Category Archives: What’s Up With Cats

A Delayed Easter Recap

It’s been a long two weeks. It all started Thursday night (Maundy Thursday – who knew?!) with a work-related ladies poker party. Once we got someone from the Audit Department in there, the rules were official…and then I started to lose. But completely fun nonetheless.

cards

We moved immediately into Good Friday Pizza Night with a visit from Grandma and our Duxbury Guilfoiles.

dux Then onto, of course, The Block’s Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday.

egghuntsign Here they come.

egghunt1

And there they go.

egghunt2 Remember that scene in the movie Parenthood where Rick Moranis’ kid knows French and Steve Martin’s kid is all “he likes to hit things with his head” with a bucket on his head? Yeah, well, welcome to my world.

buckethead Easter was a lot of the same food as seen in past Easter posts.

sign

Hint: Pasta Blanco is just plain butter noodles but thanks to Uncle Tom I learned how to class the joint up a bit. But there was the addition of this Crunchy Spring Salad from The Kitchn.

salad

Super bright and springy. I added thinly sliced carrots too for color. Of course, we busted out some new desserts. Well, there were three planned, and two more showed up. As it shall be. I mean really, there are 30 people, you need at least 5 desserts right?

sign2

If you need something simple, this Chocolate Toffee Trifle from Or So She Says is super easy as you used boxed cake mix and Heath pieces.

dessert Bunny Garden Pudding (bottom right) is just bunny Peeps in Smitten Kitchen’s Best Chocolate Pudding Ever in graham cracker tart shells. Some of the bunnies fainted from the deliciousness.

And lest we forget a new cocktail! Grapefruit Daiquiris from How Sweet It Is are delicious, not too sweet and would be fantastic if the weather here ever warms up (to quote my friend Laura T. with respect to this weather – “Mother Nature, I think you are drunk”).

final1459975419941

Table favors were teeny, tiny succulents from Mountain Crest Gardens in bunnies.

succulent

And my new purple highball (yep, I said highball) glasses from Crate and Barrel.

table1 table3

And then, of course, our own McNamara/Guilfoile/Kuhn Easter Egg Hunt with these fabulous ladies.

mia

alfab

molly Egg won’t fit.

eggdontfit

But D don’t care.

And all the cousins in a selfie taking process (which makes for a better picture when they don’t know we’re watching).

selfie

I don’t mean to bring the post down, but we ended on a sad note Monday when my step-father Jim passed away. What can you say about a guy that has five daughters and marries my mom who has four more?

McGovern wed

Only that he was a strong, strong man who loved us all very much. We will miss you Jim.

And so we don’t end that way, and now this.

And this is picture of me trying to write this blog post tonight with “help”.

help

We’re going to a trivia contest fundraiser this weekend that involves TV related costumes (which was NOT disclosed to me in advance of me writing the check). So you have those pictures to look forward to.

Have a great rest of the week.

Thanksgiving to Christmas in 37 Hours

Well another Thanksgiving in the books. This one with the oven going berserk three (3) times while turkey was in. First, beeping uncontrollably until we had to throw the breaker. Second, decided to go into Sabbath mode (who knew?!) where it holds only the last temperature so that people don’t have to turn on the ovens during Sabbath. Except the last temperature was now about 40 degrees lower than it needed to be to finish the turkey. And finally, one more combo beeping/Sabbath mode until the breaker was thrown again.

Thankfully the turkey was at a safe temperature to remove to rest, so I shoved those stuffings in before my oven taught me any new religious holidays and told everyone NOT to open the oven doors until I was sure the stuffing was cooked. There is clearly a curse on me related to ovens as this is the 4th oven in 16 years in houses. Each one pulling antics like this until we gave up/it stopped working. Perhaps I should have heeded the warning from the gypsies after all.

Anyhoo.

Made a cheese turkey. Because we all need a cheese turkey in our lives.

Did the deconstructed turkey again but used the Martha Stewart Bacon Herb Roasted Turkey Breast recipe and just put the butter mixture under the skin of each piece. Did the Pumpkin Cornbread Sausage stuffing from last year and Pioneer Woman’s Thanksgiving Stuffing for the traditionalists. Made the cranberry sauce from my practice Thanksgiving post, Ina Garten’s Honey Orange Glazed Carrots and mashed and sweet potatoes. And buttered noodles, because my kids still eat no food.

Yep, that’s two can shaped cranberry lumps. That my kids will eat. And Bobby Flay’s Fall Sangria. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. It definitely has a lot of fall flavors and is very pretty.

Did the tables with this cute runner from Kitch Studios,

Lots of fall colors, cute teensy vases from POSH (that’s like Fishs Eddy to you New Yorkers), flowers buried in fresh cranberries, and of course, chocolate turkeys.

A good time was had by all.

Especially this dapper gentleman,

Who Skunk the Cat could not bring himself to acknowledge.

Someone just needs to be the cutest thing in the house all the time. #selfabsorbedcat

For dessert I wimped out (new job people! No time for baking). And besides, when I have the head baker from Pastries So Tasty living next door, I’m not going to do apple and blueberry pies any better. But I can pour cheese and caramel popcorn into a bowl like nobody’s business. Just like the Pilgrims did.

No one complained. Packed up leftovers in these containers I made with Avery labels at their design site.

Super easy to use, I highly recommend it. There’s lots of pre-made designs to choose from or you can design your own (FORESHADOWING!!!).

So that was Thursday. By Friday at 3:00, this was happening

Theme on this tree (family room) is red, gold and music.

Front room skinny tree is decked in green and silver,

And the basement tree is an homage to the upcoming Star Wars VII movie. I assume you all have your tickets already like we do. Right? *crickets* #Nerdfoiles

We made the garland using Avery labels and silver cord. I’m telling you, it is ridiculously easy. You’ll see this again in upcoming posts (MORE FORESHADOWING!!!!).

And finally, The Simp…..sons Christmas Village. “Um, Dasher, Dancer….Prancer, Nixon…Comet, Cupid…Donna Dixon?” “Sit down Simpson”

Jealous, much?

I hope everyone gets to enjoy the beginning of the holiday season. I’ll be back with some treat ideas in the near future. With labels!!

The I’ll Do it Someday Someday is Now!

Sure, some people might have days off between jobs and go away for a weekend. A spa day perhaps? Maybe just lounge about on the porch and read some of those eleven books stacked up on one’s nightstand? Sure, one COULD do that. Or, presented with 10 days of no kids at home and a husband who can reach things in high places, one COULD also embark on the biggest organizing and cleaning spree since one moved in here eight years ago. And it was done. So say we all. #Nerdfoiles.

First up, the most significant change was Drummer Boy’s room losing its nursery motif. Because he’s 9. Yep, 9. I never said I moved with lightning speed.

And changing colors

To a sports/Minecraft/Art theme more suited to a boy of his maturity.

Next up, our closet. Before:

After

Yes, I know the tag is still on it. I’m gonna wear it this fall, I swear.

But oh, it gets worse. Don’t worry, we’re getting there. Laundry room before:

After

Oh dear, now we go down to THE BASEMENT. Actually, it’s been more cluttered. We recently unloaded the baby toys (like play kitchens, small vehicles) so there are lot less large items. I remember buying this house thinking, “Now we have a finished basement, so all the toys will be down there and I won’t have to stare at a mess all day”. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, woo, woo, oh. Whew!

Anyway, the basement before:

And after

Behind the bar, before

Behind the bar, after. Why yes, we do need more can koozies. Thank you for asking.

And finally, the utility room. Now, by way of background for those that are new here, at the old house we had a scary, spider-filled, space between the stairs where someone could easily grab you type of basement. Thus, whenever I would accidentally go to Homegoods, I would purchase a festive red platter, enjoy it, and then send that festive red platter down to said basement. Then the next time I accidentally went to Homegoods, I’d think “Hey, I don’t have a red platter” because, you know, object permanence issues. And down to the scary Hell-mouth basement that one would go too. Tablecloths would suffer the same fate. Resulting, as some might say, in an excess of housewares. Now, however, there is no excuse as our basement is lovely. No excuse for THIS!

Or this tablecloth tower of doooooom:

But, finally all is in order. With napkins in drawers labeled by season, kitchen and hand towels bagged by holiday:

Tablecloths loaded into a dresser by size of the table:

Often used items put within handy reach:

And platters and assorted dishes organized by color. As any normal person does. Right? Normal people do that, right?!!

Note the number of red dishes. It was a real problem.

Along the way a number of drawers were organized (nightstand, desk), supplies were created for the holiday gift I’m going to give the neighbors (SUSPENSE – it’s only September!) and Halloween Block Party planning/organizing has begun.

But for those who only come here for the food and not the OCD ramblings of a hoarder, what were some of the food highlights I made after seven days of seven straight hours of straight up straightening up?

Made this Shrimp with Spicy Garlic Sauce from Can You Stay for Dinner. Didn’t have green beans so I used broccoli. Also, only used half the chili garlic sauce and it was plenty spicy for me. Did I take a picture – no, because I was too tired from all the before and aftering.

Also grilled up some very simple chicken legs. This is a very simple, fast way to grill chicken legs with lots of flavor.

And, the never fail Ina Garten’s Baked Potato Wedges

The leftovers of which became Two Peas and Their Pod’s Loaded Baked Potato Frittata (fri-ta-ta – that’s a fun word to say) for dinner the following night.

And for dessert during my unemployment period?

Kentucky Butter Cake cookies from Cookies and Cups.

Oh, I may have also watched two entire seasons of Orphan Black at City Cousin’s insistence. Which means I also didn’t sleep very much on certain evenings.

So, ultimately, over the last two weeks we donated/gave away/boxed up for Mom’s garage sale:

13 Hefty bags total of clothing and shoes
4 bags of toys
3 boxes of books
3 boxes of ancient financial records shredded
3 boxes of housewares

Buuuuuuut, nonetheless, I accidentally went to Homegoods because I had something to return (it happens!), and may have bought a new fall pillow and blanket.

Which Skunk the Cat is totally fine with.

Now go get your weekend on. I know I will as I have to go to the new job on Monday. There may be pumpkin bread involved. Just sayin’

Happy Fall y’all.

A Nod to Phineas and Ferb

In the last week before school started, the boys lamented that we hardly did anything this summer. I think all the blog posts that precede this one might disagree.

Nonetheless, for this last week, we jammed in some swimming, tennis, multiple birthday/pool parties, Pizza Night, trying out new instruments –

Visiting with cousins

And, on the very last day, when surely no more fun could be had in the last throes of summer – Wizard World Comic Con!!!!

Meet the Nerdfoiles:

Ok. Geekfest over. What did we make for this last hurrah?

Drizzled olive oil, salt and pepper over halved cherry and grape tomatoes (from Mbork garden) and sprinkled with rosemary (from yours truly’s garden) and slow roasted them in a 275 degree oven. Toasted slices of baguette, topped with provolone in a 350 oven and then topped with the tomatoes.

And this salad, THIS SALAD.

This salad could be anything it wants to be if it just puts its mind to it. Add Asian flank steak, chicken, shrimp or whatever protein you desire and it’s dinner. Otherwise it is quite a side to grilled chicken. It can be served room temp or cold so it would be good for a late summer block party.

Asian Noodle Salad
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman and Foodie with Family. Serves 6 with some leftovers for lunch.

WHAT YOU NEED
For the Dressing
1 whole Lime, Juiced
8 TBSP olive oil
8 TBSP low sodium soy sauce
3 TBSP toasted sesame oil
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 TBSP chopped or minced fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 Jalapeño pepper, chopped
1 large handful fresh parsley, chopped

For the Salad
1/2 package linguine, cooked al dente (seriously, don’t overcook) rinsed and cooled – -if doing ahead toss with a dash of sesame oil and refrigerate. Both PW and FwF called for a full pound of pasta, but I thought it was a bit much for our crew.
2/3 bag of coleslaw mix (or you can chop up 1/2 a head each of Napa and purple cabbage)
1 clamshell or 10 oz bag baby spinach
1 red bell pepper thinly sliced
1 yellow bell pepper thinly sliced
4 green onions, white and light green parts, sliced
1 hothouse cucumber, thinly sliced
1 bunch parsley, roughly chopped
6 TBSP toasted sesame seeds

WHAT YOU DO
Combine all dressing ingredients in a jar and shake, shake, shake until it’s all combined.

Toss all salad ingredients except sesame seeds in a bowl and toss with dressing until fully dressed (you may not need all the dressing). Top with sesame seeds. You could also add some peanuts or cashews if desired.

And for dessert:

Rainbow Krispie Treats

WHAT YOU NEED
6 cups Fruity Pebbles
6 cups Rice Krispies
1/2 cup butter, plus more for pan
20 oz. mini marshmallows

WHAT YOU DO
Butter a 9×13 pan and butter a piece of parchment paper cut so there is overhang on the sides of the pan. Melt butter over medium low heat in a large saucepan. Once butter is melted, add marshmallows and stir until fully melted. Add in cereal and stir until combined. Plop it all in dish and using a butter covered spatula or the the actual wrappers from the butter, press into the pan until all flat. Once cool, lift sides of parchment to remove and cut into uniform squares. Use a protractor if you have to, they’ll be ruined if not uniform. No, not really.

All in all, a really fun week to end the summer. In between all these activities, we MAY have watched some American Ninja Warrior and played a few video games. Someone was very tired out by all that.

Happy Back-to-School week everyone. See you on the playground.

Enjoy It While It Lasts

That time of summer break between sports ending and sports and school starting. Two weeks of nothing but easy day camps, shopping for school supplies and hanging out at the pool. Wish that it could never end.

Didn’t do much in the way of cooking. Made some Greek chicken kabobs with Tzatziki Sauce and saffron rice.

Chicken Kabobs with Tzatziki Sauce

WHAT YOU NEED
For Chicken
2 cups plain greek yogurt (not non-fat)
1 1/2 TBSP chopped garlic
Zest of 1 large lemon
Juice of said large lemon
2 tsp of chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
1 – 1 1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 1 inch pieces
1 red onion, cut into medium wedges
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

8 skewers

WHAT YOU DO
Place first 7 ingredients in a glass dish or bowl and whisk to combine. Add chicken and cover and refrigerate for 4 hours to overnight. If using wood skewers, soak the skewers in water for 30 minutes before you are ready to cook. To grill, heat grill to medium heat. Thread the chicken and red onion on skewers, alternating between chicken and onion. Grill until chicken is 165 degrees, taking care to move to lower heat if burning. About 15 minutes total.

For the Tzatziki Sauce
I basically used Ina Garten’s recipe for the Tzatziki Sauce. However, while Ina awaits Jeffery’s arrival from the city with a fresh bouquet of hydrangeas, she has time to drain her yogurt and shredded cucumbers for hours. She is not taking her children to the latest movie cast by her dear friend Barbara McCarthy. No, not The Stanford Prison Experiment!! But Pixels. And if we’re going to see a movie about deadly video games, we’re going to do it in style where we can recline and be served ice-cold Fanta.

Needless to say, this left me without the requisite amount of yogurt and cucumber draining time. We did not suffer.

Saffron Rice

WHAT YOU NEED
2 pinches of saffron, crumbled or crushed with back of spoon in small dish
1 cup basmati rice
1 TBSP dried minced onion
2 cups low or no-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp kosher salt

WHAT YOU DO
Bring all ingredients to boil in a pot. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is fluffy.

I also had leftover red wine from Friday’s pizza night. So I made sangria with this cute pitcher I got when we accidentally went to Ikea after the movie.

However, the photo shoot of said sangria did not go well as I had a lot of help by someone with a bad sense of white space balance and shadows.

So we’ll make it again another time and share. But suffice to say, there is nothing LaCroix Cran-Raspberry water cannot do!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Rainy Days on Sundays Always Get Me Down

The rain, the rain. All games washed out yesterday (and for the foreseeable future). Thus, plans were torn asunder and I ended up going to my sister’s to get my hair done before the conference in D.C. But food was already purchased and prepped for dinner here. No worries, a traveling feast it is.

I forget I have this market bag. It is awesome and can be wiped down in case that dressing in the corner spills a little. In case.

But nonetheless, to honor summer I made:

Salad with Stone Fruit and Burrata
Adapted from Stone Fruit and Burrata Salad by What’s Gaby Cooking. Feeds 8

WHAT YOU NEED
Salad
4 ripe plums
4 ripe peaches
4 ripe nectarines
2 heirloom tomatoes
1 cup orange and yellow cherry tomatoes
3 cups baby lettuce from your garden (ok, just showing off that I actually grew lettuce!). You can also use a bag of Spring mix or baby lettuce)
1 container of burrata cheese (2-3 balls)
fresh mint
1 cup pistachio meats

Dressing — I pretty much used Gaby’s recipe completely except did every measure as “heaping” and a less red pepper — and still got complaints of “mouth on fire” from the kids!

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard
1/4 cup champagne vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

WHAT YOU DO
Combine all dressing ingredients in jar and shake until emulsified. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking. I like this just a touch sweet.

Wash fruits and slice stone fruits into thin wedges. Slice large tomatoes and cut cherry tomatoes in half. Place lettuce in bowl and toss with a couple of tablespoons of the dressing. Arrange fruit and tomatoes (I KNOW, tomatoes are fruit, but sometimes that gets confusing) on top of lettuce. Tear burrata into pieces and scatter on salad. Drizzle with another tablespoon or two of dressing, depending on your tastes. Top with chopped mint and pistachios.

Served with steak topped with roasted garlic butter that I had in the freezer, corn on the cob, and roasted Trader Joe’s Teensy Tiny Potatoes.

Today was the first day of summer camp. And the crew lived large, because it was also someone’s golden birthday, so they were picked up from camp in style.

PARTY BUS!!!!!!!!!!

And on another front, certain members of the household were not in the party mood.

Let’s Go Hawks!

Change of Dinner Plans

People. It is May 30th. It is 45 degrees outside. I had to get some wooly socks on because my feet were cold. Wooly socks!

The La Grange Pet Parade (sans dog pets – boo to dog flu) went on in the rain, and the temperature wasn’t bad.

But it took a mean, mean turn a couple of hours later. So, food plans that I had will be for another day. Sorry summer stone fruit salad. Sorry grilled chicken pesto pizza. Corn on the cob, I hardly knew ye.

I had cooked chicken, so I made Pioneer Woman’s Chipotle Chicken Chili. I made a couple of changes however. I doubled the tomatoes and reduced the beans by one can (the husband is not a fan). I used 2 chipotle peppers and it was pretty spicy. Served it with corn bread from TJ’s boxed mix. And over pasta. Drummer boy was pleased.

Skunk, however, is not pleased with this window-shutting weather and has retreated to his Christmas pillow.

It’s too cool for cats (name that band!).

At least with the windows closed we won’t be annoying our neighbors with the 4 second delay between the Blackhawks game on here versus there, thus pre-screaming the goals before they happen. Go Hawks!

Long Weekend Lookback

So it went like this. Pizza Night, soccer game, soccer game, a Communion Party for the Second Set at our house, birthday party, epic clean of Guitar Boy’s room, BBQ, epic clean of Drummer Boy’s room and Birthday BBQ. Yes, that’s right, it was only a three day weekend, but we shoved five days of living into it.

Not much in the way of original cooking as the Communion party was an empanadas and make-your-own-nachos bar. But we did enjoy this new twist on sangria from Foodie With Family: Cider Sangria.

However, with over 50 people at the house, I couldn’t make individual drinks for everyone so I converted Foodie’s recipe into a punch-like drink. Just fished the popsicle sticks out of the punch bowl. I know, fancy indeed.

I also made my standard sangria recipe.

Basic Sangria

WHAT YOU NEED
One orange, sliced and cut into quarters
One lime, sliced and cut into quarters
10 green grapes, halved
One apple, cored and chopped
1/4 cup brandy (the mini airplane bottles are about 1/4 cup)
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup orange peach mango juice (or sub whatever fun juice you have)
1 TBSP sugar
1 bottle red wine
8 oz club soda or lemon-lime soda (depending on how sweet you like it – I used 3:1 club soda to Sprite)

WHAT YOU DO
Combine all the fruit, brandy, orange juice, sugar and wine in a pitcher and stir. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Just before serving, add the club soda or soda. Serve over ice.

Also made Two Peas and Their Pod’s Black Bean Quinoa Enchilada Bake for the gluten free in our lives, though a nacho bar is pretty gluten free.

New favorite thing. Honey on the cheese tray. Dip cheese (or bread with cheese, or grape with cheese) in raw honey. Urf, it is so good.

Some flowers:

The Communicants (not their band name):

A cookie cake (you stay classy San Diego):

Once Communion starts, Communion don’t stop for no volleyball game:

Epic cleaning of Drummer Boy’s room. Before:

During the closet phase #nothelpful

After (still needs to be painted and sports pictures hung, but a work in progress):

Made Blogging Over Thyme’s Everything Bagel Cheese Twists for the birthday barbecue:

Happy birthday Baker Boy. He makes the best desserts.

Hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend and thanks to all who have served.

Now, back to work everyone! But first, season premiere of American Ninja Warrior. Wooooooo!

Because Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String Only Get You So Far

Just a few of my favorite things this week:

Truth from a boy band.

Acca-76 Trombones? Trust me, stick with it until the end.

Three Cheese Pizza Bites – If it wasn’t already Pizza Night, I’d be making these.

Good save Khaleesi.

What if – a classic (p.s. it annoys Skunk when we do this to him)

Who knew a pastry was more litigious than Wall Street?

So here’s a drink for your “Southern state horse race” party.

Let your weekend begin.

A Time to Give Thanks

As far as my young children are concerned, Thanksgiving is just a small step between Halloween and Christmas. A step where people eat “gross” food (except for canned, jellied cranberry sauce – that apparently is acceptable). So we were trying to make it more meaningful last week and in talking about what we are thankful for, the main thing the boys agreed we are thankful for is:

Skunk, our cat. Sure, we love our family and friends. Happiness and health – good things as well, both boys agreed. But survey says what we are most grateful for is our cat. That, and Xbox.

Since we cannot show our appreciation and thanks to the folks at the Microsoft corporation, we instead agreed with the boys that if we are thankful for Skunk, we should show our thanks during this season by donating to the shelter that saved him. So the boys gathered up their tooth fairy and the occasional chore money and we took it over to the shelter (Mom and Dad augmented the donation).

The shelter couldn’t have been more gracious. Getting out of there without another kitten may qualify as a Thanksgiving miracle.

But enough about giving thanks for the things we should, let’s talk about giving thanks for the little things that make Thanksgiving easier or more fun. After all, this blog is about tabletops and recipes, written at night by someone who works 12 hour days sitting behind a desk and really isn’t physically fit or mentally competent to be offering any kind of life advice. If you want to read some truly uplifting and spiritual discussions about how to live your life, I suggest you try my sister-in-law’s blog at Everyday Faith.

But as for me, on with the material possessions!

Serving Platter/Carving Board

This carving board from Cost Plus World Market:

Isn’t it pretty? I most often use it as a cheese board but this year will use it for the turkey. And right now it’s $29.99 and, if you still have the Sunday Chicago Tribune around from 2 weeks ago, there’s a coupon in there for 10% off. THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE. It’s a newspaper. Yes, on paper. Yes, we still get one.

Wishbones

Given that I have two boys who feel bad about eating animals (but won’t eat beans, kale, spinach, cheese or any other protein or iron based food – so chicken nuggets it is!), I’m not sure how they’d feel about breaking a turkey’s furcula (look it up!). But hey, tradition, so I had them make a bunch of these fun clay wishbones from Oh Happy Day. Added bonus, everyone who comes for Thanksgiving can make a wish.

By the way, I told Guitar Boy and Drummer Boy that I think Turkey’s Furcula should be the name of their band someday “THANK YOU CHICAGO – WE ARE TURKEY’S FURCULA – GOODNIGHT!!!” They did not agree.

Salted Butter on Little Plates

I read this story at TheKitchn about salting butter. Now I don’t usually use butter on bread, but Faith Durand’s story about how this simple act – slicing butter and sprinkling smoked salt on it – would transform people’s opinion on bread and butter moved me to action. And I can tell you, it totally works, everyone comments on it. You know, because we need to find a way for Americans to eat more bread and butter. I’m a patriot really.

I use this smoked salt from Williams and Sonoma.

And I serve on little plates. Such as these. From TJ Maxx/HomeGoods. I know.

Chocolate turkeys:

Because I can. WorldMarket, Dylan’s Candy Bar and Godiva all have some.

Turkey – to heck with tradition

After seeing 3 or so articles from chefs about how we are all suckers for cooking a turkey whole, where the breast is done and dry way before the dark meat was fully cooked, I decided to try the turkey in parts. You show everyone the turkey for like 1 minute and then take it back to the kitchen for slicing, so why all the hype about a whole turkey? *shaking fist at Norman Rockwell in heaven*

The practice turkey from House Beautiful turned out well. The whole turkey, white and dark done to perfection, in 1 ½ hours.

However, we thought it needed a little something-something. So Thanksgiving turkey will be some combination of these two recipes from Epicurious: Deconstructed Holiday Turkey with Sage Gravy or Citrus Sage Roast Turkey Breast.

I’ve made the latter turkey breast before in testing out the stuffing recipe (see below), but kind of think brining could help. I’ve also pre-made the gravy (wha?!) because TheKitchn told me I could. We’ll do a gravy taste-test on Thanksgiving to see if TheKItchn was right. Mmmmmmh, gravy taste-test.

I’ll let you know how everything turns out afterwards – in between cleaning up Thanksgiving and putting up Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Lucky Rhino

For the recipes and pictures I promised to send, but never do.