A tradition that I avoid in the traditional manner at all costs. When it comes to Christmas shopping, I do almost all of it online anymore. And, we all know when I shop online, I do all of it from Amazon.com.
If you are thinkin’ about doing some shopping at Amazon this weekend, a good place to start would be by clicking the banner at the top of the page (or this link). It’s only going to be there until Monday, and yes I do get a kickback. But, since you are going to be shopping anyway, why not help me out a little bit, right?
It’s that crazy time of the year in the United States again. It starts Thursday with our traditional day of over-eating and football, continuing into a weekend filled with packed malls and bargain-hunter clogged roads. At least, a nice bowl of soup should help you to relax.
Turkey Soup
One thing that I do every year is say I’m going to make turkey stock with the bones and carcass from the Thanksgiving bird. Into bags the parts go, then into the freezer to wait for me to pull them out and create stock.
Who’s with me?
In reality, the bones and parts usually end up the trash, without so much as a drop of stock being made. This year, I changed that, and early to boot since our traditional meal will include Prime Rib, not turkey. So, we had turkey this weekend, and from the pieces and parts, I created one bad ass stock. Are you ready?
The Stock
- Turkey parts. Bones, carcass, neck, gizzards, skin, whatever. The wings work well here too.
- 1 onion, cut into quarters. You can leave the skin on
- 3 celery stalks, with leaves, cut into thirds
- 2-3 bay leaves
- 1 cup of salt
- As much garlic as you like
- Water to cover
Put everything in your largest stock pot. Add water to cover. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. How long depends on how much parts you put in. 2-3 hours would be a good place to start. If you are going to make soup with this now, continue on, otherwise get it cold ASAP. You can store it in Mason jars (even frozen) for use later.
The Soup
- Turkey Stock
- Vegetables
- Noodles, beans or both
- Salt
- Herbs, spices and garlic
Pretty vague, right? I know. It’s time for you to get a little creative in the kitchen. This is something that is impossible to screw up, so go crazy!
Want spinach, tomatoes and beans? Go! More traditional carrots, celery and rice? Sure. All starch with potatoes, noodles and barley? You can do that too! The stock is, essentially, a blank canvass ready to accept whatever flavors you want to through at it. Go nuts, have fun and get the rest of the family involved. I can practically guarantee that you won’t screw it up!
Been awhile since I’ve shared a recipe. Mostly because it’s been awhile since I’ve cooked anything worth sharing. I changed that tonight. Like all of my recipes, this one is easy and good!
The kicker for this dish was the black bean salsa.
- 1 bag frozen corn, thawed or 3 ears cooked and cleaned
- 1 can black beans, rinse thoroughly
- 2-3 roma tomatoes, diced
- 1 bell pepper of your choosing, diced
- 3 tbls cilantro or parsley, chopped fine
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- Juice from 1 lemon
- 3 tbls Olive oil
- 1 tbls salt
- 1 tlbs fresh ground black pepper
Put all of that into a plastic mixing bowl (since the acids and stainless steel don’t get along too well) and mix until combined. Let sit at room temperature for at least 1/2 hour before serving. If you can wait an hour, that would be better.
Once that is done, build it out. You will need about 2lbs cooked chicken, cut into strips. I used thigh meat tonight, but breast would be equally awesome. Finally, you will need about 3 cups cooked rice. I’ve been favoring Jasmine rice of late, but any white rice would do nicely.
On a plate, as above, put the rice, then chicken. Top with the salsa. The avocado was a bonus since I found some that were decent at the market, but completely optional.
Serve with any light colored beverage of your choosing. I would try this with a good wheat beer, Pinot Grigo or Sauvignon blanc.
It is actually much too late on the day before Sunday. No, scratch that. It’s much too early Sunday. I’m tired, a little loopy and having a hard time keeping my eyes open, but for some reason I am compelled to put words to screen.
This could go anywhere
Honestly. I’m sitting at my desk letting my fingers just dance across the glorious Apple keyboard that sits directly in front of my 20″ iMac. There are cables connecting the two that constantly get in the way, but I’m just too damned cheap to pony up the $80 for the bluetooth keyboard.
I’ve mentioned this keyboard many times in the past. I really enjoy using it. I mean, really enjoy it. I actually like this one better than the one that I have at the office, which is about 2 weeks old. Why? This one is all broken in. The buttons finally work as I expect them too. The keys are smooth and silky and have a pleasant feel about them as my fingers press. The action is fluid, quiet and yet, at the same time, slightly mechanical in a very satisfying way.
Yes, I do love my keyboard.
Don’t get me wrong. That old IBM keyboard that came with my 286 back in the early 90’s was a wondrous piece of gear. It was loud, solid and keying on that board was almost the same as using a typewriter back in high school. Connected with a tightly coiled cable that was forever getting in the way of something, it was still an awesome keyboard. You could get a serious rhythm going with that board and once in the groove, man, the places it could take you.
Between the boards, there have been others. I even tried one of the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboards for a spell. While I didn’t dislike it, I’m a lazy typist that doesn’t know where the numbers are without looking, and taking a hand off of that thing to work the 10 pad was inconvenient and really slowed things down.
There was also a slew of Logitech boards with the myriads of PCs that I have used over the years. Not too bad either. Satisfying sounds and feel, wireless, comfortable and good to type on. Hell, most of the posts on this site and this one before ‘07 were made with a Logitech board. And there was some good stuff.
But, and this is just my own humble opinion, not as good as the stuff that came after.
Yes, I do love my keyboard. Is that strange? Maybe. If you don’t love yours, then perhaps you should take some time out of your day today and get to shopping. If your computer is a tool, then the keyboard is the handle and you really should find something that works for you, fits well in your hand and is pleasing to use. Otherwise, you might as well use a pencil. I shudder at that thought.
You should be able to use a keyboard like you use your car. When you reach for something, it’s just there. You didn’t have to look because your hands knew what it would find when it landed. A good keyboard is exactly like that.
And I love mine.
Happy Saturday to all y’all that celebrate that kind of thing. I had a bit of a week, wrought with illness, emotional highs, emotional lows, frustration and some kick ass jams while driving to work. Yea, that kind of week. Here’s a quick recap for those of you that don’t play the donburnside.com home game.
After hanging out with the mouth breathers and other “car people” at SEMA last week, I think I caught a less virulent strain of Ebola. I got home on Friday and after the adrenalline and booze wore off, it hit me with a fever that lasted from Monday until sometime Wednesday. Aches? Yea, had those too. Plus a terribly annoying cough that felt like every rib in my rib cage was cracked when I coughed. This was a something that would have put Col. Potter’s horse to the ground!
During this, I made an attempt at installing PHP and mySql on a Windows server. My fever addled brain thought it sounded like a good idea. It took 2 days, but I did achieve success on our dev server. More sleep and advil later, I attempted the exact same thing on our production server, only to have it blow up on me. Wordpress, on this day, was not my friend.
Finally, after more sleep, even more Advil and some well placed cuss words, I achieved success!. Even managed to get the layout up and running in the same day. I rule.
Remarkably I made it to today. Also during this week I experienced some of the worst Southern California driving ever. It was epically bad. Add to that the fact that I don’t remember the drive to and from work on Monday and Tuesday, and it’s a wonder I survived. No kidding.
Finally, I woke up this morning too early thanks to teh lad’s alarm clock going off at least an hour before I wanted to wake up. Took advantage of that time and put the finishing touches on a website that I hope to take live within the next week.
So, in 1 week I finished 3 sites, wrassled with a Windows Server, battled traffic (and won!) and survived Ebola.
What’s next?
You could play along with the home game you know, right? Easiest way is to follow me on Facebook, but that’s not the only way. There is also Twitter and w(t)f, both of which I’ve been using quite a bit lately. Follow along. It’s fun!
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