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Winding down

The year is winding down.

The year is almost over. There’s just about 5 or 6 weeks left in the year and I’m not going anywhere.

I’m here for the rest of the time and I’m quite okay with it. I definitely am looking forward to spending more time with myself and on my own. I just can’t wait.

The year has gone by so fast. The year has been filled with a lot of ups and downs like any other year and I think it is time to start thinking over the year, to get ready for my yearly reflection.

It’s almost time for my yearly bah humbug. It’s almost time.

* * *

November.

It’s 3 weeks over and I have to say so far, it is pretty much one of the most annoying months.

I got sick last weekend and just fully recovered like on Thursday or even yesterday.

I got myself a new suit and the tailors just can’t get anything right or I’m not telling them exactly what I want. That’ll be something that I have to work on.

But Thanksgiving is next week and I’m so looking forward to it.

I haven’t had a big cooking day just for myself in quite a long long time. It’s been a long ass time and I’m so looking forward to it.

I have my menu all worked out already and I just need to think things over and come up with a plan of how to cook things. I need to look over the recipes and digest the steps and how things are done.

For the most part, things should be pretty easy and straightforward. There will be a lot of adaption and changes and mutations in the recipes but, the cooking should be pretty straightforward.

I should be able to get two of the five dishes I’m making the day before and that should help out quite a bit.

Can’t wait.

* * *

The Menu.

THE PARTY OF ONE THANKFUL MENU

  • Peruvian Brick Chicken with a Aji Sauce

    • I was debating whether to make a lamb osso bucco (braised lamb shanks), but instead of full shanks, I’d try to find a cross cut or do a brick chicken. Then I remembered about the green aji sauce and then it was decided, a roasted brick chicken. Done and done. This should be one of the easier dishes.
    • Now, I just have to decide if I want to cook a full 3-4lb chicken or find something smaller, like a 1-1.5lb game hen and just get two of those. I really think I should get a game hen. It’ll be easier to cook in a sense, even though it’ll be more work. We shall see.

  • Spicy roasted street corn with queso casserole or salad

    • I haven’t decided on exactly how this is going to get made. I’ve been looking over the recipes and they all make sense and it seems like it’ll be a cold dish, but I was thinking more ooey and gooey and cheesier, like a casserole, but that might change when I actually make it.

  • Seafood Paella

    • This is the dish that I am most worried about. I don’t have a paella pan or have a wide enough burner for this. Looking at how it is made, it’s basically a risotto. The only thing is that you don’t stir the rice. It’s supposed to sit and absorb the liquid and cook and get crusty. You add the shellfish and shrimp near the end of the cooking process so you don’t overcook it. I have a fair idea of how to make it, but not really. This one is the wild card.

  • Russian Potato Salad or Potato Salad with Chimichurri Sauce

    • It took me a long time to find another side dish for this menu, but I finally found it and it is pretty easy. So there’s an Argentinian potato salad that originated from Russia, hence it is called Russian Potato salad. It is just potatoes, mayo, seasoning, with carrots and peas. Easy, but I might just change it and adapt it to something else. I saw a recipe for a potato salad with chimichurri sauce. It’s as simple as it sounds, potatoes, mayo, seasoning, and chimichurri sauce. Easy and sounds delicious.

  • Marquesa de Chocolate

    • Dessert was the one of the tougher ones to come up with also, because I don’t usually order dessert and I usually don’t get dessert whenever I get Mexican or Latin food. I had to ask a few Latino/Hispanic coworkers to ask them about desserts. The answer that I got most was flan and I’m not a fan of flan, but someone came up with this Venezuelan dessert for me. To be hair, the Singer showed me a picture of it, but it looked like a layered cake and that was way too much. It wasn’t until DeLaMadriz told me about this dessert that it totally changed my mind. Basically, in a gist, it is a Venezuelan Tiramisu. Simple. Of course, instead of chocolate I’ll have to substitute something else and my usual go to is cookie butter. I’m not too worried about this one. Might be a little too sweet, but we shall see.

As one can see, the menu is very Latin/Hispanic themed. Originally it wasn’t planned that way, but after I decided on the chicken and the corn dish, I decided to make it a Latin/Hispanic themed. Also, it’ll be a fun challenge. I don’t cook many Latin/Hispanic dishes, so, it’ll put me outside of my comfort zone and it’ll be very different.

When it comes to Thanksgiving and Christmas, I’ve never been a traditionalist. Even when I cook at home during the holidays, my menu never leaned towards anything traditional for the most part. Sure, sometimes I’ll do the roast or mashed potatoes, but it had always been a mishmash of style and dishes. Asian, Italian, American.

This will be interesting and fun and different.

That’s the menu and I think it is very ambitious considering these are all recipes that I have never cooked before. Each and every one of them. They will finish up my 30 Recipes of 2015 project.

To be honest, I really thought that I would have finished this project so much faster than Thanksgiving, but I guess not. I’m sure I have cheated somewhat with some of the things that I made, but I’m sticking with it.

Potato salad? Yes. Potato Salad. I never made a potato salad before. Damn right it’s going on this recipe project.

So, the plan is to make the potato salad and the dessert on Wednesday. Marinate the chicken Wednesday and just focus on the paella and the corn on Thursday. The chicken again, is simple. Straight forward. The only thing that I have to worry about is hoping that my current brick is big enough. If not, then shit, I’ll make it work.

Thanksgiving.

Can’t wait.

* * *

Traffic school.

Finally paid off my ticket from the end of July. Now it is time to enroll in online traffic school. I’ll probably get to it today and just try to finish that shit up and just get it done with.

This shit had been hanging around in my head for so long now, I just want to get it done.

Let’s be done with it.

* * *