DangerChicks (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} dangerchicks) wrote,@ 2004-11-22 11:35:00 |
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| Current mood: |  lazy |
| Current music: | Song:Halos And Horns - Artist:Dolly Parton - Album:Halos And Horns |
Marcy: I love you guys and all, but I am NOT flying on Thanksgiving weekend!
What is King Ranch Casserole? Hold on while I look it up on Google . . . Yes, it does look like it's similar to Chicken Sopa, except that King Ranch Casserole has tomatoes in it. Also, most versions of KRC seem to call for Rotel, which as far as I know is a Texas thing.
This weekend, I roasted a bunch of whole chicken breasts, with lemon and garlic and fresh rosemary under the skin. Yum, crispy roasted chicken skin. Then later, there is cooked chicken meat for things like chicken salad sandwiches. Did I tell you that by the time I came home from India that time, the one thing I was craving was a chicken salad sandwich? I have no idea why that was, because there were all kinds of other things I did not get to eat in India, such as beef, that you would think I might have missed. But no, it was chicken salad on whole wheat bread.
Today I am making myself beef turnovers. This is comfort food, not very fancy but really satisfying. I make a recipe of pizza dough and set it to rise. While it does that, I fry up some minced onion and lean ground beef with salt and pepper. When the beef is cooked, I add a cup of really good quality beef stock and then cook it down so that the liquid all disappears. Let the filling cool. By now the dough is ready to go. I roll it out and fill it with the beef. Then I put cubes of monterey jack cheese on the beef before I seal the pastries. Bake until golden brown and then remove from the oven. Rub butter all over the hot turnovers and sprinkle with kosher salt. Yum yum yum. Comfort food.
Now, in the spring, I make a different kind of turnover. Herb chicken. Use roasted chicken meat, some cream cheese and fresh herbs. I really do seem to have a thing about food and seasons.
You had questions, ma'am!
1. What's the weirdest food anyone ever brought to a Thanksgiving meal? I'm with you about those grain-y weird things people bring to holiday meals. However, I have a barley casserole I always make if there will be a vegetarian at a holiday meal I am hosting, which I guess qualifies as a weird grain thing. Except that I am a good cook, so it's really good! Basically, you take whatever vegetables you want to use and chop them up small and sweat them in some butter (or olive oil if your guest is a vegan). MIx them in a casserole with 2 cups dried barley, 2 cups vegetable stock and 2 cups tomato juice. Cover and bake at 350F for 90 minutes. (I adapted it form a recipe where you do the same thing, except use chicken stock and stick some skinless chicken thighs on top of the barley. That stuff is really good, and so is the vegetarian version.) Also, I'm pretty sure that at one of those graduate-school-poverty-stricken meals, someone brought McDonald's apple pies.
2. What does your family do on holidays besides cook and eat? Read. At Christmas, we open stockings then have the artery-clogging breakfast, then clean the kitchen, then open presents (which takes a good long while). Then we sit around and read our new books. Which we all have.
3. And, a non-holiday, non-food question: What do you think is the best approach for decorating a baby's room? I think I would do a mural of the sort that a small child would like, as well as the baby. The way to do this is to rent an LCD projector and use your laptop to project the image on the wall. Although other times, I think that I would just do primary colors and neutral walls.
4. What kind of home-improvements do you consider doable yourself, and what requires a professional? Before I killed my knees, I would do basic plumbing, basic electrical, and basic anything. Now that I busted my knees and squatting is more or less out of the question, pretty much everything requires a pro. Except painting, if there is someone else around to do the baseboards. What color carpet in the baby's room?
Sometimes I worry about how much I write about food in this forum, but then I recall that this is more or less the point of the exercise, modulo the four questions. And speaking of the four questions, here are mine for you...
1. If you were going to install one or the other: sauna or hot tub? No question but that I want the hot tub. I love love love sitting in a hot tub when it's raining (not during a thundershower, but during ordinary Seattle winter rain).
2. What URLs have you found since the election that you find comforting, or annoying, or something? Here are three: first, one that is overly histrionic and drama-queeny, but has some interesting ideas in it; second, another way of thinking about those ubiquitous reb-and-blue maps; and finally, a new project from the folks that brought you TWoP, FameTracker, Frolic and Detour, Tomato Nation and other such wonderful sites.
3. Should I live in a loft or in a 1920s flat? I don't know the answer, actually. I'm just curious about your intuition.
4. Which is more frustrating, annoying and/or irritating: a person you like who doesn't like you, or a person you loathe who likes you? I have recently begun to suspect that it's actually the latter.
Thanks for the invites, dood. I am currently saving all my holiday time for my thesis project in the spring, so I am not going anywhere for any holidays this winter. However, I am definitely going to come see you and your new daughter once I manage to graduate.
