Category: Food and Drink

Outed!

After Thanksgiving at my Mom’s, I traveled to Virginia to meet my Dad, stepmom, brother and sister at a farmhouse in the Shenandoah Valley. The farmhouse belongs to friends of the family from back in the day when we lived in Washington D.C. — they have a set of twins a month younger than my brother and sister, and a daughter a year older than the twins. We have kept in touch over the years, and decided to join them for a second Thanksgiving. We arrived late Friday night, after some flight delays and hideous weather, and proceeded to cook the first of the weekend feasts — the Maine contingent had brought lobsters (I brought NYC bagels for the next morning). When we finally got settled, we all sat down to our lobster dinner, with plenty of wine to go around. Somehow, during the course of the conversation, we started talking about the internet, discussing things like Friendster, and how it served as a way for people in our generation to meet new people (I am in the process of adding Stephanie, Josh, and Jon to my “friends” list). I mentioned, without really thinking, that I had just met someone through my weblog. “Your what?” Oops. So now they know — it’s really no big deal. There’s nothing here that’s particularly scandalous or embarrasing (at least I don’t think so). Yet.

So — to the family and friends of the family who are now reading my blog for the first time — Welcome! (Gulp.)

The weekend was centered around family (10 people in the two families), friends (who joined us for the feasts — I think there were 25-30 people for the second Thanksgiving), and, of course, food. One of the culinary highlights for the weekend, in my opinion, was Kim’s pumpkin cheesecake with bourbon whipped cream (from Cooks’ Illustrated). Kim subsituted crushed peanut butter cookies for the graham crackers in the crust. Yum. The other culinary highlight, or more accurately, fascination, for me was learning about something called “hotdish.” For those of you, like me, who were unfamiliar with the term “hotdish,” it seems to be a Midwestern (Minnesotan?) term for anything that you throw into a casserole and bake. A quick google search for hotdish led me to my favorite definition: Hotdish: 1) midwestern colloquialism for a hot entree that is similar to a French casserole except that it is often inedible; 2) the bastard offspring of canned Cream of Mushroom soup.

As those of you at the farm this weekend recall, I spent a great deal of time snapping photos. Here’s a quick preview, but you can find the rest of them here.

December 4, 2003
Next Year’s Menu

My Thanksgiving this year is going to be slightly odd. Not bad, just odd. I am going up to my Mom’s for the day, and my Mom, who usually really enjoys cooking for the holidays, announced that “Thanksgiving elves” will be doing the cooking this year. In other words, she’s ordering Thanksgiving dinner. Now, I generally don’t have strong opinions about ordering versus cooking food, but it does seem rather strange to me to be ordering Thanksgiving dinner. For now, I will reserve judgment until after the meal.

On Friday, I will be meeting the other half of the family in Virginia, where we are going to visit friends of the family at their farm. It will be a full house — complete with two sets of twins, two siblings of twins (including me) and two sets of parents. I think my Dad is planning on hauling ten lobsters on the plane down from Portland, Maine so that we can have a lobster dinner on Friday night, then we’re having Thanksgiving dinner, take two, on Saturday night.

Since I am trying my best to get back on the exercise wagon, I’ll be bringing running clothes. Perhaps I’ll even use them.

Finally, in keeping with the odd Thanksgiving tradition, I have decided that next year’s Thanksgiving menu will feature Turducken. For those not in the know, this is a chicken in a duck in a turkey, with layers of stuffing in between. I think it originated in New Orleans, from Chef Paul Prudhomme, whose site features step-by-step instructions on how to make a Turducken. Between his recipe and a few others I’ve seen, it looks like a major process. I may have to start cooking next week.

Happy Thanksgiving to the seven of you reading (I think my readership is slowly starting to grow!)

November 26, 2003
Saturday Night’s Alright*

Had a great evening Saturday night. For all you hipster wanna-bes, I have listed the stops in Saturday night’s trip to the Williamsburg/Greenpoint area. Follow along to recreate the fun — fool your friends into thinking that you know cool, offbeat places!
First, fish tacos at Bonita
Next, take a short walk to Enid’s for a cheap beer, and a quick game of Ms. Pac Man while listening to old faithful tunes on the jukebox (my favorite was “I Am the Warrior” by Scandal).
Finish your evening at Warsaw, which has now become my new favorite music venue. Where else can you see a band (in my case, the Eels) and snack on pierogies?