Callister vs. De Laurentiis

The first turkey I cooked was a combination of a couple recipes
I thought sounded delicious, but simple. The turkey turned out well.
Maybe a touch on the dry side as it was my first and I didn't want to make 26 dinner guests sick the next day. After frying last year produced a dry, uninteresting bird without pan dripping gravy, I went back to my old recipe. Well, interestingly enough as I was scanning the food network about a turkey question, I found MY EXACT RECIPE except Giada claimed it as hers! The nerve.

Ha ha. I'm sure she thought of it too(it's really simple), but it's nice to know I can come up with my own recipe to rival the pros! Plus, my turkey looked better than hers. Just a little food network rivalry, that's all :)

In fact, I'm going to go have some leftovers!


p.s Fried turkey is absolutely delicious when using a smaller bird. I don't recommend frying a 26 pounder.

p.s.s. I cook my bird breast down and turn it breast side up 40 minutes before the cooking is done. It does make the breast look less full and has indents where it has been sitting on the rack, however, it makes for a much more flavorful and juicy meat.

I highly recommend this method.

Cute Baby Shower Card

There is something so invigorating about adhering the last stamp on the last addressed envelope when sending out stacks of cards. I love the whole process: design, printing, cutting, fussing, stuffing, stamping, addressing and finally dumping those sweethearts in the blue mail box. This is my favorite part of designing invitations. I love to hold, touch and stare at the little package of fun :)

Daring Bakers :: Bake Pizzas Like A Real Pizzaiolo

While I am not even a little close to mastering the art of pizza, I like pizza, I bake pizza, I eat pizza. Its good to me, and I return the favor by baking it :) Seriously though, homeade pizza is definately on my top 10 list of comfort foods. This Daring Baker recipe was a little more complex than most of the pizza dough recipes I use. However, I liked working with the dough. It was springy, elastic, and sticky just like it should be. It was a little soft when it came time to toss it around, but all in all I realy liked it. Jake and I made this last minute before visiting some friends so I didn't have alot of the ingredients that I normally use, but hey, who doesn't love a plain margherita? Plus, I par-baked the rest of the crusts and froze them for later :) Yummy. Thanks DB!

Seen here:
Margherita
Veggie
Thai

Blueberry Muffins Are Just Really Good

My girlfriends and I have thouroughly taken advantage of the amazing farms and orchards this summer and fall. My favorite fruit this summer was definately blueberries. A good friend Marcel showed me her fav blueberry spot. Eight varieties to choose from for $1/lb. That's right. I filled the bucket to the brim and paid $6. I have a ton of frozen blueberries. They taste fresh from the bush!

Its nice to know I can make these delicious blueberry muffins year round. This recipe is from The Gourmet cookbook (A must have!)

Tomatoes :: You win some; You lose some.

This summer we planted our first garden (well, we'll just forget about the window sill attempts) and we had a blast. It's fun to say we had a decent "harvest" this year.

Our cherry tomatoes were sweet, juicy and never ending. We are sad to see them go. The beefsteaks on the other hand, we sent them packing. They were infected with blight. It starts from the bottom up and is scary scary. See for yourself

Does anyone in Oregon have any idea what to do for this?

Eclairs Round Two

This time around worked much better. They puffed! It took a much longer cooking time than the recipe called for. I have an oven thermometer so I'm sure the oven temperature was not off. If I do these again, I will definately search for a better filling recipe. All in all, it was a lot of fun... when they worked :)

I Dare You To Bake Eclairs as Bad As Mine

I have to make this Daring Baker post tonight to be in keeping with the rules, however I am currently on round two because my first batch did not puff :(