Day 2 is a quick one! (see video below) The turkey brined overnight in the outside fridge, fully submerged.  I drained her, then put her breast side up on a rack on a baking sheet.  She'll then rest uncovered overnight (12-15 hours) in the fridge.  This allows for the skin to dry and tighten which makes for a crispier skin when baked.

T-48 hours to Thanksgiving and my first attempt at roasting a whole turkey!  See video below link below.  I am using the smokey tea-brined turkey recipe from Erin French at The Lost Kitchen, a great restaurant in Freedom, Maine.  You can find her recipe in the "Today Loves Food" cookbook or on her restaurant website and newsletter (which is free).

As I love cooking, my favorite question this time of year for patients and their families is what they're cooking for the holidays.  A wonderful follow up patient a few weeks ago (who's doing great!) said her family loves her apple cake and requests it several times a year.  I said I wouldn't mind the recipe, and a week later she mailed me a handwritten copy on an index card!

As I discuss in Video 1, I am not a huge pie dough fan, BUT I do love a galette!  A galette is an open faced, thinner crust dessert with a better filling to crust ratio, and thus my preference if faced with a pastry crust.  This Fall I discovered the beautiful Mountain Rose apple at Kiyokawa Family Orchard in Parkdale, OR.  It has a sweet/tart flavor like Granny Smith, but a surprising crimson flesh that's a real show stopper.  Bonus:  The red hue persists through baking and doesn't stain:)

Beautiful baby bok choy from the Hood River Farmers Market was blanched then finely chopped into the pork filling for wontons from the House of Nanking cookbook.  I cooked some fresh and then froze the rest for easy weeknight meals.  They're topped with soy marinated jalapenos and Thai bird chiles.  I like spice so I kept the seeds and rib ins... I was a little under the weather so I also added some chile crisp to up the heat and really run that cold off:)

I've been on a Chinese food kick this past week after buying the "House of Nanking" cookbook by Chefs Peter and Kathy Fang (highly recommend!).  Their recipe for Szechuan eggplant aligned perfectly with beautiful petite eggplant from the Hood River Farmers Market this weekend (see videos below).  Their recipe called for dried red chiles tossed in at the end, but I didn't have any, so I added sliced soy marinated jalapenos and Thai bird chiles (also their recipe) which I had in the fridge from a prior cook; spice and purpose accomplished!  I paired it with steamed garlic and black bean spareribs (have your butcher cut regular ribs short for you) with pre-cut butternut squash from the store.  To be more seasonal, I could've paired them with cut up pie pumpkin, but to quote my teenage niece, "I ain't got time for that".  To add to the fun, I used a tea flowerball in a glass tea pot for hot tea, and steamed white rice, always:)

I pre-ordered several pounds of pickling cucumbers from Killer Tomato Farm at The Hood River Farmers Market (if you need a large volume of an item, asking if pre-order is possible is always the way to go).  If you haven't met this fun and quirky team, it's a must on your Gorge to-do list.  From asking if I was "bean curious" when eyeing a purple wax bean, and giving customers a beautiful tarot card at check out (for return with discount, or to keep and collect), they make food fun, which is what it's all about, right?  

The difference between in-season locally grown strawberries warm off the vine and those in plastic grocery store clamshells could not be more different.  The flavor, sweetness, color, and quality of an in-season strawberry allows you to use less sugar in many recipes (due to the already peak natural sugar content) and make more simple recipes as quality ingredients often stand on their own.  I used this flat of strawberries from Packer Orchard in Hood River, OR to make strawberry jam as well as a strawberry pie.  The pie recipe is from Michael Symon's "Cooking Out" cookbook, but I also have a recipe card from my maternal great grandma, which is similar, yet different enough that I will try it next time for a compare/contrast.  Either way, this fresh strawberry pie is a great way to welcome summer and enjoy on the back patio with neighbors on a warm afternoon.  Cheers!