North Carolina Has Finally Achieved Statehood

Yes, indeed. Trader Joe's has opened in North Carolina. The value of our house has probably tripled because of it. Lindz and I went there directly from our respective jobs today. Here's dinner:


Look at the close-up! TRADER FRIGGIN' JOE'S IS OPEN!

Holy shit, they put crack cocaine in these:

I'm going to empty out my 401k tomorrow so I can buy A WHOLE HELL OF A LOT OF THEM.
Maybe it's the sugar and wine talking, but I feel pretty giddy about this.

The Fearsome Trident of Neptune

Happy Thanksgiving

Bryan took this photo; I was occupied cooking. I cooked all day and then some, and I had a great time. I was tired, stuffed and inebriated by the end of the day, infused with that fine Thanksgiving feeling. This was my brother's first North Carolina Thanksgiving. It's great to have him here; it was with Bryan that I developed a love of cooking for crowds, particularly for the eight Thanksgivings we spent together in San Diego.

The Menu:

Hors D'Oeuvres: Dates stuffed with cream cheese and walnuts (by Lindz), smoked oysters

Roasted Turkey (an ordinary $.79/lb bird from BJ's, brined and prepared according to The New Best Recipe)

Cranberry Onion Confit (from The Best Recipe, previous edition of the above cookbook) - I'm glad I kept the old edition; they took this recipe out of the new one.

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes (prepared according to my own technique: unpeeled russets, three bulbs of dry roasted garlic, butter, half & half and salt & pepper)

Turkey Gravy (Tyler Florence's idea made sense to me. I used a few pounds of turkey wings and some aromatics and made this independently, instead of screwing around with the drippings.)

Bread Stuffing with Granny Smith Apples, Carmelized Onions, Bacon and Sage (from The New Best Recipe, and this is the third year I've made this one.)

Gratin of Braised Kale (my own interpretation of a couple of recipes in Saveur magazine, braised with smoked turkey wings and covered in bechamel sauce)

Wine: Georges DuBoeuf Beaujolais Nouveau 2006, kindly supplied by my in-laws, Hayman Hill Pinot Noir 2005 Santa Lucia Highlands, kindly supplied by Bryan, Andew Quady Essensia Orange Muscat, supplied by me

Incidental Alcohol: Lindemans Framboise Lambic, Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout and a bit of Bryan's Barenjager the previous night while brining the turkey

Dessert: Cranberry Apple pie and Pumpkin pie, by Lindz and her mother (accompanied by lattes made by myself and Lindz)

I have no pictures of it, but we rearranged the furniture and put the Gramma Table in the the middle of the living room. Seven of us sat around it, and a good time was had. I admit that I was quite pleased with myself; I made a big meal for others' enjoyment, and it was the best kind of cooking: slow and from humble ingredients.

Cranberry Onion Confit

The house smells like Thanksgiving.

Caution: Smugness and Self-Satisfaction in Use

The water is turned on, and it's not going where it shouldn't. The project can move forward. I didn't even set the studs on fire with my torch (thanks to a heat shield I fashioned out of a piece of sheet metal).

Vaya con Dios, Magic Chef

Old Magic Chef:

New Kenmore:

Just in time for Thanksgiving. The oven is considerably larger.

Ooh, Neat! There's a Little Tiny Man Arc-Welding in our Oven!

Yesterday evening, Lindz and I were in the kitchen. I had just handed her a beer, and she was telling me about her day at work. While she was recounting tales of her boss's amazing foolishness, I was baking pita chips for us to snack on. The conversation abruptly stopped when we heard a noise. It was something that resembled buzzing, humming and sputtering. Smoke and bright, white light was visible though the oven vent beneath one of the burners. I furrowed my brow and looked in the oven. Sparks and orange magma greeted my pessimistic expectations. "How about we turn that off, babe?" my wife suggested.
"Yes, I believe that's a wise notion, my cherry-cheeked goddess." I turned off the bake element, and we finished the last sentence of the interrupted conversation. I finished the pita chips with the broiler element, narrowly avoiding burning them.
"We're going to need something by Thanksgiving," Lindz said, wearing a hard-to-describe combination of smirk and grimace. It's the facial expression used by homeowners when confronted by something expensive that was working fine moments earlier.
"Yep," I replied, adopting the smirk-grimace.




Anyway, The biscuit-colored Magic Chef owes us little or nothing. I think it's 25 years old. It probably would have failed sooner, but the previous owner of the house seems to have been as afraid of cooking as he was of attaching anything with more than 1/2 the requisite number of screws. The new Kenmore range (model 94002, a nice, bottom-of-the-line coil top) arrives on Saturday. I didn't even look at radiant glass tops. I don't trust that there new-fangled stuff. Cheap ranges do everything I need. I'm not sure how much it would be to replace this bake element, but I'm not putting money into this old thing.

Foray into Plumbing

Well, I've soldered a few pipe joints. It's fun to use a propane torch. I originally bought the torch for doing creme brulee and roasting peppers. It seems that one can use it for this stuff, too. I haven't worked on the supply pipes yet (translation: I haven't shut off the water, screwed something up and necessitated a night in a hotel), but I built the riser to the showerhead, the elbow that goes down to the faucet (shown) and the wooden supports that will hold them. The previous work is unimpressive (that is, if you are impressed by watertightness and structural integrity). I want to pressure-test my joints before I start sawing supply lines in the wall, but my confidence has increased.

Misshapen Pizza

Friday night, I made this misshapen pizza with a crust of 75/25 bread flour/whole wheat flour. It's topped with sauteed mushrooms with garlic, arugula, feta, parmiggiano and mozzarella. Lindz and I drank a tasty Australian shiraz from Costco with it.