November, 2008
November 30th, 2008
In Case You’ve Forgotten That Ryan Theriot Sucks
The Chicago Tribune stumbled on this fascinating nugget: Of the hundreds of major league baseball players last year, only one of them reached double figures in errors (14), grounded into double plays (19) and caught stealing (13). Do I even need to tell you that the scrappy superstar is The One?
November 30th, 2008
American Hero of the Day: Chad Ocho Cinco
I’ve been a big fan of Chad Ocho Cinco (nee Johnson) ever since I watched him score two touchdowns against the Bears on September 25, 2005. It wasn’t so much the touchdowns, but the fact that he danced an Irish jig after one of them, and then did push-ups in the end zone after the other.
Anyhow, Chad is way too talented to be stuck on a crappy team like the Bengals and he got himself suspended because of an unidentified violation of some arbitrary team rule. He had played in the previous 113 consecutive games.
Anyhow, on Black Friday, when most professional athletes were in bed, Ocho Cinco awoke before the crack of dawn to get down to Best Buy to do some holiday shipping. He even bought a present for his coach who, Ocho Cinco says, is not taking his calls.
And of course, being the fan-friendly superstar that he is, Ocho Cinco took a couple of minutes to make a Best Buy employee’s day by talking to her.
November 28th, 2008
I Rocked Thanksgiving
Yes, that turkey was as good as it looks. That’s 8 pounds of kosher breast and one drumstick. I hosted my parents and little sister for a very low-key Thanksgiving. I meant to take a picture of the inside of the turkey, but I was too busy eating a delicious, moist, well-flavored turkey.
The recipe, courtesy of Chicago residents and Food Network stars, the Hearty Boys. The recipe is designed for roasting, but only a fool would roast a turkey if they have a smoker handy. Before putting it on the smoker, my turkey sat in a brine made out of water, kosher salt, maple syrup, thyme, bay leaves, garlic and pepper.
When preparing to brine, I ran into a slight problem: I don’t own a pot big enough to hold an 8-pound turkey breast. Like any great chef, I improvised:
I put a garbage bag inside the sunflower seed bucket and put the turkey and brine in the bag, took a shelf out of my fridge and put the bucket inside for 18 hours:
Since the turkey was only going to take about 4 hours to cook and the charcoal lasts a lot longer than that, I decided to go ahead and make a second entree for Thanksgiving. I stopped by Costco on Wednesday and picked up a nice big salmon fillet so I could do something useful with my fire in addition to cook a turkey. So one half of the salmon marinated in the same Mojo Criollo/olive oil/lemon juice marinade that I used for my first chicken last weekend. I was so excited about my maple syrup (I have taken multiple swigs from the jug) that I did a google search and found this recipe that calls for maple syrup, brown sugar, salt and water.
Both versions of salmon were really good, but the next time I make smoked salmon, I really want to dry it out a lot more. This salmon smoked for about an hour and it was fully cooked. I think next time I’m going to go for about an 8-hour smoke.
Two main courses would have been great, but then I got a call yesterday from my brother-in-law’s sister who said she’d be dropping off lasagna featuring homemade sauce. The thing weighed at least 15 pounds, and that was 15 pounds of serious meat-filled goodness. I love lasagna but I never make it. Well, not real lasagna. But if you put a layer of premade ravioli in the bottom of a baking dish, cover it with a layer of sauce and a layer of cheese, and then repeat all three layers, you can get a decent lasagna-like meal. But this was a whole lot better than decent.
No meal is complete with just main courses, even if there are three of them. My mother contributed some green bean dish and some bread. She also, for reasons that are lost on me, brought some kishke. The final side dish was one I made, which came straight from last Wednesday’s New York Times, this sweet potato puree with apples. Sweet potatoes, apples, honey, yogurt, butter and lime juice combine to make an excellent dish. I improved the recipe by tossing some marshmallows on top for the last couple of minutes in the over. This one was a winner.
