Cooking Update I

[mamadeb]

Expect cooking spam all day.

The turkey is thawed and sitting on the counter.

I have constructed a beef stew - I browned three pounds of stew meat on top of the stove. Meanwile, I chopped and (if necessary) peeled two onions, half a stalk of celery, a pound of carrots and three sweet potatoes and put them in a roasting pan. As each batch of meat browned (I did it in three batches), I added them to the roasting pan. As the last batch finished up, I added dried rosemary, freshly ground pepper, bay leaves and a large can of diced tomatoes. After I added the last of the stew meat, I poured some water into the browning pan, added a splash of cider vinegar, deglazed the pot and poured that in the roasting pan. I stirred everything up, covered the pan with aluminum foil and put it in a 400°F oven, where it will cook for the next four or so hours, to be replaced by the turkey and the stuffing.

Comments

[winemedineme.livejournal.com]

I am so excited that it's the holidays. I love your cooking spam. :) Just please don't COOK spam. Eew.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Trust me. Never spam. :)

I'm glad people are interested. It's the best way for me to track my progress.

[hiddenhibiscus.livejournal.com]

I love cooking spam!

I just did a beef stew in hard pear cider this weekend (it was a last resort, as I was out of beer) and it was divine! I never knew about using cider/cider vinegar.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Alcohol will dissolve flavors that other liquids don't, which is why hard cider, wine and beer work so well. The other thing is that cider, wine and vinegar are all acids - often *sweet* acids - that provide a good balance against richer foods, such as beef stew. In cooking, as in all else, balance rules.

[leela-cat.livejournal.com]

Spam about cooking is good.

I'm lucky that I can work from home today. I've got one more round of grocery shopping to do, and then I'm going to start my own preps.

Plus one more meal for tonight that needs planning, because the hostess became very ill. (And maybe some extras for her family if they need food to carry them through the holidays.)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I took today off.

Last time I had to prepare an extra yom tov meal (and yashar koach for doing that), I got so involved I was one meal short myself. May that not happen to you.

[leela-cat.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping that won't happen to me as well.

Then again, the family hasn't gotten back to us, so I suspect that others have already picked up the slack. Either that, or they prepared on the weekend and don't need any more food.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Rather not cook Spam, thanks. The canned version is not to my taste (and is it really kosher? :-) and the ambulatory people version is far too cool to cook for food :-)

Do, however, apprise us of how the food prep goes; it's always interesting.

Most importantly, have a joyous and sweet holiday: L'Shana Tovah!

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

:) Not to worry. Not in this house.

I hope people like the updates. They keep me on track. For example - down to three more things now. One is the turkey, of course, but that's easy.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

And, may you be inscribed for a happy, joyous and prosperous year.