I have to chase down medical records and MRI results this week for Daughter No. 3 who has an appointment Friday in Houston with a new GI specialist who will hopefully tell me something beyond:

“She has a stricture in her right biliary tree but it is draining.  Just take her home and watch her.  If she doubles over in pain again or turns yellow bring her back.”

Really?  Well call me crazy, but I would like to hear a 2nd doctor give me that treatment plan before I go home and wait for her to turn yellow.  If she has a stricture it will eventually have to be stinted and I would like to get her into Texas Children’s in Houston before that has to occur.

I have done my last GI procedure in this town if i can help it.  The GI lab folks at North Central Baptist were top notch, but the moment we went into the pedi ward it was like entering the Ghetto.  Disgusting rooms which had moldy bathrooms and nurses with their heads lodged firmly up their asses.  We only ended up there because there was a mass exodus from Methodist Texas Children’s in their GI lab so my doc doesn’t do surgery there anymore due to inexperienced staff causing their instances of post-op pancreatitis to reach about 100%.  That said, the wards are Methodist Children’s are AMAZING and the nurses are the best ever.

Hopefully they will have another course of action with regard to her treatment and I am certain I am going to end up back there for more tests because they always want “more tests”.  I just need to feel comfortable all is being done for that can be.  Twenty grams of fat a day really blows.

On that note, there is good news on the birthday cake quest for a kid limited to 20grams of fat a day or less.  After hours scouring google and recipe sites I have found you can take a Betty Crocker White or Yellow Cake mix, which has 1.5 grams of fat per serving (2 cupcakes) in the dry mix, and mix it with a 12 oz can of diet sprite or ginger ale baking as directed and get amazingly great cupcakes that are so moist you do not even need icing.  I do have plans for icing though; italian meringue has no fat and neither does fat free extra creamy coolwhip mixed with chocolate syrup!  Go me!  I even managed to… wait for it… BAKE THE FUCKING CUPCAKES SUCCESSFULLY!

Yes you read it correctly… I successfully baked something.  Miracles never cease.

The Meal:

My drink: “Cosmo, Vince… make it sweet.”

Appetizer: Ahi Tartare which was OUT OF THIS WORLD sorry I didn’t get a picture before the waiter mixed it up and cut up the citrus.  That is raw ahi which was sitting on a bed of diced mango.  He cut up the avocado, blood oranges, and mixed it.  It has some sort of slightly spicy chile vinegrette.  God love a good piece of sashimi grade fish.

and of course… the Warm Wedge of Saint Andres cheese. The unequaled KING OF ALL CHEESE…

Yes that is the freakin butter/fat/oil whatever that comes off the triple cream Saint Andres when it is heated.  They put some sort of herbs or something on it.  Dunno what… do not care… it is outstanding.

Entree for me was the Jonah Crab stuff tiger prawns (4).  I ate one before i took the picture, sorry.  I was hungry and feeling the cosmo.  Hubby had the Ahi steak with wasabi mashed potatoes.  The picture of that dish was super blurry but you can see part of if in the picture of the Hollandais and Asparagus.

Now… for the real reason we are at any restaurant and the aforementioned Dessert to End All Desserts…  For my birthday I got the Godiva Chocolate lava cake which they spiffied up for me, yay Wildfish!  That said, my husband ordered the Pineapple Upside Down Cake.

It’s on FIRE!

This is a scoop of Butter Pecan Ice Cream, individual pineapple upside down cake, fresh whipped cream with a caramel sauce… but wait!  They then light a boat of 151 and pour it over the top!  Ahhhhhhh.  Once the inferno is done further caramelizing the sugars what is left is a cake which according to the waiter, Vince… the pastry guy pours into ramekins that have clarified butter poured in the bottom before it is baked so when it is in the over it bubbles up and over coating everything in this amazing crunchy browned sugar goodness.  I can only say, Holy Fucking Shit!  It was a certified FOODgasm.

My lovely chocolate cake with my little birthday message was also divine.  I like richer chocolate desserts so this was mmm good. They only thing it needed was walnuts.

Yeah… we are going to hell…

I was wanting to take a picture at the table but if you haven’t been to Wildfish before you should know it is the darkest fucking place ever.  I didn’t have enough light to take a pic with my phone because the iPhone blows without a flash.  So i stood in the lady’s lounge area of the restroom and took a picture of me in that somewhat better, but not much light at the sink!  39 was much better the third time around!  My nose looks huge in this picture, but who cares?  :)

Last thing we did before she left was put my enormous bird in its salty bath.  She says it was the most disturbing thing she has ever seen done to a bird, but I told her it was worth the work.  Salt, juices, water, brown sugar, a bottle of Reisling and a bunch of herbs… how can it not be outstanding?

I am freakin’ exhausted and need a bath.  Folks are on their way here and I am quite certain I have forgotten something I need for dinner tomorrow.  Thanksfully HEB is open until 2pm tomorrow!  Did I mention I have organized kitchen cabinets?  Outstanding!  Santa will be good to Sarah this year!  Go Sarah! /end exaltation of young co-working.

Tomorrow menu:

• Turkey goodnes


• Cornbread sausage and oyster stuffing goodness


• Peas with way too much cajun rubbed on ‘em


• Green beans


• Demure Mac & Cheese aka Death by Cheese and fat


• Rice and Gravy


• Sweet Potato Balls


• Pumpkin Pie


• Caramel Apple Pie


• Kings Hawaiian Rolls if daughter no. 4 doesn’t eat them all before tomorrow

Even Obama cannot take my hot wings from me!

Back to food…

I hate peas unless they are in a pasta salad.  That said, Hubby loves peas and I decided to be a good wife and make some.  True to most things, the simpler they are the more in love everyone is with them.  I took four pieces of thick cut bacon and rendered it down with an onion.  I drained three cans of Le Sueur Very Young Peas and saved the juice.  I drained two cans of mushrooms and tossed the juice.   After all the onions and bacon were cooked down I added the peas and mushrooms, tossed them about a bit with some creole seasoning then added the pea juice back along with some chicken stock.  Let that cook about an hour on low and ooooooh it was good.  That coming from a person who hates peas.

There was very little of the peas left over after the meal.

I also made cranberry sauce from scratch for the first time ever.  This shit was yummy as well.

Cranberry Sauce:

• Took two bags (6 cups) of fresh cranberries


• Juice and zest of six (small) oranges


• 3/4’s cup of Graham’s Six Grape Ruby Port


• 1 cup sugar


• 1 tbl cinnamon


• 3 tbl cornstarch

I am going to get some bagels and cream cheese and eat this stuff for breakfast.  It is tart but sweet and I loved it.  I still like the jelly kind in a can, but this was really nice and smelled fantastic.

We had company for dinner and they did not come empty handed.

Rocio and Carlos came with their daughter and brought a Pernil (pork shoulder roast) and Arroz con Gondules. I didn’t get a good pic of the pork, but it literally fell off the bone and we didn’t cut it because you could just fork off what you wanted.

Lee and his wife and son came as well.  Lee brought boneless beef ribs and rice and beans as well.  Lee is a grill God and his Trinidad heritage means he can flavor some food.

Yummmm

We also had Pie!  I love Pie!

Apple crumb

Rocio’s Cheesecake which her mother said tastes like medicine… we thought it was pretty good.  heh…

I love Costco Pumpkin Pie… the best $5.99 you will every spend.

Costco Pecan Pie, which was good but had too much filling.  Notice my fabulous 4 inch thick end grain chopping block?  That is my “find of a century” last year.  It weighs a ton, is about 18×18 and cost me a big whopping 18 bucks!  Yes, 18 bucks.  It was originally $125.  Yay me!  It has a slight “defect” on the side no one can really see.

We also knocked out a bottle of Graham’s Six Grape Port and a bottle of Benjamin Australian Tawny Port which is almost as good as the Taylor Fladgate 10 tawny but not quite.  I should have bought more port.

Anyway, it was a really nice day.  I didn’t stress and the kids played without bringing down the house.  After everyone left around 730 or so I unrolled the jigsaw puzzle the girls and I have been working on for a few days and we unwound a bit.  Daughter No. 1 who had been home since Tuesdays was off to see her Granny and Granddad today for the rest of her long weekend and Hubby and the rest of us girls just enjoyed out day and ate leftovers… lots of left overs I am stuffed.  I will make a gumbo either Tomorrow or Sunday with the turkey and some Andouille sausage I picked up last week and I will freeze the left over cornbread dressing and Mac & Cheese to be enjoyed over the next few weeks!

I hope everyone had a great holiday and if it was even half as nice as mine I know you did.  Christmas season is upon us and if the insanity in the news today with the shoppers is any indication, it is going to be a doozy.

First:  The Turkey That Made Angels Weep at its Glory…

This is what happens when you brine a turkey for over 12 hours then roast it…

I have never brined a turkey but I swore yesterday I will never make a turkey any other way.

Brine:  1.5 gallons water, 1 cup kosher salt, 1 quart apple juice, 3 oranges and four lemons cut and squeezed into the liquid, one cup brown sugar, black pepper corns, four sprigs rosemary, four sprigs thyme.  Put it all in a garbage bag and the bag in the roasting pan then plopped in my 20 pound bird breast down and tied it up.  Left it in the fridge overnight.

Baking:  Pulled it out of the brine in the morning and it was plumped up.  Dried off and stuffed the cavity with an onion, an orange, and two lemons then trussed the bird up tight so it was a nice consistent shape for even baking.  Shoved it in a baking bag on top of four stalks celery, four carrots, a quartered onion,  two sprigs of rosemary and thyme.  I didn’t chop or skin anything other than the onion.  I just wanted the veggies for the gravy which I will talk about later.

Baked the bird for exactly three hours and it was 180 degrees everywhere it was suppose to be.  Removed it from the bag, wrapped it in foil and put it aside for later.

The gravy was excellent and I admit I got the idea from Tyler Florence on Food TV.  I dumped the contents of the bag into the roasting pan and tossed in a couple of smoked turkey wings I bought at HEB and let it roast like that in another 30 minutes.  I put the pan on the top of the stove over high heat, took out the turkey wings and added a slurry of flour to the veggies and drippings.  Cooked it until thick and added some stock to make it go further.  Strained it and had a glorious gravy that literally I could drink out of a mug.

We also had Cornbread stuffing.  I have never made cornbread stuffing so this was a first and it was delish.

Sausage, grannie smith apples, and leeks were the magic in this recipe.  Mmmm good.

Now the much anticipated and lauded star of the meal was Jennifer’s Death by Mac & Cheese…

That is what we start with. The recipe is as follows:

• 2 pound bags of large elbow mac prepared and set aside to cool.  I douse em with cold water then toss a little olive oil to make sure they do not stick while I do the rest.


• Shred one pound blocks of the following cheeses:  Sharp cheddar, Monterrey Jack, Guyere, Jarlsberg, Swiss, Mild Cheddar.


• One 8oz bag of Asiago shredded


• 1/2 large block of velveeta shredded or chopped small.


• 1 cup heavy cream


• 1 cup half-and-half


• 2 cups milk


• 1 stick butter (for roux)


• 1/3 cup flour (for roux)


• 3 eggs

Beat eggs and toss into elbow mac in a LARGE bowl.

Spray two large casserole dishes or disposable metal ones.

Melt butter in heavy pot, I use my all-clad dutch oven because I hate splash.

Add flour and whisk until bubbling and barely starts changing color.  Just long enough to cook the flour.

Slowly add milk and cream and half and half whisking to dissolve into roux.

Start adding shredded cheese and stir stir stir….

If it starts getting too thick add a bit more milk and keep stirring.  I usually end up with about another 1/2 cup or so of milk going into the mix.

Add 3/4’s of the cheese to the sauce and make sure the asiago gets into the sauce, the other cheese are more melty.  The sauce should be thick but still liquid.  Add some milk if you are worried it is too thick.  Once you have all this added to the sauce toss the rest of the cold cheese in with the bowl of mac and mix it up.

Pour the hot cheese sauce over the mac fold it until everything is coated… should look like this:

My recipe will give you two like this…

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 uncovered.

If you want you can bake it longer and get a little brown on the top… we prefer it without the brown, though it is good that way.

I will write another entry after I run to Target for Christmas Tree Lights… The Cranberry Sauce was TO DIE FOR as well… soon!

Menu:

Appetizer Snacky Stuffs:

Cheese tray & Crackers and my Cheese Ball Extraordinaire.

• Turkey Breasts cuz I loves me a bakin’ bag and I hate making turkey unless it is fried

  Pernil (pork roasted courtesy of Rocio)

  Boneless Beef Ribs (courtesy of Lee)

  Giblet Gravy

• Cornbread & Sausage Stuffing with apples in it.
• Mac & Cheese which is insanely fattening and ooooh so good.
• Peas (ugh, but I can make them work.  Bacon and onions are my friend)

  Arroz con gandules (again rocio)

  Cucumbers & Onions in vinegar (because I loved my Maw-maw and no holiday meal is complete without them)

  Dessert:  Pumpkin Pie and Pecan Pie

  Now, I might do a corn casserole cuz I got a good recipe but I am limited with oven space, I only have one.  I will of course have a beef roast in the slow cooker for the sole purpose of giving a good beef gravy for my kids who would wig if I didn’t make rice and gravy.

  As you can see it is ripping across the ethnic index, but still there is a decent representation of white people food!  Yay me!.

  I am pleased.

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  ]]> http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/11/16/thanksgiving-prep-because-i-am-ocd-about-lists/feed 7 http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/11/09/thanksgiving-food-bleg http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/11/09/thanksgiving-food-bleg#comments Sun, 09 Nov 2008 15:35:21 +0000 jen http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/?p=1136 Ok, I totally have the starch/carb angle covered.  I require veggie sidedish type help.  Surely there are peole out there who were not raised in the rice loving world I was raised in.  Send me your favorite veggie recipes.  I want something resembling a veggie on my table this year.  It might even get eaten.  :)

  demurejen AT gmail DOT com or just leave it in comments!

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  ]]> http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/11/09/thanksgiving-food-bleg/feed 4 http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/11/01/hell-has-a-name-and-it-is-heb-plus-on-saturday-afternoon http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/11/01/hell-has-a-name-and-it-is-heb-plus-on-saturday-afternoon#comments Sat, 01 Nov 2008 22:42:17 +0000 jen http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/?p=1091 Lord have mercy it was a madhouse.  The upside?  I have stuff for gumbo and my house smells amazing….
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  ]]> http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/11/01/hell-has-a-name-and-it-is-heb-plus-on-saturday-afternoon/feed 1 http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/21/we-need-a-cool-front-i-want-gumbo http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/21/we-need-a-cool-front-i-want-gumbo#comments Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:43:23 +0000 jen http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/?p=1013 Chicken and Sausage because I do not feel the need to spend $100 on good seafood to make a shrimp/crab/oyster gumbo.  OOoo with some potato salad.  Fuuuuuck I want some Gumbo.
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  ]]> http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/21/we-need-a-cool-front-i-want-gumbo/feed 14 http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/20/cuisine-to-a-five-year-old http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/20/cuisine-to-a-five-year-old#comments Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:10:52 +0000 jen http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/?p=996 We have a long history in my house of naming foods in an odd way.  Chicken soup is chickie water, why?  Because I use to be so unevolved I hated soup, called it meat and water.  Now I have seen the light and am nuts about soup.  Daughter No. 4 when she was little couldn’t remember “crispy taco” so she called them what they looked like, “chippy tacos”.  Fair enough.

  Well I had intened to use the two pounds of ground beed to make Chippy Tacos tonight but was derailed by a lack of taco shells and no oil to make them myself.  So I said, Chalupas!  Again, I was halted, no chalupa shells.  However, I was not to be deterred.  I have chips.  So I said, “Who wants nachos?”

  “Me!” says Daughter No 2.  “I only want them with beans and cheese!”  says Daughter No 3.  “Ewwwwww” says Daughter No 4.  I said, “I said, they are like little chalupas, mami… you will like them!”  She says, “Mmmm babylupas!”  So now, for dinner we are having babylupas.

  This is what my life is about… small victories.

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  ]]> http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/20/cuisine-to-a-five-year-old/feed 1 http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/20/monday-blah http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/20/monday-blah#comments Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:50:27 +0000 jen http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/?p=992 Why is it, even though I am not working at the moment, I still hate Mondays?  Just doesn’t make any sense.  The most difficult decision I had to make today was deciding what to do with the two pounds of ground beef I have in the fridge for dinner.  Still not sure.  Meh…
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  ]]> http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/20/monday-blah/feed 2 http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/19/ok-i-just-cannot-get-over-this http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/19/ok-i-just-cannot-get-over-this#comments Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:28:55 +0000 jen http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/?p=978 She Fucking put PEAS in gucamole!  I want to do bodily harm to this woman.  All I can say is she must give a blowjob that has no compare.  I cannot think of a single other reason she is on TV.  She fucking put peas in Guacamole!  She could have called it Vomit Looking Avocado Salad and I would have just gotten disgusted, but nooooo she had to call it Guacamole!
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  ]]> http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/19/ok-i-just-cannot-get-over-this/feed 10 http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/19/you-know-what-sunday-is-jen-mocks-food-tv-day http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/19/you-know-what-sunday-is-jen-mocks-food-tv-day#comments Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:16:08 +0000 jen http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/?p=976 Oh for fuck’s sake!  Sandra Lee is making guacamole.  Dear God!  She is mashing avocado, peas, and onions together and adding rotels.  IS SHE INSANE?  She should be shot for sins against avocados.

  It looks like a bowl of somethingi that comes out of a baby diaper.  I am now going to go cry for a while…

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  ]]> http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/19/you-know-what-sunday-is-jen-mocks-food-tv-day/feed 0 http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/14/ok-i-baked-something-to-a-good-result http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/14/ok-i-baked-something-to-a-good-result#comments Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:19:11 +0000 jen http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/?p=946 Miracles never cease… maybe McCain can win!

  I wanted cobbler.  Do not ask why… I just did.  So I hit the google machine woo woo.  Problem number 1?  I do not bake so it had to be easy.  I have documented my efforts at baking before; exibit A: Satan’s Barbed Cake.

  But I was determined to find something that was in my comfort zone and I found a winner…

  7up Cobbler! Of course I didn’t follow the directions entirely, but it still worked.

  Recipe:

  1 yellow cake mix
  2 cans pie filling
  1 can 7up

  Ok, I didn’t have two cans pie filling I had one apple pie filling… BUT! I had some frozen berries for this disgusting protien shit my husband drinks.  I used what is probably two cups of black berries and cranberries thawed.

  Spread the apples, topped with fruit in my 9×13 glass baking dish.  Well, I was concerned about the lack of syrup since I had only one can of filling which is mostly sugar so I added a little bit of coco lopez coconut goop (which looks like spooge.. just sayin’) and a little squirt or two of caramel sundae topping.  I felt better after that.  When in doubt add sugar!  I also have pecans so I tossed those on top the fruit.

  I covered it with the box of cake mix (dry) and poured a Sprite over the top.  Yeah, I didn’t have a 7up. It was sprite or orange fanta and I am not that adventurous.  Baked it for 45 minutes at 350 and VOILA! It is so fuckign sweet I nearly cry when I eat it.  LOVE IT.  Sent hubby to get some Blue Bell Vanilla ice cream and mmmm good stuff.

  I did it!  I baked something and it isn’t sad!

  Gig ‘em McCain!

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  ]]> http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/14/ok-i-baked-something-to-a-good-result/feed 6 http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/06/rachel-ray-just-gave-everyone-trichinosis http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/2008/10/06/rachel-ray-just-gave-everyone-trichinosis#comments Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:49:15 +0000 jen http://templeofjennifer.com/blog/?p=894 She just said that store bought chorizo is precooked.  I can say with certainty that 99% of the chorizo in San Antonio and most every part of Texas I have shopped freakin’ chorizo is fucking raw.  Perhaps you can find the smoked variety at an epicurean market or some of the bigger HEBs, but not easily.  You find the raw pan sausage variety in the meat area because that is the yummy greasy stuff we love down here with our eggs and potatoes.

  Good luck folks!

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