Riding COACH with Grape Soda and homemade doughnuts? GET OUT!!!!

My friend Angela shares some of the same ideas that i do, like making and eating food that is totally Jem (see earlier posts for obvious 80's definition) and ridiculously tasty.  She called yesterday and said that she had made some grape soda (she has a machine that can add carbonation to things, I'm super jealous) and doughnuts (made from brioche dough) and was wondering if she could drop them by. C'mon now, am I going to refuse tasty homemade food?  That's a big big no.  The grape soda was actually kosher concord grape juice with bubblies.  I should have taken a picture.  It wasn't really around long enough for that to happen.  I barely snagged one of the doughnuts.  Let me just say that they were the best doughnuts I have ever had, and one of the best sweet treats I have every tasted.  If you know where i work and who my posse is, that's saying quite a bit.  So, props to angela for the tasties.

Other newsworthy news:  Totally scored two Peugeot salt and pepper mills at the TEEJ yesterday!  Retail would have been around 50 bucks.  We paid 14.  If that wasn't enough, we were looking in the men's outerwear section when I saw some leather gloves that looked more than nice.  I reached out to feel them and my tactile senses were sent into overload.  Soft, supple grandeur that felt ridiculously smooth.  I felt the insides and realized they were lined with cashmere.  It gets better.  I couldn't find a tag anywhere.  I was wondering who possibly made these delicious digit warmers when I saw, far in the lining, a COACH tag!  When did the TEEJ start carrying coach?  At half price???  Let's get em.  Wife bought them for me. the end.

Sultry Poultry

A few holiday pics for you crazies.  I am a big advocate of herbed butters.  This one has sage, thyme, and rosemary.  Most of the time, when I roast a whole bird, I loosen the breast skin and smear some of this stuff under there.  It makes for a continuous basting process, and ensures moist juicy white meat.  I also place some type of cured pork on top of the breast meat (prosciutto, pancetta, or bacon) and then remove it when it has cooked to crispy status, usually about 30 minutes before the bird is done.  This has two purposes.  It lets the skin where the meat was resting crisp up and brown nicely, and also it gives you something nice to chop up and put in salad/mashed potatoes/gravy/your mouth/etc.  

the second picture is of my mom's better than excellent sweet potatoes.  She slices them thin and cooks them in some butter/oil with salt and peps and a tiny sprinkling of gran sugar, just to caramelize.  They are sooooo good.  I wish I had some right now.  The last photo is of the brined, buttered, and baconed turkey.  It was pretty delicious.  Wife loved it.  I loved it.  It was a hit.  Try the method out.  You can't beat it, seriously.  You can practice on some chickens, which are far less expensive and then work your way up.  peaces.

Thanksgiving Reflections in Segmented Sections

Makenna had never tasted something so delicious.  Mom grabbing a power snack of mini wheats, preparing for the mayhem, Dad needing an emergency coffee fix to get through the 3rd or fourth round of doing dishes.  What a thanksgiving holiday it was.  I reclaimed my title as turkey master, tasted my first non-liquid wild turkey, spent some time with extended famsies, and made a small venture out into black friday.  Yes, as I said previously, I am the turkey master.  scratch that, I am the whole roasted bird master.  Three steps, maybe two, that guarantee success (mad skills also help).  Herb butter, brine, and pork fat.  not necessarily in that order.  steps and secrets to follow.  stay tuned peeps.

Making the Most of this Chickeny Roast

Well, I believe I have said this many times: "Buy Whole chickens, people!"  Come on, seriously.  I made three different meals out of this roasted chicken.  The whole picture is obviously raw, it was so good and I was so excited, that no photos were taken.  The second meal, was some really easy but really tasty chicken tacos.  On corn tortillas.  Buy corn, they are better.  The last and third meal I made was a breakfast meal.  I had the leftover chicken taco meat and was wondering what I could do outside the realm of tacos when I thought that it would make a really good hash.  Potatoes, onions, and peppers later, it made a pretty smashing breakfast.  No complaints were heard.  Lots more posts to go.  Wait for it...

Pork Belly Rub

So, if you haven't figured it out by now, I loves the meats.  Most all of them.  However, in this post, we pay homage to the meat of all trades, pork.  I love pork.  I can't think of a more useful, adaptable meat.  Sausages, cured hams, chops, shoulders, loins, bacons, and not to mention pork fat  (hmmmmm... gurgle... gurgle).  is it getting hot in here?  Just me???  Anyway, we had a work party on saturday night that just so happened to be potluck.  I made andouille and kale soup (my favsies), and I also smoked this pork belly.  If you are a lover of the pork fats (which I am, big time) you will absolutely love this piece of meat.  I recommend serving/preparing it like it is pictured above (thinly sliced).  I also made a gastrique for this and coated the fat side several times while it was finishing cooking.  When eaten on a baguette, the results are crazy delicious.  I finished cooking it in my oven (it was very cold out and I only got about four hours out of my smoker

) and made a makeshift roasting rack out of some potatoes.  Worked pretty well, the juices and fat drip down into the potatoes giving you ethereal buttery goodness.  I cubed those up and served those along with the pork.  By that I mean that part of one of them actually made it onto the dish (hey, I was hungry.)  

The work party was a great time.  There was so much good food and everyone was eating and having drinks and just getting to hang out without worrying about bakery things.  I had a great time.  Unfortunately, the camera was left at home, so you only get to see what I brought.  Oh well, just know that good food was in abundance.  Peaces