Tag Archives: Cooking

What I’ve Done Today – Cooking, Writing, and I’m Still Not Done

I did get one assignment for a job out of the way.  I did also miss an appointment I’d rescheduled from Friday.  So, that’s a wash.  BUT, I did some cooking.

First, I got up and made blueberry muffins…

blueberry muffins

and then I made these other things. I took aluminum muffin tin thingies, sprayed them with cooking spray, put some hashbrowns in the bottom, then put in red and yellow peppers, turkey sausage, cheddar cheese, and poured on an egg and milk mixture. The result was tasty.

egg cups

I had hashbrowns left over, so I made a hashbrown casserole.

hashbrown casserole

And then I went upstairs to work. Hubs cut up some chicken and put it in a salt water bath for me. I finished up a big writing project, got dressed, and then went downstairs to fry the chicken.

fried chicken

I was waiting for the chicken to brown, so I browned some ground beef to make up some meat for a taco pizza or taco lasagna. We are so multicultural.

taco meat

I started using Penzey’s taco seasoning and I swear I will never go back, even though I know that its flavor fails to resemble any authentic Mexican seasoning, it still tastes better than the stuff that comes in the packet.

I cleaned up the kitchen after sectioning out a bit of everything for my Mom, and then came upstairs to start this post. And now, after a trip the grocery store and a guest post on someone else’s blog, I am stepping away from the computer. Next week will consist of many, many hours on the computer, and I need to give my brain, eyes, and fingers a break.

Thanksgiving Post – A Recap AKA How to Not Cook a Turkey

As I told you, The Hubs and I bought this super-fancy infrared turkey fryer to cook a big 20lb bird for Thanksgiving. Long story short, it’s an awfully good thing that my mom cooked a turkey too, because the whole turkey fryer thing was a bit of a debacle. Here is a nice little story in pictures that will tell you all about it.

cleaning out the cavity
cleaning out the cavity

Touching raw meat is seriously creepy, and to prepare a store-bought turkey you have to clean the whole thing out…which means handling it.  Running the water up into the “cavity” of the bird was a little traumatic for me.  Probably even more traumatic for the boidy.

To make the boidy taste good, you have to use the spices
To make the boidy taste good, you have to use the spices
rubbed and spiced up...and still seriously creepy
rubbed and spiced up...and still seriously creepy
really?
really?
tg6
mostly assembled pieces...sha.
other pieces that are not much assembled
other pieces that are not much assembled
checking back with the instructions
checking back with the instructions
tg9
lucky I had help! Turkey cooker is assembled!

turkey in the cooker.  but that's not the end of the story...
turkey in the cooker. but that's not the end of the story...

There are no “after” pictures and I’ll tell you why.  The turkey took FOREVER to cook.  By the time dinner was over it was pitch black outside.  So dark, in fact, that we couldn’t read the meat thermometer while it was still stuck into the turkey.  So, we pulled out the thermometer and RAN over to the light to see if it was where it was supposed to be.  It was one degree off.  So, we picked up the turkey fryer, placed it into the bed of Hubs’s truck, carried it into the house, and then attempted to get the thing out of the inner cage.

Or, I should say, I attempted to get the thing out.  The little wings and legs were sticking out all willy nilly and I darn near sent the thing sliding across the room a few times.  I finally got it carved and onto a plate.

So then what happened?  How did it taste?  Good questions, all.  Nobody would eat it.  Because the meat thermometer had a dubious reading, and because the turkey rode open-aired in the back of the truck nobody would touch it.  I tasted a bit, and it was good, but it was a total waste of a 20 lb turkey.  So sad, I know.  It does help that the turkey was a gift.

At one point during the whole ordeal I was upset and ranting at The Hubs and accidentally pronounced “turkey” as “tourkey.”  That has been the takeaway from the experience.  I don’t think The Hubs has pronounced “turkey” regularly since then.

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T Minus Turkey

does this picture creep you out as much as it creeps me out?
does this picture creep you out as much as it creeps me out?

So, yesterdayDwight and I bought an infra-red turkey “fryer.”  It’s supposed to give you the same results as a traditional turkey fryer that you fill with oil, drop the turkey in, etcetera, but you don’t need oil, and it reportedly will not shoot the turkey eleventy hundred feet into the air, spraying hot oil all over the neighborhood pets.

The problem is that it is a 16 lb-capacity turkey “fryer” and the turkey that Jeff Dear bought for us is a twenty-pounder.  Undeterred, around noon today I will attempt to clean said turkey, and stuff it into the inadequately-sized turkey “fryer.”  Provided it doesn’t send my Dad into fits, I will attempt to record the progress with photographs.  Stay tuned, and Happy Turkey Day to all you gorgeous people.

creepy photo by atomicshark

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