After Thanksgiving Turkey Noodle Casserole

Did you guys have a wonderful Thanksgiving? We started cooking wednesday night, and besides eight hours of much needed sleep, it was non-stop until thursday night; a constant flow of pies, casseroles, and rolls from our oven. When people started arriving, I was still in the middle of frying onion strings for the green bean casserole. It made its way into our bellies soon enough. We ate too much food, drank a few too many drinks, and had a jolly old time.

Though turkey is usually the star of the show, to be completely honest, it's the sides I look forward to most each year. But despite my lukewarm feelings, the big bird always makes its way onto our menu partly because of tradition, but mostly because I love repurposing the carcass to make turkey noodle casserole after we've grown tired of eating the standard leftovers.

The friday after every Thanksgiving, I place whatever is left of the turkey into a large stockpot, cover it completely with water and let it simmer for hours while we camp out in front of the tv until dark. When the stock has finished and cooled, I take the carcass out, pull off whatever meat is left on the backbone, and store everything in the fridge until we feel like making the noodle casserole (usually sometime during the weekend). It's a wonderfully therapeutic end to a frantic few days.

Cheese Soufflé

Five bottles of champagne split between six people is how I started my new year. At the time, I wasn't thinking much about what I wanted to accomplish in the coming year. But now that I have had some time to reflect upon where my life currently is versus where I want it to be, I am a little overwhelmed at the thought of all the decisions and all of the work ahead of me. I won't say I have any particular new year's resolutions. I think they are stupid, like diets. Why only make resolutions once a year? Why not start pursuing your goals the second you form them, regardless of whether it's January or August? That's not to say having aspirations is stupid, on the contrary I think it's healthy and wonderful to continuously want to better yourself, and I definitely have a vision of where I want to be by this time next year. So instead of the term "new year's resolutions", lets call them "forever life goals."

A few of mine: Quit being so lazy and get my ass off the couch more often. Figure out what I'm passionate about and pursue it. Don't be afraid to make decisions that will displease other people if it means I will be happier in the long run. Eat my way through New York City. Cook with ingredients and methods I currently find intimidating. Stay in touch with friends, old and new. Travel more. Be bold. Be patient. Be kind.

And now that I've spilled my guts to all of you, I'm going to count these cheese soufflés as a step toward one of those goals.

Apple Pie with a Cheddar Cheese Crust

My dear readers, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news? I got a job. The bad news? I got a job.

As some of you may know, I moved from Chicago to New York back in April and left my job there in order to do so. My educational background is in marketing research (I actually have a master's degree that I got when I was 22 years old, if I may toot my own horn for a second...okay, I'm done now) and I worked at small marketing analytics consulting firm during my time in the windy city. It was nice at first, but toward the end I was miserable, which made it that much easier for me to leave and start something new here in Brooklyn. I had been casually looking for another job in the same field, but after I started this blog, most of my time was spent here. In the six months that have passed this blog has turned into my world, a (mostly) productive way for me to channel my energies. I say "mostly" because sometimes I get down on myself for not being good enough, or for taking shit photos, or for whatever else I can nitpick about. The human ability to create stress out of an otherwise completely stress free environment never ceases to amaze me. All tangents aside, I've learned more than I thought I would in this short time, I've met some wonderful people, and I've developed a deep appreciation for what it means to be a food blogger, a recipe developer, a home chef, a photographer.

Unfortunately, what this new job means for me is that I won't have as much time for good old O&O. Believe you me, this is by no means a goodbye. I could be in a hospital bed and I'd still be updating this blog. What it does mean is that I'll be around less often. Currently I try to post once or twice a week, this might slow down to once every two weeks. Especially as the sun will be setting quite early in the coming days, I'll only have time to photograph my creations on the weekends. To give you an idea, let me walk you through how I made and shot this apple pie. I started working on it at 11:30 am: setting up all the ingredients, weighing flour, cutting in butter, grating cheese, slicing apples, accidentally huffing cinnamon, clumsily weaving a lattice crust, taking photos every step of the way, washing my hands a thousand times over (so I don't get flour stuck inside my camera). I worked until I could no longer take photos as the sun was too far gone, around 5:30 pm. And I didn't even get to cut out a slice! I ran out of time.

I won't be able to do that anymore on a wonderfully sunny Tuesday (that's on top of other days that are full of recipe testing and re-shoots, which I'll spare you the agony of reading about...). I'll have to reserve it for Saturdays or Sundays when I'd much rather sleep in and eat breakfast at 2 in the afternoon, then have my early evening bourbon at 4 and watch tv for the rest of the day. Now, instead of lazy weekends, I'll be cooking, taking notes, and taking photos. All because I've carved out a home for myself here, a little blog home in the vast wild west of the internet.

Homemade Croissants

I think this is as far as I go. What else is left to do, left to master, after making homemade croissants? Have I peaked? Is it all downhill from here?

I jest of course, but these croissants. These croissants! So flaky, so buttery, so good. Three-years-ago me (you know, the one who was making hockey puck biscuits because she couldn't read directions) would have never thought that current me would ever successfully make croissants. I won't sugarcoat it though, they are a labor of love. They take an entire day to make, and that's if you start early in the morning. I find it more manageable to split the process over two days. The technique is fairly straightforward, you just need lots of time, a rolling pin, a ruler, and a heck of a lot of elbow grease.