Seeking Food - By Ketojinic

Merrrrrrrrrrry Christmas! What did I cook today you ask? HAM cooked in pineapple juice and rubbed down with brown sugar. and a whole lot of cookies - chocolate chip, sugar cookies, peppermint chocolate chocolate chip, rice crispy treats with fruity pebbles, peanut butter cookies, and a carrot cake. Yesterday I made a 7 up bundt cake. It was lemony and not too sweet cuz I only used half of the sugar the recipe asked for. I bought these items to a potluck where the main dish was dok man doo guk, which is a Korean dumpling and sliced rice cake soup with egg, dried seaweed, and beef as garnishes. Pretty delish. I'm glad I missed out on the pizza and the korean fried chicken they were feasting on throughout the day (as I was busy with my own oven). After dinner with the fam, I brought the leftover ham home and made ham soup. Tomorrow, I'm going to try to make a ham and spinach and cheese quiche. I love fattening people up for the holidays!

I just bought $10 gift certificates for $0.60 (that's sixty cents, people... yes, cheaper than a can of diet coke) on www.restaurants.com. Just type in "GIVE" for the promo code and you get 80% slashed off of an already reduced $3 (for a $10 coupon) for a mere $0.60. What I bought: Item Name: O'Mamamia Item Number: $10 Quantity: 1 Total: $0.60 USD Item Name: Pitfire Pizza Company Item Number: $10 Quantity: 4 Total: $2.40 USD Item Name: Soleil Westwood Item Number: $10 Quantity: 2 Total: $1.20 USD Item Name: La Bruschetta Ristorante Item Number: $10 Quantity: 1 Total: $0.60 USD Cart Subtotal: $4.80 USD Sales Tax: Cart Total: $4.80 USD Payment details Transaction ID: Item Price: $4.80 USD Total: $4.80 USD I paid $4.80 for $80 worth of food at the 3 places I frequent the most and one new place (la bruschetta) which I always pass and always wanted to try. suh-weet!

Every year, I pretend Christmas isn't really happening and then freak out last minute and go on a ridiculously un-thought-out shopping spree where I inevitably end up buying more shizz for myself than anyone else. Not this year. This year I plan on buying presents only for my family. Sorry if you're a victim of this downturn but this girl will not have a job come January (when I start school) so I get to be cheap for once. However, I am still baking cookies like I always do because it's cheap(er), fun, and it gets me into the Holiday spirit. What is Christmas without cookies? It's almost as bad as Christmas without Jesus. So last night I baked two batches of gingerbread cookies with my new awesome 12 piece cookie cutters with details! I love it. I bought it at vons for $12.99 and came home to research it online to see if I got jipped. My plan was to return it if I found something online for cheaper but after using it, I loved it so much that I decided not to look it up ...

Man! These took forever to upload. I had to cut it down and then make them into two parts for it to upload without a problem. In this first video, you will see all the things I did after brining the turkey overnight, and before putting it into the oven. I basically stuffed a stick of butter cut into slices between the skin and the muscles. I also stuffed the turkey with apples, and the neck cavity was stuffed with onions, carrots, and celery. Last but not least, I poured 2/3 bottle of champagne inside and outside of the turkey (inside the oven bag though). This vid shows how the turkey turned out, and some side dishes I made that I was able to catch on vid before people started destroying my masterpiece:

A quick video of how I brined the turkey. Still in the process of uploading the final product!

The drunken judy bird. This year, I tried the dry brine (1 tablespoon of kosher salt per 5 pounds of turkey) because it's economical and less of a hassle. Plus my curiosity was piqued. Really? Salt is all you need to keep the juice in the turkey? After brining the turkey for a few days, the turkey was prepared by inserting butter slices between the skin and the meat, stuffed with cored and halved apples, and some veggies, and then I poured champagne inside and outside of the turkey to cook in it for a few hours. The result - a juicy turkey with less hassle and for a lot cheaper. However, the sacrifice not having as much crispy skin and it was still not AS juicy as last year's cranberry zinfandel turkey. Next year, I will most likely have to go with either having a crispy turkey or a fully juicy one. I know most people don't have a problem with the dryness of the turkey but my family is really sensitive to it - they're not big turkey people and this is the best ...