Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

My turkey ended up being done an hour earlier than I thought it would be, which was a major problem because my stove and oven suck and it took forever to heat up the sides I made the night before and make the mashed potatoes from scratch. My stove takes over an hour to boil water, seriously.

I wasn't concerned about the turkey losing heat while I worked on the sides, though I did throw a tantrum about my stove. My family seemed to prefer eating the turkey at room temp.

Speaking of the turkey, it was the best, most successful one I've made- ever. I did Anne Burrell's herb-rubbed turkey after brining it for two days with a brining "recipe" I found in Food and Wine. It was moist and delicious.

The only thing I really screwed up was the dressing. I used a Food and Wine recipe for that as well and in theory, it sounded awesome. Rye bread, bacon, celery, pecans, and apples (my own additions), but I doubled the recipe and for some reason the amount of liquid I used after doubling it was way too much. I baked it off for over an hour and it was still mush, even after soaking all night. I was really upset about it, but my family ate it anyways because they're capable of being nice on Thanksgiving.

I have to do all my Thanksgiving prep. tonight, which I'm kind of dreading and seeing as how tomorrow's the biggest poultry day of the year, I guess it was pretty stupid of me to have parmesan chicken and a salad for dinner.

@Honeybea: What are "sprouted corn tortillas?"

Sorry to say, I'm not part of the ghee club. I'm actually not one of those people that spread butter- or ghee- on muffins, waffles, toast, etc. I've just always thought it was weird. Maybe I indulge sometimes by putting butter on freshly baked bread, but otherwise I can think of things I'd rather have than butter. For example, on toast I prefer peanut butter. On waffles, just really good maple syrup. I don't even like using butter when making cookies or other baked goods. For me, I find that butter makes cookies crisper than I like, so I always use canola oil.

I've recently noticed that I do use quite a bit of butter when cooking, though. It's usually a mixture of butter and olive oil, but I purchase more butter each week than I'm comfortable saying out loud.

@Lorenzo: That thing about eating monkey brains is true, though I've never seen a news article on it and I kind of doubt it's still happening. When I was growing up my weirdo brothers used to obessively rent this series over and over again from a local video store. It was called "Faces of Death" and just featured really horrible, creepy footage of people and animals dying in unusual ways. They'd force me to watch it and I'd cry and have nightmares.

Some of the stuff really stuck with me, like the segment where these Americans in Vietnam (I believe) watch as a live monkey gets held down by a head vice and then gets it head cracked open. Everyone begins eating the brains. It was disturbing, to say the least.

I see what AyeEat and Charm City Cupcake are saying and I think I have a pretty decent understanding of where my food comes from. I was a vegetarian for three years; I've seen the videos of slaughter houses and men kicking chickens and tazering cows- I get it. I don't know, this just seems different. There's killing animals for the purpose of them being eaten and then there's perfecting a way to deep fry a fish so that it's still alive and can serve as a means of entertainment.

Let's be honest, this isn't about people ordering a stellar piece of fish. If that were the case, they could probably get anything else on the menu. This is about ordering a fish just to poke it and prod it and laugh at it.

I know it's just a fish, but it gave me the creeps.

I'm so with Foodie, Foodie. As soon as I saw that recipe on SE I knew I had to make it and I did and fell in love instantly. I made it yesterday for dinner and it was awesome.

And this one for pasta with zucchini and beaten egg yolk:
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/09/vegetarian-pasta-with-zucchini-and-beaten-egg-yolk-recipe.html

My nieces slather their pizze in rach dressing- and not just the crusts.

I can't afford either, so I'll go with the chicken, please.

Could she be any goddamn cuter? I want to put her in my pocket and carry her with me always.

Plus, her boots were killer.

That made me so happy. My cat is big and old and tubby, but he still does silly stuff, too. He really likes Doritos and sandwiches, like not just the lunchmeat, but taking a piece of the sandwich mayo, cheese, mustard and all. Maybe that's why he's tubby ...

It's interesting that we're talking about this. Portman just wrote an essay for the Huffington Post in which she says this batshit crazy thing:

"I say that Foer's ethical charge against animal eating is brave because not only is it unpopular, it has also been characterized as unmanly, inconsiderate, and juvenile. But he reminds us that being a man, and a human, takes more thought than just 'This is tasty, and that's why I do it.' He posits that consideration, as promoted by Michael Pollan in The Omnivore's Dilemma, which has more to do with being polite to your tablemates than sticking to your own ideals, would be absurd if applied to any other belief (e.g., I don't believe in rape, but if it's what it takes to please my dinner hosts, then so be it)."

Until now I was getting very sick of hearing Anthony Bourdain's seemingly constant tirade against vegetarians, but basically equating meat eaters to rapists is ridiculous and I'll take Bourdain's shit talking any day.

You can read the rest here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/natalie-portman/jonathan-safran-foers-iea_b_334407.html

It's only around 2 p.m. here in Los Angeles, but I've already eaten what I consider to be my "dinner." I eat one large-ish meal in the afternoon and then a small snack in the evening. Anyhow, I had fried potatoes and "chili beans," which is just pinto beans and Mexican chorizo. It was a comfort food growing up and it still is.