Thanksgiving never had it so tough

I’ve learned one thing about myself this Thanksgiving – I don’t handle obstacles well, especially when it comes to food.

I had a plan this year. It involved a raw turkey and lots of butter. But when we went to pick up the bird, it was partially cooked. This was not a good thing. Not because Chef was going to cook a bad bird, but because all of my plans and timelines were now thrown out the window.

But I persevered. I decided that I would treat this as a boon. Less cooking, less stress! I now only had to focus on the sides. Chef said about a hour and a half at 350 would bring the centerpiece to perfection.

I trusted in thermodynamics which almost led to my downfall.

The oven was turned on at 1, in time for Thanksgiving dinner at about 3:30. But when is was 2:15 and the temperature of the damn bird had not raised a single degree, I was beginning to stress, JUST a little bit. I was 2 minutes from a holiday meltdown when our first guests arrived. I pulled it together and turned around to see the thermometer click over a new temperature. Success!!

Dinner was over an hour late, but what a feast it was. We had a 20 pound turkey for six of us and sides to feed about twelve. The best part was a great evening with friends.

After the main course was done, it was a good thirty minutes before any of us could even think about eating or drinking anything else.

But somehow we managed to make a serious dent in chocolate roulade, cherry pie, coconut bars and cornflake cookies. I only broke two plates, the first of the wedding gifts to get broken in over five years.

Hopefully next year you can make it too!

Chocolate and Wine

Day two of “Six Days of Sweats” and all is good.

We staged our own mini wine and chocolate tasting this evening. The star of the evening was a 2003 Alban Reva Syrah. Husband decided we should treat ourselves and I can’t say that I disagreed with him. This was the first bottling of Alban that we were able to purchase. I could go on about black fruits and smoked meat but I won’t. Husband thinks that the wine is slightly out of balance (too much alcohol, ripe fruits, a little pruney), but I like my wines a little on the ripe side. I enjoy big luscious fruits and a touch too much alcohol.

But the fun part was the chocolate pairings. I picked up a little kit at World Market that had several different kinds of chocolate with recommended wine pairings. Originally we just tried the 72% and the 55% cocoa chocolates, but we later expanded to include the 31% and the 61% too.

I’m drawn to dark chocolates so I tried the 72% first. I was amazed at how bad it made the wine! The wine lost of its the acidity and brightness and tasted flabby. Husband isn’t a fan of dark chocolate so he didn’t like it at all.

From that point, it was really a matter of personal taste. I thought the 55% was the best pairing, but Husband liked the 31% (milk chocolate) the best. He has a sweet tooth but I thought the sugar completely overpowered the wine.

The verdict – personally, I think syrah is better with a medium dark variety but none of the pairings was perfect. For chocolate, try coffee or a sauternes.

black beans and fuzz

I had an unfortunate “black bean” accident the other day in the kitchen. I was making some of my celebrated black bean dip. It’s ridiculously easy – one can of drained black beans plus about 1/2 cup of salsa in the blender, add a little of the reserved juice if it needs it – but I was told by a student that it was the best bean dip he’s ever had. But somehow while draining the beans, and just ask Husband how these things happen, I ended up with black beans all over the floor. Before I could turn around and grab a paper towel, Caymus was cleaning up for me.

Just another example of the weird things that cats eat.

Thanks everyone for sharing all of the funny things that your cats eat. I think the apple pie is the funniest so far though!

You can tell the semester has finally begun when:

There are M&Ms in the candy dish in my office.

I finally got around to filling the M&M dish today. It was either that or figure out how to use Spartan or write ANOTHER recommendation letter.

As I was filling the dish, I was wondering if there were people in the hallway thinking: “What is the noise? Did someone drop something? A whole bunch of somethings? Maybe rocks?” And then the aroma of chocolate hit their nose and they would think: “M&Ms!! She’s finally filling her M&M bowl!!”

I was kind of disappointed that people didn’t come running as soon as I finished. But I didn’t have to wait that long after all. About an hour later, a student stopped by the office and said: “I heard that you had M&Ms!!” About 30 minutes after that, someone else stopped by and said the same thing.

I am known in the department for the never empty M&M bowl. I started keeping M&Ms in the office about two years ago in memory of a chemistry prof who died unexpectedly. He always had a bowl of M&Ms at the final exam with a sign that M&Ms were proven to increase test scores. After he died, I started keeping a bowl filled in the office to remember him and his great example.

This year, I got fancy with the M&M bowls:

Not the cool bowls, but the fact that there are TWO of them. With different flavors of M&Ms! The large bowl is dark chocolate and the small is regular.

One of the students took great joy in pointing out that I had a veritable smorgasbord of chocolate options on the table. I don’t eat a lot of chocolate and whenever I get some, I always bring it to the office to share. Now I just have to convince the newbie students to come by the office, ask a question and eat chocolate!

But my favorite is the NMR tube sitting in the vase. My advisee makes the most amazing pottery with crystalline glazes. Sometime soon, I’ll show off his work and talk about the chemistry of those glazes. It’s so beautiful!

My bucket of photos runneth over.

Nothing exciting is happening in my life right now. I have been working. A lot. Last week, I was home ONCE before 9PM. *Sigh*

Well, part of it is my fault. I didn’t prepare very well for my non-majors class during the summer. I’m having to spend a lot of time in the evening preparing. And it doesn’t help of course that one of my drugs I’m on right now cause fatigue. I need at least 7 hours of shut eye a night in the best times. Now, I could probably use 8+.

But I took some time tonight to cook my lunch for the next week. I made a chicken and white bean chili with cornbread. It’s been a long time since I’ve done this. During grad school, I used to cook a big mess of something for lunch every Sunday. During my postdoc, I still did it but not as often. Once I started at Albion, it was only about once a month.

Since getting back from Italy, I don’t think I’ve cooked much of anything. It’s been warm enough to cook outside and Husband is the master of the grill. I don’t think that cutting veggies and bread for sides really counts as cooking…

Wow, I am really far behind on the whole Project 365 thing. Not taking the pictures but taking the time to post them! So here’s a catch up. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have some more.

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Project 365 – No. 24 (September 14, 2008)

Caymus. With his feet hanging out of the top of the tower. For some reason that drives me nuts.

Project 365 – No. 25 (September 15, 2008)

One of the organic students doing a reaction in lab. They were very confused because the liquid was supposed to dissolve and then a solid form slowly. But the solid formation is pretty much instantaneous.

Project 365 – No. 26 (September 16, 2008)

Campus at night. This was one night that I was late at Albion, educating the masses.

Project 365 – No. 27 (September 17, 2008)

There was a deer in our neighbors’ yard. I tried to take picture, but I forgot the flash wasn’t on and then a truck drove by and scared the varmint.

Project 365 – No. 28 (September 18, 2008)

The poor miata after the encounter with the deer. It could have been worse, but it still caused about $700 worth of damage. Apparently fixing dents in the hood is very difficult. Plus the stupid thing messed up the headlight. I love venison and order it every chance I get.