TURKEY DAY! (post 2.5 months overdue...oops!)

Say hello to our free-range Thanksgiving turkey, a happily raised bird courtesy of Stillman's at the Turkey Farm! Ben picked him up at the Jamaica Plain farmer's market on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and we took the fella out of his plastic bag the night before to brine him.




We followed Alton Brown's brining technique, scouring Watertown and Allston-Brighton for allspice berries, a necessary ingredient for the brine (we found ours in the Spanish spices section at Shaw's). Since we didn't have a huge cooler, we stuck the brine and the big guy in three industrial-sized garbage bags.




As you can see, our refrigerator was stuffed to the gills. Wednesday night was also the same night as my high school 10th year reunion, so we returned home slightly-to-mostly inebriated and flipped the turkey over for even brining. I don't remember the flipping very well, but we managed to flip it without any mishap :)




We rinsed and patted the big guy dry, and prepared some aromatics (pictured above) for stuffing the bird.



We also basted the turkey with vegetable oil. One thing to keep in mind when following Alton Brown's recipe - coating an 18 lb. turkey with oil that has a low smoking temperature is not recommended! We preheated the oven to 500 degrees F, and when we put the bird in for 30 minutes, per the recipe's instructions, it smoked up the entire house for nearly an hour. Next time, we'll use another oil with a high smoking point, such as safflower.

While the bird roasted, we also prepared some maple glazed root vegetables as a side dish. Most of the root veggies came from our winter CSA, such as the celery root (the scary thing pictured below) and turnips (also below).




We got a couple golden beets from Russo's in Watertown, which we included in our roasted veggies. Pictured below are the veggies all cut up and ready for roasting! The maple glaze was prepared separately.




I hate to brag, but our turkey came out perfectly! There was some angst about the internal temperature - we weren't sure if we took it out too early or too late - and it didn't help that one of our thermometers gave an insanely high reading. I began to despair that we would have dried out turkey, but the breast meat was incredibly moist and tender. I think it helped that we got a happy, hormone-free, free-range turkey from a local farm.




I also made gravy with the pan drippings; the turkey stock was prepared the week before with turkey legs. Even though it takes a lot of work, using homemade turkey stock gave the gravy more depth (though I would use a lot less salt next time, and cook the roux some more).




Here are a series of pictures detailing the carnage. Ben and Vic were adept at carving the turkey; I think Ben watched a couple videos online about carving. I think he did a great job. Note the lovely color of the skin, and the enormous breasts (our turkey was a traditional broad-breasted white turkey - we considered getting a heritage breed, but they cost significantly more...though I hope to try a heritage breed one day).





The carved turkey laid out on a serving platter. This platter doesn't include the other half of the turkey breast, which fed us for days as leftover turkey, turkey sandwiches, etc.



My brother Vic and I putting the final touches on the dining table.





In addition to maple glazed roasted root vegetables, we had leek mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice pilaf, and stuffing. I loved the stuffing - we used a rustic italian loaf from Clear Flour Bread, sage, roasted chestnuts (which were such a pain to roast and peel, next time I'm going to cheat and get canned ones or omit them), and italian sausage from DePasquale's in Watertown. Here's the recipe (we had seen it on Food Network's Thanksgiving special, and decided to make it because it looked so easy).



Ben's plate at dinner. This was our first Thanksgiving where we took responsibility for getting all the dishes to the table, and I think we did a pretty good job. We cheated with desserts, and ordered pumpkin and pecan pies from Flour Bakery (along with a delish cranberry chutney).

stop! drop your kebabs!

Cartoon courtesy of Drive-by Times

As even a casual observer of European politics is aware, the U.S. is not the only Western country to harbor anti-immigrant, Know-Nothing sentiment. In fact, for all of our Tom Tancredos and "Minutemen" [warning: that link goes to a website full of right-wing xenophobia], we've got nothing on Berlusconi's Italy.

A new movement in Northern Italy wants to severely restrict restaurants from serving "non-Italian" (i.e. "ethnic") food. The picturesque walled town of Lucca, in Tuscany, passed a law banning the opening of any new restaurants that don't serve "traditional" Italian food.

The Left describes it as "gastronomic racism" and the Times of London comes through with an appropriately bombastic headline: "Italy bans kebabs and foreign foods from cities."

The reality is not quite so severe (not yet, at least). Lucca's law, as far as I can tell, is a small town, semi-reactionary attempt to keep the downtown area (i.e. inside the medieval walls) from losing its quaint atmosphere.

A spokesman for Lucca's town hall defended the new rules, saying they were meant to safeguard the city's traditional and cultural identity and that it also applied to sex shops, fast food restaurants and take-away pizza parlors.

"The ban targets McDonald's as much as kebab restaurants," he said

Plus, the already existing ethnic restaurants--which include four kebab shops--will not be forced to close down.

Still, there does seem to be a broader xenophobe-cuisine in the works. According to the Times, many Northern cities are considering similar action.

Luca Zaia, the Minister of Agriculture and a member of the Northern League from the Veneto region, applauded the authorities in Lucca and Milan for cracking down on nonItalian food. “We stand for tradition and the safeguarding of our culture,” he said.

They fear not only foreign culture, but competition. Immigrant cooks apparently work too hard:

Davide Boni, a councillor in Milan for the Northern League, which also opposes the building of mosques in Italian cities, said that kebab shop owners were prepared to work long hours, which was unfair competition.

The best part about this controversy is the ridiculous situations it might generate. How does one determine what is "foreign"? Will fusion cuisine be banned? Isn't pizza essentially an American invention? (not to mention the fact that tomatoes come from Latin America). Imagine the new types of purity tests right-wing politicians will have to pass. The Times is already on it:

Asked if he had ever eaten a kebab, Mr Zaia said: “No – and I defy anyone to prove the contrary. I prefer the dishes of my native Veneto. I even refuse to eat pineapple.”

Oh man. His re-election campaign is going to be so screwed when the photo of him ordering from Amar's shwarma gets out!

Jo Jo Taipei and Allston musings

We checked out Jo Jo Taipei today for a late lunch, and it was deeelish! We had their "Special Mini Steamed Buns" aka Xiao Long Bao aka Soup Dumplings (pictured above), "Three Cups Eggplant," warm sweet soy milk, and Taiwanese Wonton Noodle Soup. Our meal started with complimentary salted peanuts and shredded marinated cabbage (pictured below). The restaurant is relatively new to the Allston area, nicely decorated and in a great location (Brighton Ave. and Linden St.).



I'm looking forward to going back and trying more dishes - it's hard to find good soup dumplings in Boston. We've had them at Gourmet Dumpling House, the old New Shanghai (RIP), and Windsor Dim Sum. I think the ones we had at Jo Jo were the best out of the bunch. They don't really compare to the ones I've had in Manhattan, at Joe's Ginger and some other places, but I've got to credit today's dumplings. The eggplant was prepared with one cup of soy sauce, one cup of wine, and one cup of water (plus sliced garlic, sliced ginger and probably an obscene amount of sugar). Next time we go, I want to try the curry beef pockets, tofu hot pot, three cups tofu, flounder fillet, tofu with shrimp, mapo tofu, and everything on the weekend brunch menu.

The Allston-Brighton area is blowing up with restaurants! We love Shabu-Zen, Gitlo's, Punjab Palace, and the 88 Market Food Court - Ken's Ramen is TDF. I also really like Kantin, the Cantonese place in the food court, and the Vietnamese place. I want to check out The Battery (fish n chips!), Cafe Brazil, Grain and Salt, the Nepalese place, Alfredo's, the take-out Thai place, and I want to give YoMa another try (the first time at YoMa, I ate some really spicy food that did a number on my tummy). Shanghai Gate was only ok (which reminds me - we had soup dumplings there too, but they weren't very good - but the fish soup with tofu is excellent).

Too bad we love cooking at home too much. We'll be lucky if we try all these places before 2010 rolls around.

The A-B was already known as a bar hot spot, but we adore Deep Ellum, despite the overabundance of hipsters. It's as if we were back in the Upper West Side and tried to venture out to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This is where I popped my Dogfish Head 90-minute IPA cherry. I've had the hot dog and fries there, but the homemade pretzels are fantastic and go very well with the impressive selection of beers on tap. In addition to Deep Ellum, we frequent Our House (preferably on weekday nights) and Joshua Tree (1/2 price burgers on Wednesdays).

Since this post has morphed into Allston musings, I can't help but add that Herrell's has tasty ice cream when we're too lazy to make it at home ourselves or go to JP Licks in Coolidge Corner.

An orange dinner

Normally I like a little more color variety on my plate, but when I made this a couple months ago, it was delicious. In the bowl is Butternut Squash soup; on the plate are orange and ginger quick-glazed carrots, and a slice of no-knead bread, made according to Mark Bittman's recipe.

The soup is really amazing. It's essentially foolproof and always comes out tasting rich and creamy. It tastes, in fact, like it must have about 500 calories of cream in it, but it's actually just squash and chicken stock (we've made it with vegetarian stock too and it's still pretty good).

Here are the details:

Butternut Squash Soup
Ingredients
1 butternut squash (c. 3 lbs), peeled, seeded, cut into 4 large pieces
2 tbsp butter
1 c chopped yellow onion
1 clove garlic, minced
5 cups chicken stock or broth (you can substitute veggie broth)
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/8 tsp ground white pepper
Creme fraiche, sour cream, or nf yogurt for topping (we usually omit this)
Chopped chives or parsley for topping
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place squash pieces in a flat baking pan. Pour about 1 cup water around squash. Bake until soft, about 1 hour. Remove to a plate and cool. When cool enough to handle, scoop out squash pulp. You should have about 4 cups. Set aside.

In a large soup pot over medium heat, melt butter. Add onion and garlic and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Add squash pulp and 1 cup of the stock and mix well. Transfer to a food processor or blender in batches and process until smooth. [we use an immersion blender, and that works much better here if you have one] Return to pan and add the remaining 4 cups stock and seasonings. Simmer, uncovered, until flavors are blended, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Ladle into bowls and top with cream, chives, and/or chutney.
(Recipe from Maryana Vollstedt's The Big Book of Soups & Stews - a great book, by the way)

Orange and Ginger Quick-Glazed Carrots
Ingredients
A pound of carrots (more or less), cut into 1/4" coins (i.e. on the diagonal)
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp minced ginger
1/4 Orange juice
1/2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper
Directions
In a small to medium saucepan over high heat, melt butter and add carrots, sugar, s+p, and orange juice. Bring to a boil and cover. Turn heat down to medium low and cook for about 5 minutes.
Uncover, raise heat slightly and add ginger. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid evaporates, and then turn heat down to low and cook a couple more minutes until the carrots are tender.
Serve with a garnish of chopped fresh parsley.
The timing and amount of ingredients are quite flexible in my experience; so long as you get the liquid to evaporate before the carrots turn completely soft and soggy you'll be in the clear.
[from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything

A corn stalk grows in the astroturf

I just saw a commercial for high fructose corn syrup.

What??

They've got a website and everything.

Glad to see that our government money not only subsidizes an ethanol boondoggle, but slick ad campaigns designed to keep us fat and syrupy.

Squirrel Tartare

Hawk eating a squirrel, Columbia University

Most people who've seen the above photo have had one reaction: ewww!
But really, is the act of eating depicted above so different from consuming this:


Steak tartare, photo from flikr user minderbinder, milo

Either way you look at it, it's still raw meat. Of course, the tartare is going to taste better: it's gussied up with some spices and herbs (and potato crisps). And it's on a plate! Plus, that squirrel meat looks pretty stringy.

Admittedly, there are many people (not just vegetarians) who look at a plate of steak tartare and think "ewww!" But the people who've recoiled from the hawk photo have no problem with the tartare. What this really points to is the transformation our food goes through from field to plate - even when we serve it raw. I don't know if we have a human need to compartmentalize between the concepts of "cow" and "beef," or if this is merely a reflection of the current industrialized state of our food culture. Either way, it results in paradoxes.

The Slanted Door

We visited Charles Phan's acclaimed Vietnamese restaurant, The Slanted Door, when we were in the Bay Area during the holidays. I had been itching to go there for a couple years, and although the setting was remarkable - in the Ferry Building, right on the water with a breathtaking view of the Bay - the food was good, but not outstanding. We tried a lot of things - west coast oysters, green papaya salad, rack of lamb with sunchokes, catfish claypot, japanese eggplant, and cellophane noodles with dungeness crab. I thought the oysters were great (a nice selection and very fresh), and the rack of lamb dish with sunchokes outstanding. I also loved the eggplant and cellophane noodles with crab. I wonder if my relative disappointment stemmed from knowing that I could get equally delicious Vietnamese food, at a lower price point, at your neighborhood Vietnamese restaurant. I'm not sure if I'd go back again for the food. The cocktails, however, were off the hizzle. I had a whiskey cocktail (Buffalo Trace bourbon, Angostura and orange bitters, sugar, orange peel; served on a hand cut cube) before dinner, at the nicely appointed bar, and a ginger limeade (Hangar One Kaffir Lime vodka, ginger, lime) with my meal. Fantastic cocktail list - inventive concoctions using small-batch liquors - what's not to like?

Winter CSA share #2

Though our winter share has ended for the 2008-2009 season, Ben and I wanted to keep track of what we got from our CSA. Our haul included sweet potatoes, onions, yukon potatoes, butternuts, red onions, harukei turnips, lettuces, celeriac (or celery root), carrots, radicchio, sage, cabbage, leeks, beets, parsnips, radishes, and hearty winter greens. My favorite vegetables from the winter share include celery root, leeks, turnips, parsnips and butternut. I'm so glad we were introduced to celeriac in particular!!

Kitchen Disasters - Bad Eats

Fortunately, complete and utter disasters in the kitchen have been pretty rare for me. There was the ragu I tried to make for the Talbot Allens in washington, which ended up in the trash after I cooked the meat to an internal temperature of nuclear, resulting in small black nuggets of ground beef and pork in a sour sea of boiled red wine (thankfully I whipped up another sauce before they got home for dinner!) And the time I followed Mark Bittman's recipe for pan-fried beets (essentially, a giant beet latke) ended up as a sweetened lump of oily flour. But generally things have worked out for the best.

The other day, though I got inspired by an episode of "Good Eats" on the food network, in which Alton Brown prepared "Butternut dumplings" (read: Butternut gnocchi) in sage-brown butter sauce. The recipe looked pretty straightforward, and our CSA already had provided us with the squash and the sage.

The first step was to halve and roast the butternut squash, along with some potatoes. Check - it tasted delicious when it came out of the oven.

Next I mashed together the squash and the potatoes with some egg and spices. Seemed pretty easy.

That's when things got ugly. The recipe directed me to add 1 1/2 cups of flour to the mixture to form a dough. On TV, Alton Brown in fact got away with a little less than this, and ended up with a nice sticky dough that he easily formed into dumplings.

However, after a cup and a half, I still had squash-potato gruel. So I added another cup of flour, and then another. At this point I turned the "dough" out onto a floured board, but it was so sticky and moist that I couldn't work with it at all, so I had to return it to the bowl. I repeated this entire operation a few more times. Ultimately, I must have used at least 5 cups of flour. So by the time I shaped the dumplings and cooked a couple, they tasted like wood pulp. The final result: a very pretty but utterly useless orange mass of gluten, in the garbage can.

I did learn an important lesson: always read the comments to online recipes! I'm not the only one who ended up dumping the dumplings.

11in11

Noah Galuten writes a food blog called Man Bites World, in which he chronicles his attempt to eat a different type of food every day for as many days in a row as he can. And by different type he means food from a different ethnic tradition. So a five day stretch might consist of Mexican-Filipino-Thai-Hamburgers-Ghanaian.

It definitely helps to live in Southern California to pull that kind of thing off, though I imagine you could do it without too much difficulty in NYC or the bay area, or less so in Boston, DC, or Chicago.

Anyway, for Day 73: Chinese, he decided to combine his project with a friend's annual event: the 11 in 11. What is that, you ask?

So what’s 11-In-11? Well, for the past five years, folk hero Jason Bernstein and his cousin Mark have been setting up a one day a year event where “…we visit 11 food establishments in 11 hours and devour 11 mini-meals.”

Sounds like an awesome thing to do, if you have 11 hours, $50 or $60 and 3000 calories to spare. I'm not sure why 11 is the magic number, but viv and I were just brainstorming 11 different restaurants within walking distance each representing a different ethnic food. Once the weather warms up, we'll brave the inevitable tummy-ache and give it a shot.

2008 Election Night party

Now that Inauguration Day is coming up, an overdue recap of our election night party is finally here!

We invited a few friends to our place to watch the election returns, and in addition to the Obama-themed cupcake pictured above, Ben carved an Obama pumpkin as well:


The cupcakes were only ok - we used Bittman's recipes for chocolate layer cake and buttercream frosting from his "How to Cook Everything" (older edition, with the yellow cover). The cake itself turned out dry, which was annoying because I had misread the (poorly drafted) cake recipe the first time and threw out the first batch of cake batter. The frosting was DIVINE and will be my go-to buttercream frosting -- it was a race between when I would finish mixing up the frosting and when I would finish all the frosting from my multiple tastings. I smoothed on the frosting (not an easy task, despite watching Magnolia Bakery's videos on how to frost a cupcake) and Ben decorated the cupcakes with the blue and red icing stripes. Next time, I think I'll use Duncan Hines' cake mix for the cake batter and skip the homemade cake part!

Here's a picture of the cupcakes together - very cute!



We had quite a spread on offer, as well. See pictures below.

We made hummus, Mark Bittman's Rosemary-Lemon white bean dip, olive tapenade, pesto pasta with broccolini and italian sausage (vegetarian version also available), caramelized onions and brie on a baguette, and a chard frittata. We also served crackers, crudites, sliced baguettes from Clear Flour Bakery, salmon rounds (smoked salmon and creme fraiche on crackers), cheeses, mortadella, niman ranch salami, soppressata, proscuitto di parma, and buffalo wings from Wings Over Brookline. The next time we host a shindig, I'll go easier on the pork/meat products - we had several vegetarians/non-pork eaters and I've got to do a better job cooking for people who don't eat like me.

The end of the tomatoes

We didn't get a frost here in Boston until the last week of October, and we actually had some temperatures in the mid-high 60s just before then, so we left our tomatoes on the vine until pretty late into fall. We brought them all inside about a week and a half ago, and, amazingly, they all ripened - even the ones that resembled little hard green rocks.

They tasted pretty good, but didn't remotely compare to their height-of-summer predecessors, so we made a little November bruschetta (some left over pesto spread on the toast helped to boost the flavor). Luckily our basil plants are still producing!


posted by bc (from viv's account)

Wednesday dinner

We had some leftover bread and italian meats (thanks Russo's) from our election day party, and this turned out to be a delicious way of using them up!

Toasted Italian Sandwich
-olive tapenade
-prosciutto
-sopressata (similar to salami)
-shaved Unie kaas cheese (basically, gouda)
-salt + pepper
-a couple shredded basil leaves
-->I piled all the toppings on one slice, and then put it in a toaster oven (laying the other slice next to it) on the 'toast' setting until the cheese melted. I drizzled a little olive oil on top of the cheese right before eating. delicious!)

Brussels Sprouts w/mustard vinaigrette
-brussels sprouts, halved, stemmed, and steamed until just tender
dressed with:
- c.1 tsp mustard
-a glug of E.V.O.O.
-s+p
-splash (really just a few drops) red wine vinegar

Windsor Dim Sum

On Saturday Ben and I wanted soup dumplings, so we ventured out to Chinatown. We barely missed out on two street parking spots and had to fork over $10 to park at the Beach St. garage. It was a good reminder of why we never go to Chinatown unless we take public transportation!

We tried going to Gourmet Dumpling but the restaurant was packed and the wait too long. Instead, we headed over to Windsor Dim Sum, a new-ish place on Tyler St. near Shabu-Zen. Windsor isn't your typical dim sum restaurant, like Hei La Moon or China Pearl (two of my favorites if you're seeking the steam carts pushed by old Chinese ladies experience). Instead, you order what you want and the waiters bring your dishes out to you (presumably, everything is cooked/made to order). Ben and I were starving and basically, we ordered the entire menu. We had har gao (shrimp dumplings), shu mai (shrimp and pork dumplings), gou choy gao (shrimp and chive dumplings), turnip cake, soup dumplings, tripe, spare ribs, har cheung (shrimp in rice noodle), shrimp-stuffed eggplant, steamed U-choy with oyster sauce, and salted fish and ground pork on rice. It was A LOT of food and the waiters seemed impressed that we were able to eat most of it. (Granted, we did take a lot of leftovers home for Grandma to enjoy.)

The dim sum was *pretty* good, but nothing special. Would we go back? Maybe on a Wednesday at 6pm when other places aren't serving dim sum. The soup dumplings were just ok, and they did not come with soup spoons or the ginger-vinegar dipping sauce. I'll stick to China Pearl and Hei La Moon during the morning hours, that's for sure. I also think we've been spoiled by Gitlo's, another made-to-order dim sum place in A-B on Brighton Ave. We can walk there (no need to drive to Chinatown and search for parking) and the dumplings are more creative. Sometimes, service can be slow and the place is tiny, but for convenience, taste and creativity it really can't be beat. It might be a little more expensive than the Chinatown places, but I'm a huge fan of Gitlo's (even more so when they actually have creme brulee...I had it once and since then they've always been out).

I hope folks like the new layout. Ben gets all the credit!

Recent adventures in the kitchen

Since Ben's chard adventure, it's been more exciting experiments in the A-B! A-B stands for Allston-Brighton, a part of Boston that's overrun with college students (and also where I grew up and where we live now). Last week Ben made the most amazing roasted beet and fennel salad, courtesy of Mark Bittman. I'm not sure what he dressed the salad with, but it was yummy! The beets and fennel came from our winter CSA share. After roasting, the beets tasted incredibly sweet - practically no "dirt" taste at all! (Oddly enough, I like the "dirt" taste, since that flavor is what makes beets so unique to me.) The fennel was raw - sliced thin and tossed with the roasted beet slices. Served on top of couscous, it was a yummy and complete meal. We probably should've taken a picture, but I was too lazy (and eager to start eating) to get the camera.

What else have we eaten from our CSA share? Ben's been making awesome and simple salads -- lettuce greens, empire apple slices, herbed goat cheese from the Vermont Butter & Cheese Co., and toasted pecans. The lettuces and empire apples came from the CSA - we've been lucky that our lettuce has remained fresh for over a week now. Our guess is that the lettuce lasts longer because it was picked fresh from a local farm and didn't have to travel in a refrigerated truck to a store and then to our house.

On Friday, we were lazy and ordered take out from our fave Thai place, Rod Dee near Coolidge Corner. We had yellow curry duck, shrimp pad thai, and Indonesian fried rice. Despite the scarcity of duck in the curry, the dish was delicious. I am not a huge fan of pineapple in curry, though -- it's just too sweet and the texture is weird!

On Saturday we went to K's place in Watertown for good food, good drinks and even better company. We celebrated D's 31st b-day and brought over a bottle of champagne so that the couple can celebrate in style upon moving into their new house. We had a great time and I'm glad we left when we did - otherwise I would have fallen asleep on K's uber-comfy sectional. At K's I tried a couple of rieslings (K's fave) and a rose wine, and all three were too sweet for my tastes. I'm a little worried that by the time I turn 40, I won't be able to drink anything sweeter than bourbon, which does NOT bode well!

Sunday, we duked it out with two hundred other shoppers at Russo's in Watertown. Ben and I had a huge shopping list - we're hosting an election party this Tuesday night - and the store was incredibly crowded. I'm so glad we found about about Russo's, but now we won't go anywhere else for cured meats. The selection isn't huge, but their prosciutto di parma is only $15/lb. and it's reliably delicious! The broccoli rabe looked great today, so I picked up two bunches and made our fave soup which includes broccoli rabe, white beans, potatoes and sausages. The potatoes were Yukon golds from our CSA; the sausages were De Pasquale's (via Russo's) sweet italian and the white beans 1/2 home cooked and 1/2 canned. Before starting the soup, I cooked some dried cannelini beans (local - I think - from Baer's in Mass) with a couple bay leaves. It took a few hours, but the result was sooooo much better than the canned stuff! I need two cups of beans for a rosemary-lemon zest-white bean dip for Tuesday's party, and had an extra cup or so of cooked beans that I tossed into the soup with a can of beans. The recipe is from Rachel Ray and the Food Network, but it's seriously one of my go-to soups now.

I probably spent 5 hours in the kitchen today (I also made a huge batch of pesto since we got two great-looking bunches of basil at Russo's), but hope all the prep work will pay off for Tuesday. Ben and I have a fun menu planned and it should be good times on Election Day.