Wasted Continuum

My family just asked me today to help cook for a catering job this Saturday morning. My dad and I will be cooking food for a wedding party of, I think, two hundred guests. That’s roughly 20 trays of food. This will be my first time in three years cooking in a commercial kitchen. It will be interesting. I’ll probably tire my arms out. Sad. My arms used to be in such great shape when I was working the wok all the time.I guess I’ll get to see if I still have what it takes to work in the kitchen.

Holy frick! This new recipe blow my last roast turkey straight out of the water. Hands down, this is a superior recipe. This was an amalgamation of four different recipes that I found. I need to write up a final recipe of what I actually did so that I can use it again. It was just ridiculously good. I only messed up the skin a little bit. Nothing I can’t change next year. Damn. I think I may have finished a third of it by myself. The last two roast chickens I made recently definitely gave me some ideas in this recipe. I’m glad it worked out. I ate a lot today and I think I’m going to pass out now.

A few things that I am thankful for:

• My family
• My friends
• My mind
• My cooking experience
• New music, like Sara Barielles
• Old music, like Green Day and Chopin
• My bed
• My health

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving 2007 Photos

Thanksgiving 2007 Photos

The turkey is stuffed and rubbed down and ready to roast.

Thanksgiving 2007 Photos

Here’s a photo I took yesterday before I started my whole cooking process. This year, I’m trying a new recipe. Not that the old recipe sucked — it’s amazing — I just wanted to improve on it. I changed the brine recipe to include a bunch of different herbs and wine. The roasting portion of the recipe is about the same. I added a few slice of citrus fruit in the cavity for a little flavor. I also used homemade herb butter to rub down the turkey. It smells good so far.

Thanksgiving 2007 Photos

After some investigation into where I can find a good local butcher shop, I have finally succeeded. Dara Moskowitz, the food critic from the City Pages, wrote a great article on Clancey’s Meats & Fish in Linden Hills. I’m hoping I can check them out soon. Supposedly, the owner, Greg Westergreen, is also a chef. I think I’ll try buying some meat for a dish next week and check out how much it’ll cost to by enough veal to make my own demi-glace. I hope the price is not too horrible.