(Insert Charlie Brown Yelp here)

Today was my first attempt a Large Holiday Dinner, and I botched it.  Not utterly but botched none the less.  My former roommate and his girlfriend came up to have dinner and receive our gifts to them.  They ended up receiving the gifts first, then dinner in take out containers due to time constraints.  At least they liked the gifts.

The meal was Roasted Chicken with Honey Glazed Sweet potatoes, Stuffing (out of the box), Carrots (from a bag), Cranberry Juice, Gravy (packet).  Courtney was expected to be home anytime between 9:30 and 10 PM so I started with cutting the Sweet Potatoes at 8:20.  (I appear to have turned German by capitalizing all or most of my Nouns).  This takes not the five minutes I had predicted.  and the glaze (which was a mixture of honey, a pinch of salt and melted butter) took even longer to make.   By the time I had the chicken in cooking, it was already 9:00,  After starting on the other listed Items, I had them on the burners holding their own heat until the potatoes were done at 9:30.  We sat until about 10:50 for the bird to cook to 187 degrees.  I had the oven at 350 F, but at 10:20 ish I turned it up to 425.

I feel horrible for not being able to eat with them,  but in the end,  The food is still warm, and it still tastes good.

On another plus side, We're having it with a Chateau Cambon La Pelouse 2004 from the Thanksgiving Gift pack distributed from Wine Library.

And the other good note was that it was the first time making my own seasoning for the chicken.  An impromptu combination of olive oil, seasoned salt, balsamic vinegar and ground pepper.

It's too bad that we are really tired.  Merry Christmas!

Home Made Chop Suey

"Mixed pieces" is basically what Chop Suey means. An American Chinese dish of a little of this and a little of that. I saw a Food Network special on Thanksgiving telling of how Chinese chefs in San Francisco would basically do this, throw whatever they had together and cook it, making Chop Suey. Especially popular during later hours when people were getting out of work and extremely hungry. Tonight, I basically threw some stuff in a pan and cooked it up. Total crap shoot. Steve wanted some stir-fry type dish, so we had some vegetables. At the store today I picked up some chicken and marinated it in soy sauce. Threw the chopped chicken and veggies in a pan later on with a mix of olive, sesame and hot pepper oils. Threw together a sauce made with some soy sauce, teriyaki marinade and plum sauce, added a dash of red cooking wine and chili sauce and some sesame seeds. Thickened the sauce with a bit of corn starch. It came out pretty good, I think I over cooked the vegetables, there was no crispness. The sauce came out well though which I'm glad about, it was edible. The veggies were just a bit limp. Had it with a white wine from Goose Watch called Snow Goose. Steve didn't like it, but I think it's rather enjoyable. Then again he's more of a fan of dry reds and this is a somewhat sweet white. Doesn't say what kind of grape is used, but it's a nice sweet wine. I can say I did well for one of those quick throw-stuff-together-and-be-experimental dinners.