T (not tee) giving

This year was the first time that Ian and I had ever hosted Thanksgiving, and needless to say, the prospect can be quite nerve-wracking for first-timers. We knew that there had to be a turkey involved, but what next? Lucky for us, Epicurious provided us with full menu listings for the big day; though many of these dishes were a bit advanced for the feast-making novice, we were able to pick and choose a few tasty culinary delights. On the menu...

Hors d'œuvres: cucumber slices w/ salmon pâté and sprigs of fresh dill
celery sticks filled w/ cream cheese, topped w/ green olive slices and paprika (a childhood favorite of mine)
Brie with assorted grain crackers
Greek and French olives
Shrimp with cocktail sauce (brought by my mum)

The main course: turkey (a no-brainer for the omnivorous)
homemade herb stuffing mashed potatoes w/ chives autumn roasted vegetables
yams with molasses-ginger butter
Greek salad with olives, feta and tomato

Dessert consisted of a blueberry pie (brought by my mum), vanilla bean ice cream, and Amish friendship bread. Everyone seemed fairly delighted with the food - especially me! I was pretty nervous about tackling that turkey (I've never cooked one before).

Earlier this month, I practiced by roasting a small chicken (also a first for me). That came out reasonably well, even the trussing. Since we waited until the night before Thanksgiving to go grocery shopping, we ended up with one that was way too huge - over 18lbs.! We had wanted to get a fresh turkey, to avoid all of that annoying thawing business, and only gigantic turkeys were left by the time we skated into Stop & Shop at 9:00pm.

I stuffed the turkey with the delicious herb stuffing that Ian put together and ended up cooking the turkey for about 4 and a half hours total.


I couldn't have asked for a more delicious bird! Honestly, I can't believe that we actually pulled it off.. I didn't eat much meat at all (mostly fish) for years, and only recently started reincorporating poultry into my diet (per a nutritionist's recommendations). Yes - that is my hand you see there in that raw turkey. Ugh.

And this was my face while I was stuffing that turkey...............

But in the end, the deliciousness was worth it.

in the clear?

Just when Ian and I were getting accustomed to having heat (yes, our furnace was repaired), and coping with residual oily/gasoline/chemical smelliness that had been left after the repairs, our refrigerator broke.

Apparently, the compressor decided that it'd had enough, and ended its brief life (actually, I think that this fridge has been running since the mid 70's, honestly). On Tuesday morning, we awoke to a sizable puddle in the kitchen, and thawed frozen goods. We rushed these thawed goods downstairs to our neighbors' freezer (we had just stocked up on frozen meats/seafood/ vegetables), and gave the landlady a call. It took 2 days to get the fridge repaired.. meaning we lost many valiant, delicious soldiers in the battle. Not everything was a loss, but unfortunately, a prime candidate was the large amount of tasty chicken korma leftovers that Ian had stocked us with for the week. He'll be testing one of these today for spoilage (my thoughts are with him)...

In other food news.. some delicious pictures from the Halloween party! Everyone seemed to be absolutely thrilled with contributions from the Baking Queen of Queens, who delivered a scrumptious torso-shaped cake (including all anatomically correct organs). These butter cream frosting-covered treats were sealed with something dubbed as 'mutant alien baby goo' buy the baker.. apparently fondant is similar in molecular structure to the Blob. Though an experimental recipe, this medical miracle was a dizzyingly delicious treat. Another huge hit was a homemade concoction cobbled together by Ian and myself - the meat head!

Taking an interesting suggestion from Make Magazine's Halloween issue, we started with a clean human skull resin replica and coated it with a purple sticky substance; the author of the article suggested a gelatin-based mix, but we decided to go with a few servings of a failed grape jelly recipe from my mom. When jelly is cooked just a little too long, it starts taking on the properties of leather.

Warmed, it makes a fine goo.

Once the base is applied, deli meats (we chose salami and pastrami - the more 'muscley' looking meats) are then added in layers to resemble raw muscle covering the head. The finishing touches are of course the eye balls, which are suggesting to be made out of cocktail onions. For a more realistic look, we decided to go with hard-boiled eggs for the base, and green olives for the iris/pupils. Everybody at the party was really grossed out at first, but every(omnivorous)body just had to have a taste of the meat head. I highly recommended this delightful snacking item for any party, especially one around Halloween.

A fairly delicious holiday is rapidly approaching, and I have the pleasure of having my moms come to our place in CT for a Thanksgiving feast. My first turkey ever, I will be sure to post a play-by-play.

p.s.

Cold Symphony

This past Saturday evening, Ian and I had the pleasure of attending a dinner at the University President's house intended for new faculty (that's me), which was followed by Prokofiev's Peter & the Wolf and Stravinsky's Petrushka performed by the Greater Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra. I hadn't heard Peter and the Wolf since I was a kid.. it was really quite pleasant. I still find Stravinsky to sound slightly discombobulating when you're not in the mood (which I don't think I was), but it was still pleasant. The dinner preceding the symphony was entirely enjoyable; from the pleasant conversation to the delicious food to the tour of Waldemere Hall, everything was well planned and well attended by new and veteran faculty members. Once I got past the typical nervousness that I initially experience at most social/professional gatherings, I really enjoyed myself.

In other news, chicken is wonderful. I hadn't eaten meat in years, but finally got
back on the stuff per the recommendation of a nutritionist that I was seeing.
Ian made the most delicious chicken korma last night.. so good that I couldn't
wait to have the leftovers for lunch today! We were really excited about being
able to find all of the necessary spices for the dish - thank you, Edge of the Woods!

I was recently recommended a web comic called Basic Instructions by a coworker. Just when I was starting to gain some of my concentration back... *grumble*. Really, this addictive comic definitely rivals xkcd as one of my top favorites.

So.. our oil tank has been replaced. Only then would we be able to discover that the furnace is broken... so still, no heat. Good thing I have plenty of hats and scarves to keep me warm!

the big chill.. and bursting

Nobody enjoys, nor has the patience for long posts. It's been a while. I'll try to keep this brief.

It's gotten a bit more brisk since June. I've mostly settled into the new job, though I still don't know my way around campus. Considering that I frequently have trouble maneuvering myself out of a paper bag, this is not so surprising, nor is it particularly troublesome. Since my last posting.. hmm. Been to NY, ME, VT, NH, RI and several seasonal Halloween outlets. CT has an outrageous number of these, for some odd reason... at least 8 on a 3ish mile stretch of Route 1. In preparation for our first (4 annual at this particular house) large Halloween party together, Ian and I stocked up on necessary supplies, and enjoyed a surprisingly non-ruckular (not encompassing a ruckus or multiple ruckuses... thanks, I just made that one up myself, actually) evening filled with friends, a spectacular torso cake, meat and fantastic/hilarious/creepy costumes. If living/location/things in general permit, it will be a repeat performance next year. Due to lack of time in preparation for the event, my only jack-o-lantern carving resides at my mother's house in Maine. For some reason, I got a horrible blister from carving this. It was all worth it, however, upon hearing my mum exclaim how much she loved the 'ghosties'.

Since August, Ian and I have been harboring two furry little friends named Baxter and Sylvia. The background :

In a previous relationship, my partner and I acquired two delightful cats together. When the relationship ended, he kept the cats (we agreed it would be a more stable environment for them, - I was still in graduate school and financially/geographically unpredictable).

He and I are still great friends, and I had agreed to take care of these little guys for a few months, while he was stationed at a university across the country (as visiting professor). Well, we have them here until the end of November... *tick* *tick* *tick*... time's almost up! I've enjoyed my time with them so so much, but they're not helping to ease my impending separation anxiety at all, especially with the chillier weather - they're super snuggly right now! Always in my lap while I'm at the computer (even now), on my belly/side when I'm sleeping.. always greeting me when I get home.. wanting to be picked up and snuggled. I sure will miss these guys. *sniff* Ah well. At least it'll give all of my nibbled on/devoured houseplants a chance to recover.

And speaking of chillier weather.. we had oil delivered the other day (150 gallons to get us started).. and our tank burst! Mmmm.. delicious oil all over our storage unit in the basement, and the fumes have been choking us for the past few days. Ugh. We've been able to clear them out for the most part, but that means having the windows open! brr. We're supposed to be having our oil tank replaced, but we'll see how soon that happens *grumble*. Ah, the thrills of New England. Only here would one still be dealing with the archaic system of heating by way of oil. Why don't I just start a fire in the middle of the living room? Or maybe I should just start fur trapping/wearing animal skins? Eating suet? bah.