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.
Ta-da!
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! 😖
The outside of the oven door…
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 inside of the oven door…
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.
Gorgeous tiles…
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.
Dammit, too hot again!
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.
Fixing the mistake in the recipe by adding more flour.
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.
Successful bao buns!
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’s hard to see the bao bun up against the white plate, but it looked like a little soft taco.
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! 😜
Another week flew by; I feel like I write that every week. Tomorrow, we have our farmer’s market down in Troy, NY. Last week we moved into our winter indoor location at the Atrium Building in downtown Troy. Most Saturdays, we are on the road by 5:30 am, stop and deliver to one of our wholesale customers, then head to the market.
We are usually one of the first vendors to arrive at the market. We like being there early, even though it sucks waking up so early. Setting up and watching everyone else race around to get themselves ready for business is entertaining.
Some of our vendor friends…In the last photo, Sherwood is the nicest guy and is a great distillery salesman/bartender/DJ at the market. I love his pose!
The thing that makes Saturday mornings challenging is eating. It’s much more complicated than you can imagine finding a quick, grab-and-go breakfast. Besides a banana or a hard-boiled egg, such a thing doesn’t exist. We would love to stop and get a muffin, a bagel, or an egg sandwich. I usually pack something for breakfast that is only substance and not enjoyable.
Every week, we eat something lame and are starving the rest of the day. Now that we have to wear masks again indoors, you can’t nibble on snacks to tide you over. We also can’t leave the booth to eat in the designated dining area.
Josh & Jamie from Collar City Candle
Another vendor couple, Josh & Jamie, is gluten-free for medical reasons like ours, and the four of us pout every week. We bitch and moan, make each other hungry and talk about the food we wished we could have from the market or a convenience store.
Today, after production, I made mini apple cheddar tartlets for our Saturday morning breakfast. I made enough for Jamie and Josh too! I texted Jamie a photo just after I pulled the tartlets out of the oven. She replied right away, “OMG, Yum!” I love cooking for people, but cooking great shit for other gluten-free people is the best!
There is no recipe for these tartlets. First, I make a quick gluten-free pie crust that takes me literally 5 minutes. Then I decide what I want to fill the tartlets with. Finally, I assemble the tartlets and pop them in the oven. My favorite ones are apple and sharp cheddar. I am one of those salty, sweet people who like cheddar on my apple pie. These are small, easy to eat bites and delicious!
Apple cheddar tartlet…
I don’t always have time or the ambition to bake breakfast for the market, but it’s always a home run when I do! I can’t wait for breakfast at the market!
I looked at our weather here in Southern Vermont which looks great until Friday. The temps are forecasted to be in the low 60s during the day and down into the 30s at night. Next week, the daytime temps drop to the low 40s then dropping down to the 20s. It will be mid-November so that’s about right.
We pick out our Christmas tree and put it up the day after Thanksgiving. We also turn on the outdoor Christmas lights that evening. It’s a tradition Sam and I started about 6 years ago.
When I say we, I mean we pick out the tree and Sam helps me get into place in the tree stand. Then I am on my own. I decorate the tree myself because no one else wants to. That’s fine with me, I put on Christmas music, fix myself a poinsettia cocktail or two and take my time trimming the tree.
I have found since we started our business 4 years ago that I have to get things done when I can because I never know when the bottom is going to fall out is my week.
After production today, I decided to put away the front porch cushions, clean the front porch and put up the Christmas lights. Why already? I’d rather put them up with warm hands and a t-shirt on than freezing my butt off with numb hands.
A clash of seasons…
It was a glorious day weather-wise, perfect for outdoor projects. Marty worked outside on the lawn, putting gas in the snowblower, filled the gas grill propane tank, and covered the outdoor kitchen equipment for the season.
The good news is all the lights were not a tangled mess, plus they all worked! I must have been careful last year when I took everything down and packed it away. Sometimes I even surprise myself! 😜
Time is flying by so fast its unbelievable. I am actually looking forward to the holidays this year, something I haven’t done in a long time. I loved the holidays when our boys were young. When they grew up it was such a big letdown when their Santa days were over and they no longer wanted to make dozens of Christmas cookies with me.
Marty and I loved picking out the perfect gifts for each boy and playing Santa Klaus on Christmas Eve. Our boys believed in Santa for a long time, we were so good at it that I had to tell both of them the “Magic of Santa Klaus” story. I didn’t want them to get made fun of for still believing or having some douchebag ruin the magic like what happened to me. Poor Noah got so upset that he said, “Oh, that sucks!” He’s a chip right off the old block, he’s is so much like me!
Of course, Sam said he knew it couldn’t be true because he would lie in bed on Christmas Eve doing mathematical equations trying to figure how Santa would have enough time to deliver gifts to everyone’s houses.🤣
I am looking forward to spending the holidays cooking up a storm, celebrating, and spending time with my grown-up family. I am super excited that my sister Jennifer is coming up to visit in between Christmas and New Year with her kids which is going to be a lot of fun.
I don’t feel like I am going to turn into the Grinch or the Winter Warlock this year. “I’m not really a mean and a despicable creature,” I just hated the holidays for the last ten years. This is so much better! ☺️
*** I took down the garland on the front porch…it looked to skimpy.
Charging and cleansing my pink quart pieces with crystal quartz and items in my “medicine” bag.
Yesterday, we were on the road all day making deliveries and setting up our winter vending booth at the indoor Troy Farmers Market. There is a gemstone and bead store that I adore on River Street, a place that I can always find what I “need.”
Since my mother’s passing two weeks ago, I’ve gone through many emotions. I wrote about the anger I felt right after death.
Last week, those angry feelings shifted, leaving me weepy and sad. It took a few days to realize it wasn’t that I was mourning the loss of my mother, but sad because of the relationship we had.
I tried my best for 50 years to be the best daughter I could be. I withstood verbal abuse along with relentless emotional torture. I was manipulated, used, and lied to…yet I still wanted to try to please her. I still loved her. I wanted to reach the unobtainable expectations set for me.
I wanted just once to be introduced as her daughter, not her adopted daughter. It made me want to cry every time she did it. The few times I met someone before she did, she would always ask if I told them I was adopted. Why would I? Why was it important? Oh yeah, every time she told someone that I was adopted, they praised her like a saint.
Through meditation, I was guided to wear rose quartz close to my heart. I used rose quartz for the same purpose a few years ago when a friendship ended suddenly.
Rose quartz helps to heal a broken heart. It opens the heart chakra, releases emotional pain from trauma, helps with depression, and restores love and trust within yourself and others. Self-love, acceptance, and trust are a huge part of the healing process.
When I went into the gemstone and bead shop, I saw the owner who always helped me. I told her exactly what I needed. She quickly got out many different types of pink quartz pieces suitable to wear around my neck. Wearing rose quartz near your heart helps the healing process even quicker. If I cannot wear a necklace, I stick a rose quartz polished stone either down my bra or in a pocket.
I decided last night I wasn’t going to wallow in sadness and sorrow. I am done feeling sorry for myself. It is time to heal and put the past into the past. I thought about it like this; my mother is in paradise, and if I don’t start to heal and let it go, I will be living in my own personal hell.
Interestingly, when I decided to start wearing color again in the springtime, I gravitated to a soft pink color close to pink quartz. It started with my new eyeglasses, then a purse, a few new & second-hand tops, and scarves. I guess my instinct knew I needed this healing long before I realized it.
Cultures all over the world have been using gemstones for healing purposes in both ancient and modern times. If you are interested in gemstone and crystal healing there is endless information on the internet.
I suggest when you are purchasing gemstones and crystals you visit a shop in person. Picking up each stone or crystal helps guide you which one is right for you. I don’t recommend buying gemstones for healing purposes online; they are overpriced and not chosen specifically for you.
The Patty Griffin work crew…Tom, Mousey, Anne, Kirk, Deb, Marty and me!
For the last couple of weeks, Marty and I, along with some of his close friends and family, helped pull off a magnificent celebration of life event for his wife and our friend, Eileen.
Martin’s home is a gigantic historic home on the national registry, once a location where a babysitter looked after Abraham Lincoln’s grandchildren.
The home has been undergoing a massive restoration done the right way. Once you start opening these old homes’ plaster and lath walls, you never know what you will find. In Martin’s case, he has had to redo all the plumbing and electrical in every room.
Each room was a construction zone of chaos, debris, and clutter. Since the invitations to the celebration of life were sent out, there was a deadline to whip the place into shape. Some rooms are still under construction, but they were presentable for a gathering.
Eventually, with the help of a small army, the house was ready for the celebration. Martin being a chef, planned an elegant luncheon for the 50+ guests.
Marty and I were a part of a small kitchen crew that helped prepare the food. This is our comfort zone in the “back of the house” at any party or event.
Our first task was to create a massive charcuterie board. When I asked Martin how he wanted it, he told me to do whatever I thought. Lots of pressure right there, folks.
Taking on the preparation of a food course at an important event for two classically trained chefs, Martin and his ex-wife Maureen made my heart beat harder for a minute.
Martin and Maureen have a wonderful relationship despite their divorce. She came from Pennsylvania with her partner and killed it in the kitchen. She wanted Martin to mingle and enjoy the get-together celebrating Eileen, not working his ass off in the kitchen with us.
I looked at all the meats, cheeses, greenery, and carefully sliced smoked salmon that Martin provided and decided not to stress about it. Marty and I started working on filling the gigantic mirror display board. The mirror was huge, but the board began to come together almost on its own.
Once Marty and I decided where to start, it went smoothly. When we stepped back to look at our display, we even surprised ourselves.
Others were setting up large round tables with their linens and chairs around them. Some set up a bar. Others filled cannoli shells, cut pies, washed dishes, helped assemble salads. There was a lot to do, and it all got done in time.
The celebration of life for my friend Eileen was done in Quaker fashion. Most people had never attended a Quaker “meeting” before and weren’t sure what to expect. Martin greeted the crowd and explained how a Quaker meeting works.
Everyone sits in silence; then, when someone feels moved, they share a memory of the loved one. After the person is finished speaking, everyone is silent again, letting the memory resonate with everyone.
It was touching and sad, along with laughter during people’s memories. I have much more to write about the beautiful friendship that I had with Eileen, but this will have to wait for another day. I can’t do it yet. These last two grief-filled weeks have been difficult enough dealing with my mother’s declining health and passing.
I wanted to get up to speak but knew I wouldn’t be able to get the words out through my tears. Marty shared a funny memory about how we met the Sullivans, which I was grateful for.
After the “meeting,” we raced to the bar, grabbed a glass of rośe champagne, and ran to the back of the house. We set up an outdoor kitchen the day before using our Oktoberfest cooking equipment, perfect for grilling off six big beef tenderloin filets and asparagus.
Chef Maureen checked in with us, and we knew exactly what to do. Marty gave the filets a good sear on our flattop grill then moved them to a gas grill to finish them off. The beef was done to a perfect medium-rare. Maureen let the beef rest before slicing it and placing it on gigantic platters.
My task of grilling the asparagus was fun. I filled my half of the flattop grill with asparagus that was simply coated in olive oil, salt & pepper. The asparagus came out wonderfully, the outsides grilled to a golden brown, crisp-tender in the middle.
Being outside in the rain under our tent, grilling food, sipping champagne, and hanging out with a few people was fantastic. This was the perfect spot for us in the back of the house. Inside, it was hot and crowded with tons of people we didn’t know.
The crowd loved our charcuterie board, followed by the menu of sliced filet mignon, Caesar salad, a seafood salad. Pasta salads were made with imported Italian macaroni and another with our spätzle as a gluten-free option. There were warm dinner rolls and, of course, the grilled asparagus.
We ate in the kitchen, far away from the guests, along with the Patty Griffin work crew. We ate, laughed, and drank wine. We cracked up about how Martin was able to pull off such a successful celebration.
Our hang-out spot was in the still gutted down to studs kitchen, which was perfect!
The work crew we were a part of became good friends over the last two weeks. We’ve made plans to stay in touch and meet again after the holidays, this time just for friendship, laughs, more wine, and some great food. The only person missing was Eileen, even though I knew she was present looking down at all of us.
I didn’t have a spare moment to take any food photos besides the charcuterie board I took before the event began. My phone was tucked away on not disturb, and I didn’t remember to take pictures until everything was devoured. 🤦🏻♀️
After my father passed I learned about signs from heaven and always looked for signs from him. I found the usual ones that other people find; pennies & feathers. I used to be able to smell him as well; a combination of his cologne and newspapers. Weird I know. My oldest son Noah could smell it too when he was little.
I haven’t gotten any signs or messages from my dad until yesterday. I was getting into the delivery van and I found two pennies in a puddle in the parking lot of our distributor, Wilcox Ice Cream.
I reached into the puddle and picked up the pennies. I looked at the years on them which were 1973 & 1975. Those years don’t really represent any meanings, but nevertheless, they were both from the 70s making me think it could be a sign and not just random change that fell out of someone’s pockets. The way they were laying next to each other was another.
It took me a few minutes to make the connection…my dad always sent me one penny now he sent me two; representing him and my newly passed mother. It was his way of letting me know that she was with him. It made me feel better that she made a smooth transition to the other side.
I took my fathers death very hard, what helped me cope were the signs and smells he left me, which made me feel better. My new psychic abilities after his passing actually let me feel his energy around me. I knew it was him, no doubt in my mind. One day I saw his reflection in a glass door at the bank someone was opening. I couldn’t believe it. I started balling my eyes out, hoping no one would notice.
From the moment that my dad crossed over he immediately was able to connect with me. I haven’t felt or found any signs from my mother so far and may not for a very long time, if at all.
I am most certain these two pennies from heaven were a gift from my dad: his signs always make me feel better and at ease knowing he is still around me. I still miss him like crazy but glad he has Eileen keeping him company now.
I remember reading in a book that if you think that a certain song, penny or feather is a sign, it is. You should always acknowledge the sign since it is extremely hard work for the other side to make these signs possible.
Death is hard on the living so when a deceased loved one can offer the living a reassuring sign for comfort shows you that love doesn’t need human bodies…we are all beings of energy with a body or not.
