As usual, we cooked the whole Thanksgiving dinner: Roasted turkey, Port gravy, Stuffing with chestnuts, mushrooms, and cranberries, Roasted sweet potatoes with maple syrup and marshmallows, Green bean casserole, and Maple pumpkin pie. Oh, and for the first time ever, we had REAL cranberry sauce, Cranberry sauce with figs and port, to be exact. We were very impressed. It turned out to be the best Thanksgiving ever!



We had planned on having just the two of us, so we started cooking early. Monday, we made the cranberry sauce to give it ample time to age. Tuesday, we skipped. Wednesday was Stock and Stuffing Day, although we really only made the stuffing cuz the stock required us to take the turkey out of its sealed wrapper and that would have been a mess. Then Thursday, we made all the rest, and just as we were finishing up, Pete called and said he was done with his Thanksgiving dinner at his sister's house and would be coming over. So we all sat down to dinner together. Even Tigger took a seat at the table (photo to be posted later... maybe in 6 months when I get around to downloading the contents of my camera).



Since then, we've made homemade biscuits - they were delicious but the size of postage stamps. I thought they would puff a lot more, but no. And today I made another batch of cranberry sauce, Cranberry sauce with marmalade and cinnamon. I thought all that Thanksgiving stuff would be on sale by now, but no (again)! (I have been wrong a lot this week.) Nothing at Albertson's is on sale. Not the turkey, not the cranberries - that are MUCH less fresh now, mind you, and not the fixings.



In other news, I got a Brother P-touch label maker. It is great. I can label everything. And I am.



And we got an iHome, a clock radio that plays the iPod. Two iHomes, actually, but the first one was no good. It got one LOUD Spanish language station for half the FM dial. Then we saw the next generation model at Costco and tried again because the online reviews were really good! This had more functions and was cheaper. After finagling the antenna for a very long time, we've managed to receive more than just 2 stations. Impressive sound too, for such a small unit. Now I have my whole kitchen table back as I have hauled out the large boombox Mat insisted on keeping there to listen to NPR. And Tigger likes that we can listen to the iPod too.



Now I keep the P-touch where the boombox used to be. :]

No, I'm not talking about the election! I can't even vote!



How can a piece of chicken be so tasty one day, and then so gamey the next?



I discovered the dirty secret behind one of my favorite dishes last night, Chicken Marsala. It is always so tasty. I love it at Macaroni Grill, I love it at Cheesecake Factory, and I decided to make it for dinner last night. I had picked up some NATURAL CHICKEN at Trader Joe's yesterday; that means: no hormones, no antibiotics, and fed natural grains. This was my first time buying such "luxury" chicken. I think it costs something like $3.99 a pound, but with my increasing concern with antibiotic abuse, I am willing to pay the price.



While I was on my long trip somewhere in New York or Montreal or Quebec City, I remembered that annoying Rachel Ray teaching someone to make Chicken Marsala on her show. It was supposed to be simple, so I looked it up and I pretty much had all the necessary ingredients. This is when I discovered the secret to the magical tastiness of Chicken Marsala.



It's FRIED! You fry the chicken (in my case, NATURAL boneless, skinless thighs) in a substantial amount of olive oil (that's "EVOO" to you Rachel freaks). Then you take all that oil, and you FRY sliced prosciutto (that's "BACON" in Italian). After you FRY said bacon, you put garlic, mushrooms, and some thyme into the Vat O' Grease, then you add some wine and chicken stock and reduce. Yes. You end up eating the entire Vat O' Grease. No joke! I haven't been this shocked since watching my Southern mother-in-law make chicken fried steak and gravy.



I made some pasta to put underneath the chicken, but I think white folk eat it as some kind of carniverous meal. The chicken actually turned out super delicious before the sauce or anything else. And why shouldn't it, really? It's FRIED!



Naturally, there were leftovers, and naturally, I ate them for breakfast today. And you know what? The chicken tasted gamey. (Not all of it, just a few pieces.) Why does that happen? I was so disappointed, but I ate it anyway. Wouldn't want any of that Vat to end up anywhere than in my gut...

I haven't written a new blog entry since March... Wow. I'm so proud.



Not a whole lot to say, really. Maybe I just need to get back in the groove.



I spent some time in the kitchen today. I prepped what will be our fried rice dinner and made an unexpected tuna salad for tea. I hardly ever eat tuna salad, but for some reason I had this hankering for some tuna canned in olive oil. Mostly, I was curious what it was like, as so many people have made it sound so delicious. So I looked up a recipe on the web, and this person happened to recommend the exact kind of Trader Joe's canned tuna that I had in my pantry. I attempted to follow her recipe, but I didn't have most of the ingredients. I just made do, and it turned out ok.



The salad consisted of: tuna (with olive oil), lots of capers, the vinegar from the capers jar (in place of lemon juice), dried parsley (instead of fresh), and mayonnaise. (I skipped chopped onions, celery, dill, and cottage cheese.) I had it with some avocado I'm trying to finish and some tomatoes I sliced yesterday (and am also trying to finish) on grainy sourdough bread. Turned out good; I was kind of surprised at how the tuna really tasted like tuna. I don't know why, but it really amazed me. Salt and pepper would have made it even better, but I was feeling pretty lazy.



It's Monday, so it's early gym night. I have my 5:30 step class at the gym, which tends to mess up our whole evening. Hopefully, my prepping will make dinner less of a hassle.



We still have cupcakes left from Halloween. I feel bad for them. I want them to be eaten up. They were tasty. What happened? Why aren't they getting the love they deserve?

Nearly a month ago, a new citizen joined The Flower Kingdom, Dandelion the rainbow dragonfly. She flew high and proud and was welcomed by all, especially Tigger and Lucy who couldn't stop staring at her.



This photo was taken two weeks ago.



Since then, Dande has become an indispensible part of The Kingdom, but we couldn't help but notice that Dande was, how shall I say, becoming less and less toned? At first her tail began to droop, and then her wings got a little flabby. Finally I couldn't take it anymore. Something had to be done for poor deflating Dande. So I examined her.



I soon discovered that she is not sealed. Apparently, she was designed with a unidirectional flow valve that allows air to only go in, and thus can be easily refilled! What a brilliant design!! Though I am no professional, she was in desperate need of resuscitation so I gave her mouth to tail immediately. In mere moments, Dande was back to her original glory, firm and lovely as ever. Unfortunately, Dande flies a bit lower now, but it's a great relief to know she will never leave us. And in the upcoming weeks, I will find her a proper place to receive her necessary treatments, from trained experts.

This is pretty much a blog for blogging's sake. I have nothing new to report. The only interesting thing I've seen in recent memory is a guy eating Cup O' Noodles while driving. He ate this with a fork, and seemed to be driving just fine. Oh, and I also saw Amber's cat licking her dog. Apparently the cats clean the dog regularly (as well as each other), and the dog doesn't mind. It's when they try to cuddle up to him, and he's trying to sleep, that he gets angry and barks very loudly at them. She says he gets very cranky when he's sleepy, and he's bitten her in the middle of the night when she shifted in bed. This dog also uses the litter box with the cats. He is most interesting.



There is no mutual grooming happening in this house. These cats just don't want to lick anybody else. They also haven't been giving up any whiskers lately. There have been no whiskers harvested since early February and believe me, I've been looking.



My endurance training continues. I skipped the gym on Saturday and Sunday, but did a little dance conditioning on Sunday while skipping class. I was back at my Step class today with one riser during the first half and two risers the second. I notice improvement.



Update on the organic yogurt...

Like everything else from Trader Joe's, I found the yogurt's shelf-life to be lacking. It didn't go bad or mold (like the bread ALWAYS does by Day 3), it just got more and more sour, which was my big complaint about the Albertson's brand, if you'll recall. The texture was still good, although some water did form, but nothing like the water from the Albertson's brand.



Tomorrow I attempt to locate Seitan, a vegetarian/vegan meat substitute made of wheat gluten. :\ This is what will go into a Mock Corned Beef and Cabbage I plan to make for St. Patrick's Day. I actually think it's going to be good for what it is.



OH! I almost forgot the most important thing going on! We've been having a Chocolate Sauce/Hot Fudge taste test. It all began with Mat wanting to make the world's best mocha. So we went looking for good chocolate sauce. But then we weren't sure that chocolate sauce would actually dissolve in liquid, so we went looking for hot chocolate/cocoa. Long story short, we came home with a jar of Scharffen Berger Pure Dark Ganache Chocolate Sauce (suggested use: ice cream topping, truffle filling, cake frosting) and a tin of Scharffen Berger Hot Cocoa mix.



Of course, we ran out of milk. So no mocha has yet been made. However, we HAVE vanilla ice cream, and so we had the Scharffen Berger last night, heated in the jar and spooned over the scoops, and then Ghirardelli Chocolate Fudge Sauce which had to be scooped out first, heated in a microwave-safe container, then we scooped the ice cream on top of that. The Schar... was 13.5 oz. for $9 and the Ghir... was 11.7 oz. for $7.99, so the prices were pretty comparable.



The tastes were quite different but both good, so we were at a loss to decide which was the winner. The Schar... was definitely more dark chocolatey with a slight tangy taste. The Ghir... had a chocolate liquor taste and a bitter bite. I like my hot fudge to have a bit of saltiness, and I think this can be found in Mrs. Richardson's Hot Fudge, sold at the grocery store. Schar... is available at Whole Foods and Ghir... is found at their soda fountains and gift shops.



We'll be taste-testing Mrs. R's Hot Fudge again pretty soon, since we both have good memories of that one. This should add an interesting twist to our experiment. Mrs. R's price point should be a bit lower as Schar... and Ghir... are both considered "premium" chocolate brands. Also, we don't know what the official technical difference is between "chocolate sauce" and "hot fudge" so stay tuned for that update too!