Cooking, food news and more
How are you preparing your turkey for Thanksgiving this year? If you’re not brining it, I suggest you rethink that. Yes, this post is my annual reposting of my turkey brining tutorial. It’s nothing fancy because brining your bird is not a complicated process even though
Check out my instructions and recipe here. I even made a few minor updates this year. After all, refining your technique is what cooking is about.
Enjoy and feel free to let me know how it turns out.
When I tell people that I brine my turkey before cooking it on Thanksgiving (or any other time I cook one) they first ask me why I do it and then they ask if it’s hard. A brined turkey is so much more moist. It holds all of its moisture so much better than a non-brined turkey. The brine also imparts some extra flavor to the bird. I’ve also found that it cooks faster. Is it hard? No, it’s not
So, just in time for Thanksgiving, I wrote a short tutorial describing how to brine your turkey and impress your family. There’s also a PDF copy of the recipe that you can download and print. As a bonus, it also includes my stuffing recipe.
You can check it all out at www.michaelgatti.com/turkeybrine. Enjoy and feel free to let me know how your turkey dinner turns out!
When I tell people that I brine my turkey before cooking it on Thanksgiving (or any other time I cook one) they first ask me why I do it and then they ask if it’s hard. A brined turkey is so much more moist. It holds all of its moisture so much better than a non-brined turkey. The brine also imparts some extra flavor to the bird. I’ve also found that it cooks faster. Is it hard? No, it’s not
So, just in time for Thanksgiving, I wrote a short tutorial describing how to brine your turkey and impress your family. There’s also a PDF copy of the recipe that you can download and print. As a bonus, it also includes my stuffing recipe.
You can check it all out at www.michaelgatti.com/turkeybrine. Enjoy and feel free to let me know how your turkey dinner turns out!
Earlier I posted this photo via Instagram with the comment “My dad would be very happy my St. Patrick’s Day dessert features orange icing. Chocolate Orange Guinness Cake.” I thought it was worth expanding into a blog entry with a better explanation.
First, as the caption states, it’s a Chocolate Orange Guinness Cake with Orange Buttercream Frosting and it turned out delicious. I chose it based on the fact that it contained Guinness therefore, it went well with my traditional feast of corned beef and cabbage with potatoes. However, after I began making it, I realized that my father would be very happy about this cake. Not because he had a sweet tooth (he did) or because he had some affinity for Guinness (he did not), but because the the orange buttercream was orange in color.
You see, my father, being 100% Italian, was the only one in our house who had no Irish in him. As such, he jokingly rebelled against St. Patrick’s Day and everything green. When we made desserts that were died green, she insisted they did not taste as good as their naturally colored counterparts. He was known for wearing orange on St. Patrick’s Day just because he could. On years when he made a concession such as wearing a green tie to work, he would also sport the pin my mother gave him which featured his favor orange cat, Garfield, saying “It’s St. Patrick’s Day, big fat hairy green deal!”
So, consider consider this cake an unintentional nod to my dad and the holiday he felt came one time too many each year.
Apparently today is International Sushi Day. It sounds like a made-up holiday to me but do you really need an excuse to eat sushi? So go out and get yourself some tuna maki or something. Just watch the wasabe.
We all know what Thanksgiving dinner means. It means cooking a turkey, some stuffing, a variety of vegetables, probably some sweet potatoes and biscuits. Oh and don’t forget the cranberry sauce. Dessert brings pumpkin pie and maybe some egg nog to start off the holiday season.
You’ve eaten this combination every year of your life but do you know why? Check out this article on CNN to learn more about this holiday tradition.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Fall is finally here and Oktoberfest has begun in Munich. Even though I’m not a beer drinker, it’s a fun fall tradition and who could say no to a huge plate of traditional Bavarian food! I’ve never been to Munich, but you can check out the photos from when we went to Oktoberfest at the (now closed) Hofbrauhaus.
Then take a look at the real thing coutesy of Yahoo! News.
A few posts ago I promised a brief review of the restaurant that I went to in Lancaster last weekend. The restaurant was an Amish buffet called The Family Cupboard. You can also order meals, but we went for the buffet. Most buffets are basically a smorgasbord of mediocre food. We were leery that this would be the same. We had picked it out randomly from the Internet.
When we walked in and saw that there was a fair number of Amish/Mennonite folks eating there, we became more confident that the food would be good. As it turns out, it was really good. I went back for three plates plus dessert. There was a delicious meatloaf, buttered noodles that were clearly homemade and definately from a PA Dutch/German recipe. These sat alongside glazed ham, stuffing and seafood, pasta lima beans and on and on. The salad bar was your usual salad bar. I was glad to see it was all fresh and crispy, but what really made it special was a delicious house dressing.
For dessert, there was Turkey Hill ice cream as well as an assortment of desserts, but but what really caught my attention was the pies. I had a piece of pecan pie (my favorite) which wasn’t so great, but I went back for another piece and selected shoo-fly pie. It was delicious!
You can view their menu and get directions at FamilyCupboard.com.
A few posts ago I promised a brief review of the restaurant that I went to in Lancaster last weekend. The restaurant was an Amish buffet called The Family Cupboard. You can also order meals, but we went for the buffet. Most buffets are basically a smorgasbord of mediocre food. We were leery that this would be the same. We had picked it out randomly from the Internet.
When we walked in and saw that there was a fair number of Amish/Mennonite folks eating there, we became more confident that the food would be good. As it turns out, it was really good. I went back for three plates plus dessert. There was a delicious meatloaf, buttered noodles that were clearly homemade and definately from a PA Dutch/German recipe. These sat alongside glazed ham, stuffing and seafood, pasta lima beans and on and on. The salad bar was your usual salad bar. I was glad to see it was all fresh and crispy, but what really made it special was a delicious house dressing.
For dessert, there was Turkey Hill ice cream as well as an assortment of desserts, but but what really caught my attention was the pies. I had a piece of pecan pie (my favorite) which wasn’t so great, but I went back for another piece and selected shoo-fly pie. It was delicious!
You can view their menu and get directions at FamilyCupboard.com.
Here in New Jersey when we think of a delicious breakfast, the mind immediately conjures images of a diner. I’m particular partial to a bacon and cheese omelet, with hash browns, some toast and a bottomless cup of diner coffee. However, sometimes you don’t have time to spend in a diner. That’s where my second favorite breakfast place comes into play. I like just about anything from McDonald’s breakfast menu, but the item that most people associate with McDonald’s breakfast is the Egg McMuffin. It was created by Herb Peterson in 1972. After 36 years and more sandwiches sold than he ever imagined, I’m sure, Herb passed away at the age or 89.
Some people’s legacy is on a headstone, Herb’s will live on on the McDonald’s menu board. 🙂