Ho Ho Ho..time machine

Marching backward in time, let’s take a quick look at this year’s Christmas dinner.   Like this year’s Thanksgiving, we tried something “completely different”.  I think I mentioned we had a smallish chicken

from the “chicken lady” from the Farm at Glen Mary in nearby Park Hall, just down the road from us. They specialize in grass fed cattle, pastured pigs and poultry, with no antibiotics, all that stuff.  I decided to brine it in the stuff I showed you before

And a couple of days before Christmas into the pot it all went

So on Christmas morning, we began the day with a Feeder Frittata

Some Royal Rivera Pears and Earl Gray tea.

Along about two in the pm we decided to begin the process of preparing the chicken for dinner.

Out of its bath

Mise en Place ready

A light treatment of lemon juice

Some house grown fresh herbs applied

And popped into a 450° oven for ten minutes, then reducing it to 350

Until “an instant read thermometer placed in the thickest part of the thigh reads 160” to which we cheated a bit, figuring residual cooking would take it over the top.

Nice looking bird!

It did leave kind of a mess in the kitchen (for the cleaning crew, i.e., us).

So how did the bird taste?  To be honest, I expected better results.  It was good, but not extraordinary.  The brining didn't seem to have much effect, it could have been that it cooked too long (although the thermapen belied that) I don’t know.  Flavor was good, but a bit chewy.  I will try again and pull it earlier.  It was my first experience with a pastured bird.  So nice to have a local option available.  Hope you get a chance to try their stuff.

Comings and goings

Actually, comings and comings.   Sources tell me that:

The venerable Doo Dah Deli will return to Leonardtown in the little complex (is that an oxymoron?) as Jessie’s and Smokey Joe’s on the Town.  They will look for a luncheon business only (Dunkin’ gets put in the lease that they can’t do breakfast)

The now shuttered old Kevin’s Café (migrated to the Willows) will become the Slice House, allegedly serving “authentic New York” … guess what?   Have you ever heard somebody advertising “serving unreliable imitation Chicago….”

There’s also a couple of new Asian places nearby, one in San Souci (think Bay Dawgz) and across the road next to Jerry’s and Little (pizza pizza) Caesars.  Have to go look a bit more closely but think like Mongolian BBQ.  Revolving doors for those places.

The Shopper’s Food Warehouse currently located in San Souci plaza will move out by the end of January to be replaced by a Weiss (presumably the one in the Hobby Lobby group).

Stay tuned and forever

DFD and NMMJ!

A New One

Well, I can’t let today go by without wishing the reader kingdom a happy ushering in of the new year..

The Flutters had a nice holiday period, with visits from both MFO’s Sister from Wisconsin; and then FOJTE and wife, and they’ve just left today, leaving a warm feeling in our hearts, but also a heaviness.  So be it with remote families.  Everybody’s presence will keep us warm for a while.  The FOJTY had to work in KC, so they’ll journey out later in the year.

But we had a great New Year’s.  I owe you an accounting of the “Chicken Lady” fowl which formed our Christmas Dinner, so will submit a quick food report for New Years.. FOJTE is an accomplished cook, so we had a pretty aggressive dinner.  Began with appetizers from a couple of Mumm’s Napa recipes they received through their club membership

Plus shrimp in Tobacco Barn Remoulade, which resulted in a very nice selection

and produced a lovely starter plate

For Entrée, we had Rockfish en Papillote following a recipe from Stone Soup Cottage in STL.   A quick aside on Stone Soup, they were named restaurant of the year in St. Louis.  One of our gifts to the FOJ’s was a gift card for a dinner there.  TE called and sure enough they could get a reservation…. In February…

Anyway the Rockfish (from Kellams) turned out lovely

For wines we had a NV Pierre Peters Cuvée de Réserve Blanc de Blancs Champagne, and a 2011 Rudd Oakville Samantha’s Cabernet Sauvignon.   Which may not be the best classical pairing (fish with cab) but I still subscribe to the DWTHYL theory.  An MFO pumpkin pie finished the meal.

The “kids” stayed up to bring in the new year, but the parental units fell short. Before departing, FOJTE prepared a nice brunch of quiche, sliced pork tenderloin with Demi Glace, a nice green salad, a quick MFO pastry, and of course more Champagne.

But as with all good things, time, life, and airlines called, and the time came for them to depart.

So our last look at FOJTE was his always friendly wave and engaging smile. 

And so dear friends, we charge into 2019 and we’ll see what awaits and hope we will all celebrate another

But a new year does not relieve you of the obligation to

DFD

And don’t forget NMMJ in ‘19

Up on the Rooftop

Not....

Well, here it is Christmas eve.  I suppose I should wax eloquent on “’tis the season”, the meaning of the time of year, etc.  But, I’m going to postpone that kind of stuff till tomorrow.   MFO and I are joined this year by her sister, I suppose MFOS, and it will be a low key event.  FOJTE will be visiting over new year’s, so will be nice to see them.  FOJTY will be working his law enforcement duty, so they won’t be coming until later in the spring. 

Accordingly, we’re kind of scaling back.  People might remember in years past we have had our lovely large

tree

with many presents.  This year we have “tree Junior” which kind of has a charm of its own

And, we’ll be missing FOJTE’s famous Lasagna Christmas Eve dinner in his lovely historic home in St. Charles, MO

But, he said, we won’t be bereft of food, not eating dried beans and tuna from a can (as a good friend says).

You might remember we tried a smoked turkey for Thanksgiving from Braunfel’s Smoke house in Texas (mixed reviews).   This year, keeping with a low work load plan for MFO, we’re doing a Chicken.  Not just any chicken mind you, this one is locally sourced from “The Chicken Lady” of The Farm at Glen Mary in nearby Park Hall, just down the road a bit. 

They are raising free range poultry with no antibiotics, etc.   So, we have this five pounder

 We are going to brine it with a commercial brine (yes, I could have made my own) we discovered a couple of thanksgivings ago at some friend’s house

That produced a very flavorful bird.   Has lots of “stuff” in it.  Begin brining tomorrow

Will most likely do a pretty much traditional roasting tomorrow (no flipping, oven up, oven down, etc).

And we’ve had other pretty good food lately as well.  I got a lesson from a local chef in searing salmon with a lemon caper sauce. 

from dusting the fish with flour

and finally producing the (caper) sauce

And final plating.

  it was very good!  nice little crunch outside, just opaque inside

Although I don’t get around much anymore (isn’t that a song?) I can do pretty well at cooking in the kitchen.   So last night I used Sea to Table shrimp to make a “Shrimp in a tomato cream sauce over Capellini” starting with mise en place (oddly minus the can of “no salt added” diced tomatoes)

And finished with a pretty nice dish

Another diversion I’ve been pursuing is improving the quality of my food photos.  I’ve found (with help from a friend) a food photography blog called The Bite Shot  which is pretty informative, covering lighting, food styling, equipment (which has cost me $$ - thank you B&H).   Anyway, I’ve been messing around with lighting, using flash, diffusion, etc.  Makes a difference (without, with light manipulation)

 and just pretty

I have stopped short of a new camera body, however, not quite ready to invest thousands yet.  My trusty Rebels work fine.

So on the eve of Christmas 2018, I wish a happy time tomorrow with loved ones who are here, far away, and only in our memories.  As somebody once said: “God Bless Us, everyone!”

And depending on your plans it might be fun to

DFD

And put the Mason Jars in the recycle bin…

Ho Ho Ho…

Quick tour of Turkey

No, not the country....

Even though it is almost closer to Christmas than Thanksgiving some inner demon compels me to wrap up our Turkey day before starting on the Jingle Bell day (am I this way because I’m an engineer? or am I an engineer because I’m this way?).  Anyway I’ve made a pact with that inner demon that I won’t leave the computer before I publish this blog that has been tormenting me for weeks.

I was going to do an in-depth introspective of the day, but you know those TV commercials you see where you get a whirlwind barrage of images, usually with some upbeat high-energy music?   Well, I’m going to quiet the demon by just publishing a rapid fire series of pictures of our Thanksgiving without the usual inane Feeder Patter to go with, so without further delay, here is our 2018 Thanksgiving season from beginning to end (without the music):

 And there you have it, from box to table, to scraps, to stew, and back in freezer!  The life of this year's smoked turkey experiment..

Begone Demon!!

Other hangovers:

Those of you with good memories may remember I published this picture from some food magazine:

And asked the readership "What's wrong with this picture?"

well of the hundreds of responses I got back, neither one came up with my answer (which, of course is correct).   My solution is that no respectable wine drinker EVER holds the glass by the bowl!  puts finger prints on the crystal, warms the wine, and just is not good practice.  It is not out of affectation that people hold (proper) wine glasses by the stem, there is a reason.  Which is also a reason not to own any of those stupid "stemless" wine glasses.  Do it correctly! 

Subaru

Apparently there is no truth to the rumor that Subaru will change the company name to "Love", and give a car to anybody that requests it..

and lastly, if you will allow the Feeder to be serious for a moment, I came fairly close to suspending the Bottom Feeder, which is why there was a dark period for a while.  Then, as happened before, I ran into somebody somewhere that said "I really enjoy reading your blog.".  Thank you. It does mean a lot to me.   So, I will continue to remind you (for another ~15 years) to

DFD and

get those damned Mason Jars into a canning factory, not a restaurant