Monthly Archives: November 2012

11.26.12
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Thanksgiving 2012

Reno, Nevada

A sunny day — somewhat chilly outside — the warmth of family in the house. Football on the TV settles into the background. Folks are taking turns in the kitchen on their various dishes. The food, simple, but highly qualified to be described as Thanksgiving Dinner with all the Trimmings.

Gathered at our table, Brian behind the camera.

Carol’s Turkey
Inspired by Tom Colicchio’s Herb-butter Turkey
bonappetit.com

We bought a fresh turkey at Raley’s and ordered it butterflied and wrapped with neck, giblets, backbone, etc. The butchers did a great job and had it all wrapped and ready for us. (hint: wait until the week before Thanksgiving to order. Prices plummet.) 13 to 15 pounds was the size they offered; ours was 14.9 pounds, way too big for four folks, but there you go.

DAY BEFORE
When we unwrapped the butterflied turkey, we found it oh-so-easy to cut in half. We froze half, for a later date. Rubbed the fresh half on all surfaces with Diamond Crystal Kosher salt and put it in the refrigerator uncovered, overnight.

BROTH
Made broth with giblets, neck, backbone and whatever spare parts we had. You know how to make broth, don’t you? If not, see this.

DAY OF TURKEY
Two hours before oven put the 1/2 cup butter and the turkey on the counter to come to room temperature. Don’t wash the turkey.

Preheat oven to 425°F Allow 15 minutes extra so it’s really hot when the bird goes in. Continue reading →

11.14.12
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BKFSTS: grits oatmeal egg

Are grits groceries?
Then oatmeal must be groceries, too. And good for you, they say.
I’ve made grits or oatmeal for breakfast a few ways. They are almost always savory, and almost always involve a poached egg, on top. So, perhaps the subject of this piece is the poached egg.

Here are some savory grits topped by a poached egg.

I can assure you those grits were good, but I don’t remember what I put into them. For another gritty breakfast, I took the opportunity to lay out the ingredients, so there’s no doubt.

Here, I have a packet of instant grits, a bowl of leftover ham, and vegetables, to which I will add the grits and boiling water and stir. An egg to poach, and a saucepan to poach it in.

This is the result.

Thing is, I’m not fond of sweets… oatmeal is often served with sugar or syrup or something sweet like apples and cinnamon. I prefer savory with leftover (LO) bits of meat, fish or vegetables — or all of those. On the other hand, Carol made some baked apples — hollow out the core and stuff the apple with chopped nuts, butter, brown sugar and maybe cream and bake. I would chop up a LO stuffed apple — filling and all — and add to oats. That’s sweetness that I can get my mouth around.

But never mind that, here’s another breakfast with grits, not sweet. Continue reading →

11.07.12
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Tomato Peach Salad?

I’m doing some picture editing for a piece on breakfasts and I came across these pictures of a salad I did in August. Yes, I know it is now November and there are no fresh, juicy peaches or tomatoes, but you can revisit this next summer… I may even remind you.

Carol was reading from her iPad as I had finished my walk and was thinking about breakfast. “Here’s a thing about a peach and tomato salad,” she said.

“Sounds weird,” I said; “Why would anyone want to do that?”

“I’ve seen quite a few recipes,” she said; “This one from Food Network and I saw one in Cooking Lite.” She handed me her iPad. The recipe was two sentences:


Tomato-Peach Salad Recipe
Toss tomato and peach wedges with red onion slices. Drizzle with cider vinegar and olive oil; season with sugar, salt and pepper.

red onion, two kinds of tomato, peach

I had a beautiful O’Henry Peach, a Cherokee Purple tomato and an Early Girl tomato, and a swell right-size red onion. Peeled all and tossed as above, but with Balsamic vinegar. Pretty good breakfast, but I would say that the tomato doesn’t enhance the flavor of the peach, nor does the peach enhance the flavor of the tomato. Red onion is good and all together, the salad is quite refreshing.

all dressed and tossed

served — I slipped in a few bits of ham, just because

So here’s the proper recipe.

Tomato-Peach Salad Recipe
courtesy Food Network Magazine
Directions
Toss tomato and peach wedges with red onion slices. Drizzle with cider vinegar and olive oil; season with sugar, salt and pepper.

After, I looked on the internet and found a few other such recipes. It is interesting how they vary in style of writing, but are basically the same. Here are some other peach and tomato salad recipes. Who knew? Continue reading →