We Had Ham ,I smoked it for 6 or so hrs , it was YUMMMMMMMY !!!
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And Turkey , It didnt last Lonng enough for pics
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Sweet Taters , but these were different , insted of being Smashed into a Pulp they were roasted and Sliced , and topped , they were KILLLLLER !!!
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Veggies and stuffing
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Yeah Gots to Have Deviled eggs !!!
Oh Check this out , a Heart shaped Egg
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Gotz to Lurvs them Country Eggs !!!

"You've taken your first step into a larger universe." Fear no turkey henceforth.

We had such car trouble logistics got in the way of our getting any goodies until T-day itself, so we baked some ham for the T-day and roasted the turkey with fixin's today. Still have to organize that pie, which needs only the filling and baking now... so it will probably end up being a latecoming "remove," vice actually a course. We are snarfing the turkey now, and it too came out fiiine. Next feast I make more sage-and-thyme bread stuffing, though. Inside old Tom just ain't enough.

I'm jealous of all of you that had interesting foods. My family's T-day meals are always dull as a brick. That's what they like, though. Picky people.

Turkey (at least I got a free range one)
mashed taters
gravy
cornbread stuffing w/sauteed onions added
green bean casserole
candied yams w/mini marshmallows (yeah, from a can)
whole berry cranberry sauce (from a can)
brown & serve rolls
Pecan pie
Brownies (SIL brought them)

Zzzzzzzzzz.....................

Part of the reason it was so boring is that we just had the hardwood floors installed and just didn't have time to do much more. Usually I would have at least made a homemade punkin pie. I would have liked more veggies too.

Neither have I, despite having worked for an Indian guy for 5 years.

Closest I got was when he forced us all to drink ginger tea one winter, saying it would keep us from getting sick. I managed to get him to stop by promising I'd drink ginger ale instead. :greenface

I'll go with you, Bri! You name the day!

We have a lot of Indian food at our place. I've just about perfected the recipe for butter chicken, and next on my list is lamb rogan josh. I make lots of other curries too, but none of them are to specific recipe's. Just whatever I happen to feel like that night.

sounds like a good plan!!!

I'll PM you my winter schedule

Oooooh. Oh that ham looks to die for! As does everything else in the spread. I am soooo jealous. I had a pot noodle for tea last night *sniffs* I probably ought to get my act together and clean my kitchen so I can cook some real food...




@ Bri: the great thing about curry is it comes in so many guises. If you want deeply savoury with meat and tomatoes and spice, go for a Rogan Josh, or a madras. Dopiaza is also very savoury, made with lots of onion in it. But if you want something sweeter and creamy, go for a Korma. My favourite curry is chicken korma, made with coconut and cream. Slightly spiced and very warming: a real comfort food, it is one I tend to associate with childhood. If you're not much for heavy sauces, get a Biryani: a rice dish with the curry mixed through it, much drier than the others.

Best way to eat curry (imo) is to go the full banquet route. Have two main curries on the table with plain white rice and some pilau rice, chapattis and papadums, naan bread, side dishes of dahl and aloo saag (spicy potatoes and spinach) a little salad, and some good chutney (tomato chutney works well, but my favourite is mango). Lots of different flavours and textures that all work together.

More to the point - no peas!?
What kind of a Brit are you?
Oh, yeah, one who hated Britain :p

thanks for the advice, Dana. That's very helpful as I've NO idea about the food. I'll be sure to hook up with some Indian food before christmas - now if juni wants to go along - that'd be great!

I'm late getting here but we served 12 fairly happy and hungry guests. I tried the high temp method that Alton Brown promotes and I do think it made for a very nice juicy turkey which weighed in at 18 lbs and the brine does help make it juicy yet with a nice crackly brown skim. I also did a 12 lb ham. I have 3 ovens which helped ensure that everything came out hot and was also served on heated plates.
We had lots of the usual side dishes but my favorite was a sweet potato gratin that I created on the spot. We gave a lot of the food to the kids as they departed so we don't have a ton of leftovers.

I've only seen Dopiaza twice in the US. Chappattis are rare here too. Also, the chutneys are usually pretty grim, except the tamarind. England just has better Indian food than the US, in my experience. That's not to say that there isn't good Indian food here, it's just more rare and of a slightly different variety than it is in England.

Oh and note that as the English food is translated from Indian, with all its languages and dialects, there is a wide range of spellings for different dishes. For example I am familiar with dhaal and poppadoms, Dana with dahl and papadums. Both are translations, so both are correct.

I hate korma. Bleugh.
But then I'm not fond of coconut or almonds.
I like dopiaza, rogan josh, chicken ceylon (or papaya), and balti.
So basically I like sauce, tomatoes, onions and a sting in the tail.

Ask your waiter. Describe what you like to eat elsewhere.
If curries are not eaten widely in America, they will be used to the question and will appreciate it.

Better yet, grab a menu and put it on here.
Then get 12 conflicting views about what you should order :)

Perry, maybe your Indian immigrants came from a different part of India.
I mean it is a sub-continent in its own right.
Standard curry house here used to be Northern Indian, and supermarket curries and bought sauces still follow this pattern, but local places are branching out now.
I had my eyes opened living in Leicester, where there were Southern Indian restaraunts, purely vegetarian places and Afro-Carribean curry specialists.

I love a naan, but I miss being able to get a dosa, roti or paratha too.

Zip, I almost forget.
Mum melted at the sight of your ham.
She thought it looked gorgeous.

I was thinking about checking out the offerings at Trader Joe's before moving on to an actual restaurant. I'm kind of worried about going to an Indian restaurant and not knowing what to order and looking like an idiot.

I would hope I'm not entirely ethnic-food phobic. I do love Chinese. ;)
. . . well, the fake Chinese food they pass off on us silly Americans, anyway.

And mexican. Yum, guacamole. And Italian, what's not to love about that?

Seriously though, living here there's no excuse not to have at least a passing familiarity with authentic ethnic foods. Granted we're pretty white-bread, but we do have Jungle Jim's, where you can get anything from anywhere.

Back to the Indian thing . . . apologizing for the total thread drift . . . I'll be into it next quarter because I'm taking another post-colonial literature class with our Indian professor. :)

That is an excellent looking ham zip, Dennis would be all over it. Sweet potatoes look especially good too.