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Dinner Report And Potlatch Plans
Feb. 15th, 2009 05:53 pmValentines Day used to be a big deal to me. I always wanted to go out for a fancy dinner, cards, candy, flowers, it was nice. Then I hated Valentines Day when I was alone, as lots of singles do. Now, I'm mostly indifferent. I still like the candy, of course, but my teeth can't handle very much of it. I am very grateful for the fact that I am not alone.
We decided to have a nice dinner at home. I thought I'd try to recreate my holiday success with a duck. The thing about roasting a duck, is that it goes for a long time at a low-ish temperature. Five minutes after putting it in the oven though, it starts to smell amazing, and you have to put up with the agony of "OMG is it done YET?" for several hours! I brined the duck before-hand. The recipe from Alton Brown is: a pint of orange juice, 1/2 cup salt, black pepper, thyme, and several cloves of smashed garlic. I used more garlic, less pepper, and added rosemary as well.
While ducky was brining, Luke and I went to the gym. It was strangely quiet for a Saturday afternoon.
I roasted ducky by itself for a long while, then added potatoes, garlic, shallots, parsnips and purple cauliflower to the pan, now filling up with delicious duck fat. It smelled so good, it was almost unbearable. I dug out some candles from the "if power goes out" stash, and we had an honest-to-goodness romantic candlelight dinner.
I made duck broth this afternoon. (That's Duk Brof in LOL-Speak) At X-mas, I made duck broth, and it turned out fine, but I did it by random guesswork. Today, I found some videos on YouTube and went at it a little better informed. I'd even saved the innards from yesterday, and used them as well. I sauteed them in the stockpot first, which I'd never done before. It was kinda scary. Then I added water, garlic, shallots, celery and parsnips. I'm turning into a fan of parsnips. They're a lot like carrots, but I don't like carrots. Go figure..
Thyme, sage, a couple bay leaves, a little pepper, and the rest of the ducky carcass. Let the simmering commence. The kitchen and dining room windows were soon coated in a film of duck-flavored steam. Again, with the smelling so good it's unbearable. When it was finally done, I took a tip from one of the cooking videos I watched, and poured some of the broth into ice cube trays. We'll think of lots of uses for those!
I'm mostly set for Potlatch. I'll be taking Amtrak, America's sorry excuse for passenger rail. (Because I really hate flying that much.) Arriving, theoretically, Thursday 10am. I have a hotel room, and crash space for after. Leave Tuesday evening. Next thing I need to look into is a rental car. The original plan was that Luke and I would come to Potlatch, and stay a few extra days either before or after the con. We'd rent a car, and I would show him all the cool places I used to know, and we'd eat our way around Silicon Valley at all my favorite restaurants (the ones that are still there, at least). That was before the whole "we're burning through savings with no work for the forseeable future thing". And Luke isn't coming to Potlatch with me. I still want to drive around a little, but it would be too expensive to get a car for the whole weekend. I shall research my options..
This trip will be good, my paranoia is gone. There are always monents at cons (or at least there are for me) when you're sitting in a group of people you know, and no-one seems to want to talk to you. Or watching a room full of conversations, unable to break into one. It happened to me an awful lot at last year's Potlatch, I felt like I wasn't one of the cool people. On this trip, whether or not I achieve coolness, I'll work very hard not to feel like that again.
We decided to have a nice dinner at home. I thought I'd try to recreate my holiday success with a duck. The thing about roasting a duck, is that it goes for a long time at a low-ish temperature. Five minutes after putting it in the oven though, it starts to smell amazing, and you have to put up with the agony of "OMG is it done YET?" for several hours! I brined the duck before-hand. The recipe from Alton Brown is: a pint of orange juice, 1/2 cup salt, black pepper, thyme, and several cloves of smashed garlic. I used more garlic, less pepper, and added rosemary as well.
While ducky was brining, Luke and I went to the gym. It was strangely quiet for a Saturday afternoon.
I roasted ducky by itself for a long while, then added potatoes, garlic, shallots, parsnips and purple cauliflower to the pan, now filling up with delicious duck fat. It smelled so good, it was almost unbearable. I dug out some candles from the "if power goes out" stash, and we had an honest-to-goodness romantic candlelight dinner.
I made duck broth this afternoon. (That's Duk Brof in LOL-Speak) At X-mas, I made duck broth, and it turned out fine, but I did it by random guesswork. Today, I found some videos on YouTube and went at it a little better informed. I'd even saved the innards from yesterday, and used them as well. I sauteed them in the stockpot first, which I'd never done before. It was kinda scary. Then I added water, garlic, shallots, celery and parsnips. I'm turning into a fan of parsnips. They're a lot like carrots, but I don't like carrots. Go figure..
Thyme, sage, a couple bay leaves, a little pepper, and the rest of the ducky carcass. Let the simmering commence. The kitchen and dining room windows were soon coated in a film of duck-flavored steam. Again, with the smelling so good it's unbearable. When it was finally done, I took a tip from one of the cooking videos I watched, and poured some of the broth into ice cube trays. We'll think of lots of uses for those!
I'm mostly set for Potlatch. I'll be taking Amtrak, America's sorry excuse for passenger rail. (Because I really hate flying that much.) Arriving, theoretically, Thursday 10am. I have a hotel room, and crash space for after. Leave Tuesday evening. Next thing I need to look into is a rental car. The original plan was that Luke and I would come to Potlatch, and stay a few extra days either before or after the con. We'd rent a car, and I would show him all the cool places I used to know, and we'd eat our way around Silicon Valley at all my favorite restaurants (the ones that are still there, at least). That was before the whole "we're burning through savings with no work for the forseeable future thing". And Luke isn't coming to Potlatch with me. I still want to drive around a little, but it would be too expensive to get a car for the whole weekend. I shall research my options..
This trip will be good, my paranoia is gone. There are always monents at cons (or at least there are for me) when you're sitting in a group of people you know, and no-one seems to want to talk to you. Or watching a room full of conversations, unable to break into one. It happened to me an awful lot at last year's Potlatch, I felt like I wasn't one of the cool people. On this trip, whether or not I achieve coolness, I'll work very hard not to feel like that again.
