Sillier Dinner

Woke up at 5, was pedaling to Red Hook by 6, was knee-deep in prep and cooking by 6:30. Students started rolling in by 7, the dining room started getting set up around 11, the 150 mouths at 12:30 service at 1, and like a swarm of locusts, was all over by 1:30. It was fun to operate this machine, with many moving parts, warming it up early (literally and figuratively) and bringing it to one crescendo, followed by a smaller crescendo (dessert!)

The only thing I was really unhappy with was the turkey -- I've never actually roasted a turkey before (because, well, I don't like turkey and we roasted plenty of other meats in c-school) and I now know why it has such a bad rep. I don't mean bad rep, like evil factory farms, animals bred into unwalking, unhappy mutants or unhealthy hormones, antibiotics and chemicals stuffed into these poor birds. I mean it's REALLY difficult to roast a bird this size AND have it all come out good. If you get the center of the meat to 165˚, the outside is gonna overcook, period. Brining only got us so far. Looking at the pic above, yes, it's a nice color and yes, the butter basting let the skin come out nice n' crackly, but about 1/4 of the dark meat and 1/3 of the white was dry and tough, despite me following every method and maxim drawn from my experience.

If I were to do the bird again, I would either a) forgo roasting the bird all together and fry the mother or b) choose 3 smaller birds instead of 2 large, brine for 8 hours instead of 4 and baste twice as much. Oh well.

I missed Edles today. She is such a snuggly person to hang with.

BREAKFAST: 5:30am, good granola with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

KITCHEN TASTING, TESTING & SNACKING: 6:30am-2:30pm, bits of turkey, bits of ham, bits of creamed potatoes, a couple of brownies, a half piece of pumpkin cheese cake, several cups of mint lemonade and sweet tea, a few spoonfuls of cornbread stuffing, a taste of mac n' cheese, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Nice to overhear some students saying how much they liked the food. Overheard others that didn't. Hrumph.

PM SNACK: 4pm, slice of pumpkin cheesecake, 3 quarts of water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, Cesar salad, half a Lombardi's pizza, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5