Thanksgiving

Haven't updated in a while, been taking a bit of a "break". Well more like work, school, appointment scheduling, cleaning for the holidays, etc. We spent Thanksgiving at my Father's, live we've been doing for the past several years. It sort of became tradition, my Mom normally goes out of town, and there's really nobody left on my Dad's side of the family, so I spend Thanksgiving with him. It was like a lot of previous Thanksgivings, which I'm glad about since I enjoy the low-key nature of the holiday, at least for me. No huge crowds, much as I love my family I prefer the small get-togethers. It's easier to talk with everyone, stress is normally low on Thanksgiving. Arrive around 10:30 in the morning, Dad already has the turkey in the oven. Chill and watch the Macy's parade like I do every year. As silly as it gets I still enjoy watching it. I convinced Dad to let me make the broccoli casserole mentioned in the previous post. It's sort of a compromise, he always wants to do green bean casserole and my sis and I really don't like mushrooms. So broccoli casserole it was. I think I made it better this time around. I tweaked the recipe a bit, added more chicken bullion and more cheese on top. Instead of toasted almond slivers I used bread crumbs . It came out much better, the sauce had more flavor, it was nice and cheesy and the bread crumbs were a nice touch. When it came to dinner time we started with some fruit cocktail. Dad takes the basic stuff and adds some strawberries and a bit of orange liquor to the juices to balance the sweetness out. Steve, the guy who hasn't eaten fruit in years, tried some. He enjoyed it but put himself into a state of shock at eating the fruit. Dinner itself was great, the turkey was nice and moist. Had mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, my broccoli casserole, cranberry sauce, and stuffing. I love stuffing, I know it's not the healthiest part of the dinner, but I love the texture and the herbs. Dinner overall went real well, I'm glad to say everyone liked the broccoli. We had it with an Argentinian Torrontes to drink. Only needed one bottle of wine for how small a group there was for dinner, but it went so well with dinner. I found out my sister likes wine too, but she's also one of those party-loving college girls too. Don't worry, nobody got hammered. After dinner we spent more time either napping or watching the History Channel. There was a very interesting program on about popular American foods. Would have watched more of it if Dad hadn't woken up and put on the game. I know football is a crucial part to many on Thanksgiving, but I'm really not that into sports. Back to the program, it was very enjoyable. Learned about the history behind Chinese take out, BBQ, Chef Boyardee pastas, old fashioned soda shops and ice cream treats. I was getting antsy around dessert time, much as I loved hanging out I did have to work. Such is the life of a convenience store worker, if you're not going out of town on a holiday work is mandatory. I had to rush through dessert, Dutch apple pie with tea. Very delicious as well, I think my sister's boyfriend may have made it. He's a culinary student, and couldn't be with is at all this year because of work. He started his new job at the Mirror Lake Inn, training under apparently one of the best chefs in the country. My sister took some leftovers home for him though. I'm hoping everyone else has a great Thanksgiving too! Now we have to tackle Christmas. I know I'll be making a bunch of sweets like I do every year. Cookies, fudge, and peanut brittle, oh my!

Steak!

Last night, Steve's boss was supposed to come over for dinner. Nothing fancy or business related, he just wanted to have some of our cooking. Like last week (when he said he'd be over for dinner as well), he never showed up. Well that meant more steak for us then.

I've always enjoyed steak, ever since I was little I liked having steak. For years I didn't eat steak for some reason, but as of recent have been eating it more. I'm picky when it comes to meat really. I don't really like gristle, the texture bothers me. Meat has to be just right pretty much for me to enjoy it. Yet almost anything fruit or vegetable related I'm willing to try. I'm just picky with meat, and really don't like seafood.

For last night I tried a teriyaki marinade on a London Broil style steak. With it I made roasted potatoes with balsamic vinegar. I also tried a broccoli casserole, it was a recipe I found in a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook I picked up for a dollar at a local thrift shop.

I've gotten better at steak, normally Steve will pan-sear it, but I broiled the steak last night. I think I have it down, before I would end up overcooking it and the meat would be dry. This time it was nice and juicy. I can't really count how many times I've made the balsamic potatoes, they're just so good. I love the tangy taste of balsamic vinegar, which complimented the herbs well. It's even better how the vinegar will carmelize over the potatoes, which soak in some of the flavor.

I discussed making the broccoli casserole for Thanks giving with my Dad. He thinks it sounds like a good idea, but we have to get the approval of my ultra-picky sister first. The ironic part is she's living with her culinary arts major boyfriend. We'll see how she feels about the broccoli though, rather than just plain steamed broccoli. The sauce it's in is a creamy, stew broth like sauce with lemon juice, and there's shredded cheddar and toasted almonds topping it off. It's quick and easy but brings some good flavor. Of course to top it off for a good meal, we had wine. This time it was a 2005 Fat Bastard merlot. It tasted sort of like fall in a glass, crisp and earthy. It was very delicious though. In fact as I'm typing this I'm having more of it with cheese and crackers. Steve's boss really missed out.

Indian Recipe with a Riesling

Okay! First official food-related post. This one is about forays into Indian cooking. This is one of those deals where we were trying to match a meal with a wine. We had a bottle of Riesling that we wanted to try and planned the meal around that.

Thankfully there's all sorts of ways to plan meals and wines. Whites with light meals, reds with heavy, reds with red meat, whites with white, etc. You can base things on flavors that compliment one another once you are more experienced with wining and dining. Or you can check out the applet on Wine Answers

We of course, chose the latter, and it was decided that I'd make an attempt at Indian style cooking.

First I started by making naan, a type of flat-bread. It starts out like normal bread, make the dough, let it rise, punch the dough, etc. Seeing how we both love garlic I made sure to put plenty of it in the dough. Then came the fun part, cooking the naan in a skillet. I've never made naan before so I was clumsy with the first couple pieces. For one thing I didn't flatten the dough enough and for another I turned the burner up too high and ended up setting off the smoke alarm :O I did get the hang of it afterwards though, and it came out rather well.

After I had finished the naan I started on this tomato-chicken recipe I found online. All Recipes is a great site, practically anything you could want is there. Of course there are other great recipe sites as well, this one's just a one-stop-shop in my book. The chicken recipe itself was rather easy, and the ingredients weren't too hard to find. Living in a small town sometimes makes things difficult.

The sauce for the recipe reminded me of the jars of past you can find in a grocery store, only without all the grease. The puree of onion, garlic, and ginger makes a nice base where you add loads of spices; cumin, tumeric, ground clove, cinnamon etc. It wasn't very hot spice-wise, but it was very aromatic. After adding spices and the chicken you add the tomato, and let it simmer for a couple hours.

I really did not think dinner would take so long, but it's an adventure unto itself. After waiting about an hour I started on some curried potatoes as a side dish. That wasn't as intensive as the chicken. Basically boil potatoes, cut them up, throw them in a pan with spices and let them get slightly toasted. I think I over-boiled the potatoes a bit so they were a little mushy, but still good.

After waiting for hours this is how it came out. It was delicious to say the least. I think I did a good job for my first try at real Indian cooking. More intensive than just following a recipe from a curry paste jar, but a whole lot better as well. It also went really well with the riesling we had with it. St Urbans-hof 2006 German riesling. Wow, that stuff was just a pineapple explosion. I never thought I could taste so much pineapple from a non-pineapple source. I liked it though, and for my first time trying a riesling it wasn't that bad. I'll be sure to try more in the future.