The secret is...turkey!

So I have a confession. I've never cooked a turkey before. Our thanksgiving is coming up and though we usually go to my parent's house I've decoded to do the whole turkey shing dig at our place this year. We have new appliances and it's well past the time I've learned to conquer this meal myself. I've done the research and have experience with enough poultry and vegetables to give me the confidence to go into the kitchen guns blazing (or baster blazing?). I'm going to try the America's Test Kitchen method of brining since I'm a food science nerd plus it just sounds fun.

Writing it down here makes it real. So stay tuned because I'll be blogging about my attempts with one of the most important meals of the year. There may be a few surprises!

Good enough for them...

Here's an interesting article about how a something becomes a Cook's Illustrated recipe. Even though he doesn't like spicy food and he claims to make everything from scratch, including pizza for his kids, founder Christopher Kimball gives some tender insights on the scientific stylings of his cooking empire .

Homemade Chinese Food

So you have a hankering for some Chinese take-out...but maybe you don't have to call anyone to get some. You can make your own! You can find the basic ingredients at most grocery stores and with a little saute action and some rice, presto, your own stir-fry. And bonus, you know how much salt, fat, sugar, etc. is in there! Here is a stir-fry I made recently which did two of us for supper and again for lunch. It's a veggie version which gives you lots of nutrients and a colourful plate, but you can easily add shaved beef or chicken for a meaty add-on.

What I used:

Chinese lettuce (about 1/2 head chopped into ribbons)

Mushrooms (white button, quartered)

Broccoli (sliced into long stems)

Carrots (also sliced in to long bits)

Garlic (sliced)

Soy sauce

Peanut oil

Red chili flakes (or fresh chili if you have it)

Rice (white or brown is fine)

Salt & Pepper

Oil for pan

What I did:

All the ingredients measurements should be added as you see fit. Taste as you go and you'll know if you have the right balance. For example, if you add too much salt, add more veggies or a little sugar. You can also add other veggies depending on what you have on hand.

Start cooking the rice according to package directions.

Pour some oil into a pan. I used about 1 tbs in my new cast-iron pan. You could use a traditional wok for stir-fry but it's really only useful on gas stoves with the proper wok attachment for the burner. I do use one often but find a lot of the surface space is wasted. I think you're either on one side of this wok debate or another but really, for the purpose of stir-fry you can use any frying pan you have.

Let the oil heat up and add the veggies in reverse order - that is in the order in which they take the longest to cook. For the veggies I had on hand, this went: carrots, broccoli, Chinese lettuce, mushrooms. Then add your seasonings such as garlic, pepper, sauce, etc.

Let the mixture come together while stirring frequently (hence "stir-fry"). Once the rice is finished cooking through the stir-fry should be done. Serve 'em up and enjoy!

War wounds and weapons

I'm taking a break from recipes to recount the amount of injuries I've encountered while trying to make food. I feel like I constantly have a band-aid on some finger or other. Most common finger-cutting mistake: bagels. My thumbs usually gets the brunt of abuse but I recently sliced right into my right palm. No stitches needed and no scars it either, thankfully.

More than once, I have fooled myself into thinking I have the asbestos fingers of a well-seasoned chef. I do not...and this has resulted in many scorched fingers on ice.

I do have not one, but two identical scars on my right arm and both are from taking pies out of the oven. Different occasions of course...I'm not one to learn a lesson easily. These from Lee Valley would help me out so I'm putting them on my "must get" list of kitchen items.


I have also caught tea towels on fire at least three times and often forget about above-mentioned finger cuts and go right ahead and juice lemons or limes anyway (ouch).

Cutting onions is also a injury-inducing experience and not at all helped by my glasses (I swear vapors get trapped between the glasses and eye and just linger!). These onion goggles may help the stinging and crying but may not be a help in the style department.


Also it is wise to keep your knifes sharp and safely stored. Both sharp, improperly stored knifes, and dull knifes of any kind, are dangerous. And get new oven mits. When was the last time you bought oven mits? Serious, you can't remember, can you? Get a new pair now. Silicone is popular now, as is the Ove Glove. And if you are prone to arm burns or will be doing any BBQing, try a longer glove. America's Test Kitchen did a test of their favorites and the Kool-Tech came out on top, with the less-expensive Parvin Flameguard Oven Mitt a close second.



And if you're just as accident prone as me I offer some advice from the Daily Fork. And advice from myself? Think ahead and cook responsibly!

Stuffed potatoes: one thumb up, one down

It's starting to warm up so, after cleaning up the back yard over the weekend, we threw some burgers on the grill for Sunday supper. As a side dish I could prepare inside, I decided to make a recipe I saw earlier on America's Test Kitchen's Cook's Country for Supper Stuffed Baked Potatoes. They turned out looking great but I was a disappointed in their taste.

The method described on the episode for preparing the potatoes, scoping them out and crisping them op worked out great. To the potato innards, you mix in garlic and herb-flavoured Boursin cheese, a soft cows milk cheese originally from France but now often produced in the US. Then you add half-and-half, sauteed garlic, butter, salt, pepper and chives. You top the whole stuffed thing with more crumbles of the cheese.

I was quite excited to dig into this big side dish but it came up short in flavour. Maybe I've melted my taste buds with regular doeses of spicy foods and lots of garlic...but this just didn't seem creamy or garlic-y enough! I will try this again but will add more cheese or try another brand of garlic-flavoured cream cheese (hey, I never said this was a healthy side!). All in all this recipe was pretty easy, looked great but left me wanting more.

Picture: Cook's Country Online