Brilliant

Gainesville

The race has been run, and the kitchen looks as if nothing happened in there. Well, except for the table decorations, still in place, and the remains of the galette.

I was aiming at 2:00, but when I slept until nearly 10, that seemed unreasonable. Decided to try for 2:30, and nearly made it-- would have, except for taking a half hour to shower.

Did the galette first, and it went together well. However, I got it a little too brown, having jacked my oven up by 10 degrees, then not keeping an eye on it before the 25 minute timer went off. It was still good, though-- Bill had two pieces. I have another pie crust (Pillsbury packages of rolled-up crusts contain two) and think I'll make another one this week.

Prepared the turkey roast next. To my dismay, the boneless breast I bought was in a net-thingy, so I knew it was going to be in at least two pieces, and so it was. This meant it wasn't going to to look pretty, like the magazine pictures after slicing. (This is the FC #? recipe for a gathering of 2-4.) Still, it went together well; it was a little bigger than the recipe called for, and I had made more stuffing to compensate for that-- it had a nice gluey consistency, which made it easy to spread and reduced leaking. Put this in the fridge til time to put in oven.

The rolls turned out to be a trial. I've had good luck with the frozen little lumps of dough that rise for several hours as they thaw. Today they just sat there. And sort of melted. I finally resorted to putting them in the toaster oven on the warm setting for about half an hour and they FINALLY started to puff up some.

The potatoes were another complication. The recipe, from the same FC, called for 3 pounds of russets, which I had-- but they overflowed the pan I was planning to cook them in, so several extra pans and bowls were required. And that number of spuds took forever to come to a boil. And of course, as I always remember too late, it takes a long time to get them properly mashed, especially when it's as complicated with doing it over heat, adding butter in stages, then buttermilk in stages, then chives. While doing this, trying to keep the Marsala glaze reducing properly make for a pretty complicated finale. At the last minute I remembered I needed to toss the frozen peas and pearl onions into the mike.

But it all came together, and was all good. More modest than usual in terms of the number of dishes (no bread stuffing, gravy, salad or olive/celery thing, and no appetizers), but what there was rather elegant, if I do say so myself.

Ah yes, and football. Wall to wall football. Alas, network TV is not currently available in the kitchen, so I had sound only during the first two games. Didn't really matter, as I had no time to look anyway. Tonight's game I CAN see in the kitchen, but... I'm all done in there for the night. So it goes. I must say I like what I see of the NFL network's first live game. Really nice to have none of the artificial pressure of finishing things up quickly to make room for the regular prime time schedule, and the post-game focus on ... football! If only they can avoid the stupid trend toward weepy "human interest" stories that the broadcast networks have embraced. I don't CARE about their personal lives, okay? Or about the sick kids they befriend. It's about football, and if NFL Network can remember that, they've found a fan. Yes, a FEMALE fan who loves football, dammit. But, on the plus side, bring on the ads quoting T.E. Lawrence. Brilliant.

Just got the towels folded and put away (it's Thursday, after all-- I'm a creature of habit). Have nothing at all scheduled for tomorrow, and looking forward to it. Don't usually cook Friday night, but yesterday's paper had a very easy-looking recipe for a mashed potato turkey soup that I happen to have everything for. And there will still be plenty left for potato pancakes.

I also have a quart minus a cup of buttermilk. Any suggestions about how to use this? Within the next week? TIA.

Wondering how the WI gathering went-- and where it was held. Hard to even imagine it without knowing the location.