Foodmomiac

Pie

And we're done.

The boss

Cleaning up to Bruce Springsteen. He makes everything more fun.

Dinner is served.

Finally.

Turkey!

Ta da!

Asleep?

And we haven't even had the turkey yet.

So, so sad

Our turkey came with no heart or liver. I am very sad to have no liver.

"Watching the turkey"

The turkey instructions call for putting it on the grill, covering it, and letting it be for three hours, adding new charcoal occasionally. In our house this translates to standing outside the whole day while smoking cigars.

Cheese ball complete!

Yum yum yum!

Busy, Busy

Cheese ball
Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

OK, aside from a brief foray to our Jewel Supermarket for heavy cream, oranges and AA batteries (we finally set up our Wii in the family room, and the remote was dead), I've been cookin' all day.

Because we are barbecuing the bird, it doesn't have to go on until 1:30. It's still in its brine. Once we are ready, I'll pull it out, pat it down with paper towels, shove some orange wedges in the cavity and rub it down with a combination of olive oil and toasted sesame oil. Then, it will cook on the grill for about 3 hours, get glazed with a mixture of Dijon mustard, white wine and maple syrup, and cooked for another hour. (We are aiming to eat at 6pm).

The standard cranberry sauce is made and chilling in the fridge, right next to the Cranberry Horseradish Relish. Turnips are sliced, ready to be made into Pioneer Woman's Turnip Gratin. The sweet potatoes are cut up and sitting in a pot with a stick of butter, three cups of sugar (the recipe called for FIVE!!) and 1/2 cup of water. They will cook, covered, with no interference from me, creating an amazing syrup.

For appetizers, we're going to go cheese crazy. I made a cheese ball, using a recipe I created back when I was a cheese buyer at The Produce Station in Ann Arbor (cream cheese, sharp cheddar, parmesan, Dijon, hot sauce, chopped scallions, garlic powder, horseradish). The above picture shows it formed into a ball. In five minutes, I'll roll it in toasted, crushed pecans and then we'll dive in and attack it with crackers.

We're also baking a brie that I've topped with a pecan, Brie and bourbon mixture and then wrapped in Phyllo. YUM.

Creamed Corn

Oops. I forgot to soak the dried corn overnight. I think that starting it this morning will be ok, though. It is in the fridge now, soaking in a combination of heavy cream and milk. Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile