Dang, that looks like it's from a magazine. :xmas1
Did you brine the turkey?

I finally found a stuffing recipe that works. I don't like sage in most dishes, but sage stuffing is delicious.

And kitsa, that truly does look like it was from a magazine. Reason number 9 that I wish you were my mother.

Thanks. I didn't brine the turkey because one year (under the influence of chef Michael Ruhlman, whom I'd just heard speak a week or so before), I brined it and forgot what that would do to the gravy. The resulting salt-sludge turned me off brining for the rest of my life. The turkey was ok...no better, no worse. I went back to rubbing the cavity with kosher salt and stuffing it with mirepoix and it turns out ok often enough to stick with.

Last year I went nuts and made a really ridiculously involved chestnut stuffing that tasted great but took forever. I never want to roast and peel chestnuts again. This year I simplified it, got precooked vacuum-packed chestnuts, and it turned out better. Here's exactly how-

-Buy one box of stove top turkey dressing and one box of sage dressing.
-Make according to directions, but instead of water use chicken broth. Just use both boxes of dressing dumped in together.
-While you're waiting for the broth to boil, saute diced celery and onions with chopped roasted chestnuts in butter until they're softened and golden-brown on the edges.
- When the stuffing is at the "take it off the heat and put a lid on it to steam it" phase, stir in the celery, onions and chestnuts until they're well-incorporated in the rest of it. Put it in a greased casserole dish and bake under foil for the last 45 minutes the turkey is baking. If it looks dry, add more chicken broth. To crisp it up, take the foil off and raise the oven temp for a few minutes.

Thank you for the compliments. I could have done a tablecloth and nice dinnerware, but my kid would have had it all ruined in minutes and I didn't need that sort of aggravation.

The main reason I use a brine is because I cook such a large bird (up to 20lbs) that it would be dry if I didn't.
I also add a bunch of whole black pepper, ginger, and allspice to the brine and after about 24 hours it really soaks through the whole bird and adds a lot of flavor.

For gravy I cook the giblets in a skillet, then chop them super fine and add chicken broth and flour.

Looks amazing, but I still can't help but think that chicken tastes way better than turkey.

Turkey can taste kind of gamey sometimes, but there's room in my world for both.

anybody else think dark meat is fucking gross? I can't stand it :x

Eat a dick. Turkey legs are the god's meat.

Anything but dark meat is like trying to eat clumps of sawdust.

A bunch of leftover chicken noodles followed by 1 cookie for dessert

Once a year at a pre-appointed time, I go to an isolated parking lot and pay $18 for a crate of real, actually-have-flavor-to-them Florida oranges off the back of a truck.

Apart from the fear that a coral snake is snuggled around one of them, they're incredible.

Sara Lee "mince" pie. I think most "mincemeat" has contained little or no meat for a very long time. This is like a dark spicy apple raisin thing. It's ok I guess. I like it better than the English mince pies I've had because there are no mystery hard chunks or fig newtony seeds.

An avocado with a little pepper and lemon.

Just got back from a mate's place, where he made me some kind of garlic, ginger, tofu and noodle soup thing. It was delicious as.

Leftover Ziti

I've gotten more into intense couponing while grocery shopping lately. Not like the insufferable ones on TV who dumpster dive for coupons and then take 40 carts to the checkout, but more in that direction than the occasional 10 cents off for something. Tomorrow I'm going to try and do about $120 in food for less than $25. Pretty sure I can if everything works out. The other day I managed 7 tubes of toothpaste and 7 toothbrushes for 28 cents, so it can happen.

Since it's a hobby I've managed to find that combines math, food and shopping for food, and it regularly scores me free shit, I'm fairly happy with it.

Jalapeno chicken from new grand buffet. It's not going over well with my sensitive asshole. My response...

It's not funny :tear

rolos

horrible, horrible curry. Going to have to go back to making my own, which I hate to do because it stinks up the house :(

Just learn to shoplift.


I also had a horrible curry yesterday. It was just spicy tomato sauce with boiled chicken (the off-cuts) thrown in. Really revolting. I paid $14 for it and nearly threw it back in their faces. Lucky for them I was starving.

Right now I am eating spaghetti.

This is actually better than shoplifting because in some instances the stores actually pay you to take the stuff off their hands. It just takes a lot of work to figure out where you can accomplish that. If you don't want to keep the item yourself, which I guess you wouldn't, being a communist and all, you could always donate it to the needy and count the footwork as part of the donation.

For example, I got this for twenty-eight cents, which is...what, about the same in AUD?


There are also coupons this week that would enable you to get a glucometer for $1 (sending them to a free clinic) and various hygiene products for nothing or nearly nothing. I've had dental floss that cost less than the coupon for it, resulting in an "overage" I could use to pay for other things. There's a seasonings packet that's marked 77 cents, if you print out the dollar coupon and buy several of them there's a dollar in overage you can spend on something else right there.

It's effort-intensive, but it's also nice to walk off with a full cart of groceries for less than 20 bucks.

I was only kidding, I don't mean to bag out coupons. Sounds like you've gotten some good deals.

I am sort of expecting you to pose with your toothpaste in one hand and a wad of hundred dollar bills in the other to show how gangster you are, though.

Traditionally, my presence in a photo automatically ungangsters it. :/

I had a Big Carl combo at Carl JR it sucks that they took long to copy Mcdonald's Big Mac and out of Big Mac, whopper and a Big Carl i would obviously go for Big Carl :)

Buttered rolls eh s'ok