to the point where there wasn't any more
prep to do till it was time to make the dinner--so we took a nap!
He woke up first, and jumped on the vegetables; peeling the potatoes
for mashing and the carrots for steaming. I wanted peas, but he wanted
carrots, so that's what we had. He made his gravy from scratch this
year, and it was pretty darn good for a first try! I tried something
different with the crescent rolls; instead of doing them the traditional
way, I just sliced the rolled up dough into eight sections and baked
them like biscuits. I think we both prefer them that way! We managed
to get everything timed out to the minute, and then sat down to a
perfectly lovely Thanksgiving feast. Everything was perfect. Absolutely
delicious! He really is one hell of a cook. And the Yifta...was so good it
made me weepy for Grandma!
After we enjoyed the heck out of our wonderful meal, I told him to stay
in his chair and relax, because I would handle the dishes by myself. He
did so much of the cooking that I felt it was the least I could do--
especially in view of his wounded finger. The leftovers were easy--he
had made the perfect amount of everything to make a second meal, and
I used the catering pans to get it all put away--carrots and stuffing in
one, sweet & mashed potatoes in the other. A third, larger pan for the
turkey. All ready to go straight into the oven for Friday's dinner!
After I cleaned up the mess and picked the turkey, I popped the carcass
and the pan juices into a pot with a couple of quarts of water and some
aromatics to cook up a glorious turkey stock. Once that was going, we
had our pie--pumpkin for me, chocolate for him. Happiness! Mine was
fantastic. 10/10, would buy a frozen pumpkin pie from Aldi again. It
was fresh, delicious, and baked up gorgeously.
Once I had the last mess cleaned up in the kitchen, and three quarts of
beautiful stock tucked away in the downstairs fridge, I was ready to just
have a nice quiet evening. Spent it fiddling around, reading, playing
games, and relaxing. He went to bed at eight, and I wasn't too far
behind him, because I knew I had a very big Friday planned. It was a
perfect Thanksgiving. We never left the house, and I never even put on
shoes.
Since we had to have the Ford at the mechanic by eight on Friday, I
had to break my rule of never leaving the house before 1:00 p.m. on
"black Friday". But we didn't have to go anywhere near where the
shoppers were, and I desperately needed my car fixed (NO HEAT!), so
I made the exception. After we dropped it off for a flush & fill, new
thermostat, and new Cabin Air Filter, we popped over to Festival for
some bread and a few other things we needed, then headed home so I
could get started on the Big Project...FRUITCAKE!
I got started with the dark cake I was doing for my BIL, P. In addition
to all the usual prep of weighing, measuring, & chopping the fruit and
nuts, it fell to me to do the pan-lining, since Spouse's bloody finger
sidelined him. And I did a perfectly fine job, on all three pans. He felt
compelled to do a little backseat driving during the process of fitting
the parchment, but I indulged him and let him lay down the rules. Even
though I've known how to line pans since I was a little kid....
P's cake was fun to do, since it is my idea of a fruitcake anyway. I used
Penzey's cake spice, which is basically all the good baking spices in one
blend: cinnamon, star anise, nutmeg, allspice, ginger and cloves. I also
added an extra touch of clove, and a small handful of crystallized ginger
bits. Along with the brown sugar and molasses, the batter was smelling
(and tasting--ssh!) delicious.
Once I got the spicy, molasses-rich goodness of the dark cake into the
oven, I cleaned up my first mess, and started prepping for the two light
cakes that were coming next. This year, I did all the prep for both at
the same time. I even measured out & sifted both batches of dry
ingredients in one go. I had paper plates all over the kitchen, with
weighed-out pecans & macadamia nuts, fat and juicy extra-fancy mixed
raisins, chopped fruit mix, coarsely chopped candied pineapple, and red
& green glacee cherries.
The first cake had a different baking time and temp than the next two,
so I had to let it finish before I could start the next one. But once it
was out and on the rack, I breezed through the mixing and got the first
of the light cakes in the oven in no time. The third one, however,
decided to be difficult. I dropped the cap-liner from the almond extract
into the mixing bowl, and had to go looking for it & fish it out. I
accidently hit the beater with the measuring cup when adding the dry
ingredients, knocking the bowl loose and spilling the flour mixture all
over the counter. Eggshell in the eggs--fortunately I always crack them
into a separate bowl first. And when I was putting the batter into the
pan...the handle on my spatula snapped in two! GAH!!!! And, since it
went into the oven last, it took the longest to bake--about 15 minutes
extra. Which would not be a big deal, except we needed to get back to
the mechanic and pick up the car! I did have time to get the next phase
of clean-up done, though. And to de-pan the second cake to let it cool.
When I finally got it out of the oven, I left it to do its half-hour rest in
the pan while we zipped over and picked up the car. The gloriously
warm and toasty car! Squeeeee! Then back home to de-pan the last
cake, and do some more washing up.
From starting the first cake to taking the last one out of the pan took
five hours--from 10:30 to 3:30, so I was kind of bushed--and pretty
darned hungry. All I'd had all day was a my morning coffee and a
danish. So we decided to bung our leftovers into the oven and have an
early dinner. Everything was just as tasty the second day, and cleanup
was a cinch. Another quiet evening, as I was worn to a nubbin. Around
seven, I checked the fruitcakes and they were all cooled, so I wrapped
them up and doused them well with their respective liquors, sealed
them in foil, and tucked them into the downstairs fridge to cure.
Another Fruitcake Friday came to an end.
Oh, and I did just happen to mention to Spouse that I would like to get
up in the morning and have raspberry pancakes, since I had a big
container of fresh raspberries to eat up.
I slept like the dead on Friday night, and woke up a bundle of energy,
so I got up took care of the B, started laundry, cleared out the dish
drainer, scrubbed the kitchen sink and floor, made my raspberry sauce,
and was a general whirlwind of activity. Then I sat down and had some
coffee. When Spouse got up, he made sausage & pancakes! And not
just his normal pancakes, either. He created a new recipe that he felt
would harmonize better with the berries. OFF. THE. CHAIN. Out-
of-this-world good. He's getting to be so brilliant in the kitchen!
So after we ate, and got cleaned up, he informed me that our priority
was going to be getting my glasses fixed. They were so out-of-whack
that I had actually gone back to wearing my old ones. Turns out
Thanksgiving weekend is really quiet at Sam's Club Optical. I got them
fixed up good-as-new in no time, new nose pads and all tightened and
adjusted so I'm not looking through the bifocals all the time. Then we
did a little shopping.
I was trying to draw him out about Christmas presents, and he was
being his usual difficult self. I thought maybe the digital SLR camera he
was looking at, but he pooh-poohed it. I tried one more time to get him
interested in a tablet, but he barked at me to drop the subject. I was
having no luck at all.
Until we got to housewares, and he spotted a 14-pc set of Cuisinart
cookware, stainless steel, tri-ply construction, glass covers...shiny,
sparkly, and gorgeous. He lit up like the fourth of July. Then I did the
magnet test, and it turned out to be induction ready. And he REALLY
lit up!
Having looked at this stuff when we wanted new pans last year, I was
expecting the price tag to be $300.00, but I was going to bite the
bullet...and then I noticed the sign: Regularly $149.98, EVENT PRICE
$99.98. Into the cart it went. Along with a very pretty Cuisinart anti-
fatigue mat for in front of the sink, for $19.98. And from him--not one
word of even half-hearted protest, so I know it's what he really wants.
BOOM. Christmas shopping for Spouse is DONE, baby! It's a miracle!
(And, in the interest of further setting gender norms on their ear, he's
getting me power tools this year.)
And we filled the car up (Gas at Sam's was $2.56/9 on Saturday!), ran a
few other errands, and stopped at our favorite tree lot to pick up a
grave wreath for Papa. We kept trying to find excuses to stay out,
because Saturday was sunny, mild, and gorgeous. But eventually we ran
out of stuff and went home. I baked up a bunch of potatoes that
needed to be used up, since they make good hash browns, I finished
the laundry (except I forgot to take the last load out of the dryer), we
chilled, and we had a pick-up supper of turkey sandwiches and pie. He
got to thinking about Sunday's breakfast, and decided he wanted to do
something different. We had bacon, eggs, a smidge of leftover spam
that needed to be used up, the baked potatoes, onions, garlic, good
cheese, herbs...he decided to make a breakfast casserole (really it was
basically a crustless quiche, but he called it a frittata, because quiche is a
forbidden word to him).
He got up Sunday morning on a mission. He fried up the bacon &
spam, carmelized onions and garlic, sauteed the potatoes in the bacon
grease, mixed everything together, and laid it out in a pyrex casserole
dish. Poured a mixture of beaten eggs, cream, salt, pepper and Penzey's
Sunny Paris herb blend (shallots, chives, green peppercorn, dill weed,
basil, tarragon, chervil and bay leaf) over the top. Put a little grated
Vermont white cheddar over one end, as a concession to me, (he isn't
an eggs and cheese fan) and
popped it into a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.
Oh, my good goddam. I thought he couldn't top the raspberry
pancakes. I am a fool. That was possible the best breakfast I've ever
had--and I've had some damn good breakfasts.
Over breakfast, he mentioned that he wanted to take another try at
getting some more work shirts--and if it was okay with me, he wanted
to go to Oak Creek to check their Farm & Fleet. After that breakfast,
he could have asked me to sew him some shirts and I would have done
it! I did the dishes for the hundredth time, we got ready, and headed up
the road to try our fortunes.
The F&F was mobbed, but we had tremendous good luck finding what
we were looking for--four more of the shirts he likes, in his size, for
him. (I made him buy four, because he found what he likes, in his
hard-to-find size, with really good quality--for $14.99 apiece! That is
NOT the time to be stingy!)
A really neat Hotwheels set for Toys For Tots. And for me...a new pair
of black Lee jeans, a nice new pair of black leather work shoes (Hush
Puppies), which I sorely needed. And I lucked out in the shoe clearance
again, with a new pair of NB runners for 33% off. Needed them really
bad, too. All in all, very worthwhile excursion. Dang, I love Farm &
Fleet.
We took our time coming home, and got a chance to try out the fancy
new wiper blades he got cheap, since it was sloppy out. Very nice! We
also made a stop to drop off the TfT toys.
It was finally my turn to cook, so I spent a chunk of the afternoon
puttering in the kitchen, making a pot of turkey & rice soup. My stock,
once it was de-fatted, skimmed, and strained, was gorgeous. I added
chopped onion, celery, and carrots, Herbes de Provence, chopped up
turkey, and some long grain and wild rice, and let the whole thing go on
low heat for the afternoon. At 4:30, I made a pan of scratch cornbread,
which I have never actually done since I was a kid. I generally use a mix,
because he was raised on that sort of thing, and tended to prefer it. I
used a Betty Crocker recipe I found online that was quick and easy, and
good enough to blow Spouse's mind. He was amazed that you could
whip up a pan very nearly as easily as you could make it from a mix, and
have it be good! As good as he is at cooking, he has a lot to learn about
baking. My god...there is nothing easier than homemade cornbread.
And if you have a good recipe, there's nothing tastier!
So our last meal of the holiday weekend came out just as good as the
rest of them, for all that it was a couple of easy dishes. And we had
enough left to freeze and have it again! And tonight we had turkey
sandwiches one more time, just to get it all eaten up. Tomorrow,
though, it is going to have to be some good red meat, because we've
been doing turkey since Thursday, and we're really ready for a change!
And personally, after all the time I've spent at the sink lately, I would
dearly love to eat dinner out. I'm thoroughly sick of washing dishes.
But I'm pretty sure I'll be making boneless pork ribs at home.
Reading: I didn't read a ton this week. Trying to finish various things I've started
and put down. Trying to pin down that next thing I want to read. My
problem is, I have a ton of stuff loaded up on my phone/tablet that I
want to read...eventually. And nothing I want to read right NOW.
Listening: The Police, The Foo Fighters, The Beatles, The Doors, INXS
At Random:
click here
|
|