Archive for Nov 2006
Mon Nov 27 10:30:28 2006Turkey Day turned out rather well. There were only six of us and everyone pretty much behaved themselves and managed to have a good time. I think. It was my first proper Thanksgiving and I was just a bit freaked out about the whole thing, but there no disasters. Everything tasted very nice and there was more than enough to go round. Even the eponymous turkey came out perfectly. I used the "Roasted Turkey" recipe from Southern Living's 2005 Annual Recipes which called for spreading sage butter between the turkey breast and skin and then thoroughly buttering the rest of the turkey before plunking it on a rack in a roasting pan which had been filled with 32 oz of turkey broth. The turkey looked beautiful when it came out of the oven -- a caramel-y maple brown -- and tasted very nice, too.
Because I wanted to make Thanksgiving as easy on me as possible, many dishes were prepared ahead of time and the whole meal ended up being far more "conventional" than I had intended. I used Betty Crocker's "Make-Ahead Garlic Mashed Potatoes" recipe to make the potatoes Wednesday afternoon. The stuffing was made in the slow cooker that morning ("Slow-Cooker Cornbread Stuffing" from Southern Living's 2005 Annual Recipes) to shave some time off the turkey so I could sleep in. Instead of roasted brussels sprouts with pancetta and maple glazed balsamic baby carrots, we had Green Giant Niblets® Corn & Butter Sauce, Campbells® Green Bean Casserole (Mom), and cooked sliced carrots (Mom). Rather than homemade French rolls pressed with sage leaves there were Pillsbury® Oven Baked Crusty French dinner rolls. Butter was an ordinary stick of Cabot® rather than the fancy-shmancy compound butter I had considered making. The mince for the apple-mincemeat pie (Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book, Meredith Books: 1998) came out of a jar and was doctored with great abandon. Splenda®'s Great Pumpkin Pumpkin Pie replaced a salad of autumn fruits. The Husband's "Chocolate Swirl Muffin Cake" (doesn't eat teh piez) was a complete baking mix hack job. The cranberry sauce came out of a can.
Yes. Thanksgiving dinner was pretty much a complete hack job. And, like most hack jobs, completely fine. The food was delicious, everyone enjoyed themselves, and no-one missed the compound butter. Except me. I still want to make a nice compound butter and use one of those decorative butter molds to shape it into strawberry leaves or something. I've wanted to do this ever since I read the part in Little House in the Big Woods where Caroline uses carrots to yellow the winter butter and then presses it in a strawberry leaf mold ...
Tue Nov 21 10:30:28 2006
Been playing Rayman Raving Rabbids (which I had been calling Rayman Ravening Hominids) and it is quite a lot of fun. Oh my, yes. Psychotic dancing bunnies armed with plungers? What's not to like?
The Husband keeps trying to get me to play Twilight Princess, but I will not
be swayed from sweet bunny madness. Sure, TP looks very pretty and Werewolf Link sounds nifty, but it's not ravening raving bunnies.
Yes, so we have a Wii now. Can't take the piss out of the PS3 people so much, anymore. We didn't stand in line for three days to get our hot little hands on one, though. No, The Husband stood all alone in line for three hours, because I was going to get some sleep goddamit.
We tried getting one from Walmart at midnight, but they were soldout by the time The Husband reached the head of the queue. We did manage to score an extra controller, Twilight Princess, and Rayman so all was not for naught.
Too damned early Sunday morning, The Husband took himself off to Target. Or so I thought. About an hour later, he called to say he was at Toys'r'Us, had a number, and would "probably" get a Wii when the store opened at 10. Too tired to go back to sleep, I brought him donuts and sweet milky tea, took a few incriminating photos, and then ditched him to borrow my mom's carpet cleaner.
And now all I want to do is play with teh rabbids, but there is no time. So much crap to get done before Thanksgiving dinner. Rooms to clean, windows to wash, pies to bake, and the turkey is not thawing. Screw food safety. If that sucker isn't a lot squishier by tomorrow morning, then I'm thawing it in the sink the way my mom, aunts, and grandmothers always have.
Sat Nov 18 20:53:48 2006
I made Dad's cake a little early this month, because it seemed mean to stick him with a cake immediately following Thanksgiving. Better to give it to him now while there is still room in his tummy and no other delightful foods about to distract him.
November's selection was "Pecan Cake with Tangerine Cream Filling" frosted with "Tangerine Whipped Cream" from Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book (Meredith Books, 1998). When I first saw Dad's post-it next to the picture of this fancy-shmancy looking cake, I admit to freaking just a little. But it turned out to be an easy and tasty cake (Dad had thirds) which was a lot of fun to make.
The cake uses 3 tablespoons of flour. Yes. Tablespoons. Not cups. The bulk of the batter is made up of coarsely ground toasted pecans, sugar, and whipped eggs. I don't toast nuts very often, but I followed the cookbook's instructions and they came out a lovely golden brown. And the aroma! The whole kitchen smelled so good I was tempted to nibble the cabinets (eerily, same golden brown as the nuts).
The frosting and the filling were simple to make and the whole cake came together quite easily. I used my mom's old food processor for the nut grinding and batter preparation, my new microplane to zest the orange, and the kitchenaid mixer to make the whipped cream ... this might be called a "tool heavy" cake, I guess. I don't know how you'd make the batter if you didn't own a blender or food processor. Happily, (for someone who didn't know what a microplane was three years ago) I seem to be collecting a lot of tools.
Wed Nov 15 22:16:51 2006
There are n00bs camped out in front of the local Target and Best Buy stores waiting for the scarcer-than-hen's-teeth PS3s coming out Friday (yes, today is Wednesday). You know, it's supposed to rain through Friday. Heh. While those n00bs in line at Best Buy have tents and (I kid you not) a portable toilet, Target has a "no tents" policy. I ♥ Target.
Am I evil to find pleasure in the rain? I don't know why the PS3 squatting pisses me off so much, but it does. While looking at the eager beavers in line at Target my brain was an angry snarl of anti-consumption mumbo-jumbo. The local food bank is begging for donations and here are all these ... entitled ... people queuing up to piss half a thousand dollars away on a toy.
And why were we at Target? We were at Target, because we needed Thanksgiving stuff. You know: extra steak knives, place mats, a waffle maker, and pickle plate ...
Yes, you read that right. Waffle maker. I bought what I thought was a box of pancake mix earlier this week, only to later discover it was waffle mix. Rather than exchange it for the necessary product, we found it easier to purchase a waffle maker.
And then we figured we'd walk over to Best Buy and check out the PS3 queue.
Yes. We are everything that is wrong with America.
Thu Nov 09 22:09:12 2006
Angry Librarian dropped the F bomb Monday night. Finally had too much of Millenium and just couldn't take it, anymore. Started shouting and swearing and gesticulating most angrily. I doubt there was a person in the library who did not hear him. Of course, nothing happened. Everyone (patrons and staff) looked vaguely uncomfortable, but no one said anything and no one did anything. I thought, afterwards, I could have done something, but he was so scary and angry I was afraid to at the time.
I snitched on him to the Assistant Director, today. I couldn't have told her earlier, because we were working opposite shifts so I never saw her and it didn't seem the type of thing to leave in a note. Also, I thought maybe Angry Librarian would say something to her or, at least, one of my other co-workers might. I didn't want to be the one to initiate, but he scared me and I know him pretty well. What must the patrons have felt? And, hello? Anger management issues, anyone?
This is the first time I'd ever asked the AD if I could speak to her privately in her office and I'm sure she was expecting me to give notice, not drop Angry Librarian on her. I tried to ease in with by asking if anyone had mentioned Monday night to her, but (obviously) no-one had and so I did the dirty deed and told on Angry Librarian. She has aghast and the director will be consulted and ... nothing good will happen, I'm sure. Angry Librarian has behaved badly (though not this badly) before and he always gets a little talking to, calms down for a while, and then slowly goes back to his old angry ways.
I know Angry Librarian has been having health problems and is very unhappy with Millennium, but going postal is never acceptable. Dear god, if you must loose your temper so extravagantly then do it in the staff room. Kick the door a couple times and slam the cupboards. Don't stand in the circ area and swear and shout and gesticulate like some kind of madman.
Wed Nov 08 14:37:10 2006
For my birthday, I received a lot of bookish loot which I have barely touched. It's been days since my birthday. Surely, I should be through half the pile. Lately, the only time I really read is at night in front of the television, but it seems to annoy The Husband that I'm sitting on the couch with him, but not really with him. For me, watching television isn't something you do when you want to spend time with people. You turn the television off when you want to spend time with other human beings. Otherwise, you're sitting in front of the box in each other's presence, but not in each other's company. Not really.
Probably, this is an old-fashioned way of thinking and I need to get with it and throw some Tivo parties or something.
Anyway, so not reading so much. Terrible, because there are so many things to read. All these delicious books from the library that barely get skimmed before being tossed in the return tote (yes, I have two library totes -- one for taking out and one for bringing back). And now there's the sweet sweet pile of presentses ...
The Husband gave me Boondocks: Because I Know You Don't Read The Newspaper which I have managed to read, already. It was good. Funny in a way that makes me wince, sometimes. I'm annoyed to know there won't be any new newspaper strips and who knows if new episodes are really coming in Spring 2007?? Happily, there are at least three more print collections to read.
The Husband also gave me Jane Austen's Emma, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility in the same Headline Review editions I purchased in England. No more will I have to wonder what befell my poor benighted copy of Sense and Sensibility (or if, indeed, I had ever purchased one as I might have confused that book purchase with other book purchases .. there were so many).
Not all The Husband's gifts were of the bookish persuasion. After all, he did give me a sturdy pair of Fiskars Pro Kneelers last month. And he did give me Seasons 2 & 3 of Chef!. And March of the Penguins! Yes! Penguin madness!
We have Tivo programmed to record pretty much anything that so much as mentions penguins. We get some weird shit, but we also get a lot of nature documentaries and the occasional children's cartoon. Indeed, this is how I became addicted to 3-2-1 Penguins! which is a Christian cartoon produced by Big Idea. Big Idea also does The VeggieTales, but 3-2-1 Penguins! is more about learning good behavior with a bit of instructional scripture thrown in whereas VeggieTales is much more ... biblical. Anyway, the religious bits aren't gag-worthy and the stories are generally quite amusing. Significantly better than most of the crap on Saturday mornings, anyhow.
"Let's sing a little song with eight little words about a rocketship and some flightless birds ..."
Cracktastic.
Mon Nov 06 13:54:22 2006
For my birthday dinner, The Husband booked us a table at Todd English's Tuscany at the casino. I know, casino dining on my birthday? What crack am I smoking now? Delicious foi gras crack, I tell you. Yes, I know. Foie gras is a cruel and wicked food and I should
The trio of foie gras (brilliant sauteed liver, good pate, and an amusing ravioli) was charmingly arranged in a row on a squarish white platter with accompaniments of blue cheese, fig and cranberry compote, honeycomb, prosciutto, watercress, and a couple of those crisp sesame encrusted toasts fanning out behind them. It looked too pretty to eat, but it wasn't. One taste of the sauteed liver with the fig compote and I was off. I'd never eaten foie gras before and was unsure how to go about it, but I just took lots of tiny delicious bites of different combinations and it was all good. I don't even like blue cheese, but it was absolutely delicious with the honeycomb. The fig compote? I wanted a jar to take home with me. If I hadn't been on "best manners" I might have licked the plate.
Certainly, I did fish a little of the onion-topped focaccia (came with minced kalamata olive tapenade and a pureed white bean spread ... fuckmegood) out of the breadbasket and use it to mop up the delicious honey, compote, blue cheese, prosciutto crumb detritus left at the bottom of my plate, but I managed to stop at that.
While I was off, orgasming over my foie gras, The Husband was quietly enjoying his grilled scallops over peach ice with a spicy garnish (you think you know a person ...). He let me sample a little of the peach ice and it was quite refreshing and I almost wished I had ordered it. He also had a nice cuppa and that was good to see as many restaurants don't seem to understand tea and either tart tea-making up so much it's a hassle or give you a teabag floating in a coffeecup full of lukewarm water. Ick. But this was good tea with a real teapot and a proper size mug. Huzzah. (Once, when the busboy was tidying our table between courses, he swept up The Husband's pyramid of empty sugar packets and said "you use almost as much sugar as I do" which is cute, but not possible without going into a coma).
Our entrees were a mixed bag. The Husband had "Spaghetti Polpettine 'Brooklyn' Style" which is basically really nice spaghetti and meatballs. He seemed quite happy with it and only shared a tiny forkful of meatball with me. My "Crispy Skinned Salmon Filet" with sauteed spinach and walnuts, some kind-of over salted risotto-type side, and cider reduction was good, but not as good as I expected. The salmon, a bit bland and overcooked, was rescued by forking up with the spinach and then smearing it all through the twee little puddles of sauce. Indeed, the spinach with walnuts was excellent. Crisp, emerald green, and nutty. Yum. The risotto-y thing? Creamy and with bits of crab or lobster, it seemed to have a lot of promise, but was too salty for me.
Sigh.We didn't have dessert as, well, the dessert menu was not that tempting. All I really wanted was a cheese plate and a glass of port, but that wasn't in the offing so we went to Krispy Kreme, instead.
Mmmm ... donuts ....
last updated: Sat 17 Nov 2007 08:19:03 AM EST