Oh What a Christmas to Have a Goose

The important thing to note here is the glass Pyrex pan we will no longer be taking to San Francisco nor selling at our Going Away Auction. Note that it is now EXPLODED.

Witness the Christmas goose attempting to roast happily away. See the "force field" that the Somm created to allow the copious amounts of precious goose fat to drain into the Pyrex?

Well, said force field staged the Pyrex directly on the bottom of the oven--aka the heat source. I began to get nervous about such extreme heat so directly on the glass. I got more nervous as, only 20 minutes into goose roastage, I felt as though my glasses has gotten extraordinarily dirty, and my nose tickled with the unmistakable stench of smoking fat. Another exciting discovery: Our smoke detectors are delightfully non-functional!! Wolf Perl: You are the best Slum Lord ever!!

A careful examination of the force field and the entire bird-directly-on-oven-rack getup revealed that the fat dripping into the very hot Pyrex was smoking up the entire joint (no, duh). Oh, and thank you, Jamie Oliver, for this brilliant recipe.

Trying to problem solve without compromising the Somm's oh-so carefully constructed force field, I asked him, "What if we put some liquid into the Pyrex to absorb the impact of the grease?"

"That's a good idea!" he nodded in agreement. (We hadn't even gotten into the boozy milk punch yet. What were we thinking????)

Two seconds later, an oven-rocking explosion of glass and goose grease ensued, literally knocking the Somm back into our baker's rack and launching hot shards Pyrex and fat all over the both of us.

***

Having determined that no one was injured and that the goose is free of glass buckshot (and, of course, having delicately reconstructed an aluminum force field for fat funneling), I now face the challenge of having no suitable dish in which to bake my coconut mochi bars. Oh, the Christmas drama. Just too much fun.

Countdown to Goodbye Bowls

 
The most important part of this picture is not the succulent, luscious free-range chicken thigh nor the saffron-suffused orzo, nor the gorgeous golden sweet potatoes floating in a rich broth of home-canned tomatoes and turkey stock and Moroccan spices.

No. The most important part of this picture is the pale blue bowl that you will not be seeing for much longer, because the somm and I and little Dook Napo pup are leaving NYC in just four weeks. And we will be selling all of our things, including this small set of loveliest bowls that I picked up off the street corner in Soho one day, shortly after spotting the largest pile of feces I've ever beheld. Fond memories, indeed, of these bowls.

So enjoy looking at them for as long as you can, and completely ignoring the insanely delectable tagine--one of the best meals we've ever made in our humble abode--that the somm crafted for me while I worked 13 hours last week.

New York working world: I will not miss you.

So Stocked

You can give thanks the day after Thanksgiving, too. Thanks for the gigantic 40-quart stock pot that Josiah uses for his beer making, because it was the only thing to fit our 20-pound turkey carcass, simmered into stock with a huge bundle of celery and leeks, onion and carrots.

The first thing I made was, of course, last week's off-the-cuff invention: American Leek Soup (riffed from French Onion, bien sur). Caramelized leeks with sherry sauteed into a heady turkey stock, then dashed with crisped-up but still verdant Brussels sprouts leaves before the coup de grace, a pumpernickel crouton smothered with blue cheese. I'm a genius, no?

And after that, I made a smashing Italian soup with my freezer full of meatballs, fresh spinach, caramelized grape tomato jam, jalapeno, basil and tubettini pasta covered in Asiago. Felt like home sweet home.

An Orphan Thanksgiving

Leave It to T-Day

Leave it to Thanksgiving leftovers to get me back to the blog. How could I resist sharing these little second-day delicacies?

 

These are the mini pumpkin pies I whipped up from extra filling (from a real pumpkin) and homemade crust. Now I just need Sarah's homemade nutmeg ice cream to dollop on top!

And this is a huge pan full of leftovers warming up for my pig-out lunch on the couch in front of the football game. (Clockwise, from top middle: turkey; gravy bits; wild rice, apple and fennel stuffing; mashed potes; sweet potato casserole with pecans; celery, apple, cranberry, feta salad; brussels sprouts with pork shoulder bacon; cranberry apple crumble.)

Now it's naptime.

Immediate Satisfaction

I wanted potatoes for breakfast. And cheese. And an egg. So much work to do, no time to go out for brunch. So I whipped out the ingredients and my Lil Beni, and 10 minutes later I had near-immediate satisfaction.

Well if that isn't delicious looking. And highly annoying that it is rotated awkwardly on its side. I'm not smart enough to figure out rotating this thing (trust me, tried all the obvious answers), but no matter which way my hashbrowns with gooey egg and cheddar went down, they were delicious.

Not So "Short" Ribs

Our most recent trip to the Meat Hook sent us home with nearly $70 worth of Korean style short ribs. There were 13 of them at approximately three feet long:

So we put round three to use a few nights ago by rubbing them with ras el hanout and then serving them, grilled, with a bunch of stuff we had on hand in the fridge: feta-stuffed peppers and a lovely fresh salad of cucumber, tomato, spicy mixed greens and parsley.

Oh! And I almost forgot about the adorable little fairytale eggplant from Lani's Farm (quite probably my favorite vendor at the Union Square farmers market on Mondays and the Dag Hamerskjoewlrjdklxfd one on Wednesdays) that we pan-roasted and snacked on while we prepped. Looook at how cuuute...