Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Thanksgiving Dinner Rules
Thanks to Monica Mingo for sharing this.
Print and give a copy to each guest that enters your home.
10 RULES FOR THANKSGIVING
1. Don't get in line asking questions about the food. "Who made the potato salad? Is it egg in there? Are the greens fresh? Is the meat in the greens turkey or pork? Who made the macaroni and cheese? What kind of pie is that? Who made it? Ask one more question and I will punch you in your mouth, knocking out all your fronts so you won't be able to eat anything.
2. If you can't walk or are missing any limbs, sit your ass down until someone makes your plate for you. Dinner time is not the time for you to be independent. Nibble on them damn pecans and walnuts to hold you over until someone makes you a plate.
3. If you have kids under the age of twelve, I will escort the little moochers to the basement and bring their food down to them. They are not gonna tear my damn house up this year. Tell them that they are not allowed upstairs until it's time for Uncle Butchie to start telling family stories about their mommas and papas. If they come upstairs for any reason except for that they are bleeding to death, I will break a foot off in their asses!
4. There is going to be one prayer for Thanksgiving dinner! JUST ONE! We do not care that you are thankful that your 13 year old daughter gave birth to a healthy baby or your nephew just got out of jail. Save that talk for somebody who gives a damn. The time limit for the prayer is one minute. If you are still talking after that one minute is up, you will feel something hard come across your lips and they will be swollen for approximately 20 minutes.
5. Finish everything on your plate before you go up for seconds! If you don't, you will be cursed out and asked to stay your greedy ass home next year!
6. BRING YOUR OWN TUPPERWARE!! Don't let me catch you fixing yourself a plate in my good Tupperware knowing damn well that I will never see it again! Furthermore, if you didn't bring anything over, don't let me catch you making a plate period or there will be a “misunderstanding”.
7. What you came with is what you should leave with!! Do not leave my house with anything that doesn't belong to you. EVERYBODY WILL BE SUBJECTED TO A BODY SEARCH COMING IN AND LEAVING MY PROPERTY!!!
8. Do not leave your kids so you can go hopping from house to house. This is NOT a DAYCARE CENTER! There will be a kid-parent roll call every ten minutes. Any parent that is not present at the time of roll call, your child will be put outside until you come and get him or her. After 24 hours, I will call DSS on your ignorant ass!!
9. BOOK YOUR HOTEL ROOM BEFORE YOU COME INTO TOWN!! There will be no sleeping over at my house! You are to come and eat dinner and take your ass home or to your hotel room. EVERYBODY GETS THE HELL OUT AT 11:00 pm. You will get a 15
minute warning bell ring.
10. Last but not least! ONE PLATE PER PERSON!!! This is not a soup kitchen. I am not trying to feed your family until Christmas dinner! You will be supervised when you fix your plate. Anything over the appropriate amount will be charged to you before you leave. There will be a cash register at the door. Thanks to Cousin Alfred and his greedy ass family, we now have a credit card machine! So VISA and MASTERCARD are now being accepted. NO FOOD STAMPS OR ACCESS CARDS YET!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thanksgiving - The Day After
Class #56 came up with some great ideas for using all those Thanksgiving leftovers. Check them out in the Indianapolis Star.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
This Thanksgiving, his plate is full
THE Los Angeles Mission will serve Thanksgiving dinner today (a day-before-the-holiday tradition for decades) to anyone who wants it. More than 3,000 guests are expected, an estimated 500 more than were served last year, says Herb Smith, chief executive and president of the mission. The economy has been rough. But hard times aren't the only reason for the surge, Smith says: "We have the best food on skid row."
The menu for the feast here, like Thanksgiving menus everywhere, has treasured traditions -- dishes and gracious gestures the guests anticipate. The centerpiece of the meal, a big, meaty smoked turkey leg on each and every plate, is a symbol of abundance created by executive chef Chris Cormier four years ago.
"Our guests come here looking for connections, rituals, a diversion from an otherwise gray existence," says Cormier, 47, who was once homeless himself. "We have fresh flowers on every table and serve food we'd be happy to feed our own families."
Cormier first came to the mission because of the food. Of all of the soup kitchens where he'd eaten, this was the place that took pride in what was served, he says. One reason: The kitchen is staffed by students in the mission's chef training program. After coming for the food, Cormier stayed to work his way up through the training program he now runs.
The Los Angeles Mission, founded in 1936, moved into its current facility on 5th Street in 1992. The 394-bed shelter is now one of the nation's largest providers of services to the homeless, offering three hot meals a day as well as vocational training and continuing education. The Thanksgiving tradition, its most visible public event, takes place on 5th Street by the mission between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. It's a block party, with that section of 5th Street closed for the day so that dining tables can be set up in the street.
Because no one stands in line at home to be served Thanksgiving dinner, the mission's guests are served by 450 volunteers who have made this meal part of their Thanksgiving tradition. Guests sit with their friends, other members of the all-too-stable population living near the mission.
On each plate, that smoked turkey leg is accompanied by homemade mashed potatoes with country gravy, candied yams, mixed vegetables, cranberry relish and buttered rolls. There's pumpkin pie for dessert. The pies are donated, but the rest of the recipes have been developed by Cormier, who learned banquet-style cooking from "a couple of guys who used to run kitchens in Las Vegas," he says. "I like to use buttermilk in the potatoes to give them that extra flavor without loading them up with too much fat."
Cormier and his second in command, David Thomas, supervise cooks Carlos Castillo, Harold Reed and Nick Bautista and a rotating support staff. The crew cooks all day today, guaranteeing that everyone gets a hot just-cooked meal. The mission's well-equipped professional kitchen is "controlled chaos" during the event, Cormier says.
"Our friends and neighbors look forward to Chris' food," says Smith. "And not just on Thanksgiving. He makes a mac and cheese with three cheeses for Christmas dinner that people talk about all year. His food brings people to our door and we'll get to know someone. Hopefully, that meal will lead them to want to change their lives.
"Cooking is a bridge to self-sufficiency for the students working under Cormier. He shows them what he wants, then lets them learn by doing the work themselves.
"It was my lifeline back," Cormier says. "It inspired me to dust myself off and carry on.
"With a mother born in Jamaica then raised in Panama, and a father from Louisiana, Cormier's childhood in El Sereno revolved around the dinner table.
"My mother's gumbo was fantastic. She could make chicken wings a gourmet dish," he says. "I'd have cooking competitions with my friends to see who made the best chili or jambalaya." By the early 1980s he was a cook in Redding.
"Then I had my battles with addiction. I thought my life was over. I told people to just take me downtown and leave me," Cormier says.
Still, a man's got to eat. Cormier made the rounds of skid row's soup kitchens, sizing them up. "No matter how bad things get, if you know good food, you go looking for it," he says. "It's no different than music to a musician or a painting to a painter. Food inspires."
Cormier soon joined the mission's kitchen staff, moving on to work in the kitchen at other missions, straightening his life out along the way. He returned to Los Angeles Mission in 1997 and by 1999 was overseeing a revolving group of 30 students in the mission's kitchen.
"The beauty of it is seeing students who don't know anything when they come here and then they are able to go home and make dinner for their mom. Or get a job at a hotel, work at a grocery store deli counter, be a caterer," he says. "I get to teach these kids to go to the next step."
Participants in the mission's chef training program have the opportunity to earn their ServSafe Certificate, an accreditation by the National Restaurant Assn. that says the person knows the food safety rules for operating a commercial kitchen. "When they move on, they are able to get work, to get on with their lives, to return home."
And it starts with sitting down to eat a smoked turkey leg. Since Saturday, Cormier has been supervising revolving crews on the two refrigerator-shaped smokers in the mission's parking lot. His students have taken turns stoking the mesquite fire, spritzing the turkey legs with apple juice and rotating them to make sure every one is cooked perfectly.
Cormier made the smokers out of old transit cabinets, the 6-foot-tall metal storage racks that caterers use to wheel around trays of food. He drilled a line of holes along both sides near the bottom to let in oxygen to keep the mesquite wood burning. Another line of holes along the top and a few in the middle keep the air circulating. Dented metal restaurant trays hold the coals in the bottom of the cabinets. The turkey legs are lined up on wire baking racks that slide in, 5 inches apart, throughout the cabinets. There's just enough room for the smoke to surround each piece of meat.
Dropping a thermometer into one of the "breather" holes, he checks to make sure the smoker stays at 200 degrees Fahrenheit. At that temperature, it takes three hours to cook 65 legs. And four days to cook 3,000 legs.
Today, when Cormier looks down the long tables at his guests, he says, he'll be inspired all over again. "To see someone take joy in what you've created, it's beautiful."
The menu for the feast here, like Thanksgiving menus everywhere, has treasured traditions -- dishes and gracious gestures the guests anticipate. The centerpiece of the meal, a big, meaty smoked turkey leg on each and every plate, is a symbol of abundance created by executive chef Chris Cormier four years ago.
"Our guests come here looking for connections, rituals, a diversion from an otherwise gray existence," says Cormier, 47, who was once homeless himself. "We have fresh flowers on every table and serve food we'd be happy to feed our own families."
Cormier first came to the mission because of the food. Of all of the soup kitchens where he'd eaten, this was the place that took pride in what was served, he says. One reason: The kitchen is staffed by students in the mission's chef training program. After coming for the food, Cormier stayed to work his way up through the training program he now runs.
The Los Angeles Mission, founded in 1936, moved into its current facility on 5th Street in 1992. The 394-bed shelter is now one of the nation's largest providers of services to the homeless, offering three hot meals a day as well as vocational training and continuing education. The Thanksgiving tradition, its most visible public event, takes place on 5th Street by the mission between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. It's a block party, with that section of 5th Street closed for the day so that dining tables can be set up in the street.
Because no one stands in line at home to be served Thanksgiving dinner, the mission's guests are served by 450 volunteers who have made this meal part of their Thanksgiving tradition. Guests sit with their friends, other members of the all-too-stable population living near the mission.
On each plate, that smoked turkey leg is accompanied by homemade mashed potatoes with country gravy, candied yams, mixed vegetables, cranberry relish and buttered rolls. There's pumpkin pie for dessert. The pies are donated, but the rest of the recipes have been developed by Cormier, who learned banquet-style cooking from "a couple of guys who used to run kitchens in Las Vegas," he says. "I like to use buttermilk in the potatoes to give them that extra flavor without loading them up with too much fat."
Cormier and his second in command, David Thomas, supervise cooks Carlos Castillo, Harold Reed and Nick Bautista and a rotating support staff. The crew cooks all day today, guaranteeing that everyone gets a hot just-cooked meal. The mission's well-equipped professional kitchen is "controlled chaos" during the event, Cormier says.
"Our friends and neighbors look forward to Chris' food," says Smith. "And not just on Thanksgiving. He makes a mac and cheese with three cheeses for Christmas dinner that people talk about all year. His food brings people to our door and we'll get to know someone. Hopefully, that meal will lead them to want to change their lives.
"Cooking is a bridge to self-sufficiency for the students working under Cormier. He shows them what he wants, then lets them learn by doing the work themselves.
"It was my lifeline back," Cormier says. "It inspired me to dust myself off and carry on.
"With a mother born in Jamaica then raised in Panama, and a father from Louisiana, Cormier's childhood in El Sereno revolved around the dinner table.
"My mother's gumbo was fantastic. She could make chicken wings a gourmet dish," he says. "I'd have cooking competitions with my friends to see who made the best chili or jambalaya." By the early 1980s he was a cook in Redding.
"Then I had my battles with addiction. I thought my life was over. I told people to just take me downtown and leave me," Cormier says.
Still, a man's got to eat. Cormier made the rounds of skid row's soup kitchens, sizing them up. "No matter how bad things get, if you know good food, you go looking for it," he says. "It's no different than music to a musician or a painting to a painter. Food inspires."
Cormier soon joined the mission's kitchen staff, moving on to work in the kitchen at other missions, straightening his life out along the way. He returned to Los Angeles Mission in 1997 and by 1999 was overseeing a revolving group of 30 students in the mission's kitchen.
"The beauty of it is seeing students who don't know anything when they come here and then they are able to go home and make dinner for their mom. Or get a job at a hotel, work at a grocery store deli counter, be a caterer," he says. "I get to teach these kids to go to the next step."
Participants in the mission's chef training program have the opportunity to earn their ServSafe Certificate, an accreditation by the National Restaurant Assn. that says the person knows the food safety rules for operating a commercial kitchen. "When they move on, they are able to get work, to get on with their lives, to return home."
And it starts with sitting down to eat a smoked turkey leg. Since Saturday, Cormier has been supervising revolving crews on the two refrigerator-shaped smokers in the mission's parking lot. His students have taken turns stoking the mesquite fire, spritzing the turkey legs with apple juice and rotating them to make sure every one is cooked perfectly.
Cormier made the smokers out of old transit cabinets, the 6-foot-tall metal storage racks that caterers use to wheel around trays of food. He drilled a line of holes along both sides near the bottom to let in oxygen to keep the mesquite wood burning. Another line of holes along the top and a few in the middle keep the air circulating. Dented metal restaurant trays hold the coals in the bottom of the cabinets. The turkey legs are lined up on wire baking racks that slide in, 5 inches apart, throughout the cabinets. There's just enough room for the smoke to surround each piece of meat.
Dropping a thermometer into one of the "breather" holes, he checks to make sure the smoker stays at 200 degrees Fahrenheit. At that temperature, it takes three hours to cook 65 legs. And four days to cook 3,000 legs.
Today, when Cormier looks down the long tables at his guests, he says, he'll be inspired all over again. "To see someone take joy in what you've created, it's beautiful."
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Talking Turkey, Part 3
It doesn't get any simpler than this. I haven't figured out yet how to make it come out in the shape of a can.
CRANBERRY ORANGE RELISH
1 lb raw cranberries
3 whole seedless oranges, unpeeled
½ cup granulated sugar
In the bowl of a food processor coarsely grind the cranberries and oranges.
Sweeten to taste with granulated sugar. Serves 8.
And for the finale...
SWEET POTATO PIE
(Makes one 9-inch pie)
3 cups peeled and cubed sweet potatoes
1 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
5 egg yolks
Kosher salt
1 deep dish, 9-inch frozen pie shell
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place sweet potatoes in a medium saucepan with cold water to cover. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until sweet potatoes are fork tender. Drain potatoes and mash with a potato masher and set aside to cool.
Place cooled sweet potatoes in a mixing bowl and beat with stand mixer or hand mixer until smooth. Add evaporated milk, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and egg yolks and beat until well combined. Add lemon juice, vanilla extract, and salt, to taste, and beat until well combined.
Pour batter into pie shell and bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until the pie filling reaches a temperature of 180 degrees F.
Remove from oven and cool. Keep pie refrigerated after cooling.
CRANBERRY ORANGE RELISH
1 lb raw cranberries
3 whole seedless oranges, unpeeled
½ cup granulated sugar
In the bowl of a food processor coarsely grind the cranberries and oranges.
Sweeten to taste with granulated sugar. Serves 8.
And for the finale...
SWEET POTATO PIE
(Makes one 9-inch pie)
3 cups peeled and cubed sweet potatoes
1 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
5 egg yolks
Kosher salt
1 deep dish, 9-inch frozen pie shell
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place sweet potatoes in a medium saucepan with cold water to cover. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until sweet potatoes are fork tender. Drain potatoes and mash with a potato masher and set aside to cool.
Place cooled sweet potatoes in a mixing bowl and beat with stand mixer or hand mixer until smooth. Add evaporated milk, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and egg yolks and beat until well combined. Add lemon juice, vanilla extract, and salt, to taste, and beat until well combined.
Pour batter into pie shell and bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until the pie filling reaches a temperature of 180 degrees F.
Remove from oven and cool. Keep pie refrigerated after cooling.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Talking Turkey, Part 1
If you're still undecided about your menu for your family's Thanksgiving Day dinner, here are some suggestions.
Roast Turkey
Sausage and Apple Stuffing
Creole Creamy Succotash
Orange Cranberry Relish
Sweet Potato Pie
Below is my recipe for the juiciest, and EASIEST roast turkey ever.
1 (12 pound) whole turkey, DEFROSTED and giblets removed
¼ cup olive oil
4 carrots, chopped
2 yellow onions, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
1 lemon, quartered
12 garlic cloves
½ cup Poultry seasoning, divided
¼ cup water
Kosher Salt
Black pepper
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Rinse turkey and pat dry thoroughly.
Season the inside of the turkey liberally with Kosher salt, black pepper, and poultry seasoning.
Combine the celery, onions, garlic, carrots in a large mixing bowl.
Stuff the cavity of the turkey with the lemon and half of the vegetable mixture. Place remaining vegetables in the bottom of the roasting pan to act as a base for the turkey.
Rub the outside of the turkey with olive oil and season liberally with the poultry seasoning.
Pour water into the bottom of the roasting pan..
Place in 400 degree oven for 45 minutes, then lower temperature to 325 degrees F.
Continue to cook turkey until an instant read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 180 degrees F.
Basting the turkey is not necessary, but will promote even browning.
Protect the breast from browning too much before the thigh is done by loosely covering it with a tent of aluminum foil, if necessary.
Remove bird from oven, and allow to stand for about 30 minutes before carving.
FOOD SAFETY NOTE: People who are members of high risk groups or with challenged immune systems should use care. The test for doneness is the TEMPERATURE of the meat, not the color of the skin. Government food safety guidelines recommend cooking the turkey until the thigh meat temperature reaches an internal temperature of 180 degrees F.
Roast Turkey
Sausage and Apple Stuffing
Creole Creamy Succotash
Orange Cranberry Relish
Sweet Potato Pie
Below is my recipe for the juiciest, and EASIEST roast turkey ever.
1 (12 pound) whole turkey, DEFROSTED and giblets removed
¼ cup olive oil
4 carrots, chopped
2 yellow onions, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
1 lemon, quartered
12 garlic cloves
½ cup Poultry seasoning, divided
¼ cup water
Kosher Salt
Black pepper
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Rinse turkey and pat dry thoroughly.
Season the inside of the turkey liberally with Kosher salt, black pepper, and poultry seasoning.
Combine the celery, onions, garlic, carrots in a large mixing bowl.
Stuff the cavity of the turkey with the lemon and half of the vegetable mixture. Place remaining vegetables in the bottom of the roasting pan to act as a base for the turkey.
Rub the outside of the turkey with olive oil and season liberally with the poultry seasoning.
Pour water into the bottom of the roasting pan..
Place in 400 degree oven for 45 minutes, then lower temperature to 325 degrees F.
Continue to cook turkey until an instant read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 180 degrees F.
Basting the turkey is not necessary, but will promote even browning.
Protect the breast from browning too much before the thigh is done by loosely covering it with a tent of aluminum foil, if necessary.
Remove bird from oven, and allow to stand for about 30 minutes before carving.
FOOD SAFETY NOTE: People who are members of high risk groups or with challenged immune systems should use care. The test for doneness is the TEMPERATURE of the meat, not the color of the skin. Government food safety guidelines recommend cooking the turkey until the thigh meat temperature reaches an internal temperature of 180 degrees F.
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