Sweet and Sour in Boston

Thanksgiving was held in our tiny condo. I did the Alton Brown brine, but with a few different ingredients and the turkey turned out fantastic. In fact everything turned out great.

My favorite holiday of all time: THANKSGIVING! Since we couldn't be with our family, Abby and I decided to celebrate turkey day at our condo and have a few friends who were stuck in Boston come on over. There's a lot of food to cook, but I love to cook and was up for the challenge. Our menu was:

Spicy Citrus Brined Roast Turkey (18.8 lbs!)
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Spicy Sauteed Asparagus
Garlic Almond Green Beans and Grape Tomato Salad
Homemade Turkey Gravy
Candied Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallow Topping
Stovetop Stuffing
Abby's Homemade Apple Pie

It all turned out to be a huge success! The turkey was crispy on the outside and wasn't dry at all (except the wings because I didn't dock them correctly). The homemade turkey gravy turned out incredible! I made turkey stock in the morning, using the gibblets from the frozen turkey and added that to a roux made with the turkey drippings. So damn good...I wished I made more. We drank some damn good wine brought by our friend Joey, and played some drinking games while we were all stuffed and fighting off sleep after we ate. Was a very good time indeed.







I hope all our loyal readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

(*UPDATE - the wine Joey brought was a gift from our friend Vince. He wanted to let all the interweb know that he's the wine enthusiast of the group. San Fran/Bay Area Ladies: He's also rich and single!)

What does a girl do on a free day off? She puts her pjs back on, plops down on the couch, and begins an entire day of trashy tv watching. I've been semi productive today, applied for a credit card (yay for wedding debt!), got the heat fixed, and did some laundry. Now I'm attempting to be witty and informative in a stellar new blog post.

First things first...
David Dust commented on JP's Top Chef recap. I, in turn, read his. He's HILARIOUS. I suggest reading his blog for all things Top Chef...after you read ours of course. He and I might have to battle it out for Fabio's undying love. I have a feeling he'd win...

This week on TC, Padma wore a heinous denim skirt. Fabio has completely gone from secret crush to full on crush. (I think JP likes Steffan better) I don't care if people think Carla is crazy, I still like her. And Jersey needs to pack her knives and (as I quote HIMYM) "crawl into the open sewer pipe you call the Holland Tunnel and flush [yourself] back to "'pretty much New York'"
I loved that they were allowed to cook at Craft. CraftBar was amazing when we went there so I can imagine the kitchen in his main restaurant is fantastic. Lucky bastards. I also LOVE that they have to cook for bitter TC losers from NYC. I knew from the moment they aired the losers, we'd hear how each of them could have done better, blah blah blah...but you didn't so shut yo face losers. Making statements how you're better isn't going to get you on the show in place of the current cheftestants. Get.Over.It.

Onto this weekend's festivities. We headed to Michael and Samantha's to eat some yummy Thanksgiving food. The turkey was fab...as well as the "outside the bird" stuffing. I can't attest to the inside the bird stuffing because I didn't eat it. Hey, AB said it can contain salmonella, and while I could stand to lose another 10 lbs, I don't want to have food poisoning for Turkey Day. I made them an apple pie, which everyone said was tasty, but it wasn't as good as the previous two I made. I couldn't get the crust to work with me. So hopefully the one I make for Thursday will taste better. It may have been because I ran out of shortening...hmmm.

For John Paul's birthday I bought him the Thanksgiving issue of Gourmet Magazine. After going through it he picked out an ad for McCormick Saigon Cinnamon. They had a recipe for "Molten Spiced Chocolate Cabernet Cakes". I didn't have any souffle dishes so we went to Bed Bath and Beyond and with my 20% coupon, I bought a 4 pack for less than $7 (score!)
The recipe is as follows (SO easy to make) and makes 4 servings:
4 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate (I used nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips) Also, 4oz is equal to 2/3 of a cup.
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 tbsp Cabernet Sauvignon or other wine (I used whatever red wine I had already had open)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
6 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp Saigon Cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Butter 4 (6-oz) custard cups or souffle dishes. Place on baking sheet.

MICROWAVE chocolate and butter in large microwavable bowl on HIGH 1 minute or until butter is melted. Whisk until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in wine, vanilla, and sugar until blended. Whisk in eggs and yolk. Stir in remaining ingredients. Spoon evenly into prepared dishes.

BAKE in preheated over at 425 degrees F oven 15 minutes or until sides are firm but centers are soft. Let stand 1 minute. Loosen edges with knife. Invert onto serving plates. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar, if desired!

They're yummy and tasty and I'll upload pictures later :)









Next post will be after Thanksgiving :) Hope you all have a happy one!