epic fail

I am a pretty good cook. I have a decent palate. I research ingredients. I can understand how to build flavors and what goes with what. But the main thing I can do is read and if one can read, one can cook. Which leaves me a bit flummoxed regarding my epic goose roasting fail. I sort of mostly followed a recipe on epicurious with minor substitutions, but the main thing I was looking for was prepping the bird and the final internal temp/length of time it needed to cook. I pricked the skin all over paying special attention to the lower breast and thigh area. It was seasoned with salt and pepper. I pre-heated the oven to 425-put it in for 30 minutes, dropped the temp to 325, poured a cup of boiling water over the thing and basted every 20 minutes for 2 hours (estimated length of time given the size of the bird) checking the temp in the thigh for the last 40 minutes. I actually took it out a little early because it seemed I had hit my mark and let it rest for 30 minutes. When I went to carve it was nearly impossible. It took major arm wrestling to get the legs detached. When I tried to carve the breast I realized just how bad it was.

The entire thing was dumped into the stockpot and is currently simmering on the stove. May it produce some wonderful stock.

Moving on. The braised cabbage was delicious. As was the roasted squash and sweet potato soup. And the applesauce. And the surprising raw beet salad with grapefruit and lemon juice.

I am still sick. I took some advice from a good sleeper and stayed in bed all day long. I thought I was feeling better, but I'm back to mouthbreathing. Which makes my throat hurt. And my lips get chapped.

I finally finished reading "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" which was one of those chubby paperbacks that are 1000 pages long and though you feel a little trashy while you're reading it you can't help yourself because it's that fun. I'm currently reading "How to live safely in a science fictional universe" by Charles Yu. It's good. Kind of painfully good. I can see myself having a hard time finding a next book because this is just so unique and ridiculously well-written.

So I think I'll just read Ulysses. Get it over with. Get that literary monkey off my back once and for all.