Turducken (Part II)

 Hmm... how was the turducken?? It was okay. Although most people liked it, both Matt and I thought it was "meh." The turducken roll took a whopping 9.5 hours to cook! (225 degrees for the most part) I won't believe everything the internet says any more... Looking back at this 225 degrees was probably unnecessary. Maybe at least 300 degrees. Anyway, the next time I do a turducken it'll be made from scratch. But probably not any time soon.

Aside from the turducken though, the dinner was awesome! I think we had 22 people over. People all brought different food. We had 5 pies! And 3 sweet potato casseroles. Yum. Yeah, I was thankful. :)

Left to right: Turducken at 4 hour mark! (Looks uncooked); Turducken at 8 hour mark with meatloaf next to it (The turducken still looks uncooked. Temp now raised to 350 degrees); Braised lamb; Matt cooking brussels sprouts in bacon grease (very good). And below: The feast.

Turducken (Part I)

Major League Disappointment... and here's why:

Well... I think I'm partly to be blamed for this. After doing some research online about how to make one of these from scratch, I decided that it wouldn't be feasible. It takes a day to prepare and another day to roast. So, I decided to call around the local meat shops and see if any of the stores would sell them. After a couple of the stores from the Strip said Nos, I finally landed on this meat shop in Brighton Heights, called Tom Friday's. They make 'em! The only problem: The owner (Tom) didn't sound like he really wanted to make a real turducken. Instead, he kept on asking me if it'd be okay for it to come in a "jet net". I don't know if this is a character flaw of mine, I insisted on him sewing up the turkey. But, I said, if he really finds it hard to do, he can put it in a jet net.

And the result? The above picture. It's not a turducken! It's a turducken roll. We'll see if the flavor will redeem this turducken project.

Here's my wild idea for 2009. I'm gonna try to practice deboning several chickens throughout the year. So, maybe by Thanksgiving time, I'll be ready to assemble my very own turducken... hmmm...

Currently In Christ Alone By Keith & Kristyn Getty see related

The Addict in Us All

Hmmm.... couldn't remember the last time I posted until just now when I got on the xanga site. Turns out I wrote about some light bulb burning up in my kitchen. Okay, it's time to bolster up the quality of this blog! (Also, a little self-advertisement, check out the posts on "Grace," "God Chose Me," "The Odds Are Good," "Post-modernity," and "Terrified" if this is your first time visiting my xanga.)

"The Addict in Us All" is the title of this year's CCEF Annual Conference. My second CCEF conference. Glad that I was able to bring one person from my congregation to attend. Yeah! :) It was good. More than anything it reminded me why I'm in the gospel ministry in the first place.

It's almost been a year pastoring at OIF. I think it's a rookie's tendency to be pulled this and that way by the currents of ministry. There are so many ways to run a church. Which route will you take? There are so many needs in the church. Which one will you tend first? So, in the first year of ministry, we the rookies (maybe I shouldn't speak for all rookie pastors) throw away a large chunk of what we learned in seminary and try everything. While real life ministry can teach us so many things, the convictions we gained during seminary shouldn't be tossed away so lightly. After all, those are thoughts which arose in a near-pristine setting, and they carry with them that unadulterated quality, that childlike naivete, pure and fearless and ignorant of the difficulties in real life. And it is such unadulterated convictions that will carry us through the most difficult life situations. (To say this in Christian lingo, I'm thankful that God has built a strong faith in me in His gospel at the seminary, a protected setting. And now, it's this faith that will carry me in real ministry.)

The conference rejuvenated that faith in me. What's ministry all about? What's Christianity all about? What's life all about? Is it not to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? And why do we confess that He is our Lord? Is it not because all of us have been addicts in one way or another and even now are still battling with our obvious and subtle addictions? Is it not because Jesus Christ has broken the chains that bound us so that sin, the ultimate addiction, no longer has power over us?

What's life all about? Is it not about being intoxicated by the love of Christ? The most amazing thing is that as addicts will take up qualities of the things they're addicted to, so will we. As we are intoxicated by Jesus, we will become more and more like him. Amazing love. Amazing grace.

The title of next year's CCEF conference: "Sex Matters." Such a rich theme in the bible! Looking forward to it.

Near death experience...

nah... I think I'm exaggerating. But to think about it, it was sort of a close call.

This is when I wish I hadn't lost my digital camera. Then I could take some pictures of what happened. So, last night I got home. Went straight to the kitchen. Turned on the kitchen ceiling light. Dropped off groceries on the counter. It was dinner time. So, I was getting ready to cook.

And then I went up stairs to change, since I was still in my Sunday clothes. Then I remembered that I had missed the Euro 2008 championship game in the afternoon. So, hoping to see some related news I turned the TV on. No related news, because I forgot that I live in the US and don't have ESPN... Although it did have this knock-off Japanese game show on, which was kind of funny to watch.

Just then I heard some noise from downstairs that sounded like someone broke my window. Racism in Pittsburgh?? That was my first thought. Nope. Windows are all fine. And then I saw shattered glass on the kitchen floor. I looked up, one of the light bulbs was missing. It had just exploded! Had I not been watching TV and in the kitchen prepare dinner, the bulb could've exploded right on me. (The light is right above the area I usually prepare food.) I probably would've survived the glass shards. But what's kind of scary was that the piece that held the filament was also blown off the base of the bulb. It landed on the vinyl floor and left a sizeable charcoaled dent in the floor. Hmm.... that really could have been my skin.

Lucas and Spielberg, what did you do to my Dacta Jones?

The newest Indiana Jones was such a disappointment that it almost put me to sleep... I feel like under the movie title it should've said "This product is made of 100% recycled material." Okay, maybe I'm being too harsh. It's not 100% recycled. There are bits of stuff that were not found in the original trilogy, for example, stupid silly childish humor! I don't understand this. Back when the original trilogy came out, we were also kids. We still appreciated whatever style of humor that was in those movies. Is our current generation of kids dumber than we used to be? Since when did we put an equal sign between stupidity & silliness and humor?

Anyhow, another big flaw of the movie: the villains are just not evil enough. Indiana Jones is after all a superhero story. And superheroes need super villains to make the story. About the only good thing the Nazis did was to present themselves as the permanent default villains that require no (re)introduction. Whether it's a novel or movie, Nazis are evil. And we all understand how evil they are and why they're evil. But the Communists? Soviet Union? KGB? Just not the same.

Sigh... I'm sad. But all good things come to an end. Good-bye Dacta Jones. It's time for you to retire.