Not only do I read magazines and books and blogs and reviews about food, watch the food network, spend large amounts of money of food, collect cook books, critique food, cook food, eat food, love food, but I also, if you cannot tell, obsess about food. It could be worse. I could be addicted to, say, meth. Instead of getting super crazy and skinny and meth-mouthy and violent and all that 'fun' stuff, I'll just get fat, if I don't watch it. I am a foodie. And I am proud, goddamn it.

I just realized how food-crazy I am. I'm like a prisoner of Aushwitz suddenly transported into a grand, turn-of-the-century Gilded Era no-holds-barred gala thrown by the Astors. FOOOOOOOOOD EVERYYYYYWHEREEEE. For real.

I can tell you the differences between tangelos, tangerines, oranges, seville oranges, and mandarins. The differences between the lemon and the meyer lemon. Between a key lime and a rangpur lime and a kaffir lime. Between apricots, apriums, pluots, plumcots, and plums. Between the 5 most common flatfish. Hell, what the 5 most common flatfish are! What a mangosteen is. What a brunoise is. How to concasse tomatos. Where limoncello originated. Why hollow-sounding bread is good bread and why it sounds hollow. The test to tell waxy potatoes from mealy potatoes and which texture you want for the dish you're going to make.

I don't have to google or wikipedia those things. It's all in my head.

I'm thinking about making Thanksgiving diner for my family. It's July. To say I'm early is selling it short. I already have a menu planned out, a prep schedule made, a shopping list compiled, and the misenplace all envisioned. I just need to pass the idea by my mom and grandma. And I would borrow one of their kitchens. The kitchen here in the apartment is tiny!

So, my menu is:

Appetizers:
Cinnamon and cranberry goat cheese on water crackers
Cream cheese with jalapeno jelly on water crackers
Shrimp cocktail
Crudites with ranch dressing
Marinated olives
Marinated mushrooms

Main:
Black pepper-pomegranate molasses glazed turkey
Spiral sliced ham with pineapple-apricot sauce

Sides:
Wild rice and goat cheese dressing
Sugar and spice acorn squash
Mashed potatoes
Mashed sweet potatoes
Honey glazed carrots
Creamed pearl onions
French cut green beans with almonds and fried onions
Green salad with citrus vinaigrette

Accompaniments:
Cranberry sauce
Hawaiian rolls

Dessert:
Pumpkin pie
Pecan pie
Angel food cake with espresso mascarpone cream

The only things that I'm planning on not making from scratch are the Hawaiian rolls, pie crusts, angel food cake, and the appetizers.

Dinner may be anywhere from 10-20 people, so I'm ballparking 15ish.

Hopefully, this will be the first big meal I make out of many, many more to come.

Allez cuisine!

Jennifer