Friday, April 29, 2011

Blanding Oddity #11

True story.  Many people leave their cars unlocked.  Certain people leave their cars unlocked and the keys in the ignition.  Only some of these park in their garages.

Blanding Oddity #12

There are some intersections in which neither street has a stop sign or a yield sign. Meaning, there are no signs to indicate which direction has the right of way.  Scared the heck out of me when I realized that, but no one else seems bothered.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Turkey Narrative

This week I cooked a turkey for the first time.  There was twenty pounds of holiday poultry adventure for Easter dinner.  I started rolling this idea around when I saw that hams and turkeys were a little bit on sale at Clarks' (our only grocery store) to clear out end of season stock.   Last week I committed by officially inviting friends to help us eat the turkey for (a pot-luck style) Easter dinner.  When I finally went to buy the turkey our little super market had no turkeys to be found nor did they have my back up plan of roaster chickens. 

In Blanding, though, if you want anything – to know who cuts hair, an available rental house, where the Indian ruins are – you ask someone (and they may tell you someone else to ask and so on).  What is the point of advertising or publishing maps or putting things on shelves?   I guess every already knows and if not they’ll just ask.  The only well advertised thing I have encountered in Blanding is the Scentsy lady.  I don’t think I will ever buy Scentsy, but I appreciate that I know where I could and when all the sales are.  I didn’t even have to ask. 

Back to the turkey… Marty and I asked the store manager if there was any chance that they would be getting more whole chickens in the next week or if they had any turkeys in the back of the store.  No new frozen birds coming in, but he took us to the back freezer and dug through boxes until he found a non-expired turkey with intact packaging.  This grocery store is not posh or gourmet (they don’t even sale almond paste or calrose rice) but you get better service when people know your name.

I made my own seasoning mix of kosher salt, fresh rosemary, fresh thyme, bay leaves, cracked pepper and a pinch of paprika.  After letting it sit overnight to absorb flavors I added lemon zest and rubbed down the turkey to dry brine (salt and put in a bag for several days).   Luckily Kari, a near-by friend, had freezer space and then fridge space for this bird.  I let that sit in her fridge for three days.

In the mean time I made poppy seed cake, lemon curd filling for the cake, sugar cookies to decorate with the kids, frosting (one type for cookies, one for cake) and assembled the cake.  I’ll post about the cake later because it worth a picture!  

Sometime between making frosting and assembling the cake on Saturday I got a call from my sister-in-law telling me that she and my dad-in-law would be able to visit this weekend after all!  They would be getting here about 11pm.  Now, I really wanted them to come, but I had given up because Liz was anxious to get home after finishing her BYU semester and needed to jump right into summer work.  Since it didn’t sound like it was going to work out I forgot about cleaning for house guests and threw myself in to Easter dinner preparations leaving mountains of dishes and smears of frosting in my wake.

Marty’s family is quite polite, so they did call twice on Friday to let us know their plans in advance.  But they called Marty’s phone.  If you don’t already know how effective that is not (most of the time), ask me about his cell phone history next time you see me.

We really loved having family visit and the house was even clean and beautiful by the time Liz and dad Pulido got here, complete with beds made for them (thanks, Kari for the air mattress).  On Sunday, after lunch Marty took Liz and dad for a ride to see some scenery and I got back to turkey prep.  


This is me prepping the turkey with onion goggles.
 
Turkey prep was pretty simple.  The hardest parts were planning ahead and maneuvering a 20 pound bird around.  I stuffed a few veggies in (watch out for those onions!), jump started roasting in a hot oven and reduced temp.  Then let it cook… for a very very long time.  It had to cook so long in fact, that we had to start our meal a half hour later than planned with a soup and salad course while waiting for the turkey to be done.   Oops.  It was my first time after all.  Next time maybe I'll get the timing right.

Finally, the work and wait were worth it.



The turkey was fantastic.  Flavorful and most with many compliments to the chef :-)  Marty carved his first turkey with guidance from his dad.  Will the men be offended if I say it was cute?
 The dinner, the friends , and family made for a great Easter.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Thai Star Fruit Chicken Salad

This week bountiful baskets (the food co-op that I get produce from) had a tropical pack.  I got a fresh mint, a coconut, pineapple, star fruit, mangoes, vanilla beans, limes, and lemons.  Loads of deliciousness.  Have I mentioned I love bountiful baskets, especially in Blanding?  Yes, I have.  
Everything that came I will or have already used with hardly any thought, except the star fruit.  Star fruit is actually new to me, so I looked up a few recipes online.  I narrowed it down to a chicken salad or coconut star fruit crepes.  Marty voted for the one less likely to make him fat.
Today I made the Thai star fruit chicken salad.  Fresh basil and cilantro give the salad a delightfully fresh taste.  I particularly liked the zing of the lime sesame dressing.  I give it a rating of very good.  Don't go rushing out to buy a star fruit just to try it (they might be pretty expensive), but it was a very tasty way to use what came my way.  What I love the most is how darn pretty that star fruit is.  It would make any dish look fantastic. That's really why I even wrote this post... because I think star fruit look so stinkin' cool.

P.S.   Grilled pineapple for dessert tonight, vanilla bean flan sometime soon, and I haven't quite decided what to do with the coconut.  Marty made a great coconut rice pudding once.  Maybe I'll get him to make it again.

Martin Did Not Get Asphyxiated

Martin did not get asphyxiated.  Your first thought might be “was he in danger of it?” The answer to that depends on whether you ask him or me.

Last week Marty and a few co-workers flew to a meeting in Colorado in a little Cessna.  Little Cessnas don't have pressurized cabins.  When I flew in a little plane like that oxygen wasn't an issue because our altitude before takeoff was about 25 ft.  In our short flight to Sacramento we did not pass over any major mountain ranges either.  Martin's altitude before takeoff was 6000 ft.  That extra 5075 ft or so make a big difference in how soon you need oxygen.  Additionally, Colorado is known for big mountains.  There were a few big mountains to be passed over during the flight.

Now, don't worry, Martin did not attempt to take the flight without oxygen.  That is, he didn't try it intentionally.  During the trip home he just couldn't tell if his oxygen was on or not.  He thought he flipped the switch far enough.  In between 14,000 - 18,000 ft he started to feel symptoms of hypoxia.  Sleepiness started to set in.  Unfortunately, Martin had woken up at 4:15 am to get to the meeting on time.  He just assumed he was sleepy from lack of sleep.

As a side note, a little Wikipedia research told me at that altitude he had 20-30 minutes of “useful consciousness.”   Internet research is also where I learned that hypoxia is the name of the “pathological condition” that occurred.  I didn't actually know that before.

Fortunately, before Marty's time of useful consciousness expired another passenger noticed Marty starting to doze and suggested that he double check his oxygen was on.  Once the flow of oxygen actually started Marty found it much easier to stay awake.  No damage done.

Marty says it wasn't a big deal.  The plane wasn't going any higher.  If he didn't turn the oxygen on, he would have only passed out until they reached a lower altitude.  Permanent brain damage or death could not have happened.  Of course, that's probably true.  No big deal.  He just didn't turn on his oxygen during a high altitude flight. No big deal.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

All I Think About is Food

If I didn't bring dessert almost everywhere I go, I'm sure people would think I'm very boring. Sometimes I wonder how I even have other things to talk about. It seems like cooking is all that I do or at least all that I want to do.

Food is a fun hobby to me. Fun to plan, fun to share, fun to eat. I think I might be becoming obsessed though. Inspired by my sister's grilled cheese blog post, I waited a week until we went to Provo so I could buy a brie wheel at Costco. Yesterday I made muenster, brie, and apple grilled cheese. This sandwich has been bumping around the back of my mind for a week and a half. Is that too long to think about a sandwich? The real thing was as delicious as I thought it would be.

Even when I want to do other things, there are so many things that pull me back to food. First of all, unless I completely stuff myself I get hungry every two hours. How is that soon-to-be-little boy hanging out in my uterus still so small? Also, Marty and I want to spend less on food. The easiest way to do this without actually decreasing quality of life is to eliminate waste. That means I need to plan menus efficiently. More thinking about food. Additionally, doing anything special in Blanding takes planning ahead. If I want to try out that Greek semolina cake anytime in the next 5 weeks, I better have bought semolina flour on my last trip to a city with real stores. I actually do need to plan for a fancy Easter dinner a month in advance.

As if there weren't enough real reasons to think about food, I keep looking for excuses to be pulled back to cooking. I had some old bananas. Can't let those go to waste! So instead of doing dishes I made chocolate shaving and banana cupcakes topped with homemade chocolate frosting. It does not make sense to use $4-5 worth of ingredients so $1.50 of bananas doesn’t go to waste. What do two people need with 24 cupcakes anyway? Man, they were good cupcakes.

To prevent Marty and myself from turning into complete blimps, I am pretty good about getting desserts out of the house. I like to take things to friends and send extras to work with Marty. I sent 14 of the 24 cupcakes to the office with Marty. That means we ate how many at home? Darn. Does it make it better if it wasn't all in one day and do I have to count the little cake from the left over batter?

I do other things beyond cooking...sorta. I was asked to do a mini-class at a relief society luncheon. The demonstration was on making artisan bread (5 minutes a day recipe-I love it), so that probably doesn't count. Gardening is a hobby other than cooking. I like the satisfaction of seeing things grow after my hard work. I like the outdoor labor. What I like most of all about gardening is the taste of home grown tomatoes and having fresh herbs at my fingertips. So I'm back to the food obsession in short order.

Food is a very big hobby to me. But in reality I do other things and think about other things too (at least a little bit). I won't ruin the theme of this post by expounding on the other hobbies or defending myself too much. What is really going on, I hope, is that I am enjoying my life being simple until this baby comes. I can do what I feel like. If I want to make three different types of soup this week to experiment with homemade noodles, heck, why not? If I want to learn something or collect recipes, now is when I should do it. These next few months will be the only time in the next 20 years I will have that kind of freedom.

I wouldn't mind talking all about my ideas for Easter dinner. But instead, I think I'll go have some left over zucchini lasagna while I decide what to make for lunch. If you lived closer, I would make you something delicious. Food is more fun when it is shared.