As a Matter of Food

I set the alarm for 9AM this morning.   I tried to get as close to 8 hours of sleep as possible.  My arms are sore from carrying around all the grocery bags yesterday.  My back is definitely not feeling the rainbow because I lifted that bucket with the turkey and brine in it.  It’s all good though, because the day had started and I was ready to go.

I’m very happy and thankful for everything turning out so well.  Hmmm… except for one of the hors d’oeuvres.  The mini venison burgers.  I used pie crust as the burger buns and wanted the top bun to have a little color.  So in the last few minutes I turned the oven to broil and intended to only do it for 1 minute.  Did I get some color!  Of course I got busy with doing other things and burnt them.  I was very upset, but got over it. People just took of the top and ate the burger and the bottom bun.

Here are some pictures of the preparations and roasting of the turkey.

Some more pictures of me making the Maple-Glazed Yams with Pecan Topping.  Boy, they were a hit! Not too sweet but just right with a bit of a crunch.  Definitely going to make it again.  I’m going to give you the recipe in a later blog post along with all the others.

Finally, here are pictures of all of the dishes I prepared that day.  Check out the center piece!  I even made that myself.    I went with stuffing out of a box and it turned out perfect.  I kept things simple, adding nothing fancy to the stuffing.  I used canned green beans for my green bean casserole.  The hummus spread I used on the cucumber stacks were also store bought.    I decided that for the simpler dishes I used canned, prepackaged, and boxed ingredients.  Over the years I’ve learned to showcase my cooking skills in preparing dishes one cannot easily buy at the store and have it taste or look as exceptional as when it is homemade.  As for the rest, I’m not ashamed to take a short cut here or there.  Let’s be real! And yes, seldom do I burn food, but it happens.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! If you would like to share any of your stories please feel free to email them to me @ asamatteroffood@gmail.com.

Meals don’t have to always be so complicated.  Especially when you’re a new mom and have just gotten back to work and trying to keep it all together.  My girlfriend sent me an email and chatted with me online today asking me to help kick her Chicken Alfredo with Pasta up a notch.

Here’s our conversation:

On 11/19/07, Lily of the Valley <xxxxxxx@gmail.com > wrote:

Dear Recipe Guru, 

I don’t have much time tonight, but I am defrosting some chicken breasts. I want to make a chicken alfredo, but have the chicken turn out a little more “tasty” and either marinated or friend to put on top of alfredo sauce and linguine. Any advice?  Lily of the Valley 

Instant Messenger Chat:  

me:  when do you need it ?  tonight?

LOTV: yes

me: for tonight?  okay let me see what I can do. you want a quick version or a detailed version i can do it a bunch of ways

LOTV: quick!  I’m a mom.  quick quick quick

me: okay so you don’t mind canned stuff right?

LOTV: no

me: you just want the chicken more tasty

LOTV: we have canned alfredo

me: gotcha=]

LOTV: i dont have time tonight to make it fresh and im tired

LOTV: it’s easy then

me:  I’ll get you something in a bit

LOTV:  k thanks

On 11/19/07, GotFood13 <GotFood13@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Lily of the Valley, 

From our brief conversation I was able to gather that you’re not interested in a very involved recipe tonight.  So instead of giving you a recipe, I’m going to help you with kicking the taste of your chicken up a notch.   

Basically boil your pasta as you would usually.  You indicated that you were going to use canned alfredo sauce.  So I’d leave that up to you as far as which brand you like and which you’re going to use.  Start simmering the alfredo sauce in a sauce pan while you work on the chicken.

 The chicken: 

1. Cut your 1/2 lb of chicken breast in to bite size pieces.  (I’ll leave this up to your preferences)

2. Put cut chicken pieces in a mixing bowl.

3. Sprinkle some salt & pepper (2 – 3 small pinches of salt and 2 shakes of pepper)

4. If you have garlic powder sprinkle some on.

5. If you have Italian seasoning, add a dash.

6. Mix the chicken and ingredients.

7. Let sit for about 10 minutes.

8. Heat up a skillet on high heat and add a little bit of oil.

9. Once oil is hot put chicken in and spread out the pieces evenly.

10. Let chicken pieces sit for about a minute before turning.  This is for color and to sear the chicken.

11. Turn the chicken a few times.  Once all the chicken pieces have turned white from cooking, lower heat down to medium and cook for about 8 – 10 minutes or until chicken pieces are cooked.

12. Once chicken has been cooked remove from pan straining the oil.

13. Put chicken pieces into sauce pan with the alfredo sauce simmering and cook for another 10 minutes on low – medium heat.

14. Then serve over your pasta of choice.

I hope these quick tips helped!  Let me know when you leave a comment! GotFood13

On 11/19/07, Lily of the Valley <xxxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Got Food! 

I’ll try it tonight! 

LOTV

Last month I visited Shula’s Steakhouse at the Marriott Tysons Corner in Vienna, Virginia.  Once in a while I get a craving for a nice juicy steak.  I had gotten a $25 gift certificate from Restaurants.com and thought I’d try it.

As soon as we walked through the doors we were taken back by the decor.  The walls were a dark rich, either cherry or mahogany, wood.  The lights were dimmed so it gave the dining room an even darker appearance.  I like dimmed lights but honestly cannot say that it gave me a cozy or inviting feeling.  I know my opinion can be considered biased because of the feeling I expect to experience given a certain atmosphere.  I noticed the patrons were very well suited up.  We had never been to Shula’s so we didn’t know what to expect. 

We were seated in a nice booth.  Immediately, my husband and I started to joke about how stuffy it felt.  It was too rigid, in my opinion.  A waitress came and placed a football on a tee, right on my plate, I found it odd but a little intriguing.  It took a good 10 minutes before someone came to get our drink orders, and still no menus.  We ordered a beer and a martini.  I don’t remember which martini it was but remember that it was recommended by our waitress as being her favorite.   I also remember that it wasn’t as great as she thought it’d be and that I could have made a better one.  We waited another 10 minutes until our drinks came back and we ordered appetizers which we were able to find on the drink menu.  Fancy, but we discovered the football which was placed on my plate served as a menu.  I think the football menu is a neat idea which plays part in showcasing Don Shula’s history as a football coach.  I also came to find out that the restaurant is themed after the 1972 Miami Dolphin’s “Perfect Season”.  So it all tied in together well. 

At this point we were starving!  We ordered the beef tips and a salad.  It took 20 minutes for our appetizers to come.  In the mean time we had finished our drinks and a cart of meat with all the different cuts was wheeled to our table.  There were the filet mignon, the N.Y. strip steak, the porterhouse, prime rib, and the Kansas City Strip, and the Cowboy steak to choose from.  I ordered the prime rib and my husband the N.Y. strip steak.  We also put in another order for drinks.  It took, what felt like another eternity for our drinks to come, and then yet another for the entrees.

Overall, the steaks were good.  I didn’t find my meal exceptional.  The prime rib which I was served, had a bit too much fat on it and I had to spend a lot of time trimming the fat off.  I ordered medium rare and got a piece that was more medium.  The N.Y. strip was ordered to be a medium well but was served more well.  The bread was excellent, I must add.  I can’t say that it was a horrible experience.  It wasn’t.  The meal was still good.  However, the wait staff was slow.  We had 3 different waitresses, so if we needed anything we didn’t know who to make eye contact with and get their attention.  It took a little over 2 hours to have our entire meal.  A good thing we didn’t have other plans!  For a $190 bill with gratuities pre-included, and an award-winning restaurant, I expected to have had a much better dining experience to write about.  For less than half of what we paid at Shula’s we could have gone to our usual spot, Outback Steakhouse.  We could have had steaks just as good but cooked according to our specifications.

For those who want to try the restaurant or get more information, please visit www.donshula.com.  Perhaps you’ll have a different experience.  One has to keep in mind certain demographics, individual taste, and the atmosphere one seeks.  Like they say “Different folks, different strokes!”. 

As for me, I will chalk this one up as a one-time visit.

I have cooked Thanksgiving dinners at my parents’ home for the last 7 years. My parents being of Asian decent (and I do have to attribute this more to their palettes than their heritage) have never really been into the whole “big-turkey-and stuffing-and-everything-that-comes-along-with-it”. Then there’s me, the one that wants to fit in and do the American traditions. I would sit down a few days before Thanksgiving day each year and start planning my menu.

The very first turkey we had was a 25 lbs. turkey given to us by this nice lady, Mrs. Lomax, I believe. This was back in 1991.  I didn’t have a cookbook or the Internet to show me how to cook this big bird. So I thought to myself “Just stick it in the oven for say…. 1 1/2 hours and we’ll have dinner!” Yeah right. Of course at 15 and not having the right resources or not knowing any better, I had no clue about the “cook for so much time if your bird weighs this much”. So after 1 1/2 hours I took the bird out, the color was nice. Plated it and served it with stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and dinner rolls. Ahhh cutting into the bird presented our family with a huge surprise. It was still raw and some parts still frozen! Boy, what a disaster that was. I stuck the bird back into the oven for another hour at 450 degrees. After an hour I took it back out and checked it. Still raw, at least now the frozen parts were thawed out. I was disgusted with it all, to say the least. By now it was almost 7pm. So to make a long story short, by the time we were able to eat the turkey it was close to 7 hours from the initial start time and the bird was totally cut up into smaller pieces. We finally ate it but it wasn’t great. Seriously, nothing to write home about. It was dry and bland. Yuck.

Perhaps this is what set my parents’ expectations of future turkeys. LOL Although the turkeys have become much better over the years, the memory of the first turkey has stuck with my entire family.

I’ve got more Thanksgiving stories, some ‘horror’ stories to add to the mix, but for now I’d like to hear yours.

Email me your Thanksgiving stories, whether good or bad, to asamatteroffood@gmail.com or gotfood13@gmail.com and get a chance to have your story told on my blog!

It’s really really yummy and I guarrantee you it has a lot less fat & sodium than what you get at the restaurant. Serving it with some Spanish rice and we’re off to another great meal.