My Turkey Coma ...

Hey there! Well, I am just now waking up from what I like to call my "Turkey Coma", a bit of hibernation, if you will. Truthfully I woke up yesterday from the coma, but by the time I got home from work ... it was time for a Tylenol PM coma. I somehow got the sniffles and with recipe testing this week among other events, I can't really be sick. I thought I could post a blog last night, but just 30 minutes after taking the meds, I couldn't even aptly respond to emails without thinking about how to spell simple words or compose a thought. So anyway, I hope you had a great turkey day and an enjoyable hibernation as well!!

I started last week with a trip to Martha Stewart radio where I handled the Turkey Hotline. The reason I mention that is the hosts, Kim and Betsy laughed and shunned me when I said I was frying my turkey ... inside instead of the recommended back/front yard suggestion. I told them, "Reeeeelax, I'd found a counter-top turkey fryer and intend to test drive it". Well ... it drove ...

Look at that wing!!! Look, I'm not an endorser, but if you want to know where I got the counter-top turkey fryer just ask in comments and I'll give up the goods. The fryer does up to a 22 pound turkey and what I really like about it other than it actually works, is it's also a huuuuuuuuge vat for deep frying at home, so the next day instead of doing my stuffing bites in batches, I threw all 10 of em in the big vat with confidence that the temperature wouldn't fall due to overcrowding. I actually did my Stuffing Bites as croquettes, a bit bigger than the bites. I just roll the stuffing into a ball, flatten it, dredge in flour, then egg wash, then panko breadcrumbs. 350 degrees and about 6 mins later after a sprinkle of salt ... yum yum yum ...Perfect thing about this recipe is if you like your stuffing ... you'll love your very own stuffing bites! I serve it with the leftover cranberry sauce blitzed with some walnuts. This year I thought I wouldn't make cranberry sauce, but ended up doing it anyway. Hey, wait ... can't get ahead of myself. Did you want to see the bird? It was an 11.11 pounder, I brined it in a small cooler for 2 days in my fridge (I was shooting for 3 days, but my schedule didn't really allow it). Then I rubbed and rested it on it's end right on my counter top to let it dry and come to room temp. It took just 38 minutes to fry. I promise when I get my website relaunched, (I'm on track for a late January launch!) I'll get my act together and have more "styled" photos if you like, but there's nothing like a cell phone cam in a pinch ... :-)That's right before I tented it with some aluminum foil for a rest. Lemme tell you those legs just pulled right off! I broke it down and plated it. What do you do? Do you make slices of the breasts or do you take off the breast as a whole and then cut it against the grain? I do the latter, seems like there's more meat that way, a total optical illusion for me. Then I made mac and cheese, collard greens, sweet potato casserole with a pecan topping, rice, sweet ice tea, chorizo and plantain stuffing, giblet gravy, cranberry sauce and a blueberry apple pie. Ok, ready for the "real" part of Cooking for Real? I was so busy the few days before Thanksgiving that I got up late that day, therefor starting late ... I did everything that day with no prep other than the bird brining. Here's the real part ... we didn't eat until Conan O'brien was on! Pretty late, but totally worth the wait. Take a look at dessert in the oven!I know they sell pie guards, but Kim over at Martha Stewart radio and I agree, it just takes up too much drawer space. Aluminum foil does the trick, non-stick aluminum foil is even better! (Cooking for Real! Don't need the fancy stuff to get it done!) The day after Thanksgiving we continued to hibernate and had pie first then I made some turkey pot pies out of the dark meat, the leftover gravy, some frozen rice, carrots, stock, cream and I made extra dough for the blueberry apple pie and froze it, so I used that for the crust. And yes, I totally support pre-made pie crusts in a pinch, but it's the holidays and I was feeling it, so I went old school and made it :-). Here are a few of the pot pie shots ...

We tore into those for late lunch, because of course the pie was a late breakfast, gluttons. For dinner we did a turkey day repeat with the stuffing bites being the only difference. Then Saturday for breakfast I made eggs, grits with the giblet solids I strained out of the gravy on Thursday and left over chorizo that didn't make it into the stuffing. I also made waffles and folded in the leftover sweet potato casserole, then made a pecan caramel sauce to drizzle over it, pretty darn good. I wrote down the recipe and I'll try to share it in a future show. We did the waffles two days in a row. I froze them the first day so day two, was all toaster time! I just sat here trying to remember every meal so I asked my guy for help, let me tell you how much we ate ... we just both got tired even trying to list the meals and what we had. So I've totally missed some meals here, but I just wanted to share. There were so many "snack" meals lol. The "hey, go warm up some of the stuffing bites real quick" or the "gimme a piece of skin". I feel like I'm in confession, I really over ate! Check out Holly's blog Random Cravings to see more turkey talk! She decided weeks ago to cook for real for 6 weeks, so last week she made some of my Thanksgiving recipes. Check out I'm Thankful for Sunny's Turkey Recipe and Thanksgiving Leftover Bonus!

Ok, well as if all that eating that wasn't bad enough, Monday morning was the first day of pre-production for Season 9 of Cooking for Real! What that means is I get in the Food Network kitchens and pretty much demo the bulk of the recipes from the menus I've pitched for the upcoming season. Lot's of eating!!! There are so many reasons we do this, but the main one is to make taping that much easier. When everyone on the team knows how I make it, what it looks like and how long the processes are, it makes planning each act of the show and each taping a breeze! You'd never guess how much time we spend talking about where in the show to start making each dish or if we need to move things from the oven to the stove top or vice versa. I totally enjoy the process and can't wait for you to see the new shows! So far I've plowed through shows I have tentatively titled "Easier than it looks", "Diner Breakfast", "Cookin' it Old School", "Comforting Classics", "Much Ado About Stuffing" and "Fish n Grits". Here's the first pic I took Monday, pretty much says it all ...

Alright, that's it. I'm headed to Chicago for a quick trip. Can't wait to tell you all about it and hope you'll join in on the plan! Especially if you like baking cookies :-) Stick around!