My New Food Processor

So, after wanting a food processor for well over a year, but always not being completely certain where I would find room for one or which one I wanted, my best friend chose the holiday season to remove all of the guess work and bought me this really amazing looking one made by Kitchen Aid. It has so many attachments, and I do not even know where to begin in figuring out what to do with them all or how to exactly do it. I think the entire thing struck me as overwhelming, from the day I received it and unpacked it, washing all of its individual parts, until the day I started trying to make recipes calling for the use of one. I still have not found the recipe that explains to me how to chop with it. Can I chop multiple things at once? Do I chop only a little at a time? How does it avoid not chopping some things too much? It also has a slicer. How the hell is that supposed to work? And a dough maker attachment - that seems more intuitive.

So, on Christmas morning, after I had finished making a roasted garlic, balsamic vinegar sauce to cover my main dish, I was trying to wash the processor, and forgot the rule I had heard at least a few times before on The Food Network - remove the blade. Gravity being what it is, the blade fell from the unit and it appeared as though it was going to plummet into the garbage disposal. Instantly, I reacted the way I always do when I see something headed towards the garbage disposal, I moved to grab it and as I reached out and succeeded in snatching it from, what I mistakenly perceived as, its doom, it gently sliced into my middle finger on each hand, producing a lovely flow of red - how festive. If only I had had green band aides.

I think I have finally been able to stop the bleeding, however. So long as I can keep my fingers from impacting with hard objects. It seems every time I am injured, I become exceedingly aware of how much I really do seem to use that thing I never noticed. For example, when I had shoulder surgery, I never knew just how many times one uses their shoulder in the course of a day until I started trying to function normally again. And now I sit at my keyboard, typing away with two fingers, and you can pretty much forget about handwriting anything. However, the holiday was still a lot of fun for me, and once I heal, I'll begin my continued pursuit of mastering my new food processor.

As an aside, I know a few of my recent posts seem to indicate physical injuries in the kitchen. Fear not, my loyal readers (all six of you); each injury is a lesson for me of what not to do, and so long as I do not permanently lose the use of a digit, I try to look on the bright side and move on, a little wiser, if a little bloodier.

Turkey Crisis of 2007

Through a series of unfortunate circumstances, we wound up with two turkeys for Thanksgiving. You needn't ask how because it would only lead to a convoluted story culminating with me completely mournful that I somehow had to find something to do with this extra turkey before Thanksgiving, as it simply was not going to last.

For those of you still reading, let me briefly recap. We were going out of town for Thanksgiving and not cooking *our* turkey meal until Sunday, for an intimate gathering of friends. One of the turkeys we got was simply not going to last until Sunday. There was discussion and some extensive online research on the subject, and various "professionals" were asked, but all this lead to a completely inconclusive conclusion. As such, we decided to err on the side of caution and cook it before leaving, which did not leave much time for dilly dallying.

Finally, inspiration came to me in the form of a maple tree, or technically the sticky substance therein - a maple glazed turkey, with bacon. Sounds delicious, right? I mean combining both turkey and the savory deliciousness bacon, and gravy too? I had been wanting to try this recipe anyway, so I looked at the turkey as an almost blessing - a large, time consuming, potentially germ infested, blessing. However, I have to say that it completely worked out, except for the fact that the turkey cooked faster than expected and I did not quite get to the bacon part of the recipe before the thermometer alarm sounded. (Yes, I have a thermometer with an alarm on it, and I'm not afraid who knows it.) Because of the seemingly premature completion of my fowl creation, I now have a veritable plethora of bacon in my refrigerator, yearning to be rendered and eaten. It's a hard life. The turkey, however, was delicious and juicy even without the bacon. The maple flavoring got into the gravy and the vegetables I had roasted beneath the turkey. So every bite had this subtle, beautiful, warm accent of maple syrup. I could have eaten all night.

Our meal on Thanksgiving was also quite good, mostly because it involved eating copious amounts of food all day, including one (oh, I made more than one) of my pumpkin pies with homemade whipped cream and yet another turkey (this time prepared by someone else) with all the fixin's. Sure, I might have put on five pounds in a day, but gosh darn it, it tasted so good. Besides, I needed all that food to build up my energy for Sunday, where we ate another turkey (this one having been brined for the twenty-four hours prior), another pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream (this one was probably better than the first), fresh cranberry citrus compote, apple sausage stuffing with some other various items thrown in, acorn squash cooked with a butter, honey, and mustard concoction, and my girlfriend's chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese filling. All the guests got parting gifts of the leftover food, in an effort to somewhat preserve what little waistline I had left.

Overall, I am happy to report that the crisis was handled with great style and the we emerged victorious, if all a bit heavier.

A Slice of Life

It's good to have goals. My goal this season was to cook more with squash. No, not the yellow and zucchini squashes you so often see. I am talking about spaghetti, butternut, and acorn squash. Mmmm. The types of squash I have always been intrigued and fascinated by but never attempted to do anything with because they are foreign and unknown. It's fairly easy for me to figure out what to with everyday squash, but these are different and weird.

So, I started small. Spaghetti squash with herbs and butter. Delicious. Easy. Next on the menu was pasta with butternut squash and eggplant in a yummy sauce. The trick was that the recipe called for the squash to be peeled. Getting home, I stared at the oddly shaped squash, considering how I was exactly supposed to peel it. It did not appear to be the typical vegetable one can peel with a peeler. I probably needed a knife. Reducing it to a manageable size, I began trying to cut away the flesh from the peel. Suddenly, the knife slipped from the squash, sailed through the air and sliced straight through my skin, plunging deeply into my thumb. Oh, and did the blood flow.

Did I need stitches? I was not really sure. Clearly, I needed to get the bleeding to stop, but was it bad enough for an ER visit and lots of money in the form of a co-pay? Finishing dinner, I elevated my hand and let the cloth towl adhere to the wound, eventually replacing it with a bandage that would similarly adhere, but look less obtrusive.

Yesterday, I kept wondering if I needed stitches, looking at pictures online and comparing them to my own gaping wound, it still seemed unclear. It sure looked like that one there that needed them, but it also looked a lot like this other one that didn't. I called a nurse through my insurance company. "When was the last time you had a tetanus shot?"

"That is truly excellent question. Unfortunately, my last doctor lost every medical record I had and I have been spending the last month trying to track down pediatricians and other previous doctors, piecing together my past." Some fear a large company like Google or Microsoft being in-charge of maintaining our medical records, but to be honest, I'd feel more comfortable having them all in one place, in a hopefully safe and secure format. Not out of any concern that others might hack in and steal them. I assume they could do that at my doctor's office now. But more out of a concern that they too would one day just lose all my records and ask me if I was sure I was ever really a patient. I cannot imagine how wonderful it will be to be able to call one place and obtain all of my medical records from one source. No multiple offices to call, and multiple release forms to fill out. Sure, it sounds stupid and silly, but when you suddenly really need to have this information and cannot locate it, it becomes really, really important.

On the bright side, the squash dish turned out to be delicious, and the wound appears to be healing. However, I still do not know if I need a shot or if I will develop lockjaw or something equally as bad in the coming days. Of course, if I do, it will give me another exciting event to post about.

Lack of Tension

I suppose I really do need to blog more. I have not been very good at sticking to it. Every week, I think I will be better at it and every week, I don't seem to be. I guess I often feel that I do not have anything interesting or exciting to say. Back when I used to blog more, I had a lot of exciting things happening, with terrible dating stories and reflections on relationships, dating, and women. I know there were some other things thrown in there, but I think that was a lot of the subject matter. After a while, I sort of ran out of things to say and I started dating someone and we didn't breakup. Suddenly, my life, while becoming more full, seemed a lot more boring. I guess that is probably a good sign - not having colorful fights every week and having large issues going on all the time probably is an indication of something fairly healthy. However, I also feel less exciting. Suddenly, Kevin Smith's blog title, My Boring Ass Life, makes a whole lot more sense to me.

So many of the sitcoms and movies you see are about the boy getting the girl, but not many of them actually involve what happens once that quest is achieved. Even if the hero does somehow manage to catch the object of his affection, it is likely not going to last very long. Something bad is bound to happen, and there will be tension and drama once again. One would assume that the reason for this is that actual normal relationships are probably just plain boring to anyone watching. To the people in them, there are the twists and turns, but the nuance is probably only barely grasped by the casual observer.

One of my best friends recently sent me a cookbook. She said that she had thought of getting me this book months ago, back when my blog seemed to be more about food. I thought the gift was so sweet of her, as I really do enjoy cooking. However, I felt a little sad because I still do cook, I just neglect to ever share that part of my life on here any more. It just no longer occurs to me that I still do some of those things that I used to think blog worthy. For example, my girlfriend and I recently bought a slow cooker. I was reading a blog or something and one guy mentioned that he cooks some big stew or something every weekend in a slow cooker and he and his girlfriend slowly consume it here and there during the week, letting them eat more home cooked meals, but not spending a ton of time doing so. I thought this was a great idea. So, we got one.

This weekend, I made chicken chili which tastes absolutely amazing. I am extremely picky when it comes to chili, especially chicken chili, but I absolutely love this one. I also love that as the slow cooker cooks for eight hours, the smells that fill my apartment are completely stellar. Granted, I still cook other things and I really enjoy it. But this just adds a new dimension to everything. I can have one thing cooking and still be making other things during the day. This week, I plan to make a spaghetti squash and herb dish, with this rather large squash we bought at out neighborhood farmers' market.

On Saturday, we woke up at the crack of dawn to go participate in a 5K to support a group that helps people out of domestic violence situations. It was really surprising to see so many people up that early on a Saturday. A good number of them even appeared to be high school kids just out there to support the the cause. I thought that was really cool. The run took place right next to the ocean, and we tried to watch the sunrise, but it was overcast. Still, it was a great experience, even if I did have to wake up at 4 or 5 to do it.

On Sunday, we went to church, had lunch with my best friend (I have a few), went to the gym, and ate chicken chili. Yum. I also succeeded in getting my haircut. Small goals. Next weekend, we are going to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal in Orlando. I love how much cheaper it is to go there as a Florida resident. We have a hotel and everything, and we will also get to see some of my friends while we are up there.