Monthly Archives: November 2011

Salad help, anyone?

Okay, I have a few Thanksgiving entries to make, but nothing huge. Mostly an entry with a photo or two, and to tell you all about our two new recipes.

For the moment, though, I’m here to ask a question. I need help. Help with salads. Or even just the green things that go into salads.

Bill and I, as we’ve mentioned, are members of a CSA most of the year here. This year, it started in mid-April and will last until mid-December. It’s pretty darn good for us, and it results in our having a lot of food that’s healthful for us around & to be eaten.

The downside, though, is lettuces. Lots and lots of lettuce. Lettuce invades our home, takes over our fridge and makes us crazy.… Continue reading →

Next time, I’m doing it my old way.

I went to brine my turkey today. As I mentioned yesterday, I ended up with a 16.55 lb turkey for these festivities.

I wanted to do something simpler than last year’s brine, both in terms of set up & flavor. So, I went poking around. Like last year, someone at one of my other internet haunts recommended a site that I thought looked great. No boiling, clear instructions on just how much salt to use per gallon, instructions on time.

Basically, drop your turkey into your brining bag, dump in enough water to submerge (or basically so), then dump in the appropriate amount of salt. Brine for 12 – 24 hours. (Note, I do not have a bowl large enough, and they do recommend turkey in bag, then whole thing in bowl, THEN water and so on.)… Continue reading →

A funny thing happened on the way to the turkey.

Funny how things change.

So, I just posted a big ol’ thing on this special turkey I was planning on serving for Thanksgiving. A turkey that’s currently in my freezer. A turkey I am suddenly thankful I haven’t started to thaw yet…

You see, right after posting that, my guest list doubled. Which isn’t hard to do. Originally my guest list was two people. Then one of them asked if she could bring two more who weren’t yet in a Thanksgiving celebration. I said yes, then contemplated how 8.43 lbs of turkey seems too little for 6 people.

I mean, it’s really not. It just means minimal leftovers, which is also okay, if not ideal.

Then, on Twitter, a Twitter-only (so far) friend who had agreed to be a delivery point for a local farm said someone backed out on three turkeys, and she needed someone to take them off her hands.… Continue reading →

Let’s discuss Thanksgiving, shall we?

It’s kind of astounding to me that I’m on my second Thanksgiving with this blog. While it’s been (I admit) pretty dead this year (our wedding and honeymoon month of October is completely dead), I’m still thinking about it & considering it. I figure that I enjoy Thanksgiving so much, and I’m thankful for the urge to play games (see the whole challenge aspect of this blog) that now’s probably the time to breathe some new life into this thing.

So, for today I thought I’d share a bit of my Thanksgiving menu with everyone1, and ask what your Thanksgiving plans and/or menu are. Tomorrow, I’ll update with yet more menu.

Last year we bought a huge turkey from the folks at … Continue reading →

The fast history of the potato.

It’s another link today. I promise MetaCookbook won’t become just a link-sharing spot, but I probably am going to increase the number of links I put out here to share with you guys.

This one came to me, I think, from Mark Bittman’s twitter feed. I don’t actually recall, though, because it’s been sitting on my computer waiting for me to read it for about a week.

It’s a fascinating and relatively quick history of the potato’s impact on agriculture. Called “How the Potato Changed the World” by Charles C. Mann, it has a fascinating run-down of the potato’s history, and makes a case for the potato being the root1 of current agricultural processes.

One thing I found truly fascinating? The claim the article makes that modern pesticides originated with a frustrated farmer throwing paint on his potato plants.… Continue reading →