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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Recipe Review - Alton Brown's (From Good Eats) Roast Turkey

About a month ago, I came across this recipe for roasting a turkey:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html

I showed the recipe to my boyfriend, Will, and he decided to try it this year. We figured it would be worth trying for two reasons:

1) We love the show Good Eats on Food Network. Alton Brown knows what he is doing!

2) When I look at recipes, I look at the ratings. I was impressed that this recipe had over 2,000 reviews (which now is up to over 3,000), and it got 5 out of 5 stars!

Definitely worth trying... and I am SO glad we did!

I love turkey, but every year I always go for the dark meat because the breast is always so dry. Not this year.  The Good Eats turkey was cooked perfectly. It was the most juiciest, delicious turkey breast I have ever put in my mouth! It just melts on your tongue. AMAZING!

So, if you are planning on baking a turkey for Christmas, I HIGHLY recommend this recipe!


Before

After


Good Eats Roast Turkey

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown

Prep Time: 15 min
Inactive Prep Time: 7 hr 0 min
Cook Time: 2 hr 30 min
Level: Easy Serves: 10 to 12 servings

Ingredients

1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:

1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
1 gallon heavily iced water

For the aromatics:

1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

Directions

2 to 3 days before roasting:

Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.

Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:

Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.

Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.



I hope to be posting the ornament from my Christmas ornament giveaway in a week! It's at Pottery Works and should be ready to pick up next week! Most of my projects this month will involve cooking... lots and lots of cooking! Cookies, cakes, etc. Should be fun!

Happy Holidays!

Emily

Monday, November 29, 2010

Ho Ho Ho!


Well Thanksgiving is done, and now it's my favorite time of year! We decorated our Christmas tree yesterday, and I wanted to share it with you!

I bought twinkling lights for the tree!

Will and I decided last year that we would collect ornaments in two ways. We would buy ornaments on any vacation we go on. We have ones from Vegas, Key West and the Bahamas. We also decided that every year we would buy each other an ornament. Last year I received a kermit ornament from him, and I gave him a Ghostbuster ornament. These are the ornaments we exchanged this year!

I LOVE my ornament! Will is so thoughtful!

Will loves the Steelers. This ornament has two of his
favorite players of all time on it!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season! Keep a look out for all the Christmas projects I'll post!



 ♥ Emily

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving! 25 days of Thankfullness!



Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

In honor of this holiday, I decided to share what I am thankful for with you! Starting November 1st, I started writing out one thing I am thankful for each day up until Thanksgiving day! It helps to remind me how truly blessed I am!

1. My wonderful, amazing, awesome best friend and boyfriend, Will 
Words can't express how blessed I am to have such a great man in my life. I almost feel like it's too good to be true! I have never been this happy! Thank you for loving me and being SO great! I hope you know how wonderful you are! I love you!

2. My dog, Jack, and cat, Kitti
There is something about having pets that brings such a confront... especially with dogs.  Thanks Jack and Kitti for being such loving little critters and for being SO funny!

3. Cooking 
Oh food, how I love you. Probably too much. I daydream about you all the time. You make me happy when I am sad.  I love being able to create something so delicious! Thanks for making my belly happy!

4. My Family
I know I will never be alone because I can always rely on my family. Mom, dad, Jamie, Katherine, Maddie and new baby Natalie or Lucas. I love you all very much!

5. My Friends
You are not only my friends. You are my family as well. There are so many of you to name, but I feel I do need to mention a precious few. Kimberly, Monica and Jason. You'll always be in my heart no matter how far apart we are!

6. My Job
I am so thankful for my job and my coworkers. I have always felt very comfortable working there. I feel secure in my position, and that is something that can't often be said nowadays.

7. My House
I am so blessed to have such a great place to live. It's everything I could want in a house! I love the space I get to work with! It definitely feels like home!

8. My Creativity
I love how I have the ability create things. There is no better feeling than to escape to that creative zone in my head. Cooking, drawing, painting, etc. It brings me such happiness!

9. My Health
I wasn't the healthest, most active child growing up. I was definitely overweight. I lost about 50 pounds since I started college in 2002. I am not only thankful for that, but for my overall health throughout the years.

10. My State 
I am thankful for the rich culture that I grew up in... the rich FOOD culture! MMM!

11. My Blog
It's great to have a place to share with everyone what I am up to! Keeps me accountable as well!

12. Music
Can't live without music. I always have a song to sing. Ask Will... I sing about everything! :)

13. My Mac and my iPhone
Yup... I said it. I am that nerdy!

14. Pictures
I love captured memories!

15. Cool, Fall days
They don't come often here in Louisiana, but when they do, I cherish them.

16. Crawfish
Boiled, stewed, fried... YUM YUM YUM

17. Sleep
It's SO nice!
 
18. The smell of a roux cooking
"Remember, no matter how far you roam, a little scent of a roux in the air will always remind you there's no place like home." -Louisiana Cookin' Magazine

19. The 80's
Music... Movies... best decade ever!! ;)

20. Google
I use you everyday, Google. To shop, to look for ideas, to learn. I can't imagine how people lived without it!

21. Tony's Boudin Balls
Nuff said ;)

22. Diet Coke
I couldn't live without you! :)

23. Our huge jacuzzi bath 
Nothing ends the day better than a nice soak in it!

24. My Past
I've had my ups and downs, but I know they made me into the person I am today. They may not sound as great or tragic as others' experiences, but they have affected me nonetheless. I have learned a lot, and feel like I know who I truly am now.

25. My God
Because none of these blessings, no matter how big or small, that I am so thankful for would be possible if it wasn't for Him. I look at my life and know nothing is coincidence. I look at the sky, the trees, the ocean... I think about how incredibly complicated animals and humans are and know there is no way these could have just popped out of nowhere. There is an Artist out there who created this beautiful life of mine, and I want to thank Him most of all!

So today, look back on your life, and think about what you are most thankful for. And if it's someone in your life, make sure to let them know it!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

 ♥ Emily

Monday, November 22, 2010

Project of the Week: Baby Shower Cake and Diaper Cake



Wow... So... Last week I was MEGA busy preparing for my sister-in-law Katherine's baby shower. I am excited to say that it went very well, and everyone seemed to have a nice time! The theme was baby animals and neutral colors since we won't know the sex of the baby until it is born. I seemed to favor the giraffe though... :)

Well, needless to say, I kind of went over the top with my projects for the shower. They were for Katherine so I had to! :) I am very proud of both of them, especially the cake I decorated. I will start with it first! Warning: This is going to a lot of pictures!

I first started with the bottle. I rolled some rice cripies into a bottle shape

I covered the rice cripies with fondant

Then I colored some fondant to make the top of the bottle

I formed the nipple with a combination of
fondant and gumpaste

I used a strip of blue to make the connection

Then I used some colored fondant to start the giraffe

The body and neck

Attaching the arm with a tootpick


Measuring out the giraffes diaper

I set the giraffe on the bottle and attached the rest of the arms and legs


I formed the head and ear and attached it to the rest of the body.
Then I started adding the giraffes spots.

I added hair down the back

   
And a cute little tail!
Added a flag. Congrats Katherine!!!! :)

I made daffodils out of royal icing

I baked my cake and filled it with strawberry filling

A baby green, neutral icing



Messy :)

Smoothed the icing out and added dowels to support
my heavy giraffe and bottle!

Held up perfectly!

Added a border

Added yellow dots, the flowers and leaves




Katherine cutting the cake

I am very proud of my cake. I can't wait to learn even more about cake decorating!

Now time for my diaper cake. I have seen these before, and knew I had to make one for the shower! Unlike the edible cake, this one was pretty easy to make!

I first started with 100 of these little guys. I used all but 4 I believe.

I rolled them all up and put rubber bands on them

Using a bottle as a base, I started stacking the diapers around
the bottle, using a large rubber band to hold them in place


After I stacked my diapers, I tied yellow ribbon
around each layer.

I added some animal print ribbon to match the theme.
I added some shredded paper to add texture to the layers

My friend Andrea made the giraffe on top of the
diaper cake. I place random little goodies around
the cake to finish it off

Back view
Me with my creations!

Next up... Thanksgiving! And Christmas! Let's see what I am inspired to do this holiday season!

Emily

Friday, November 19, 2010

And I said, "Hey! What's going on?"

So I decided to write a blog just letting everyone know how I am doing, what's going on in my world and what future projects I have up my sleeve.

First things first... I am officially....


www.CreateShareRepeat.com

That's right I have officially purchased a domain name! Now it will be even easier for people to find me and to share my blog! I also have a new email address (which forwards to the old one so you can still use the old one too). Emily@CreateShareRepeat.com!

Last month I wrote about how I was going to be Dorothy for Halloween! I had my friend Jane take a few pictures of me in my costume with my real life, Toto aka Jack!

Here are a few of the pictures from the session!






We made Will get in there for one pic! A family picture! Minus Kitti!


Check out more of Jane's work here: http://janeypiephotography.com/


I hope y'all don't think I am too big of a dork for dressing up as Dorothy so I could take pictures with my puppy! I also entered work's annual Halloween costume contest as Dorothy. I won second place! I couldn't bring Jack to work so I had find someone else to be Toto....


I have an
AWESOME BOYFRIEND! :)
Petting Toto's head :)

I know what you are thinking... Where did she get those AWESOME red slippers!! Well, naturally, I made them :) I had some pics of how I made them, but I don't have them on me so maybe I will post them another time!

Anyways....

I have so so so so so so SO many things going on right now that my little brain is having a tough time keeping up with them! Needless to say, I am going to have some pretty great projects to post coming up soon! This weekend is my sister-in-law, Katherine's baby shower. I have been preparing a while for it, and now it's finally come down to the wire. I have two projects that I have been working on that I can't WAIT to show everyone, but that will have to wait till after the shower.

The next week I will be working on Thanksgiving dinner! We are going to Llano, TX to visit Will's family for Thanksgiving this year. We went last year, and I had such a great time. I love the area! It's rocky, hilly and beautiful! I am planning on making FOUR dishes for our visit. My mom's cornbread dressing is one of them. I have never attempted to make it before, but I am very excited to try. It's FABULOUS! I will also be making my mom's seafood gumbo which is even MORE fabulous and which I have also never made. Along with these, I am making Sweet Potato Casserole and some yeast rolls. I am aiming high this year. :)

I also hope to work on a Christmas ornament this weekend. The ornament from the Christmas ornament giveaway! I have been waiting for Pottery Works to get them in, and they arrived this week! I am REALLY excited about the theme of the ornament which I will reveal when I do a post on it in a few weeks!

I don't even want to start THINKING about the month of December yet! It will be even busier than this month! But more fun! AND I will get a new niece or nephew that month!

So keep a look out! I ought to have some REALLY cool post coming up soon! I love the holidays! So many opportunities to be creative!

Happy Early Thanksgiving to everyone!

Emily