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…..

What’s Your Apron Style?

I admit, I was never much of an apron gal. I SHOULD be, Lord knows. I’m probably one of THE messiest cooks in the kitchen. I usually have a dishtowel draped over my shoulder, or a large flannel shirt that I wear to, um, wipe my hands if necessary. No matter how careful I am, I always manage to get my shirt spotted and speckled with cooking crud.

I think the problem was that I didn’t have a decent apron. The one I got — I got it from a well-intentioned friend as a bridal shower gift — was a jade-green flimsy wrap-around housecoat/apron type of contraption. You sorta put it over your head and then insert your arms through the holes and sorta tie it… oh forget it, I’m not wearing this thing! It was so lightweight that all food seeped through right onto my shirt, anyway. So for years, I wore no apron– although that jade-green apron hung, ignored, in the pantry closet for 20+ years.

Over the years, I’ve kept my eyes open for a decent replacement, but never got one. Maybe it was inertia or maybe it was because I never found any suitable kitchen apron. Oh, I could grab one of those Marcus scrubs and use that, but I don’t want to look like a surgeon in the kitchen…. although the image of me in a doctor’s suit holding a cleaver and cutting board makes me snicker, hee hee.

And when looking for a replacement, I saw a lot of stuff that repelled me. Frills, pretty fabric, super-tight bodies, skinny ties that would tangle. What the heck?! Are we going to cook or are we going to compete in the Miss America contest?! These are supposed to be aprons not kitchen cocktail dresses!

But a couple of years ago, my husband came home with an apron he’d got from the grocery store he worked at. He had ended his work there and he could keep the apron. I kept the apron but never used it because I’d gotten out of the habit. But today I had to hack away at huge pork loin and didn’t want to soil my clothes.

Oh my word, what an apron! Why don’t they make them like this for housewives?! This thing is thick linen, like canvas. And you simply put your head through a small loop. The strings are extra long, so I can tie it loosely in the front and not in the back (I could never manage to untie the blasted knots after I’d made them– someone always had to rescue me after the kitchen work was done, lol). The store apron is thick but very comfortable. And no matter how much you slobber that juice, broth or batter, it’s not getting through the tightly-woven fabric. Nice!

So I think I finally found my apron.

How about you? Are you an apron wearer? What kind meets your needs?

Fall and Fish

Well, fall has only just begun. I haven’t yet kicked into high gear with my cooking. My daughter made a delicious black bean and ham soup yesterday, though. And cookies. And she made apple pie! And we’ve already made beef and barley stew…. but I’m really not going hog wild cooking, just yet. Part of the reason is that my jobs keep me pretty busy. Another reason is that I’m not terribly motivated to cook just yet. However, I picked up a frozen turkey at WalMart today, on sale, so we all know what that means. And cinnamon was on sale, too— oooooh the smells of roasting turkey and baked goods with cinnamon– yum! I think once I made that turkey, I will suddenly enter the “cooking season” until April, lol.

When at WalMart, I purchased a ton of frozen fish. For the FIRST TIME EVER (that I have experienced), fish is less expensive than red meat, pork, and most chicken cuts. I was shocked. Red meat is $4 or more a pound! Frozen salmon was just under that, as was flounder and tilapia. I bought a ton of fish and now my freezer is stuffed like a bank vault full of scott kay jewelry.

I haven’t posted very many recipes here lately. Like I said, my work and the lack of inspiration has cooled my cooking jets. I will have to be investigating some new recipes, however, because the old ones are boring now. And I have NO IDEA how to cook the fish, besides broiling it (boooooring).

If you have any fish recipes or ideas– let me know!

Autumn Means Baking!

Oh I am looking forward to autumn. Soon I’ll be able to turn on the stove and bake again! Look what’s growing in my yard!

There were multitudes of blossoms in the spring, but oddly enough the apples are rather few and far between. I don’t know what happened along the way. Although I will add that right now the apples are small and green and perhaps I didn’t see them because they are camouflaged so well. Yah, I’ll have to break out my welch allyn or something, eh?

Oh well, even so I think there will be enough for a nice pie. Yum! I can smell it already!

Baking…. or… Baking?

I have this rule as soon as summer hits: NO BAKING in the house. With the sun scorching the asphalt parking lots all around my property, we do enough baking around here. :-p I cannot tolerate the heat and therefore the oven is OFF. Once or twice we’ve heated up pre-packaged burritos or frozen pizza, and I’ve always regretted it. It’s almost comical how the oven generates so much heat in the summertime but can’t seem to warm the kitchen enough in the wintertime. :-p If only we could bottle up summer’s horrible heat and dispense it throughout the winter, evenly. What a wonderful world it would be, lol.

A Twitter pal recently mentioned her recent baking exploits and I couldn’t wrap my head around it. BAKE? In July??? Then I realized that some folks have air conditioners, but…. around here we go nearly bankrupt from the expense. I have turned on my air conditioner (first one, ever!!! I’m a newbie!!) three days this summer and already the husband is bemoaning the electric bill.

Summer is a lousy season. I am smugly satisfied that some of my other Upstate friends hate it as much as I do. Summer is nice in that everything is green (I love the gardening) and you don’t have to bundle up in a billion layers to go outside… it’s also a great time for raleigh wedding photographers– can you imagine taking outdoor wedding photos during winter?! But it’s so dang hot that you can’t DO anything but sit and sweat.

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