Author: Julz

The day after Thanksgiving may be Black Friday to some, but to me, it’s Operation Christmas. Sam and I started this tradition many years ago, and I love it.

When our boys were small, our tree was filled with baby & children’s ornaments such as Baby’s First Christmas or a teddy bear or other cute animals holding age numbers. Almost all of the ornaments were given to the boys from both sets of our parents.

After my dad and Marty’s parents passed, it became hard and harder to get those ornaments out each year. The boys weren’t helping to hang up “their” ornaments anymore since they were grown up; I was decorating the tree alone.

My mother had her stroke eight years ago around Thanksgiving. I couldn’t bring myself to pull out all of those sentimental decorations due to emotional and physical exhaustion. I decided that I would keep those ornaments for the boys when they had homes and families of their own, and I would buy grown-up decorations.

Sam, Marty, and I went shopping and picked out our new purple, silver, and white ornaments. Our tree looked so glamorous, like the kind you see in magazines. Poor Noah was upset because he wasn’t around when all of this happened and was heartbroken about the new decorations. I explained to him why I needed to change things; he got it and was on board.

I still put up my mini Mema Christmas tree every year. Mema was my grandmother on my dad’s side for those who don’t know who she is. When I was small, I remember looking at Mema’s vintage ornaments from when my father was a little boy in the 1940s. I loved a Santa coming down the ceramic chimneypiece with old-fashioned glass bulbs sticking out of it.

When I was in my twenties, she had a box packed up for me when I visited Mema. It was all the decorations and ornaments that I loved. She said she didn’t decorate like she used to and wanted me to have them. It is still one of the most treasured gifts I’ve ever received.

I have one other Christmas decoration that is special to me as well. I received it when I was four years old. Nana and Grandpop, my grandparents on my mother’s, side bought it for me. It was Santa’s sleigh with reindeer, elves, and a big sack of toys in the back. The sled was studded with different color Christmas lights. I looked forward every year to plugging it in and seeing the sleigh light up.

I loved standing in front of my Santa’s sleigh and playing make-believe. I’ve always used different character voices when I played; I still do with our animals. I would use my Santa voice and call out to the reindeer and elves. When I got married and moved to Vermont, I took my Santa sleigh with me for my own home.

I’m not sure what year it was when the sleigh didn’t light up anymore; it gave me a shock and blew a fuse. After a series of curse words flying through the air, I ran to the fuse box and tripped the power. That was the end of the “light-up” sled, but I still put it on display every year. The funny thing is my boys never paid any attention to it like I did when I was small, but they didn’t have the same connection to it as I did.

After production, Marty and I went across the street to the Arlington Community House, which had their fundraising Christmas trees and wreaths sale. The proceeds help the town fund the community house, which is important to us, and not having to travel anywhere to get the tree is priceless.

Marty cut the bottom of the tree, drilled a hole in it, placed it in the tree stand, and let me have at it. He headed out with Sam to work on a project, so I had the house to myself. I put on Christmas music and slowly started putting up our decorations. It began to snow while I was decorating, which was even more festive.

While organizing everything on the dining room table, I came across a Christmas ornament mailed to us last Christmas. Our tree was down, so I never used it; I put it in one of the Christmas boxes. The ornament was from the care facility where my mother lived, a glass ornament with her photo in it.

You never know when grief is going to sneak up on you or punch you in the face. In yesterday’s case, it hit me right between the eyes. I started to weep, taken by surprise with all kinds of emotions. I let myself cry and let all the feelings go one by one. I was sad, mad, angry, and heartbroken. Marty stopped in for a moment, hugging me, telling me it was ok to cry.

I became over-sentimental and didn’t have the same happiness I started with. In the end, I finished decorating the tree and the house, happy with how everything looked. It was dark out already, and the guys were out on a rescue squad call, so I quickly jumped in the shower.

As soon as I got out of the shower, the power went out from all the heavy snow snapping tree branches and power lines. I let out a big, “What the fuck! You gotta be kidding me,” while standing in the bathroom dripping wet in the dark. I felt around for my towel and went downstairs to light some candles.

The house quickly got chilly since I didn’t have the heat up high while decorating the tree. My thick hair down to my waist takes forever to dry; it was soaking wet, making me uncomfortable and cold. The pleasant and nostalgic feeling that I had when I finished Operation Christmas went right out the window.

When the guys finally got home, we manually lit the gas stove, heating leftovers. I sat with a hat, fleece pants, and a hoodie under a mountain of blankets. The power didn’t come back on until almost midnight, and the road crews still hadn’t been out. We had over eight inches of heavy snow. The guys went outside to start digging out, but the driveway was covered with snow as soon as they made a pass with the snowplow or shovel.

After the power came on, we sat together, catching up with each other’s day. They liked how the tree and decorations came out this year. It was still dumping heavy snow outside, and everything was tranquil. Last night, we decided that we wouldn’t be attending our farmer’s market today, not knowing how much snow we would still be getting and how the roads would be at 5 am.

Today is a gift of a “free” day to use as I wish; we never have a Saturday off, so it is like a luxury to me. Have a great weekend, guys! 🎄❄️⛄️🕯

Seven years ago I worked on Thanksgiving Day at Stewarts Shops; known for their ice cream and milk. Stewarts also sells gas, food, beer & wine, and groceries. I worked the early shift with my manager Bob. Bob is the best boss I have ever had. I’ve worked for a lot of people, but Bob is one of those salt of the earth kind of guys.

Bob was the hardest worker in the shop even though he was the manager, which most times isn’t the case. When I am a manager I try to be the hardest worker as well. I have a lot of respect for him and enjoyed working my shifts with him.

As I worked making coffee, making food, ringing the register, and a million other tasks that are expected of you, I listened to Bob say, “Happy Thanksgiving” to our customers. What struck me every time he said it, was how he said it.

Bob put the emphasis on the “thanks” not giving. I always heard people including myself say it all in one word. Thanksgiving. What’s the difference? I will try to explain.

Bob said thanksgiving in a way of “giving thanks.” Thanks…giving as opposed to Thanksgiving. I thought about it after my shift and realized what Bob, a church-going man, was actually saying to people. I felt dumb that I never thought about the word or the meaning before.

I looked up the word thanksgiving. It really comes down to simple grammar. The holiday Thanksgiving is spelled with a capital T which is different than spelling it with a lower case t meaning, “the act of giving thanks.” Ah, now it made sense.

I think everyone, myself included thinks about Thanksgiving as a holiday. It is a holiday because Abraham Lincoln declared it a holiday of giving thanks back in 1863.

Growing up I was taught that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated by the pilgrims from the Mayflower and the indigenous people that used to be known as Native Americans or Indians way back then. It was a celebration of their first harvest together. From what I have read recently, that is all a bunch of bullshit.

Some say the first Thanksgiving took place in Virginia back in the 1600s. Some say the first Thanksgiving wasn’t the pretty picture that was painted for us, which I believe is most likely true.

America isn’t the only country that celebrates Thanksgiving, many countries and islands have their own Thanksgiving holidays in different months of the year.

To me, the act of giving thanks can be and should be something to do every day. Performing the act of giving thanks doesn’t require roasting a turkey or chowing down on pumpkin pie, it requires the simple act of thanking God, the universe, or whatever higher power you believe in.

Thanksgiving means more to most people in the last two years due to the pandemic than ever. Last year, families weren’t allowed to get together to celebrate the holiday. Many people lost loved ones and friends that they didn’t get to say goodbye to making everyone cherish our relationships more. We hug more now that we can and say, “I love you.”

Our country is a mess and covid is still running rampant throughout communities, but we still have so much to be thankful for. The first thing I do when I wake up every day is to give thanks…grateful I even woke up, something everyone doesn’t get to do.

After seeing the grocery store shelves empty last year I always give thanks in the store that the shelves are full. I am grateful we can pay for groceries, heat, and other basic necessities.

I am grateful for my family and friends. I am very grateful for our business and our customers. I am grateful for belly dance and that I still have the ability to dance for hours at a time and the wonderful women I have the pleasure to teach and dance with.

Finally, I am grateful that I had the balls to start a blog this year. I am beyond grateful for my readers and that you have chosen to come along on my journey with me. Thank you!

Happy Thanksgiving guys! Enjoy your holiday and know that thanksgiving can be something to celebrate every day and not just the fourth Thursday in November. Bon Appetite…

There are a lot of things to like and dislike about social media. One thing that I like is memories that pop up each day going back years. Today, a bunch of Thanksgiving posts came up reminding me of things that I’ve tried or done in past years.

Sometimes I worry that I have absolutely no recollection when I see these memories and today was exactly like that. These types of forgotten memories are cooking ones; ones that I do automatically and never write down or remember how I did them.

A jackpot of memories appeared this morning reminding me what I used in the compound butter that I shove under the skin of the turkey for maximum flavor and moisture. I also was reminded about when and what I used in my turkey brine.

The best memory was from 2018 when I used a James Beard turkey cooking technique that worked fabulously. James Beard was an American chef, cookbook author, teacher, and television personality. He pioneered tv cooking shows and taught at the James Beard Cooking School in NYC.

James Beard’s cooking style was preparing dishes with fresh, wholesome, and American Ingredients. Beard taught and mentored generations of professional chefs and published more than 20 books. His memory is honored by his foundation’s annual James Beard Awards.

I watched a video on how James Beard roasted his turkey and I wanted to try it. Here is how it went:

The James Beard-style turkey was so moist and delicious, I can’t believe I forgot about it! I am planning on roasting my turkey again like this on Thursday.

Probably the best memory that popped up was this one:

Isn’t it genius to eat pie for Thanksgiving breakfast? It’s always just us for Thanksgiving so it’s no biggie if a slice is missing at dessert, my family couldn’t give two shits if the pie is whole or not. However, I started making mini pies last year and they worked out even better! No one knows how many you made or ate on Thanksgiving morning! Ha! 😉

We cranked out tons of spätzle today for this week’s deliveries which are shortened due to the holiday and our distributor’s delivery schedule. The work we got done in the production kitchen today frees me up tomorrow to do my Thanksgiving prep and baking. I normally would tackle most of it on Wednesday, but that’s belly dance day and nothing is coming between me and dancing. 💃🏻

I know not everyone gets so excited about holiday cooking. I look forward to it weeks ahead and love doing the prep, baking, roasting, cooking, table setting etc. If holiday cooking isn’t your thing I urge you to start prepping ahead of time, getting organized, don’t bite off more than you can chew, and relax. It’s only food after all and if your guests don’t like what you prepared then they can do one of two things…blow it out their ass or cook the meal themselves next year. 😜🖕🏼👍🏼👌🏻

Yesterday surprised us with the replacement oven hinges showing up the day after Marty ordered them. We paid extra for fast shipping…turns out it was worth it!

Marty is a jack of all trades kind of guy and can really fix almost anything especially with the addition of YouTube DIY videos now available.

Long story short, he fixed not only the hinges on my oven but also replaced the burned out light bulb and the convection fan that stopped turning ages ago.

I know I got myself excited about the possibility of purchasing a new stove, but now that mine is fixed, I am happy and satisfied.

With the uncertainty of todays world I feel better not having to cough up a bunch of money for a new stove right now. The stove that I have is kickass and I am back in love with it! Thanks Marty! 🥰

This is the year of our appliances breaking. Our bar fridge broke back in late winter. It would be too expensive to fix, so we converted it to a bar pantry. In the springtime, our dishwasher hose was eaten by a mouse, and it took over a month to have the hose replaced. Yesterday, while I was making cauliflower pizza for lunch, the hinge on my oven door snapped.

The bar fridge I didn’t care about breaking. The dishwasher was a royal pain in the ass, but I could still do dishes by hand. But the oven…dammit! The week before Thanksgiving too! 😖

When it happened, I started to cry. I thought about how much I love and use my stove and oven. How many thousands of meals have I made using it for the last 17 years. When we bought our home, we had to purchase a new stove; the old one was too unsafe to use; the propane company wouldn’t even consider hooking it up.

The stove is 36-inches, not your standard size. That’s what size was in the kitchen in which the cabinetry was built around. We picked a beautiful stove, a Thermador. We got it for a discount since it had a scratch in the stainless steel on the side. Marty is a master wheeler-dealer and got a good deal. The stove was still expensive but worth it since I use the stove and oven at least 300 days a year. That’s a lot of use in 17-years.

Marty tried to find replacement hinges and found that parts are hard to find since the stove and parts are discontinued. Through my tears, I started looking at 36-inch stoves online, and I saw gorgeous ones! I picked out about four of them…I was in love.

In the meantime, Marty found the hinges from a third-party seller on Amazon. This, of course, was good news and was only going to cost about $160; if the hinges will work, that is. A part of me was relieved that he found them and would hopefully arrive before Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is one of the granddaddies of all the holidays from a cook’s standpoint. After crying about what I was going to do to bake my turkey and pies, I realized I could use the grill for baking the turkey and making my pies in the toaster/convection oven. Problem solved.

Here’s the thing…a part of me doesn’t want the hinges to work now that I saw those spiffy new stoves. I already redesigned that section of the kitchen, including getting rid of the upper cabinets for a new exhaust hood and open shelving. I also know exactly what kind of tiles I would use as a new backsplash, those gorgeous European tiles in black, white, and charcoal gray. They fit together to form a pattern.

I fessed up to Marty about wanting a new stove, and this is what he said. “Even if the hinges work, it will buy us time to pick out and find a new stove in the near future.” The stove is on its last legs, but we could take our time redesigning and remodeling without picking out something in haste. Ha, so he was on board!

With the uncertainty of the hinges working, I am sure he is already looking for deals on floor models somewhere since ordering anything right now, the way our world is is out of the question.

So, I am not sure what will happen, but in any case, I will still pull off Thanksgiving dinner without a problem.

I love Chinese food; actually, I love all kinds of Asian food and miss a lot of dishes because they aren’t gluten-free. One of the dishes I miss most is part of Chinese Dim Sum, steamed pork buns or char sui bao.

Growing up in Iselin, NJ, we had many different ethnic food shops right around the corner from our house. There was an Italian shop called Mistretta’s. There was also Stanleys Polish Meat Market and Ding-How, a Chinese Market.

On Saturday mornings, Ding How would carry those delicious steamed pork buns char sui bao. The steamed buns were soft and sweet. The buns were stuffed with char siu pork, which is pork coated with that shiny, lacquered red sauce you find on ribs on a pu-pu platter.

After we moved to Vermont, we missed our Saturday morning steamed pork buns but could still find them in Albany, NY, if we wanted them. Then we went gluten-free, and we had to scratch another much-loved food off of your favorites list. 🙁

It took me seven years to develop my gluten-free spätzle recipe; it bugged me for years that I couldn’t nail it, then when I did, I was like, “fuck yeah!”

I’ve been working on a handful of other recipes that I am trying to convert to gluten-free versions. Most of the dishes I am trying to replicate are tricky. I always think I am not a patient person, but when replicating food recipes, I stick with it until I get it right.

A couple of months ago when we ate at our favorite Chinese restaurant Ala Shanghai in Albany, NY, a place that serves more gluten-free Chinese food than other places we have found so far. When we were having dinner there, we watched the waiter carve a Peking duck right at the people’s tables. It was pretty fantastic to watch how skilled the waiter was with his knife work. It was like watching dinner theater.

Next, we saw him take out soft bao buns, which are unstuffed steamed buns. He then added the Peking duck and pickled vegetables to the buns. The bao sandwiches had both of us drooling as we watched the waiter put the platter on the diner’s table. I asked how it was, and the people said they drive from far away a couple of times a year to have the Peking duck bao buns. Damn, they must really be good.

I found a recipe for Peking pork which is thinly sliced pork that has been marinated then stir-fried. The pieces of pork are added to the Peking sauce that they use for duck, making it Peking pork. Pretty clever and not hard to make. Then comes the steamed bao buns, the hard part.

It’s hard to find a reliable recipe for most gluten-free Chinese dishes; the steamed bun recipes all seemed fussy, requiring lots of ingredients I don’t keep on hand, such as isolated whey protein, expanded tapioca flour, and glutinous rice flour.

Yesterday, I tried a bao bun recipe with things in my pantry. The recipe seemed straightforward but failed. When I kneaded the dough before the proofing; I had zero chance of the recipe working. I said it out loud to Marty, then hours later, when it did fail, I said I knew it! I hate throwing away ingredients, but it’s necessary when figuring out recipes.

Today, I am trying again. The ingredients are different ones that I used yesterday, still ones that I had in my pantry. Twice I have heated the milk in the recipe too much. Adding yeast to liquids above 110 degrees kills the yeast, which happened with the first round. I started again, and the milk was too hot again, so I cooled the milk down in an ice bath before adding the yeast. I am so aggravated with myself for already screwing up the recipe.

When I added the wet ingredients to the dry, I noticed way too much liquid in the recipe. I thought this when I measured the ingredients but wanted to wait and see what would happen. I was right. I kept adding more tapioca flour until the dough came together; beforehand, the dough was more like cake batter. This was when I started cursing the recipe writer.

After adding more tapioca to form a dough, I began to knead it for 10 minutes like the recipe said to do. I had to keep adding more tapioca flour to keep the dough from sticking to the benchtop. After the dough seemed smooth, I put it into a greased bowl and covered it with plastic wrap. I set a 90-minute timer and waited; figuring I had a 50/50 shot of failure or success.

The dough doubled in size and had a smooth, shiny sheen to it. I followed the directions, kneaded the dough for 3 more minutes, and divided it into small balls. I placed them on greased pieces of kitchen wrap. I let them rise again for 30 minutes. I turned on the Chinese steamer with the filled with buns.

Now was the moment of truth, will they or won’t they come out as expected? They did! Sweet victory…I gotta write this shit down, I thought.

I made the Peking pork which was easy and came out exactly as I wanted it to. I am not sure why it’s called Peking pork; it is char sui pork, but whatever, it’s delicious and didn’t matter what the hell it was called.

I quick-pickled some carrots & red onions to go along with my already pickled daikon radishes I keep in the refrigerator. We sliced the bao buns then stuffed the pork and pickled veggies creating a soft bao taco, if you will. The first taste? Holy crap! They tasted exactly like the char sui bao buns we remembered!

It seems like even though it isn’t even winter yet, I have been cooking up a storm. As a hobby, it keeps me busy after production, and my kitchen is my zen, happy place. The result happens to be some great meals which I guess is a better hobby than sitting and doing jigsaw puzzles all day. Lol! 😜

On to the next recipe to replicate!