Five Little Words

I’m on a mission to find the hottest peppers and spices. As some of you know I love cooking and I started cooking from scratch so now I want to have all types of spices, seasonings, and dried peppers in my pantry. I don’t like to see a recipe I want to make then find out I’m missing one item. I want to be prepared.

My family and I love seafood and chicken a majority of the time and depending who I’m cooking for it can be a spicy dish or not. I know habanero chiles are the hottest but I discovered even more. There’s a shop in California called the Spice Station and I wish I lived by this shop. They have all types of spices and chiles.

I want to try spices that Chinese use and Mexicans because these are used in certain dishes. There are these Schezuan chiles and spices that a chef used on the cooking channel to make a four spice chicken. I want to make that dish.

I found their website spjcestationsilverlake.com, and Twitter page @spice_station, and I will probably have to order online. There are so many to choose from. I can’t wait to order online and create in the kitchen. I will post pictures and recipes when I make these dishes.

I am running around like a turkey with his head cut off trying to do last minute grocery shopping for Turkey Day and I’m about to pop!!  I’ve been so busy that I can’t blame no one but myself. Usually everything is bought, prepped, and seasoned, or marinating. Not this year.

On top of that I won 2 tickets to the Mary’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and I have to decide which child to take with me. Also they blow up the balloons tonight near Central Park and I really want the kids to see this, but I also need to start the food going.

Last minute decisions are crazy. Every year I’m the only one who cooks because I love cooking and no one else knows how. Not like I have a choice. I’m not complaining.

I think the Turkey giveaways this year were even more due to Sandy and the communities are really stepping up. Hopefully everyone gets a meal on Thanksgiving and everyday after that.

Well, going to drop the kids off and run a marathon to grocery stores. Pray for me. Hope there’s shopping carts in the stores. The other day there were none.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!
Save me some dessert!!!

Every year I cook a turkey for Thanksgiving and every year I say I’m going to make it different. One year I cooked it in an oven bag which turned out very moist and all the natural juices stayed in. One year I stuffed it with veggies which I rather cook them separately. Most of the years I just cook it by following recipes courtesy of The Food Network chefs, or The Butterball website.

I always tell myself I’m going to make cornish hens and never do. I also say I’m going save myself time and buy a fried turkey because I always wanted to try that but never do. I also wanted to try a jerk turkey but never got around to that.

My job gives the staff frozen turkeys every year and when I say frozen I mean frozen. I need at least 2 to 3 days to thaw it out then at least a day or two to marinate but sometimes we don’t receive our turkey on time so I always need a backup. That’s where Pathmark comes in. If you spend a certain amount you receive a free turkey. There are also a lot of places giving away free turkeys and pantries as well.

One year my sister won a ready made turkey with all the trimmings already seasoned. All I had to do was heat it up but I already had my turkey marinated and ready to cook so I cooked it anyway and gave my cousin and her family the ready made turkey. She was very thankful.

My cousins, and my older son’s friend who I raised for a while come over every year to eat. I enjoy cooking very much.

This year I guess I will do a traditional turkey, stuffing, green beans with garlic, mashed potatoes and gravy, or rice pilaf, macaroni and cheese, corn bread, or rolls, another type of meat, maybe collard greens, of course desserts, sparkling cider. We’re not a cranberry sauce family but I make it anyway for whoever comes over and request some. I’ll probably wind up making more than this.

I will take pictures don’t worry.

I also need to be prepared for Black Friday so I don’t want to overeat.
I usually keep it local for Black Friday. I go to my mall a few blocks away. There’s a Target, Marshalls, Costcos, Famous Footwear, Old Navy, Game Stop, etc, etc. Burlington Coat Factory is coming soon in place of Best Buy. I did good last year at the mall. I waited later in the day and it wasn’t crowded.

Now I just need to go grocery shopping 🙂