Thanksgiving Post on the way

It was a fun busy Thanksgiving weekend. I had a so much fun spending time with my friends and family. We had good food and good cocktails! I have spent the day recovering from all the cooking and celebrating. I plan to have a full Thanksgiving update out this week, I took lots of pictures of the food and I am working on the best way to organize all the content.

I am a little sad Thanksgiving is over but I am super excited that Christmas is around the corner. My Christmas tree is up and this weekend I am doing my annual Christmas cookie baking day! I'll have lots to talk about and eat in the coming weeks. Let the Holiday Cheer begin!

T'was the night before Thanksgiving

We are just hours away Thanksgiving, I made my shopping list and checked it twice. I have everything I need to make a feast. I spent my day focused on my mise en place. I chopped all my onions, celery and garlic. So tomorrow when I wake up all I have to do is assemble, with very little chopping and prep work.

I also made my mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce and pies. I would have made the dressing too but I ran out of room in my refridgerator so I have to wait until the morning to do that. Most of my afternoon was spent playing refidgerator Tetris.  It was a struggle to fit in all the side dishes, a turkey and the booze for tomorrow. I managed to get it in all in now I am ready for a glass of wine and some shut eye before the big day.

I am wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving Eve, and Thankgiving! Enjoy the family, friends and food!

P.S. Sorry if this post is all over the place I am exhausted and struggling to keep my eyes open.

2 Days to go!

Thanksgiving will be here in two very short days! I spent my day at the grocery stores again. Tonight I made my corn bread for my dressing and prepared my herb salt rub for my Turkey. Tomorrow will be a busy cooking day for me. I plan to bake pies, make mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and cut up all my veggies. I am starting to get excited...

Thanksgiving week is here

Its here, Thanksgiving week. This week is all about planning and preparation. I have spent the last few days reading food magazine and watching every thanksgiving cooking special on TV. The one major take away I got from all of them is that planning is key.
I spent the day going through all my recipes and making one very long grocery list. Picking up my turkey and produce at the store. I've learned in past years the way to cut down on Thanksgiving day stress and melt downs (besides lots of wine) is to prep as many of my dishes as I can before hand. So that way on Thanksgiving morning all I really need to do is cook the turkey and the sides.
Prepping ahead of time is great if you have a small kitchen like me. I need as much free space as I can get. I also make a timeline for the day. So I know what's going in the oven when and how much time I am going to need to make sure everything is done at the same time.
Right now I am trying to decide if I should make my own pie crust or buy a crust from the store. I am a baking purest so I really want to make my own. On the other hand I have so much to do and I am making everything else from scratch, in an effort to save my sanity I may just buy a crust.
I a getting really excited and looking forward to spending some quality time in the kitchen cranking out good food.

Off to a good start

Today I made progress on my Thanksgiving planning. I ordered my Turkey, which by the way comes with its on confirmation e-mail and number that I have to present in order to pick it up. I finally finished my menu.
The menu was a struggle because I couldn't decide if I should go high-end gourmet or more basic traditional. What I love most about Thanksgiving is its all about the food. So its a day where doing too much is accepted and expected. Thanksgiving is also a day about tradition and familiar tastes and smells that  bring back great memories.
As I waded through hundreds of recipes and weighed different menu options. I decided to meet in the middle. I'll do traditional but with a few updated twist. So with that in mind I created what I think is a good Thanksgiving fest.
Oh and I will blog about it because next week's food challenge is Thanksgiving recipes. So I will take pictures and document the process. Here's what we'll be having on Turkey day.

Herb Salted Turkey
Shredded brussel sprouts cooked in bacon
Creamy rich mashed potatoes
Yam casserole topped with a pecan crumble
Green bean casserole (Wait for those of you who know me, you know how I loathe the dreaded green bean casserole. I have stated my contempt for this dish for years. I realize what I hate is that god awful cream of mushroom soup and fried onions monstrosity that ends up on most holiday tables. I happened to find a recipe that is from scratch and made with good Cheddar cheese does not use canned soup of any kind so I decided to give it a whirl!)
Parker house rolls
Corn bread stuffing
Bourbon Pecan Pie
Sweet Potato Pie
Chocolate cake (if I have time)

So I am well on my way, next items on the list. Make my shopping list, clean out the fridge so I have room for everything and get the house in order for guest. We are exactly 8 days away from the big meal so time to get  cracking!

Who was I kidding?

I am back from a very busy home. The wedding was beautiful and the shower was success! When I landed yesterday I was hit with the very real reality that Thanksgiving is next week! I knew it was coming but somehow I just felt like I had more time. Between planning a baby shower and traveling and doing a food challenge the time got away from me.
So this week I am going to be all about getting my Thanksgiving game plan in order. This year is going to be my biggest Thanksgiving yet. I will have seven adults and one baby over for dinner. So I need to get cracking.
There is a house to clean, a turkey to order, a menu to finalize and wine and beer to pair. I am excited, I love Thanksgiving because its a holiday that is all about the food. I cannot wait to have a really good meal and have fun with family and friends. This week my plan is to post about Thanksgiving prep and give some tips and tricks along the way that you can use to prepare for Thanksgiving.
My first order of business is ordering my Turkey then finalizing the menu. I'd love to hear whats on your menu. I love finding out what other people are making for their Thanksgiving meal.

Wish me luck!

Busy week

Its Tuesday actually its almost wednesday. I note this because Thursday I am flying home for my uncles wedding and to host a babyshower. The weekend is going to be a busy one forsure. In usual fashion the days leading up to the trip are just as busy.
I haven't been in the kitchen much, this week. I did make a killer pot of chile last night that was so good, I was mad when I got home tonight and found out Cory finished the leftovers. This is after I had eaten the chile for lunch!
The weather has cooled down drastically and a hot bowl of chile hits the spot. Another cold weather treat is a big mug of hot chocolate. I've been craving it non-stop for the last four days, andCory has been kind enough to make it for me. With preparing for a trip and satisfying my cold weather food cravings I haven't had time to focus on my around the world cooking this week. I thought I would beable to squeeze it in. It appears that I am running out of time.
So I'll have to resume next week when I return. I am really looking forward to spending some time with my family and friends,celebrating birthdays, weddings and babies. Who I am kidding I can't wait to get home and eat some awesome food!

Avgolemono

Avgolemono is Greek Egg-Lemon Chicken Soup. I've only had this soup once before at restaurant and wanted to give it try. If you've never had it, its smooth almost creamy chicken soup with a nice tang of lemon. Its a really nice dish to make on a chilly fall night or if your feeling under the weather.


To start I poured six cups of chicken broth into a pot.

The prep for this soup could not be any easier. I cut one small onion in halve, and peeled one carrot. That's it! That's all the prep work that I needed to do! This is my kind of soup! I also needed one bay leaf. Once my veggies were prepped I added them to pot of stock along with a teaspoon of salt.

Once the stock is simmering I add two boneless skinless chicken breast to the pot and let it simmer gently for thirty minutes.

After the thirty minutes are up I remove the chicken and strain the vegetables from the stock. I was lazy and didn't feel like busting out the strainer so I just used my tongs and pulled out the onion, carrot and bay leaf. Seriously the pieces are so big you really don't need to go through the hassle of straining. Once everything was out of the pot I brought the stock back up to a boil and added one cup of long grain.

The rice needs to cook for twenty minutes so while that was happening I juiced two lemons for a quarter cup of lemon juice and I shredded my chicken.

Once the rice is done you add back in the chicken and let cook for a five more minutes. During that time I need to prepare my eggs. This recipe calls for the eggs to be tempered. Tempering is when you slowly bring the eggs up to temperature with hot liquid before you pour them in the pot of hot soup. If you do not temper the eggs first and just put the eggs in the soup the result is scrambled egg soup.  
I find that you should start with room temperature eggs. I had to whisk the eggs until foamy.

Once the eggs are whisked I added the lemon juice. I poured through a strainer to get all the pulp and seeds out. Then I whisked the eggs and lemon juice together.

Now the fun and tricky part tempering the eggs. I took one cup of hot stock from the soup pot and slowly poured it into my egg mixture while whisking quickly to keep the eggs from cooking. I repeated this one more time with another cup of stock until my eggs were warm.

Now that my eggs are nice and warm a I can pour them into the soup. Its amazing hour the addition of eggs changed the soup. Instead of a standard brothy chicken and rice soup. I know had a smooth and creamy soup without the addition of heavy cream. It reminded me almost of risotto. That lemon juice gives it an ice tangy bite that cuts through the richness.

To finish the soup I just added some chopped parseley and its ready to serve! This soup is really good and I can't wait to enjoy it on nice cold night. The day I made the soup it was 80 degrees so I didn't really need the warm cozy effect. Anyway hot or cold outside this soup is really good and makes a great lunch the next day!

This recipe is a keeper, I think it maybe my new go to chicken soup!

I didn't forget

I know its Thursday and I still haven't announced the country I am cooking for this week. Don't worry I haven't forgotten. In fact I made a dish last night that turned out really good and I am excited to post about it. It involves tempering eggs so that brings up the cool factor. 

The country that I am featuring this week is Greece! I love Greek food and I've been known to eat my body weight in hummus so I am going to be eating well this week! Tomorrow there will be a full post on the dish I made. I am not going to say what it is you'll have to come back tomorrow to find out.

Happy Friday Eve!

Check it out!

Its no secret that I LOVE cookbooks! Every time I go the bookstore I find at least five new cookbooks that I want/need. I have learned over the years that some cookbooks I will use and will go back to time and time again and some I will look at the pretty pictures and read the descriptions, but never really cook out of.

I also learned that collecting cookbooks that I don't use is an expensive habit and they take up a lot of space in a small apartment. One day a couple year ago I discovered something amazing. Cory wanted to go the library in our neighborhood. I am think snooze! Who goes the library anymore? They can't have any good or current books?  Oh how wrong I was!

That day I discovered that my local library has cookbooks! Not just old outdated cookbooks, but newly released cookbooks by really great cooks and chefs. I was so excited because now I could check out any cookbook I had my eye on. Take it home find the recipes I wanted make a copy and take the book back.

It was the answer to all my cookbook prayers. I didn't have to spend a small fortune amassing a great collection of recipes. If I got the book and didn't like or the recipes didn't work I could take back and not have it taking up valuable shelf space. The other wonderful thing about checking out cookbooks from the library is that most people don't put cookbooks on hold which means I can keep renewing it until my hearts content.

Confession, I kept one cookbook on chocolate for six months! That's ok, because as long as I renewed it I could have it as long as I wanted! Now before I buy a cookbook, I try to check it out at the library first. I see if I like it, if the recipes are good, and If I like it I'll go buy it.

I see the library as a way to test drive a cookbook before you buy it. If your a cookbook junky like me. The library is a great place to get your fix!