Fiber Babble: Holiday Adventures, Part One

Holiday Adventures, Part One

November 27, 2008

I had no idea who I was. "Firestorm" by Rachel Caine ♦♦♦♦◊

I don't have a "Holiday Adventures, Part Two" (yet), but I want to leave my options open, you know?

The turkey's in the oven as I type. This year J2 and my mom are both with us, so we have a 25 pound turkey (we would anyway, but it sounds better to say it's that big because we have "company"). Sir Turkey has a new roasting pan and a new fancy-dancy rack. The rack is fancy because it has lift out handles - but I'm not sure about the rack part, it seems awfully close to the bottom of the pan. Good thing the turkey doesn't spew liquid, so it won't be boiling in it's own juice.

A couple of years ago I posted "my" convection turkey cooking instructions on my blog here. That's mainly because I always had a hard time finding the info (and there's a definite lack of decent convection cooking cookbooks out there). The one thing I forgot to put in the instructions post was to take out the extra racks before preheating the oven. I am consistent, at least, in that I don't remember to take out the extra racks (to make room for the turkey) until they're a whopping 400 degrees.

Yesterday I made the pumpkin pies. I used a different brand of pumpkin (yes, I use canned) and the pies are a bit different. Nothing major and let's get real - it's hard to go wrong with one of my pumpkin pies (I'm not so forgiving of store-bought pies).

So, for Holiday Adventure, Part One I give you:

The Not-So-Great Pie Disaster of 2008.

Is it wrong that I was glad I wasn't wearing one of my cute aprons so it didn't get all mucked up? Kinda defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

Silly me tried to use foil pie plates (no, I don't know why either, it just seemed the thing to do at the time) and as I said, the pumpkin mash is different (not as dense), so I had slingy-sugary pumpkin goop all over.

Just what I wanted to do, is stop and clean the oven and mop the floor before putting the pies in the oven. I finally put the foil pans into my glass pans (seriously - don't ask me why I had to have foil, I couldn't tell you) and it worked out.

Last night's dinner was Reuben Casserole (I wanted to introduce the recipe to my mom) and teeny-tiny asparagus spears. Yum! No leftovers!

I have a cold or the flu or something that makes my head want to explode when I bend over. Do you have any idea how much bending over is involved in cooking a Thanksgiving Dinner? I apparently have a fever, too, because I'm cooking in short sleeves and I'm barefoot (all of the other necessary clothing is present, as well) - and I still keep stepping outside into the 36 degree temps.

Labels: holiday