Wednesday, November 25. Little Tokyo With The Beard. Cheesecake. Mary Leigh is off school today. Jude is on Pacific Time. Mary Ann got in late. This meant that I wouldn't see anyone until mid-morning, and perhaps not until noon. I needed the lack of distractions to get through my work, because I knew Jude would want to dine with me. And because tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I have much cooking to do.
As it turned out, the kids went out on their own for lunch at Bosco's. As much as Mary Ann loves for us all to be together, her heart is warmed even more by evidence that her two children like to spend time together. I was on the air when they got back. I tried to set up the show in the kitchen, but my phone cable is missing. Drat it! I wanted to make the cheesecake during the show. (What other radio show permits such extra-curricular activity on the air?)
I got off an hour early because of some game--LSU versus the Islanders, or something. That gave me the hour I needed to mix up the cheesecake filling, make the crust, and get the thing into the oven early enough that I don't have to stay awake until midnight for the painstaking process of letting the cheesecake cool slowly. (A cheesecake that cools too quickly gets a big crack across its surface.)
Jude and I then retired to one of our special places: Little Tokyo in Mandeville. He is now unambiguously a sushi lover. No more chicken teriyaki. We had two big rolls. The "Dweeb Roll" was a new one and very good. Filled with spicy tuna and avocado, with salmon and something crunchy elsewhere, but no snow crab, it was delicious. Also some mackerel, salmon, asparagus, and tuna. The young guy who runs the place was making sushi tonight. "How are things?" Jude asked him. "Terrible!" he said. Don't know why: the place was full, as it always is.
Back home, I started simmering the root beer glaze for the ham and made up the brine for the turkey. A number of people this year asked me whether adding herbs or spices to the brine was a good idea. I did it a few years ago, but thought the addition didn't have any effect. I tried it again this year, dissolving about a half-cup of granulated garlic into the water. If that does anything to the flavor of the bird, we'll know it.
The cheesecake was finished at eight-thirty. I turned the oven off but forgot to open the door until over an hour later. By then, it had fallen. That always happens, but this was more drastic than usual. What gives? I went to bed around ten-thirty, with an alarm going off at eleven so I could move the cheesecake into the refrigerator. I don't think it awakened Mary Ann. But with her boy in the house, she's in her happy place.
Little Tokyo. Mandeville: 590 Asbury Dr. 504-727-1532. Sushi. Japanese.
