By the Way….

In my post Turkeys Take Forever To Thaw, I lamented that my turkeys always take their sweet time defrosting even when I place it in the fridge according to the recommended guidelines.

Well, as a followup– I placed the frozen turkey in the refrigerator on December 21. One week later, I removed it to cook it for Christmas dinner.

THE STUPID TURKEY WAS STILL FROZEN INSIDE.

:-p

I managed to wrangle the glacial neck and giblets from the cavity before throwing the bird in the oven. I always over-bake my turkeys because they just never seem to completely thaw inside. WEIRD. Is it just me?? Do I have such terrible luck with turkeys or something??

LOL…..

My New Christmas Tradition

OH SO full of calories but it was a delicious treat for Christmas dessert! (I passed over the pie — too filling — to enjoy a cup of this). I found it while looking for red wine for Christmas dinner. It was affordable so I thought I would try it. I used to LOVE dairy egg nog as a kid but now that I am older, it’s too sweet for me.

This New England Nog was so wonderful! Not too bitter, not too sweet. Just perfect for a Christmas treat. I’m going to get it every year, I hope.

I looked up some recipes online, to see if I could find something comparable to make myself. Wow, this stuff takes a lot of diverse liquors. I really don’t want to buy brandy, rum, and TWO types of whiskey JUST to make this nog every once in a while. :-p Not unless they make “mini” sized versions.

If you know of a good eggnog recipe, let me know! I’d like it to have as little alcohol content as possible.

In other news, we watched the movie “A Christmas Carol” for the holidays. Yes, that very old one that we saw as kids, starring the amazing George C. Scott. In it, Mrs. Crachitt makes “Christmas pudding” and we were all very curious what that was made of. In the movie, the pudding is black, and I wondered if it was blood pudding?? That grossed the kids out but I told them that long ago on the Celtic isles, food could be scarce in the winter and a person ate what they could.

Anyway, I did a little digging and found out that Christmas pudding goes back to the Middle Ages. It is made of flour and plums and a whole bunch of other ingredients. It’s boiled in a cloth bag and stored to age. Then, before serving, it’s covered with brandy and set afire. Wow! In olden times, people might place custom made coins in the pudding. Whoever got the coin got “good luck” for the year. I remember seeing “The Great Dictator,” a Charlie Chaplin movie, and in it the characters each get a coin in their pudding (Chaplin swallows them all, lol).

Ya learn something new every day! LOL

How was your Christmas? Did you discover anything new or start any new tradition?

Holiday Menu

As much as I adore Thanksgiving Day, I really only do the most basic of dinners. I stick with the boring old traditional meal: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, a vegetable, pumpkin pie.

Christmas, however, is much different. Christmas is cozier, the holiday week is longer. For example, I only have ONE day to prepare for Thanksgiving Day: Thursday. (Wednesdays are very busy with school so I don’t cook that day). So Thursdays are generally not good days for me. But for Christmas, if the day falls on a day other than Thursday, I am set and have loads of time to prepare. I am in the beginnings of formulating a nice Christmas meal. Tell me what you think:

Turkey (we love turkey so I always have it)
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes

– I know it looks traditional already but the kids and husband demand those three basic foods, lol!

Pumpkin soup?
Stuffed eggs
Cranberry… ? something
Brussel sprouts (my favorite)
Something chocolatey for dessert
…not sure what else, maybe a nice but very different kind of veggie. Got any ideas?

I am already looking forward to it. Maybe that’s because I am hungry right now, lol. It’s going to be a quiet day, a day where we RELAX and cozy up in front of the gas fireplace on hickory furniture and just BE QUIET for a while. Already my heart beats softly in anticipation.

What are your special plans that day?

Turkeys Take FOREVER To Thaw!

I know I am incurring The Wrath of Turkey Chefs everywhere, but I admit that I *have* thawed the turkey OUT of the refrigerator before. And it wasn’t in a sink full of cold water! (It was in the cold garage for a day). I have also placed the bird in the fridge as long as a week in advance, and come the holiday I reach in the cavity and still have to chisel out the frozen giblets bag and neck. I can’t tell you how often I’ve slashed my sensitive fingers on the razor-sharp ice, trying to wrangle the skinny neck from the bird’s butt end. Ugh. Don’t get me going on WHY they even include the thing in the turkey anyway, besides from increasing the price per pound. Who uses turkey necks anymore? I just KNOW that every weekend, billions of discarded (and- no doubt– STILL frozen) turkey necks litter our landfills! LOL

Can someone please tell me how we are supposed to fulfill these insane instructions:

This is from the United States Department of Agriculture site:
Submerge the wrapped turkey in cold tap water. Change the water every 30 minutes until the turkey is thawed.

In cold water, it takes at least 12 hours for that glacier-iced-turkey to thaw. I’m supposed to stay up all night, changing the cold water every 30 minutes? Do they think I’m yoyos? LOL

So when it comes to turkey thawing, what do you do? How on earth do you get that bird de-iced in time for Christmas dinner? Reveal your secret, come on!

MUST HAVE Vintage Signs

Ever since I was a little girl and I dug an old, discarded Sunbeam Bread tin sign from a junk pile, I have loved retro signs. Since I renovated my kitchen last year, I have been slowly collecting and adding them to my kitchen walls. I wish they weren’t so durn expensive, and I could kick myself for listening to my parents telling me to toss that old Sunbeam sign… because my walls are still as bare as ever!

Here are a few of my favorites that are currently on my wish list… when I can afford them.

Just the right amount of sass and frass.

Next Page »