Thanksgiving foods

     First things first, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
     Everyone knows that a huge portion of Thanksgiving is about the food. Some people's portions and varieties of food vary, but, overall, they are generally the same: turkey/ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, cranberry sauce, and baby onions. People also tend to have salads, but that's a post in and of itself. Afterwards, people indulge in a large spectrum of desserts; From the favorites of pumpkin pie and apple pie to cheesecake to occasionally baklava.
     Of course, what would be a Thanksgiving without turkey or ham! The size and (of course) cook time varies with the size of the family. I heard a person on the radio saying that they purposely cooked an extra turkey because there wasn't going to be any leftovers; Who doesn't like the next day turkey sandwiches? I hear that a ham leaves a lot of leftovers. The thing about ham, oppose to turkey, is that with turkey you can just microwave the gravy, but ham generally has its own sauce (like asparagus) which is one more thing you have to make, also less people like ham than turkey. If you have a turkey, you need to make sure you put it in the refrigerator days in advance, so it has time to thaw.
     Some people stuff the turkey with stuffing while others just leave the stuffing on the side. There are several downsides with cooking the turkey with the stuffing in it; For starters, the turkey needs to cook at least an hour longer for a 20 lb turkey. This means that you have to start cooking earlier in the day. Also, the stuffing can get too moist. Obviously, these little things can be compensated for and make it even better for a skilled cook. Stuffing's can vary. There's a traditional stuffing with sausage and celery in it, but there's others like Lebanese stuffing which I'm not sure what's in it.
     Mashed potatoes is another favorite. They are prepared by adding milk and butter while mashing. Regardless of if you use regular gravy, or a different grave like with ham, mashed potatoes are better with something on them (oppose to high and dry). The variety of potatoes can vary the results of how the mashed potatoes come out. Personally, I prefer the Russet potatoes for my mashed potatoes, but Norland Red's are pretty good too. Some people are more concerned than others about how chunky the potatoes can come out.
     Sweat potatoes are separate from mashed potatoes. While mashed potatoes generally have gravy on them, sweat potatoes are prepared with brown sugar. I didn't always like sweat potatoes, but I guess all the years of Thanksgiving warmed me up to it. You may wonder why I had it on my table if I didn't like it, but that doesn't mean someone who came over didn't like it. I had been making it just for them.
     Something else prepared on Thanksgiving is acorn squash. Even with a really sharp knife, it can be hard to cut in half. The outer skin is really tough. After someone's managed to cut it in half, it's put in a toaster oven and cooked. Afterwards, the skin just falls off and the insides is placed in a bowl.
     Baby onions are one of my personal main meal favorite foods to have on Thanksgiving. The way they are prepared might be one of the things that contribute to their greatness and outstanding taste. They are generally the first thing gone at my house. For the sake of being etiquette, I make sure I cut them in half before eating them even though they are bit size and could easily fit in my mouth whole.
     An often over looked item on the table is the cranberry sauce. It can be whole berry or smooth sauce, but I prefer whole berry. After I discovered whole berry, I make sure that I put both types of cranberry on the table. If they don't both get eaten than that's just more leftovers for me.
     Now for the dessert. I love pumpkin pie, it is my favorite dessert. Specifically, I prefer it made than sat on the counter to age for at least 24-hours, or it won't taste the best (in my opinion). You can buy pumpkin pie filling at certain store which saves some of the time making it.
      Another favorite is apple pie. Apple pies can vary greatly depending on the recipe and whose making it. I have a friend who make a great apple pie with fresh apples. Unfortunately, most local apples are picked, so she has to get store bought apples for Thanksgiving. She still makes a good apple pie, but good ingredients like fresh apples can still improve the recipe.
     I hope you enjoyed that post. What are you favorite Thanksgiving foods?

Grilled Cheese

     I like many varieties of sandwiches. Many of which I will explore over the next few posts, or more. Each kind of sandwich has its own qualities. (And even the simplest sandwiches can go wrong, but this isn't the most disastrous sandwiches in America or anything, so I won't really go into that.) I shall start off by talking Grilled Cheese.
     What could be more delicious than a slab of cheese between buttered bread grilled to perfection? Well, a BLT (bacon lettuce and tomato) because it's my favorite sandwich, but that's beside the point. Talking about grilled cheese seemed the right sandwich to start with, though.
     At first I always made my grilled cheese with white bread and hadn't thought of trying it with any other bread for some reason. But later I decided to try with some other kinds and they came out half decent, though the white bread will always be my favorite bread for grilled cheese.
     Buttering bread before putting it on the grill helps the crisping process. I've never used anything, but real butter for the buttering process; however, fake butter obviously isn't made the same way as real butter is, so it probably wouldn't come up with the same result in the grilled cheese.
     What's the biggest factor in making grilled cheese? You guessed it! The cheese itself. From American to Swiss to provolone, each cheese brings quite the difference of flavor to the table.

Well, I hope you enjoyed that. I will just leave you with this beautiful picture of grilled cheese.

Corn of the cob

     A seasonal favorite of mine is corn of the cob. You certainly can't get it in the winter and not in the spring either. It's a summer food. Well, you probably can get in during the winter, but it wouldn't be from around here. Unlike steak, you can't really change the recipe for it. However, you can add certain after effects.
      Of course, corn can't grow in the mountains, and Colorado is famous for its mountain's (the rocky mountains). However, they do grow corn in Colorado, just not in the mountains. If the corn isn't grown in your area then it's probably not fresh. Obviously, the farther away the corn is coming from the longer it takes to get to its destination and the less fresh it'll be. I'm leaving the starting farm and the corn's final destination not specified because it would be different for each individual. Thankfully, unlike, for example canned peaches, you can see the product. Or get a general picture anyway. With canned peaches, if they used bad peaches (for whatever reason), then you don't have any idea what your product looks like, or the size of it, until you open up the can and hope for the best. Corn on the cob is only in its natural container; its husk. You can generally get a picture of what the size of the corn is by the size of the husk or gentle feeling the place of the cob in the husk. Also, by the health status of the husk, you can try and judge the quality of the corn itself. If you buy local corn on the cob then you probably don't need to check it, though that could change depending on how many people are buying it and how much has been sitting around. However, whether it is necessary to check the corn or not, it is still good practice. Also, you never know when something could come up. Overall, I think I have had pretty good luck with picking out corn.
     All foods can be compared to each other in some way or another. When cooking steak, it has been noted that you can season it with a whole arsenal of spices and herbs. Also, it can be cooked to several different variations of how done it is. Lastly, several different steak sauces can be added when consumed or left with out any. (Last night, my steak was juicy enough without any sauce added). With corn on the cob, the choices are rather limited. There are always ways to vary how to bring food to the table, but some food can be changed less than others. With corn on the cob I boil a pot of water and drop the dehusked corns in. Later, I take them out and pile them on a plate. When I'm ready for my next corn on the cob, I remove it from the other plate and place it on my plate where I proceed to put the corn on the cob holders on either side of my corn on the cob.

A picture of corn on the cob holders.

After I have adjusted my corn on the cob holders so that they won't fall off as soon as I pick them up I pick up my corn on the cob. You would have pretaken out a stick of butter and placed it in a special container before the start of the meal.

Here you can see what my stick of butter holder looks like.

I twirl my corn on the cob over the stick of butter, so that it just barely scrapes the utmost top layer of butter off and onto my corn. I continue the process until each kernel of corn has butter on it. Or rather, almost all. There is generally a stubborn corn that I can't get to, but amongst the rest of the butter it isn't noticeable.
 I salt my corn next, but you don't have to. Some people like their food saltier than other people.
     Enjoy you corn on the cob and the summer!

Baby Back Ribs

      Hello all. I know it has been a bit, but it wouldn't be college if I didn't study once in a while. Today's post is about a popular food called Baby Back Ribs.

Some of my supper.

Generally, I have baked brown beans with my baby back ribs and a canned fruit. Tonight the canned fruit I'm going to have with it peaches. Ribs can go from here to there. Some are juice, some are dry, some have a lot of barbecue sauce and some have hardly any (though you can always add your own).
     Personally, I have my own arsenal of barbecue sauces. Below is a picture of one of my favorites.

 

I like Richard's barbecue sauce; I got it from Vermont. Actually I ordered online and they shipped a box of them to me.

I'm all for trying new barbecue sauces, but if I were you I wouldn't order a whole box just to try it. You might not like it! You probably have to buy in bulk. However, I'm sure that any grocery store has several barbecue sauces to choose from.
     Because I like barbecue sauce on my ribs it can get quite messy. My friend Chloe claims that she can eat ribs with lots of barbecue sauce on them and eat them neat. (I haven't seen this). Today I ate supper with my friend Eli who made a bit of a mess; though not as much as me... I got some sauce on my shirt. (I'm sure that stain comes out.)
     I hear that brown beans are best when not just reheated from the can. However, all though I can cook somewhat, I have yet to try and cook brown beans from scratch.
     The peaches are my short term dessert. Later I had a rice crispy square for a better dessert, but peaches are fine for eating just after supper. The unfortunate thing about rice crispy squares is that they are messy. If I am not careful than I could get it all over my coach. Or I could just eat over my coffee table...
     And that sums up my Baby Back Ribs dinner plus dessert.

New things

     No one needs to talk me into trying new things. I'm all for that; you won't know unless you try it, right? In fact, I've tried several things that other people wouldn't try. (Though there is that line. I hear there is a such thing as chocolate covered ant and that's were I draw the line at trying new food.)
     Aside from that, I've tried things like eating pickled eggs, chocolate covered bacon, bacon milkshake, chocolate covered pickles and anchovies. (I'm not saying there isn't people who would eat them without a second thought; I'm just saying that I took the time to try what I wouldn't normally eat.)

I got my bacon milkshake at Denny's along with a few other bacon related products they were selling.

     Despite what people say, I did in fact try swimming before I decided I didn't like it. Not being able to swim may have something to do with it, but I won't even put my feet in the water or as my friends always hear me say 'my big toe'. My big toe always feels like it's going to freeze off. You could almost say I'm paranoid of large bodies of water. Though when I'm not standing in the water or with my big toe in the water, I'm generally one of the warmest people around. Swimming or standing in a lake, ocean or pond just isn't for me.
     Let's see, what else have I tried? I'm not a big roller coaster guy. I've gone on a few, but they just weren't what I thought they'd be. I don't get nauseous easily, but roller coaster do make me feel a little queasy.
     Oh, I'm always watching a new movie. Me and best friend Dale are always going to the movies together. So if you count that as trying something new than I do that quite often. I have a larger view point of good movies than Dale, though not by much. TV shows is something else I watch several of. However I haven't been able to watch as much TV or go to as many movies sense I started going to college. Not that there is always good movies coming out.
     I'm not sure if trying a new class counts or not. Sure it's something new, but if you want to get that degree than you don't have much choice. Though you did choose to go to college and try a whole new experience, so that must count for something....
     Moving on, I've tried many friendships and they have all worked out. I'm now good friends with Dale and Eli. Also, I'm friends with Ginn and Chloe. Furthermore, I've had the pleasure of becoming acquaintance with Lisa, Amanda, Tamara, David, Ronald, Nicholas, Everett, Varro, Matthew, Barnes, Kiva, Camille, Hunter, Ellie and James. I have no girlfriend as of now, but I have no problem trying that if it were to come my way. (A girl who is a great cook would be nice.)
     So, you shouldn't be afraid to try new things when they come your way. I know I'm not. This should mean a lot coming from a guy who tries a lot of new things.

[All pictures that I post on my blog are from the web. I have no camera of my own and, when I borrowed a friends camera, my pictures were really blurry.]