Cookie Day, Duck Day, who knows what next.

[mrissa]

Yesterday was Cookie Day, and we had a good time. We didn't make as many kinds of things as we have in years past, because we made a great many of the things we made, and many of them were cut-out cookies that required extra decorating steps. But there is much tastiness ensuing, and no one will be the least bit short of cookies or homemade candy. And the days of holiday-related bread-baking are still to come. Christmas breads, yes, but more importantly the lussekatter. Lussekatter are crucial for Santa Lucia Day. Cannot do without them.

Today I went and bought a duck from Mandarin Kitchen on a whim. I have been having difficulty with meat, and I didn't feel like coming up with meat to make for dinner. I could come up with the idea that I wanted eggplant and quinoa, and I knew markgritter and timprov were not going to greet eggplant and quinoa and say, "Hurrah, dinner!" and be done. (Quinoa is a nutritionally complete protein! But this is not perhaps the only relevant factor in what is and is not dinner to a person.) And I knew Mandarin Kitchen had meatful things we had eyed in the past when we were eating dim sum there. So I got a duck.

"How much duck?" markgritter asked me, and I said, "A duck," and it turns out there's a lot of duck on a duck. The whole thing is duck, actually. So now we have a cunning plan for tomorrow involving duck salad (fresh basil! plum stuff! etc.!), which can be put in various conveyances, and now I don't have to think about tomorrow dinner either, because it's handled. The thing that makes me sad about all this is that I am not at all good at Groucho Marx imitations, because the opportunities abound when you have a duck. On the other hand, deadpan Scandosotan girl, "I bought you a duck," announcements are good too.

In completely other news, I have been watching The Mentalist S1, and there is something that happens in it that points out to me how weird TV people are the entire rest of the time. Specifically, Agent Kimball Cho--who is awesome--whips out a paperback and is reading every time he has down time. You know. Like a person does. And I watch him doing it, and I think, "What on earth is everybody else on TV doing with themselves? They make no sense." But the fact that he does it is very comforting. And they don't make a big thing of it so far. I'm through four discs of this show, and nobody is all on about, "What are you reeeeeading?" or, "You know Cho and his boooooooks." He just...reads when he has the chance. Like ya do. And people either interrupt him for cause (trivial or non-), or they let him be to read. So...good then.

Comments

[timprov.livejournal.com]

Actually, there turned out to not be a whole lot of duck left on the duck. Definitely worth checking how much there is before you plan on us eating it for a week, or even tomorrow.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

With the basil and mushrooms and things, I think it'll be enough for today. I just won't plan on another bunch of leftovers.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You know, when I wrote that, I was assuming that I would be able to see Tom and Kathy's house from our front windows all morning. Which...no. If markgritter and I are not going on our errands and to the party we planned to go to, we may have to put off the duck salad idea until the driveway guy comes and our freedom is restored. Because as fond as I am of the people involved in my plans for today, they can wait to be seen, and we can have a lasagna and salads for dinner. Or stew and asparagus. Or something. We are safe Minnesota winter drivers, but there is no point in sending any of us out to clear with the current health tally here. We will assess the state of the driveway and then see. It may be that staying in and watching cartoons and making [redacted] for [redacted] and [redacted WINOLJ] and pumpkin bread for you is more the thing, really.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

Cho is my favorite character on that show. He is so low-key and awesome.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Cho is the best. I also like Rigsby. Without them, I probably wouldn't watch.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I have learned to appreciate the importance of lussekatter.

[zelda888.livejournal.com]

Likewise. Mine seem to have come unmoored from Santa Lucia Day and gotten themselves attached to "holiday brunch at best friends' house," but I too will be raising up some sunshine-colored dough soon.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

My favorite part of a duck is potatoes roasted in the leftover duck fat.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

ysabetwordsmith has posted about a whole bunch of food made with goose fat and I bet most would work equally well with duck fat. I nearly feel off my chair laughing at the "Jewish pot roast" with goose fat, but that was more about the idea of any traditional Jewish cooks I know using a goose than any inherent issues - I'm sure the recipe would work well and be tasty.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I hope for your sake that the Mandarin Kitchen was not completely authentic in its duck preparation, because the traditional way to sell it is with head and feet on. (That's in case you want to use it as an offering at a temple - it has to be outwardly complete. ) I've never dealt with a duck, but can report that for a chicken, while removing the head is mostly just a matter of not looking it in the eye, the feet are *hard* to get off.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Totally not completely authentic. They asked me, "Do you want it chopped or not chopped?" And I thought, do I want to store an entire roasted duck unchopped until dinnertime? And then deal with chopping up a duck when the whole point was that I was not feeling very meatful? And I very firmly said, "Chopped, please." But even before then, the ducks were hanging in their roasted meat display whatsit with the heads and feet removed, along with the chickens and the pork ribs. (The pork ribs had the entire rest of the pig also removed.)

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

Pretty much all of the places I've been to in the US that have ducks and whatnot hanging in their roasted meat displays have the heads and feet removed. I suspect the "temple offering" market is a niche one, even in Hawaii.

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

Of course, I find myself sort of craning and squinting to try to see what he's reading. :) I wonder if the actor/director puts some thought into what Cho would read...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I have tried to look, too, but I find his habit of bending the paperback around completely in character.

[sageautumn.livejournal.com]

Do you freeze your cookies? How do you store them once they are all made? If you've time to advice, I'd love to take it.

I would like to give cookies as Christmas presents, but lack the time to do enough cookies the night before giftgiving (I have a family of about 45, so even taking out the kids, and doing just senior adults, that's cookies for probably 25 people!)... so I'm a bit baffled as what's next. I know you CAN freeze cookies, I just don't know if they're really decent when they are thawed.

I would probably be boring and do Tollhouse cookies, only with Heath bits instead of chocolate chips, if that matters. And perhaps oatmeal raisin.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, the vast majority of cookies freeze and thaw out again just fine as long as you don't do it repeatedly. We store them in cookie tins with Saran Wrap or waxed paper between the layers, or in Tupperware with same. We are fortunate enough to be able to use the garage as an auxiliary freezer this time of year, so that helps--not having to run downstairs to the chest freezer any time somebody wants a cookie etc.