A Little Preview

I am sitting here, thinking about a lot of things and wondering, 'What in the heck am I doing taking on a project of this magnitude?'

Perhaps it's just shameless self-promotion. But I am more inclined to think and hope that it is because I want to set my mind to something and do it.

This is the format most of these blogs will take:

Recipe
Episode Title
Main Ingredients
Prep/Cook Time
Any Tips/Tricks and did they help?
Ease of Preparation
Taste
Notes

As an example

Recipe: Roast Turkey
Episode Title: Romancing the Bird
Main Ingredients: Turkey, Brine (salt, sugar, etc...) Various Aromatics
Prep/Cook Time: About 8 Hours total

Tips/Tricks
I found that sticking the turkey in a brine was really an ingenious thing. It helped the turkey stand up to my unreliable oven. I used a store-bought package of fresh poultry seasoning herbs, vegetable broth, peppercorns, brown and white sugar and salt for the brine and it turned out nice. Also, covering the breast meat with foil really did help it from overcooking and stay just right.

Ease of Preparation: Easy enough, but it can be kinda hard to wrangle a turkey.

Taste: Completely fool-proof. The turkey is not masked by the herbage and aromatics stuffed into the cavity, but enhanced by it.

Notes
This was the first real recipe I ever tried using one of ABs methods, and boy did it make a complete difference. This was the recipe that made me go, 'This man is a prince of the kitchen.' After living with dried meat and the so-called "traditional" Thanksgiving turkey, I now insist upon cooking the bird each and every year.

I Stand Corrected

Okay--so I was on my way home yesterday and I decided to check out Waldenbooks at Virginia Center Commons--after Hot Topic.

What did I see but Alton's new book!

Apparently, the book came out much sooner than I thought it would.

There is now a countdown for the beginning of this project...October 1st.

That would be nine days from now.

Why you ask? Because I am not made of cash, and there is a big Celtic Festival/Ren Faire in Salem, VA that I will be attending this coming Sunday.

So watch the date--October 1st.

As a side note--if anyone reading this is feeling generous enough to help out a poor Wal-Mart cashier with expenses for the project or a trip to Arlington, VA to see Alton around October 15th, please send me a message over this blog and I will provide the necessary info.

Thank you for reading. I now return you to your normal state of boring.

And So We Begin...

Greetings, fellow foodies, friends and strangers.

I am a 25 year-old cashier from near Richmond, Virginia, and in a short amount of time, I will commence the K/AB Project.

What is this you might ask? In honor and in the spirit of the Julie/Julia project, and to honor my favorite "quasi-chef" Alton Brown, I intend to cook my way through his newest book.

The only catch? It hasn't been released yet.

However once it is, the challenge is simple. 100 Days. 140 Recipes. This works out to one or two recipes a day.

Here is the team that I am assembling:

Myself: The crazy natter who actually came up with the idea, inspired by Julie Powell and her own food odyssey

T-ko: Fellow foodie and willing guinea pig for all the recipes. I intend to be seeing a lot of her...hahaha.

So, World...prepare yourselves. The K/AB Project shall begin when the book becomes mine.