A late-night conversation sparked by scissor skills

I worked at the restaurant last night. It was a pretty routine Monday (if there is such a thing as routine given that I’ve only been there 2 weeks).  Anyway,  I got in and started helping out with different prep work for the evening.  Then service began and Chef A got me working on knife skills and doing some mirepox.  Later I got into the line and worked the salad station.  Part of the difficulty that I am having is that different people work the salad station on different nights, and they set them up slightly differently, which I completely understand, but then I have to figure out each person’s set-up.  I was also just slow generally.  I need to get quicker and more agile so that I don’t waste as much time wiping my plates before sending them out.

As we all sat down to dinner after closing, Chef A (who was cutting paper with a pair of scissors, I don’t know why) commented that he had poor scissor skills, which completely cracked me up…you see, earlier this year, I once again tested my mother by saying, “I think I might still want to be a chef” when she asked me “what kind of lawyer do you think you want to be?”  My mother had replied, “chefs need good motor skills, you were never really good with scissors in kindergarten.”

I told the chefs the story and we all laughed about it, but then Chef B started telling me about how he knew after college he either wanted to cook or teach.  He talked about the other jobs he held and how, at the age of 35-40, he decided that he wanted to cook for the rest of his life.  We started talking about being a chef.

I asked them if they think the job requires some sort of natural talent and a certain type of personality.  “Yes,” they both responded immediately.  Chefs are people who strive on high stress, love getting yelled at and constantly feeling like they are never quick enough nor good enough.   (Chef Pardus’ comment in Michael Ruhlman’s The Making of a Chef comes to mind — chefs “get there”).  Chef B also candidly discussed the sad financial outlook, lack of social life and personal time.

I thought I would ask them if, from what they’ve seen, I have the natural talent and personality.  Part of me wanted to tell them that I spend my week yearning to get back into that kitchen and how I wish I could spend more than just two days there because I want to get better and quicker at everything.  I wanted to ask them: does that I mean I have the passion to be a chef? I wanted to know if I am a natural.  But I held back.

I am afraid to find out…what if they already think I don’t have what it takes?

I have plenty more to digest from our late-night conversation, but I will always remember Chef A’s face as he said to me (pointing to the kitchen), “This makes sense to me.  I suck at relationships; I suck at everything else in life…but in there, it all makes sense to me.”

I replayed the conversation in my head as I was walking home from the gym tonight.  My head has been in the clouds since I started the restaurant internship, but I was suddenly overwhelmed with confusion.  What the hell am I doing here? What am I trying to find out? Is there even an answer? And what do I do when I find it?

Popovers

I love popovers! New York City’s Popover Cafe is my favorite place for brunch when I am in NYC.  I have not seen them in brunch places out here in the bay area, but my friend gave me a treasured first edition of Craig Claiborne’s The New York Times Cookbook earlier this summer and there is a great recipe for popovers in there.

popovers

popovers in popover pan, just out of the oven

* Recipe adapted from Craig Claiborne’s The New York Times Cookbook.

Popovers (makes 6)

Ingredients:  1 cup sifted flour, 1 tsp salt, 2 eggs, 1 cup whole milk, 1 tbsp salad oil

1. Pre-heat oven to 425 F.
2. If using aluminum popover pans and set aside.  You can also use custard cups/ramekins as long as the cups are deeper than they are wide (which is why muffin pan is actually not ideal).
3. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and beat until mixture is very smooth.
4. Fill cups so that each up is a little less than 1/2 full and bake in preheated oven for about 35 minutes or until the popovers puff up and are rigid to touch.
5. Serve with condiments of your choice (mine = strawberry jam + butter).

Notes:

* REFRAIN from opening the oven door and checking on them if you want these to puff up properly
** Use room-temperature eggs!

“This is what happens when you work with crazies…

…and YOU want to work at a restaurant?” The head chef said to me this past Saturday. After one of his sous chef screamed gleefully, “yay, I made pasta!” (The buzz of the day was word that they’d be getting a pasta machine and so there was experimentation with different dough recipes to produce pasta in-house in the future.)

Can I just say, so far (twice a week for the past 2 weeks), the answer on my part has been a very enthusiastic, wholehearted: Yes, I do!

The first week went by like a blur.  I was (and still am) a nervous wreck.  Things are foreign to me, on so many levels.  The language used in the kitchen.  The level of testosterone.  The pace and the speed at which everything was happening. When I left at the end of the first day I thought to myself, “to survive in there I have to drop all my middle-upper class, private school niceties.” And I mean that with no disrespect but simply as an observation.

But there is love in that kitchen.  There is love for the food.  You sense it when people talk about the ingredients and the dishes.  There is also love for the craft — respect for the proper way to treat ingredients and a very strong sense of pride in the food they produce out of that kitchen…I get that from everyone there but I also sense that most strongly from one of the sous chefs (“Chef A” from now on).  It’s wonderful to be in that environment.

And everyone helps me.  That’s what has made the experience so great thus far.  Sure, there is my poor knife skills that need work, but it’s amazing (and humiliating) the number of people that stop to show me their technique/approach.  They also take the time to explain things to me and to make sure that I get a variety of tasks.  From chopping onions to shucking oysters to how to make an aioli and to sometimes working the line (salads baby!), they are dutifully observing me, correcting me, teaching me, and trusting me.

At the end of the first week they said, “welcome to the family.”

I sound like I am high and drunk, I know. That’s kind of how I feel. Who knew free labor can make you feel that way?

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the third week in the professional kitchen.

Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup 2-Way (蕃茄牛肉麵/ 紅燒牛肉麵)

Towards the end of 2008 I got a really awesome gift from my sister and brother-in-law Peggy and Terry.  It is a Fagor 3-in-1 Electric Multi-Cooker: an all-in-one pressure-cooker, slow-cooker, and rice-cooker.  I had been going back and forth over the benefits of owning a pressure cooker vs. slower cooker for the longest time and a multi-cooker seemd to be the perfect solution.  The Fagor multi-cooker had gotten some fairly good reviews on Amazon.com.  The only downside is that unlike stand-alone pressure cookers that can get pressure as high as 15 psi the Fagor pressure-cooking function only has 2 psi settings:  High (9 psi) and Low (5 psi).  What that essentially means (from my info digging on the web) is that it will not save as much time as the 15 psi and you need to adjust your cooking time accordingly.  At 9 psi, the Foger multi-cooker claims to cut down 70% of the cooking time from conventional stove-top cooking, but if you are working with a pressure cooker recipe (which is typically written to a 15 psi setting), then for your own planning purpose, you need to add about 40% to the estimated time stated on the recipe.  Finally, keep in mind that it takes about 20-30 minutes for the pressure cooker to build up enough pressure in the first place.

Anyway, the piece of appliance sat in the corner of my apartment while I freaked out about finals and then I put it to good use.  The first test? Taiwanese Beef Noodles 2-way.  I made a tomato-based beef noodle soup (蕃茄牛肉麵) with the pressure cooker function at high (9 psi) and it took an hour (1.5 hour total including prep time).  I also made a soy-based or braised beef noodle soup version  (紅燒牛肉麵) with the slow-cooker function — in that case I prepped all the materials and had it on overnight.

The tomato-based noodle soup was not as much of a success.  It turned out more like my mom’s tomato beef noodle soup, which was not what I was going for, but here’s a photo of it:

taiwanese tomato beef noodle soup

The braised /soy-sauced beef noodle soup, on the other hand, I liked alot.

taiwanese braised beef noodle soup

I am trying to locate the sheet of paper that I took notes on re recipe. Will update when located, in the meantime here’s the base recipe I worked off of.

The multi cooker worked miraculously and the beef tendons cooked down til they are soft and gooey, which made the soup thicker too probably due to the gelatin in the beef tendon (in the process of reading Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking).

Living the Double Life

I have not updated this blog in awhile, but I shall be using this space to document myself living the double life, for this week I started living the life of a law student who also interns at a local restaurant twice a week.

Why the double life? the short answer is basically I feel like it is something I need to do.  I love food. I love cooking. I am fascinated by restaurants, waitstaff and chefs.  All of this leads me to wonder if I want to become part of that industry? As I am slowing piecing together my life, I am also trying to envision what my life would be like.  I see other law students who absolutely love the study of the law with a strong sense of conviction as to what they want to do with a law degree, and I wonder if I lack the passion. As I have voiced previously on this blog, I am terrified by the thought that a lawyer is all that I will ever be.  Could there be something else out there for me?

Thankfully some greater power seems willing to give me a chance to try to answer the question.  After my finals in December I went around the East Bay Area and dropped off resumes/cover letters at different restaurants.  I didn’t think much would come of this effort given the state of the economy, but I got lucky.  Long story short, this past week I start living the double life of interning at a restaurant and being a law student.

I am terrified, terribly excited and scared. I feel fortunate enough to have the chance to pull off the double life, but as far as fortune goes…I am sure I will be needing more of it.

oven-roasted tomatoes

oven-roasted tomatoes

Hardly the right season, but I had some tomatoes that have been sitting in my fridge for forever. They look shriveled and sad. So I decided to make oven-roated tomatoes out of them. I was sitting alot at home anyway doing endless exams so it seemed like the perfect idea.

Ingredients: extra virgin olive oil, rosemary, thyme, sea salt, tomatoes (preferably Roma), pepper

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 F.
2. Line a baking pan with aluminum foil.
3. Cut tomatoes in half lengthwise. Spread them out in the baking pan.
4. Drizzle the tomatoes liberally with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle sea salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme.
5. Bake uncovered in oven for 4-5 hours. (I’ve seen recipes calling for 8, but I like mine still kind of plump in the middle)

It’s a great way to use up tomatoes that are slightly passed their prime. Also, your entire apartment smells like rosemary, thyme during the slow-roasting process. It was making my mouth water the entire time.

What can you do with oven-roasted tomatoes? they are awesome on salads with feta/goat cheese. They are also great on baguettes with brie (oh god, heaven.) You can also make pasta sauce out of them, though I’ve never tried. And they are pretty darn delicious on their own.

Fancy Annie’s 4-cheese pasta with pancetta, corn, edamame, served with a fried egg on top

Annie's organic four-cheese pasta with pancetta, corn, edamame and fried egg

I have been living in law school exam hell for the past week and will continue living in it over the next few days.  The exam period has also significantly reduced the food supply in my apartment both due to stress eating and lack of time to go grocery shopping.  So, my dinner for the past few days have been just using whatever I’ve got on hand.  Tonight, I made instant pasta with Annie’s Organic Rotini with Four Cheese Sauce (I should add that as far as instant-mix pasta goes, Annie’s is pretty awesome).  As much as I despise Sandra Lee of Food Network’s Semi-Homade I pulled a semi-homade on this pasta dinner, and created a pseudo-pasta alla carbonara (given the egg and pancetta).  I had 1 leftover corn, I had some leftover pancetta, bag of frozen edamame green beans, tiny block of aged cheddar cheese, 1 lemon, some leftover chives, carton of eggs.  I was watching Food Network earlier this week when Michael Symon made creamed corn with bacon and he made a stock with the corn cobs, so I got the idea to boil my pasta in the same water that I cook the corn in…don’t think it made much of a difference really, since I had ONE ear of corn. Ha! Dinner was created:

Ingredients:  um…not bothering to list this since the whole point is to use whatever you’ve got, basically, any instant pasta mix with cheese sauce plus whatever you think will go wtih it.  The steps below are just what I did tonight:

1. shuck corn and remove kernels.
2. In a pot, boil hot water (amount according to package instruction).  When the water’s come to a boil, add corn.
3. When the water’s come to a boil, add the corn kernels and simmer for about 5 minutes.  Remove using a slotted spoon/strainer.
4. Return the heat on high and when the water’s come to a boil again, add pasta and cook for a little less than the instructed time (you are going to toss it again with the sauce so you don’t want to over cook it).
5. While the pasta is cooking, heat medium sauce pan, add olive oil.  Then add diced pancetta and cook over medium heat, browning the pancetta and letting its fat render.  Remove pancetta from pan (but oh leave the good fat in there!)
6. Drain pasta.
7. Return the sauce pan (for the pancetta) back on the stove and reduce the heat to low.  Add milk and sauce mix and stir. Add in corn, add frozen edamame.  Add pancetta.
8. Stir in pasta. Add juice of lemon and lemon zest.
9. Plate.
10. In another pan, heat oil over medium heat until hot.  Add 1 egg. Cook for a few minutes until you’ve got a gorgeous sunny-side up.
11. Serve egg over pasta.  Add more lemon zest, chives and grated cheese for garnish. Salt & pepper to taste.

The lemon was key.  It really helped add another flavor to the pasta and lightened it as well. And oh…break the egg yolk, and let it mix with the pasta (hence the pasta alla carbonara)…Heaven.

quick pasta heaven: annie's organic 4 cheese pasta with pancetta, corn, edamame and an egg to top it all off

Baked acorn squash with butter, maple syrup and pecans

baked acorn squash with butter, maple syrup and pecans

I had picked up some beautiful acorn squash earlier and they have been sitting quietly in the box at the corner of my kitchen. Finals have been killing me but I decided to make them one night. I love the comfort foods of winter. I have been craving stew, braised things, baked pasta and endless soup.

Acorn squash is one of those things that are foreign to me, I think I had them for the first time last year as a sample while grocery shopping. They have a mild squash flavor (as far as the squash family goes) and a stringy texture. They go perfect with maple, honey, sage and your other fall/winter flavor profiles. Oh, brown sugar would have been lovely too, but I was afraid it would make it too sweet, with the maple syrup and all.

Baked acorn squash with butter, maple syrup and pecans

Ingredients: acorn squash, butter, maple syrup, chopped pecans, salt

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
2. Cut the acorn squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and skin the middle, creating a hollow bowl with each half of the squash.
3. Place the squash, cut-side down, in the baking pan.  Bake for about 30 minutes until they are tender.
4. Take the squash out of the oven.  Put about 1 tbsp of butter in the “bowl” and brush/spread it all over the flesh of the squash as it melts.
5. Drizzle maple syrup over squash.  Sprinkle with chopped pecans
6. Put the squash back in the baking dish. Place it on the top rack of the oven and broil on high for about 3-5 minutes.

I can’t wait for the finals to be over so I can go cook in my kitchen and play with my new kitchen toys!

Supreme oranges as therapy

supreme orange

In college whenever i get annoyed/stressed out with studying I’d put on nail polish: mechanical movements that require total concentration but not that much actual thinking.  This year (and because I still have oranges from that last trip to Costco), during the exam period, I supreme oranges (again, to supreme is to segment a citrus, here the orange, such that it is free of skin, pith, membranes, seeds…basically you are just left with the meat of the orange…like the kind you’d find in fruit garnishes of salads.) It’s strangely therapeutic, and kind of fun, once you start timing yourself and try to do it faster. Ha! Here’s great guide to how to supreme an orange.

I was really ambitious and wanted to get some photos of the process, but it got too messy…

supreme orange, part 1

supreme orange part 2

the remains of the supreme orange

A food network Thanksgiving with a touch of Iron Chef Michael Symon

2008 thanksgiving dinner for 3: a food network thanksgiving with a touch of Iron Chef Michael Symon.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and so despite the looming law school finals, I ultimately decided that I was going to have myself a Thanksgiving feast…with some help from my beloved Trader Joe’s so that I don’t have to make everything.  And what would Thanksgiving be without a touch of my favorite iron chef Michael Symon? So I took Michael Symon’s recipes for brussel sprouts and creamed corn.  I also took some recipes from my other trusted sources: the recipes I’ve tried from Tyler Florence’s show, Tyler’s Ultimate, have all been quite good; other recipes from the Food Network website; and Cooks’ Illustrated. So here it is, what I am calling the “food network thanksgiving dinner with a touch of MS”:

Our thanksgiving menu for 3 began with cranberry bellini and smoked salmon platter, followed by Trader Joe’s carrot ginger soup (served with creme fraiche and chives); main course was a herb-roasted, brined bone-in turkey breast, served with Trader Joe’s turkey gravy, home-made cranberry-orange sauce and cornbread stuffing w/ caramelized onions and bacon, sides were made with recipes from the Iron Chef and included brussel sprouts w/ pecans and creamed corn; finally, dessert was a store-bought apple pie.

Cranberry Bellini

cranbery bellini

Ingredients: Prosecco or any sparking wine; cranberry juice

I think I did about 2/3 cranberry juice and 1/3 Prosecco.  I liked the color and champagne flutes just adds to the festivity.

Costco’s Smoked Salmon with capers and minced onions (courtesy of the cousins)

costco smoked salmon

Trader Joe’s Carrot Ginger Soup with Creme Fraiche and Chives

Trader Joe's Carrot Ginger Soup with Creme Fraiche and Chives

Ingredients: soup from TJ’s (duh), optional: creme fraiche/sour cream/yogurt, chives

I am a big fan of these ready-made soups from TJ’s.  They come in a carton so you can keep them in the fridge after opening.  I also love fall vegetables soups/bisques.  To make the soup a little bit more over the top, I garnished it with a dollop of creme fraiche (can substitute with yogurt or sour cream) and some chopped chives.

Herb-Roasted brined Bone-in Turkey Breast

herb-roasted, brined, boned-in turkey breast (recipe modified from Cook's Illustrated and Ina Garten's herb-roasted bone-in turkey breast.

Ingredients: 1 whole bone-in turkey breast (avg 5-7 lbs), 4 tbsp softened butter, chopped rosemary, sage, thyme (about 1 tsp each), black pepper, 1 cup of water; For the brine: 3/4 cup kosher salt, 4 qt cold water

1. Brine the turkey breast: dissolve 3/4 cup of kosher salt in 4 qt of cold water.  Submerge the turkey breast in the brine. Refrigerate for up to 3 hours. (I got the instruction from Cook’s Illustrated.)  After 3 hours, rinse the breast in cold water and pat dry.
2. Preheat oven to 425 F.
3. Combine softened butter, chopped herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage here), black pepper.
4. With your fingers, carefully loosen/separate the skin of the breast from the meat.  With a spoon, insert half of the butter mixture from step 3 into half of the breast. Now massage the skin to spread the butter mixture all over that side of the turkey breast.  Repeat with the other side.
5. Spray roasting rack with non-stick spray.  Place rack inside roasting pan and then place turkey breast on roasting rack.  Add 1 cup of water to the bottom of the roast pan to prevent drippings from burning.
6. Roast the breast at 425 F for 30 minutes, then lower temperature to 325 F for about an hour or until internal temp in thickest part of the breast measures 160 F.
7. Let meat rest for 20 min before carving.
8. Serve w/ gravy and sides (we cheated and used Trader Joe’s instant turkey gravy in a box since with just the turkey breast, we did not have enough fat rendered to make our own gravy).

When it comes to turkey there seems to be 2 camps: brine or no brine.  From all my readings and food network educating it seems like brining will give you a more moist bird but the texture of the meat may be more mushy? Decided to try the brine, and then fiddled around the web comparing different recipes.  The recipe I used is a combination of Cook’s illustrated’s guide to a simple roast turkey breast (with their instruction on how to brine the turkey breast) and Ina Garten’s Herb-Roasted Turkey Breast.  I also decided to go with Cook’s Illustrated’s instructions oven temperatures to get crispy skin:  Cook’s called for roasting the breast at 425 F for the first 30 min and then lowering oven temp to 325 F for about 1 hr while most other recipes I found called for roasting at 325 F for roughly 1 3/4 to 2 hrs.

carving the turkey breast

herb-roasted brined turkey breast, sliced against the grain

moist brined turkey breast with crispy skin

The result? The skin was super crispy.  The breast meat was moist and it was flavorful.  I also really liked the simple butter and herb paste that flavored the turkey breast.  but I did feel that the texture of the meat was mushier. So which camp am I in? brine or no brine? I am still undecided.

Cornbread stuffing with bacon and caramelized onions

cornbread stuffing with caramelized onions and bacon (recipe modified from Tyler Florence's cornbread stuffing with caramelized onions.

cornbread stuffing with bacon and caramelized onions, served w/ herb-rosted turkey breast

Ingredients: 1 store-bought cornbread, 1 large apple muffin, 2 eggs, 2 onions (chopped), 2-3 slices of bacon (chopped), handful of chopped sage, rosemary, thyme; salt & pepper, 1 cup chicken stock, 1/2 cup heavy cream

1. pre-heat oven to 375 F.
2. brown bacon over medium heat until crispy; remove bacon from pan, add in chopped onions and cook over medium heat until onions are golden brown.
3. combine bacon, onions, chopped herbs. Break the cornbread and apple muffins into large chunks and add them to the onion/bacon/herb mixture. Season with pepper (the bacon is salty already).
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, cream and chicken stock.  Combine with the cornbread mixture.
5. Spoon mixture into a buttered baking dish (I used a 9×9 pan). Bake for about 30 minutes until crispy and golden brown on top.

This is an adaptation/modification of Tyler Florence’s cornbread dressing with cameralized onions.  What did I change? I added bacon (Mmm….BACON), and instead of using all cornbread (the recipe called for 6 large corn muffins), I used store-bought cornbread and crumbs from an apple muffin because I thought the flavor of the apple would work well in there. Also, I am convinced that the original recipe on food network’s website cannot be right in terms of the amount of eggs, heavy cream and chicken stock, because the dressing looked really dry, so I modified that as well…nonetheless, the stuffing came out a bit on the dry side for me. The top was also slightly burnt, but it was nice and crispy.  Also, I think the combination of the cornbread and apple muffin made the dressing a little bit too sweet.  This was a slight disappointment, especially since stuffing is my favorite part of any Thanksgiving dinner. Oh well, a work in progress.

Home-made cranberry-orange sauce

herb-roasted turkey breast, cornbread dressing, home-made cranberry-orange sauce (recipe courtesy of Tyler Florence)

Ingredients: bag of Ocean Spray fresh or frozen cranberries, juice and zest (cut in thin strips) of 1 orange, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Put everything into a pan and heat over medium heat.  Simmer for about 20 minutes until the sauce thickens.  Chill and serve.

Sorry! this is the only photo of it. Recipe courtesy of Tyler Florence: the only thing I changed was I added vanilla extract instead of cinnamon stix because the I knew one of my cousins did not like cinnamon…and earlier that week I had seen Bobby Flay add vanilla (but I think he used vanilla bean and bourbon) to his cranberry sauce on Iron Chef America: Thanksgiving Showdown.

I also made 2 side dishes using my favorite Iron Chef Michael Symon’s recipes:

Brussel sprouts with pecans, mustard and lemon

brussel sprouts with pecans and bacon (recipe taken from Michael Symon's blog)

close-up of brussel sprouts with pecans (Iron Chef Michael Symon recipe)

Ingredients: 1 lb brussel sprouts (quartered), 1/4 lb smoked bacon (diced), 1 clove of garlic (minced), 1 shallot (minced), 1/2 cup chopped pecans, 2 tbsp grain mustard, 1/2 cup chicken stock, juice of 1 lemon, 2 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley

1. Blanch the brussel sprouts for 3-5 minutes then set aside in ice bath to stop the cooking process. Drain.
2. Heat half of the butter (1tbsp) over medium heat, Add in brussel sprouts, cook for about 3 minutes. Set aside
3. In another pan, heat bacon over medium-high heat until crispy, about 3 minutes, then add in pecans, garlic and shallots, continue to cook over medium heat for about a minute.
4. Deglaze the pan with chicken stock and lemon juice. Then fold in the remaining butter (1tbsp), mustard and parsley. Finally incorporate brussel sprouts.

I absolutely loved this dish! Thank you chef Symon for putting this recipe up on his blog! This was different from the deep-fried brussel sprouts that we had at Roast in Detroit but just as delicious.  The chopped pecans added a nice crunch to the dish, and the fat from the bacon added the flavor.  The tanginess from the lemon juice and grain mustard helped cut through the bacon and butter so the brussel sprouts were extremely flavorful but not too rich. I am definitely making more of this in the future!

Creamed Corn

creamed corn (modified holiday side dish recipe from iron chef michael symon)

Ingredients: 4 shallots (minced), 4 ears of corn (shucked), 2 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp flour, 1 cup heavy cream, 1 cup chicken stock, salt/pepper

1. Let shallots and jaleno sweat in butter over medium heat. Add corn.
2. Add flour to make a roux, then add cream and chicken stock.
3. season with salt/pepper.  Simmer for 30 minutes.

When we were at Roast restaurant in Detroit earlier this month, my cousin had wanted to order creamed corn as a side dish, but we ultimately decided against the creamed corn and ordered a bunch of other stuff instead, so I decided to make creamed corn as one of the side dishes and came across a creamed corn recipe by the Iron Chef Michael Symon.  His original recipe also called for bacon (the man does love pork), but I skipped out on the bacon (I know! shame on me!) just because we already have bacon in our stuffing and the brussel sprouts (see recipe above).  Nontheless, the creamed corn was delicious, sweet…and um..creamy =)

Cheated our way through dessert (time saver! reminder! law student a week away from finals!) with a store-bought apple pie (because I like all things made with pumpkin except for pumpkin pie…I don’t like custard pies). It was perfect.

store-bought apple pie from Andronico