Giving Thanks For 2009

Deep Frying a Turkey - Alton Brown Q&A

So much of Thanksgiving these days is associated with eating, but the most important part of Thanksgiving is taking a moment to simply say thanks.  2008 was definitely my hardest year and lots of people helped me get through it which was amazing.  Like every year I’ll do a blog post to recap the year so I won’t say too much but 2009 has been fantastic.  It has had some stressful times like any but it has to be one of my favorite years so far.

In 2009 I’m thankful for my fantastic little man.  I’m thankful for the patience he has taught me and is still teaching me.  I’m thankful for my parents who I’ll be seeing again in less than a month.  I’m thankful for my sister, my brother in law, and my awesome nephew.  I’m thankful for my girlfriend of almost a year who is crazy enough to love a single dad and all of the difficulties that comes along with it.  I’m thankful for my friends, my co-workers, family, extended family, and my reading audience!  I was going to send an email to everyone but figured anyone who really knows me knows to check my blog so happy Thanksgiving to all and thanks!

OK so now that we have that “lovey dovey” stuff out of the way lets talk turkey!  My man Alton Brown was at Google this week to answer some Thanksgiving questions.  If you want to watch the full hour long video you can do so here in HD.  I liked the turkey frying section of the video (embedded above) because I’ve always wanted to try a fried turkey.  Maybe in a year or two I’ll try it and you know I’ll blog about it.  I went to my local Safeway and bought a frozen turkey and I have no idea why.  I’m a holiday guy and even though I may have that turkey in my freezer for two more years I’ll be ready and it was only 80 cents a pound!  Any way, here are my notes from Alton Brown’s Thanksgiving talk in case you don’t have time to watch the full video:

  • Don’t baste the turkey!  People think it makes the skin crispy but if you put milk on your corn flakes does it make your cereal crispy?  Of course not and neither does basting your turkey.
  • If you brine your turkey it will help keep the moisture in (no basting needed) and gives the turkey extra flavor.
  • Frozen are generally better unless the turkey is really fresh meaning you didn’t buy it from a grocery store which is rare.  Here in California I think my Safeway frozen turkey will work just fine.
  • White meat is from the fast twitch muscles and the dark meat is from slow twitch muscles.  I’m a white meat kind a guy myself.

How to Bake Pumpkin Seeds

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Mmm I love pumpkin seeds! They look good right?
  1. Pre-heat your oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Toss seeds in a bowl with one to two tablespoons of melted butter or olive oil.
    • You can use margarine instead of butter, or substitute another type of oil for the olive oil.
    • For a lower-fat version, skip the oil and butter and use cooking spray on your baking pan (I didn’t).
  3. Place in a single layer in an oven-safe dish or on a baking sheet.
  4. Sprinkle with salt.
  5. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes, or until they start to brown, stirring every 10 minutes.
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Marble Soda

chineseSoda

I had marble soda for the first time last night and I loved it.  So the gimmick is there is a marble inside the soda…get it…marble soda?  The marble doesn’t actually come out of the bottle but as your drinking it you think you’ll swallow it.  You can see the blue marble about 3/4 of the way up the bottle in the photo above.  I have no idea what the bottle actually says (probably “Pepsi”) but if you know please leave a comment.  I give marble soda a thumbs up.  I got my new camera delivered today and I’m really happy with it so far.  I’ll blog more on that later but this picture was taken with it and as you can see it is going to do a great job for me.

Organic Pop Tarts Recipe

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Gary sent me this recipe because he knows I love my breakfast of champions food…Pop-Tarts!  OK I’ve been given a hard time for eating them so I have cut way back but man they are tasty.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
  • 2 tablespoons cold water for mixing
  • 1 cup homemade preserves/jam from organic fruit such as apple, apricot, cherry, wild blueberry, cherry, mango or your favorite fruit flavor
  • Powdered sugar
  • Note: Choose an organic store bought jam if you don’t have time to make your own.
  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the flour in a bowl with the salt, sugar, and cut the butter into small pieces. Work the flour and butter together with your hands, until the mixture is well blended. Sprinkle the water over the mixture to smooth out the any small irregular clumps. Work the dough vigorously until it is relatively smooth. You may also use a food processor, if desired. Wrap in plastic and let the dough rest 30 minutes.
  2. Roll out the tart dough on a cold lightly floured surface. The dough should be about 1/8″ inch thick. Cut rolled out dough into 3″ by 5″ shapes, using a postcard as a visual gauge. (For smaller tarts, simply use a smaller measurement.) Cut 8 rectangles, and use a pastry scraper to place 4 bottoms onto cookie sheet lined with parchment. Place 2 to 3 tablespoons of jam onto the center of each pastry of the 4 bottoms. Place the 4 pastry tops onto the jam centers, aligning the corners. Press the edges with a fork, until each tart is closed, working around the entire rectangle. (These may be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen.)
  3. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tarts are golden brown. Serve immediately with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

Why You Are Happy After Drinking A Soda

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  • In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.
  • 20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)
  • 40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.
  • 45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
  • >60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
  • >60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.
  • >60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.

New Coke Dispensers

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“Coca-Cola is debuting a new soda fountain that can hold more than 100 sodas. That’s ten times more than current soda fountains.  Currently, fountains work through syrup bags. The restaurant buys a bag (actually, a bag in a rectangular box) from Coke or Pepsi, hooks it up to a soda line and then the fountain combines the carbonated water with the syrup to create your soda. The machines are limited by soda lines, which tend to gunk up with sugar mold, and by bulky soda bags that weigh 30 pounds or more.  The new Coke machine is completely different. The new fountain is like an ink printer with space for hundreds of cartridges. Each cartridge contains a concentrated formula of ingredients. When you press your choice, say Diet Coke, the machine will tell cartridge 12 to release three squirts, cartridge 81 two squirts and so on, then it combines it with carbonated water and viola! The same drink as old machines.

The new fountains can hold a lot more of these little cartridges, so they can handle a lot more flavors. Coca-Cola promises 120 different drinks, but there could be even more as the technology gets better and the company gets more confident. Hypothetically, the machine should be able to act as a bartender too, allowing customers to get a Shirley Temple or Roy Rogers in addition to regular drinks. All it would take is a cherry syrup cartridge.

The first new fountains are rolling out in Atlanta and California in a month. Assuming tests there go well and the public loves its overwhelming choices, the new fountains would come to Kansas City next year.  Coca-Cola’s product list is more than 2,800 beverages long so the company will have no shortage of drinks to pick for the new machine. The main problem is how Coke protects its customers from the paradox of choice, when too many options overwhelm our brains and shuts them down from making a decision.”

Jeremy’s Chocolate Chip Cookies (Kinda)

At Teah’s Christmas party last night she had all kinds of fancy foods and well I just ate the cookies so after being inspired I decided to bake cookies with Tyler today.  I know I haven’t had a chance to test my cooking skills much so I figured I might as well learn now without someone seeing my blunders while it is just me and Tyler in the kitchen.  I’ll try and remember to bring some into work tomorrow if anyone wants to risk trying my baking.  I think they turned out pretty well and let me tell you Tyler definitely approved.  The recipe below is from the back of Safeway’s chocolate chips.

Bake these luscious cookies just the way you like them – a few minutes less for soft, chewy centers, a few minutes longer for crisper cookies.

1/2 lb. (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed golden brown sugar 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs 3/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons milk or water 1 11.5 oz. package Safeway Milk Chocolate Chips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.  Mix in eggs, milk or water, and vanilla.  Mix in flour, soda and salt until incorporated.  Mix in milk chocolate chips and nuts.  Drop by rounded teaspoons 1 1/2 inches apart on greased baking sheets.  Bake for 11 to 12 minutes.  Cool 2 minutes and remove to racks.  Makes about 60 cookies.  Recipies developed by cookbook author Mariene Sorosky Gray.