We had a killer meal. Dad made a kosher turkey for the first time. We’ve brined birds before, but my folks aren’t keen on the texture (I think they’re nuts, but whatever). My dad was annoyed at the amount of feathers he had to pull out, but after butterflying it and stuffing a bunch of heavily herbed butter under the skin, we all agreed that it was the most delicious turkey we had eaten. I think we may continue with kosher birds in the future.

I made the chipotle-maple sweet potatoes. I need to revise this recipe. I made it with less cream this time, and I think it turned out for the better. Mom made Death By Broccoli; she cubed the cheese instead of shredding it-easier! She also made crazy delicious creamed onions, mashed potatoes, and Brussels sprouts. I should post the recipe for those onions. They’re from Julia and Jacques: Cooking at Home, except Mom roasted the onions first, instead of parboiling them. The roasting added a incredible layer of flavor. Delicious Maillard reaction!

J brought green bean casserole (using a Cook’s Illustrated recipe), and Barbara May brought cranberry sauce and both pumpkin and apple-cranberry pies. I had half a slice of the apple-cranberry. I wanted to eat more but I was too stuffed!

Mom also made rutabagas and butternut squash, but I didn’t partake. Same goes for Dad’s gravy. I’m just not super-big on gravy; the turkey was juicy enough without it (plus I was using the cream from the onions on everything, it was so good).

How was your Turkey Day?

I made these for Lydia’s birthday, because girl loves cardamom. Unfortunately, they’re not super-cardamom-y. The orange flavor kind of overwhelms them.

Zed was making chili for a potluck, and bought masses of blue cheese. He only ended up using half of what he bought, so I was trying to find ways to use the rest of it. (There are still three 8-ounce containers in our fridge.) I sort of made this up on the fly, I guess? It’s pretty tasty, but SUPER-RICH.

Any ideas on what I can do with the rest?

Last month, I went to my friend Umi’s birthday party at the Crown & Crumpet tea room in San Francisco. Had a great time, even if I misread the invitation, arrived two hours early, and was subsequently killed by the cost of parking. It’s a really cute establishment, and the tea service was lovely.

A few weeks ago, I gave this cookie recipe a shot. It did not work. At all.

I threw a handful of baby spinach into my Rather Boring Pantry Pasta at the very end and wilted it. It was highly tasty. I have added it to the recipe variations.

There is a very good, very easy recipe in this blog post, if you are as fond of garbanzo beans as I am.

I had an interview in Menlo Park this morning (it went okay), and afterward I took the opportunity (since I’m not often in Menlo these days) to check out the new Penzey’s Spices store that opened last year. It was pretty sweet! I had a coupon for a free jar of ground black pepper, which I used mostly to get a free spice jar. I figure I’ll use what I can over the next month or two, pitch the rest, and then fill it up with something else. I have many spices sitting in plastic bags.

Barbara May and J bought me a jar of Mexican vanilla extract from Penzey’s a few years ago. It was, bar none, the best vanilla I’ve ever tasted/smelled/used. They stopped carrying it a while back, I guess because the crop had shrunk or something. So I was all a-woe and went back to Madagascar/Tahitian vanilla. BUT! Apparently, although they don’t say they carry it in their catalogs or on their website, they DO have it in their physical stores! I was so incredibly excited to see it (almost as much as that time I was at Baja Fresh and they had switched from Pepsi to Coke products). So I ended up buying the Mexican vanilla, some chili powder, the Pasta Sprinkle I like, and the free pepper.

The store’s really cute, too. Go visit!

I was making some tomato sauce a few weeks ago, and I needed some red wine. Looking through our wine… document box, I discovered that ALL our wine is incredibly old (for a household of people who don’t really care about that sort of thing). I used the newest bottle, which was a 2003 Ridge California Zinfandel York Creek. I only needed about a half cup for the sauce. The rest of the bottle was quite delicious.

My folks were over on Tuesday, and I told them about our old wines. I pulled out the oldest one, which was a 1997 Robert Mondavi Chardonnay. My mom boggled and told me I shouldn’t keep white wines that long, and that it’d be a miracle if it hadn’t turned to vinegar by this point. (A miracle it would be indeed, because we have never kept our wines properly [as evidenced by the document box storage]. Hell, we kept them out in the garage back in the old house, where they were subjected to a rather large swing of temperature.) But it wasn’t vinegar! It was still pretty tasty! And I’m not really a fan of white wines.

So I thought I’d make a list of the wines we have. I don’t know if any of these are good- I’m pretty sure most of them are gifts that we just never opened. A rather surprising amount of dessert wines.

1997 Monastero di Coriano Vin Santo – this was a gift from my parents
1999 Benziger McNab Ranch Merlot – this was probably a gift from my parents, since they know I like merlot
2000 Robert Mondavi Moscato d’Oro – pretty sure both the Mondavi bottles we had were inherited from Jeremy, who gave us all his wine&booze once he was tired of moving all the bottles around
2000 Beringer Gamay Beaujolais
2001 Beaulieu Vineyard BV Coastal Signature Series Merlot – once again, pretty sure this was a gift to me
2001 Victor Hugo Petite Sirah
2001 Byington Alliage Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon
2003 Schmitt Sohne Riesling
2005 Bonny Doon Moscato d’Asti
2006 Imagery Petite Syrah Port – birthday present this year from my parents, it’s delicious with really dark chocolate