December 4th, 2013 
Bar Drinks, Blog, Seasonal/Holiday Recipes 
Comments Off on Crisp and Seasonally Flavorful Fall (Whiskey) Sour – All in Pictures
This past weekend I got some requests for the crisp and fully flavorful “fall sour” seasonal variation on the traditional whiskey sour shown in the picture with the turkey dinner below left. The picture below right shows the ingredients. Click any picture on this page for a complete step-by-step picture book recipe.
Rule of Thumb: For every 1 1/2 ounces of lemon juice, add 1 teaspoon sugar, 1-2 teaspoons almond (orgeat) syrup, 3-4 ounces bourbon, and 2 ounces apple cider.
December 2nd, 2013 Blog, Chicken & Turkey Comments Off on Leftover Turkey? Turkey Nachos: Real Easy, All in Pictures 
Have leftover turkey and want something fast, flavorful and family pleasing? Easy! Make turkey nachos: Just your favorite corn (or any) chips, leftover turkey, canned beans (optional) and melted cheese topped with your choice or a combination of sliced avocado, chopped tomato, chopped onion, sour cream or plain yogurt and/or salsa. Read more »
November 29th, 2013 Blog, Chicken & Turkey, Seasonal/Holiday Recipes, Thanksgiving Dinner Comments Off on How to Remove and Store the Meat from a Turkey
First, I hope you had a fun and relaxing Thanksgiving. Yah, I know for some of you that line’ll lay a good wry smile on your face. I had a good time stretched out on my toes in the traditional Thanksgiving family picture – and just managed stand with the tallest in the group. You bet, I’m smiling! Read more »
November 28th, 2013 Blog, Chicken & Turkey, Seasonal/Holiday Recipes, Thanksgiving Dinner Comments Off on Stress-Free Roast Turkey Here’s how the 15 1/2 pound turkey I roasted last night (Thanksgiving Eve) turned out after 2 1/2 hours of high heat roasting. After misreading a recipe and making adjustments years ago, using high oven heat (450°F/230°C) at 10 minutes per pound is my favorite stress-free method for ensuring a moist and tender turkey. Read more »
November 27th, 2013 Blog, Chicken & Turkey, Seasonal/Holiday Recipes, Thanksgiving Dinner Comments Off on Quickly Thawing a Frozen Turkey in Water 
It’s the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Stores will be closed tomorrow. Hopefully, you’ve already bought a turkey if you plan to have turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.
If you bought a frozen turkey, here’s the quickest safe way to thaw it. Plan on 30 minutes thawing time per pound – about 6 hours total thawing time for a 12 pound turkey, 7 1/2 hours for a 15 pound turkey. Read more »
November 26th, 2013 Blog, Dessert, Seasonal/Holiday Recipes, Thanksgiving Dinner Comments Off on Pie Crust: Rolled vs. Pressed 
I’m fairly new to making pies but have already learned a lot regarding flavor and efficiency. Most importantly, I’ve learned NEVER to make a pie crust that’s just a bland container for a flavorful filling. No way! Here’s a picture of a crust I made recently loaded ground almond, chocolate multigrain cereal, dried cranberries, chocolate chips, shredded coconut and much more. I’ll put together a picture book recipe soon – after Thanksgiving.
I also learned very recently, after my daughter asked if we could try it, that pressing pie crust dough into a pie pan is so much easier than rolling out the dough like this:
Here’s how I do it now – much easier:
For more practical Thanksgiving help, check out the Gotta’ Eat, Can’t Cook Thanksgiving Help Page by clicking any picture on this page.
November 25th, 2013 Blog, Seasonal/Holiday Recipes, Thanksgiving Dinner Comments Off on Start Now if Thawing a Frozen Thanksgiving Turkey in the Fridge
If you’re planning to thaw a frozen turkey for Thanksgiving as safely as possible – no matter the size of the turkey – start thawing it now by leaving it in its original packaging, putting it on a plate to catch any condensation and putting it in the refrigerator. As you can see in the picture of the “estimated thawing time” label below, thawing a turkey in the refrigerator takes days of time. After 3 full days of thawing in the refrigerator, I checked my 15 1/2 pound turkey last night and found the bottom was still crunchy frozen.
Read more »
Using a good dose of imagination and lots of enthusiasm, Armstrong first graders and I flew Armstrong Air to all kinds of places around the world. Armstrong Flight Day has become a traditional part of a geography segment in which students learn about the countries and cultures they and their families came from. Read more »
November 21st, 2013 Blog, How To & Tips, Seasonal/Holiday Recipes, Thanksgiving Dinner Comments Off on Thawing a Frozen Turkey in the Refrigerator 
Just for the fun of it – this stuff is always fun – I got a 15 1/2 pound frozen turkey yesterday evening to find out how long it really takes to thaw it completely in the refrigerator as recommended on the packaging. All I did was put the rock-solid frozen turkey on a plate at 6pm and slide it onto the bottom shelf in my refrigerator, which is set pretty much right at the refrigerator manufacturer’s recommended temperature, probably about 40° F (4° C). Read more »
November 19th, 2013 Blog, How To & Tips, Thanksgiving Dinner Comments Off on Heavy Cream vs. Evaporated Milk 
There’s just about nothing else that adds a more comforting flavor and texture to food than heavy cream. The only downside is that heavy cream can also leave you feeling excessively full – very quickly, and there are two good reasons for that as you can see in the nutrition label comparison below.
The bottom line is that heavy cream has more than twice the calories and five times the fat content of evaporated milk. The first thing to notice in the label comparison above is that the serving size for heavy cream (1 tablespoon) is half the serving size of evaporated milk (2 tablespoons). That means ounce for ounce (2 tablespoons = 1 ounce), heavy cream has 100 calories, all which are attributed to fat as follows: 10 grams total fat, 7 grams of which are saturated fat, and a cholesterol content of 40 mg. The same one ounce of evaporated milk has 40 calories, 20 calories of which are attributed to fat like this: 2 grams total fat, 1.5 grams of which are saturated fat, and 10 mg of cholesterol.
Nutritionally, the differences are significant, though I’ve found that both evaporated milk and heavy cream have similar cooking and flavor properties, especially when used in recipes like mashed potatoes, gravy, pasta al Fredo, pumpkin pie, and more. That means substituting heavy cream with evaporated milk is a great way to add comforting texture and flavor without taking on excessive calories and fat.
