getting ready to gobble.

We are hosting 11 adults (4 kids) for dinner on Thursday, so I put on the superwoman cape and after dinner and putting Maia to bed I made: turkey stock, 24 servings of roasted butternut squash soup, lemon-garlic butter for the turkey, seasoned the turkey with mom's seasoning recipe and had a beer. Of course, with Mindy by my side (no one else will agree to wreck my kitchen so happily as Mindy will) we wreaked havoc and brought the kitchen back to life.

Oh and Lisa, the turkey fell again... it seems that it's not Thanksgiving at J&P's if the turkey doesn't hit the counter - hard.

So what are everyone's plans?

Your thoughts on cookware?

Maybe I'm off topic here, but does anyone want to talk about cookware (pots/pans/knives etc.)? With the holidays approaching I'm thinking of what I have, what I "need" and what I would LOVE for Santa to bring me.

What do you love, and why?

What do you want to replace, and why?

perfect roast chicken

I really think this is the best roast chicken I've ever made. I morphed the recipe from The Barefoot Contessa.

• 4-lb chicken


• a few sprigs of fresh thyme


• half of a lemon


• 1 head of garlic, halved crosswise


• 1 TBS of olive oil


• 1 large onion, thickly sliced

Preheat oven to 425. Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Liberally salt and pepper inside of chicken. Stuff the cavity with the thyme, the lemon half, and as much of the garlic as you can cram in. (I have only managed to get half of the head of garlic inside.) Brush the outside of the chicken with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and place the chicken breast side up in a roasting pan. Scatter the onion slices around the chicken. Roast for about 1.5 hours or until done. Remove chicken to a platter and cover with foil while you make gravy with the pan drippings or until you are ready to carve.