Chocolate & Zucchini

RE: Make Ahead Turkey Gravy

georgia — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:39:48 GMT

Okay. I'm back on this topic again -- whether anyone is interested or not. As I type this, I have 4 quarts (yes, 4 QUARTS) of made-ahead gravy cooling slightly before I put it into the freezer for Thanksgiving. Tastes great, and all I can think of is that I will actually have enough gravy for the crowd I'm expecting AND I won't be struggling with it in the middle of preparing the rest of the meal.

I used Rainey's original recipe (via Women's Day magazine), nearly doubling it, as my starting point and tweaked it a bit as follows:

1. I used both wings and necks, partly because I knew the necks would be good flavor and partly because they cost a bit less than the wings.

2. I switched to convection the last half hour of roasting to increase browning.

3. I deglazed the pan with white wine first, then added some water to finish.

4. Increased the # of carrots in the stock and added some celery as well, just because that's how I usually make stock. Also used fresh thyme instead of dried.

5. Allowed the stock to cool overnight and then skimmed the (small amount of) fat before reheating and thickening.

Drawbacks? It takes time, and it takes some extra cash because you do have to purchase those additional turkey parts. Also, turkey parts might be hard to find. My local butcher carries them only at this time of year, so I was lucky. However, I think (for me) it will be well worth it next Thursday. I hope my guests feel the same way!

Just wanted to pass on my experience making this recipe since I raised so many questions about it.

RE: flavouring chocolate?

Griffin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:50:38 GMT

I am positively careless of my life and single so if I die of flavouring poisoning it won't matter too much... I volunteer to try the chocs!!

Ooh, ooh, miss, pick me, pick me!!! (shoots hand up and stretches until Miss notices... at least I think she noticed)!!

RE: Pesky floating pop-ups

clotilde — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:09:06 GMT

Deste and Mary Sue - I have checked with the advertising network I work with, and they have an option to turn off floating layers, which I have just now activated. I don't know if it will be immediately effective or if it will take a few days, but theoretically, you should no longer see those.
Thank you for your feedback,
Clotilde.

RE: flavouring chocolate?

swan — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:35:04 GMT

hahaha, let me give it a try first. If and when succesful - or hazardous - we'll see......

RE: flavouring chocolate?

KYHeirloomer — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:11:56 GMT

Swan, donchaknow that flavored chocolates can be hazardous? I strongly recommend that you send them all to me for proper disposal.

RE: Pesky floating pop-ups

msue — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:02:11 GMT

FYI - I get that same float over pop-up from safecount.net.

It blocks whatever I'm attempting to read until I click it to close. I'm using Firefox as my browser in case that makes a difference.

RE: flavouring chocolate?

msue — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:52:23 GMT

Dearest swan,

I've made chocolate truffles with various flavorings before - but used the trial & error approach (well, as it is chocolate, the taste and re-taste method). I don't recall the ratio of extract to chocolate.

However, as I have this experience, I hereby volunteer my services to sample an unlimited quantity of chocolates. I will gladly tell you which ratio works best, although I'll have to sample many, many chocolates to be absolutely certain!

Your Christmas treats sound wonderful!

RE: Pesky floating pop-ups

clotilde — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:06:58 GMT

Dear Deste,
Thank you for bringing this to my attention, and for being so diplomatic about it. I actually don't know where these float-overs could be coming from -- I myself am not seeing them -- but I will look into it and let you know.
Is Chocolate & Zucchini the only site on which you're experiencing this?
With kind regards,
Clotilde.

Pesky floating pop-ups

Deste — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:27:19 GMT

By now most of us accept the need for revenue to maintain blogs we enjoy and have gotten used to the advertisements found in margins of web sites such as C & Z.

Scroll-overs that are difficult to avoid when scrolling down a page are annoying, but one can try to be vigilant while reading.

Despite the "No Pop-Ups" option in my browser's security system, I cannot avoid being invited to take a survey by "safecount.net" and am forced to click the bar (accepting cookies in either case?) to close it lest it continue to block what I try to read.

Might you consider banning such nuisances from C & Z, or are they unavoidable given the software or armature of the site?

P.S. When editing this post, another pop-up from "Voice Five" obscured my view. Such irony.

South Pacific Anyone?

bainst — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:15:49 GMT

I have the opportunity to go anywhere I want on vacation in a few months. Since I'm currently deployed, when soldiers go on R&R, the DOD will purchase us a round trip ticket to anyplace we want. I have three countries currently on my short list. I have never visited any of them except in my imagination or in magazines. If anyone has every been to New Zealand (South Island), New Caledonia, or The Cook Islands, I would be grateful for any information outside of a blog or magazine. Good or bad it doesn't matter.