Last year I hosted Thanksgiving, so this year I’m not cooking: we’re going to my brother-in-law’s for the family get together. But I realized a few years ago that not cooking Thanksgiving has a huge, huge downside — I don’t have leftovers for several days of “hot lunch” (as my husband likes to call my preferred leftovers for lunch choice.)
So now, on the years I don’t host the actual Thanksgiving feast, I cook ‘Thanksgiving Friday” for local friends and family.
The beauty is: it’s not the ‘real deal’ so I can experiment a bit. The downside: I’ve found that as we get older,
First, there was the baked chicken with great flavor, that was sadly ruined because the chicken was dry and overdone. That sent me to the internet where I did a lot of research. That led to chicken number 2: a different recipe (but still baked) and the result was delicious chicken: not overdone or dry at all.
Woot.
This chicken foray all started began because my mom was planning to make pot roast for out-of-town guests.
Yes, pot roast.
She was throwing a casual dinner party for out of town guests,
As a means of communicating with professional cooks who write interesting articles with accompanying, tantalizing recipes, absolutely nothing beats Twitter.
Two of my favorite New York Times Dining section authors, Melissa Clark and David Tanis, both respond to questions about their recipes via Twitter.
They don’t know me. But when I query them via Twitter, both answer.
How amazing is that? You try a recipe you’ve clipped from the NYT, have a question, and simply post your puzzlement to the author via Twitter – and voila, you get an answer. Huge kudos to Melissa Clark and David Tanis for taking the time to respond to readers.
I’ve joked over time about grilling lettuce – I know people do it, but I have never tried it. Partly because I don’t know how. And partly because it just sounds odd.
But in my quest for all things kielbasa, I was reading the New York Times Dining section and came across a Melissa Clark recipe (and you know I love her recipes) for, of all things, Grilled Sausages and Radicchio.
Finally – here was someone I trust telling me how to grill lettuce…and adding sausage to it. What could be better?
Going Lo-Co Conundrum: controlling cholesterol via healthy eating and exercise while nursing an ankle injury and an unusual, prolonged aversion to meal planning and cooking.
The ankle is getting better, so exercising is on the upswing. But having a senior in high school applying to college (insert any other challenge here) has not been exactly conducive to my finding and preparing low cholesterol meals.
I was glad to find the Fresh 20 meal planning service, which at least got me cooking a bit again. And somehow I found the strength while planning Thanksgiving for 16 to actually try a few new low fat recipes.
