Thursday, November 11, 2010

thanksgiving and holidays

well gentle readers the holidays are upon us and so is the food.  I'm beinging to wonder if I possibly made a mistake in asking my family over with my wife's family and doing a sort of potluck.  with the company I work for we get a free turkey each year so I would be providing that and a few sides.  I'm looking at doing a red cabbage gratin that I found a recipe for in one of my cooking magazines, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and mushroom gravy.  hopefully things will work out and my mom and dad will bring her famous cornbread dressing, my brother bringing a pie, and I don't really know what to tell my brother and sister in law to bring but I'm thinking somewhere along the way there having the tradtional green bean casserole.  after all is said and done i will post and let you know how things go.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

updates on life

Well gentle readers, it rained practically all day on saturday so no founder's day experience.  at least the good thing was that my brother in law and fellow hookah smoker came over.  we spent most of the afternoon in my garage smoking the hookah and contemplating mysteries of life and marriage.  ended up buying the chicken caccitore recipe inspiration.  it had good flavor and didn't really take that long to cook.  I can honestly say that if it wasn't for the fact that most of the time you can only buy the big bottles of dried herbs and spices I wouldn't really buy the recipe inspirations.  I know, for those that live near me, there is always the bulk section of certain stores where you can buy just a little marjoram or oregano but to those that don't have access to such sources it is indeed difficult.  in light of other revelations, I have since learn that granny smith apples are way to tart for most applications.  I can see the use in an apple pie with a lot of sugar but for the pork stew it will not work at all.  other than the apples the stew was great and actually ended up making an adaptation on one of my favorite bread recipes which is for "Rustic White Bread" and ended up blending white flour and rye flour.  the next big adventure is thanksgiving dinner.  don't know if my company will give us a free turkey this year or not but if it does happen I'm looking at doing thanksgiving dinner with my realitves.  looking at doing a pot luck type event with my 'rents bringing the dressing (my mother's cornbread dressing is the best), my brother bringing something, my in laws bringing something, and of course I'm doing the bird.  hopefully I'll roast a good turkey.  until next time.