Still cooking, still persevering

So a couple of days ago, I'm talking with a friend of mine, and he remarked that out of the people knows, I'm probably the one who cooks the most. Gotta admit, I was really surprised. I mean, yeah, I cook, day in and day out, and I prep all of Baby's food, but really, out of the people that he knows? I don't know. Maybe my surprise (and longing) at hearing about my friends' meals at home being hot dogs and pizza still continues through adulthood. I don't know.

My parents, or our nanny du jour (as my mother made firing our live-in nannies a task like drinking water) as most cases were, cooked our home dinners each day. Yes, this meant that some days we had just left-overs, but these weren't left-over green bean casseroles, or left over baked chicken. These meals were all Chinese in flavor, and there were a variety of vegetables and meats we'd have. But, comparitively, I missed being able to be "normal," and that included having "normal" meals, like pizza and lasagna day in and day out. Thank god I didn't.

Now, because largely due to my varied group of friends, I hope that I'll be able to deliver to Baby and Hubby the variety of foods that is reflective of all different types of cultures in our meals. Just Chinese won't cut it any more for me, and frankly, knowing that we'd be having Chinese again got really boring at home. My cooking these days is bordering on basic (simply-seasoned protein of some sort, with steamed vegetables with salt and pepper, and at times, a sauce of some sort or a side of rice), but it's slowly starting to get ramped back up again. I'm using the skills I've learned during the course of the last 8 months of Baby's life in food prep, from pre-cutting vegetables and even portioning butter or flour, to prepping the night before for the next day's dinner, and pairing those skills with my learned ability to prep one-handed. My knowledge I've gained in trying different spices and knowing what tastes like what and how long I'd have to cook whatnot how long or when to add cream to a sauce has proved invaluable now, as chasing around little Baby is quite the task of date. I have to admit, my skill-honing came to a complete standstill with the birth of Baby, so I'm lucky that I experimented with different ingredients and methods before having Baby.

Most recently - we produced, with help from our friends Bondrew, Thanksgiving dinner at our house for 10 (this includes Baby, as she's quite capable of eating her body weight's worth at each seating). I was in charge of stuffing, side of veggies, turkey, cranberry sauce, and salad. Here's a brief rundown:

The stuffing, I took a loaf of white bread (wow, when was the last time I had white bread!), cubed it, and baked the bread, single layer, for 15 minutes at 300 for a nice crisp exterior to dry them out. I used Trader Joe's chicken/mushroom sausage, removed the casing, and browned the sausage for the fat and protein. To this, I added raisins and cranberries. Stirred this into the crusted bread, poured in chix broth, and stirred together until well coated and mixed. I baked this for about 20 minutes, at 350. My big mistake was using too much bread... the meat and bread ratio should be about equal, and many thanks to Hubby for picking out the extra bread.

The turkey - I brined it again this year, and it yielded a wonderfully juicy turkey. Brine, about 12 cups of water with 1 cup of salt, 1/4 cup of peppercorns, rosemary, thyme. I got an organic turkey this year, and marinated the turkey in the brine for 24 hours prior to baking. I tucked butter under the skin, covered with honey (bad idea, browned and caramelized too early), but otherwise, the turkey came out great. I combined the left-overs with a pre-mixed frozen mixture of veggies, with some chix stock, for a wonderful turkey soup post-Thanksgiving.

Cranberries - 2 bags of cranberries, some orange juice, rind of 1 orange, and about 3/4 cup sugar. Cooked this 10 minutes, and let stand - oh yum!

So that's the quick rundown of our Thanksgiving this year from my end. We also had mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin roll (so good, from Bondrew!), a ham, flan, and lemon custard pie, to name a few other items. We feasted quite a bit. As did Baby. Oh boy, she was stuffed.

And now, Christmasbound!