I am loving this snow. It is pretty.

I will be hating it tomorrow, though, if it means I can't make it to Whole Foods to pick up the 24-26lb turkey I ordered for Thanksgiving.

Just in case, I stopped off at Safeway on my walk home (the buses couldn't get through, the roads over the hills are too icy) and picked up an emergency turkey. It's only 14.8 lbs, though.

Yesterday's feast went off with a lot of hitches but it still went off well. The 22 guests (plus me) all seemed to have enough to eat despite my worrying, The pork roast didn't happen (a recipe I'm developing, I didn't give enough time in my estimate from scaling up from 1.5lbs of roast to 5lbs of roast) so will be served at tonight's leftovers potluck.

Just about everyone who came decided to bring a dish. This lead to the largest spread (not surprising, since 23 people is also the largest group) I've ever done. I had to press more folding tables into service just to put all the food out - and we still forgot one cranberry relish (sorry). We had tradition (turkey, stuffing, etc) and more "radical" dishes like a pork-sausage-in-red-sauce. Among other fantastic dishes we had 2 soups, an "accidentally vegan" squash soup and a wild chantrel soup with a hint (hit?) of red pepper. The dessert table was equally well provisioned. We had crepes, pumpkin custard (served out of pumpkins) tiermesu, an espresso chocolate cheesecake, and a pumpkin cheesecake with bourbon.

The biggest problem, IMHO, was the temperature probe I used in the turkey. I'll be replacing it at first opportunity. It read 154 in the breast (the temperature I wanted to pull the bird so carryover cooking would have time to do its magic without ruining the bird) but when I did spot checks with my insta-read the breast was reading closer to 170 and the thigh a terrifying 191. No amount of brining is going to protect from that kind of overcooking. The bird was tasty but distressingly (to me, anyway) dry. I would throw myself on my chef's knife but then who'd clean up the kitchen? The other note I need to make for myself is not to push to make so many dishes, no matter how many people are coming. I just couldn't stay organized enough to get it all done right.

I have wonderful friends and the party was a huge success because so many of them came! Lets do it again next year, same time!

Today I went to the farmer's market in the U-district and picked up the makings for quiche along with some ripe tomatoes, basil, etc etc etc.

While I waited for my guests to come I made a very nice tomato/mozzarella/basil salad, sauteed the leek, chantrel mushrooms, and broccoli, and thought about what else I needed to do. When they got here she started in on the crust while he brushed off his Excite Truck game :).

We started the crusts around 14:00 and dined around 17:00. Not only did 2 quiches get made (both had all the veggies along with a farmer's cheese with chives. One also had bacon) but she also made an apple pie.

The quiche came out quite nice though as expected the farmer's cheese was a bit moist so the custard was challenged. It mostly set though so that was a win. It was even more a win when you consider the last time I made quiche was 1997 or 1998.

It was all delicious. Don't you wish you could have been here?

ljtourist came over for dinner tonight. It was my inaugural firing of the outdoor gas grill for the year (actually, the first time in a year - I ran out of propane at last year's Memday grilling party and didn't get around to getting a refill until this morning.) I made a t-bone I'd bought at the Farmer's Market (yay, grass-fed beef!), grilled asparagus, and some baked potatoes and he made a salad.

As we were finishing up dinner were talking about dessert and he mentioned he'd meant to stop at Peaks Frozen Custard (caution, flash) to pick up some for us to try. After a few minutes of discussion he ran over there while I cleaned up the kitchen a bit.

Oh. Dear. I am in so much trouble. They're much too close to where I live for as good as their frozen custard is. Thankfully it isn't walking or biking distance or I'd be dooooomed.

Yesterday was Robert Burns's 250th Birthday, cause for much celebration.

Schultzy's, my favorite "Ave restaurant" did a Burns's Night party but I couldn't go because I was in Canada. They served Scotch Eggs (hard boiled eggs, shelled, coated in sausage & deep fried. MMMMMMmmmm). The owner had told me about the party and I told him I wasn't going to be able to make it.

He saved me two eggs. Isn't he nice?

I'm now on the outside of one of them. The other is sitting in a to-go box, calling my name.

I wonder if the statins are up to this challenge? Maybe I should whip up some mayo to go on it?

My boss was very, very generous with her gift.

I don't think I can possibly use 19 (maybe more, I think I lost count) wild white Oregon truffles before they go bad. I figure I've got a week at most and I'll be out of town for 3 days in that week. (I wonder if I can legally take them across the border into Canada? Probably not. :( ).

Anyway, if anyone in Seattle has an immediate use for truffles of the fungal variety please let me know. I might be convinced to part with some of them.

I'm pretty sure I'll be making a truffle risotto sometime this week.

On Thanksgiving day I had 16 guests but some of the people I invited said they couldn't make it and suggested doing a leftovers dinner the next night. I thought about it and decided to do just that.

I originally expected a small gathering. I had 12. Oddly enough, none of the 3 people who'd originally suggested it made it over. However, by the time I'd counted all the people who said they would come I counted 18 heads so I got a bit nervous. I only had about 1/3rd the bird, stuffing, and mashed potatoes I'd had for the dinner with 16 people the night before. Connie nicely bought some pork and brisket and Misha & Dennis brought a huge green salad so ... you guessed it ... I have some serious leftovers.

It was a blast but I don't think I'm going to make this a tradition. Two nights of 12-16 people in the house plus the cooking day before has left me quite wiped out.

So, of course, I have all kinds of cream left over (I made two batches of cream biscuits yesterday since we'd finished off both loaves of bread on Thursday). I made a batch of cream biscuits this morning and I have enough cream to make 2 more batches. oops.

Oh ya, and since I had the oven on this morning I also made a loaf of banana bread. It just went on the cooling rack.

I'm not crazy, really I'm not.

Done: 2 loaves of Almost No-Knead Bread

Prepped:
Turkey is briend and air-drying in the fridge
Dressing (can't call it stuffing, there's no cavity to stuff) chillin' in the fridge
Stock made from turkey neck/backbone/giblets & aromatics, ready to become gravy


still to do:
roast turkey & dressing
make & mash 10 lbs of potatoes
make gravy from turkey stock
make "vegan" gravy from other aromatics & mushroom & veg stocks
make cream biscuits (optional)

Oh, and clean the living & dining rooms. None of the cleaning got done today, darn it.

Looking at this list leaves me a bit sad. I thought I'd gotten more done than that. Well, maybe after a bit of a soak in the hot tub I'll be up to doing some more tonight.. or maybe not.

It came out of the oven beautifully. This is the first recipe I've tried from Cook's Country, the "more rustic" sister publication of Cook's Illustrated (aka America's Test Kitchen). I don't subscribe to the websites, just the magazine. I let my Country subscription lapse without any renewals because the magazine was less interesting to me than their main one.

I'm fairly happy with the cobbler though I think I should have left it in the oven another 2-3 minutes to cook the topping just a bit more. Too bad no one came over to help me eat it. I have a lot left. The recipe says it only holds for one day so I'll probably bring it to the theatre work tomorrow.

I'm in Boston for the Usenix Annual Technical Conference. This evening I joined Ted T'so and a few others for dinner at an amazing place called clio.

It weren't cheap, $120, but it were worth every dime, nickel, and penny. Oh wow.

I started with the Stinging Nettle Soup with surf clams, chive flowers, and crispy potato. I also sampled someone's "LN2" Gazpacho with avocado, strawberry, ventresca and sicilian pistachio (yes, the "soup" was in fact frozen at the table using liquid nitrogen). Both were amazing but the nettle soup was amazing++.

My main course was the lamb special. It was a tenderloin done to perfection served with a pistachio purée, chamomile flowers and several other things. This was quite possibly the best lamb preparation I've ever had (and I've had some amazing lamb dishes). I tried Dan Klein's Black Licorice Roasted Muscovy Duck with fennel bulb, rutabaga and candied pomelo and it was transcendental. I had a taste of Ted's Braised Kobe Beef Brisket and Glazed Unagi with fiddlehead ferns, coffee and aromatic shiso and his lady's Sweet Butter Basted Maine Lobster with mousserons mushrooms, fava beans and "vin jaune d'Arbois". They all delighted the senses and danced on the tongue.

I don't have a copy of the desert menu so I can't tell you the name of the dish I had. It was a bread-puddling like thing with a simple ice cream and again, it was fantastic. None of the things I sampled was less than sublime.

The servings appeared small, the plates had a lot of visible blank space, but the portion sizes were spot on. I could have eaten a lot more lamb but I didn't need to. I definitely got my money's worth.

They do a tasting menu. Chef's choice. 9 courses is $115, 14 courses is $135. I'm seriously considering going back tomorrow night to try the 9 course menu. I'll be done teaching then and might just want to reward myself.

That's how good this was.