Duck, Duck Goose

So I was going back and forth with my friend in England. We've been friends since high school and now she lives in Bristol. To my sadness, she won't be coming to stay with her parents for Christmas, as is often the case. Her parents still live in California -lucky for me, as they fly her home and I get to see her.

Even better, is when her parents have me for a meal. Her mother is an excellent cook and I love her invitations. She was so surprised that a California Girl liked her British fare, she gave me one of the fantastic cookbooks she made up for her brood of daughters. The cover declares, "There Isn't Anything Else, A Cook's Book". To my shame, I've only tried 1 or 2 things out of it.

This year both my friend and I will be cooking the Christmas meal. For the first time, my family is going to come over to my house for the holiday. Likewise, this is my friend's first time not going to someone else's house. We're both over 30, so I'm thinking it is time to be adults. We were discussing menu and my friend tells me about how her mother would always cook a goose and how wonderful that was. She was thinking of cooking a goose. Fascinating! I've never had goose. I wanted to cook goose after she mentioned it. I'm unsure if it is out of my competitive nature or just the idea was fantastic in itself.

So, while getting some meat to roast for dinner at Mollie Stone's, I asked the butcher if they have goose and, yes, they do. Very surprising. I thought about it and then decided to get one. I went in on Monday and asked more details, it turns out that they have 2 cases of Goose in the freezer and could they move one from the freezer to the fridge for me on Wednesday? I agreed, and flew off to Washington the next day knowing that I'd have a semi-thawed goose waiting for me to pick-up on Friday.

And today I'm cooking it. The recipe is from The Cook's Book. I had a time searching Mollie Stone's for the stuffing requirements - chestnuts, dried apricots and such. My American Super-sizing instincts took over and I realized that the recipe is a traditional British. I realized that 2 British onions might be equivalent to 1 California Large Onion - but only after I chopped them up and saw the volume. I looked at the rice, the soaked apricots (the 8 oz seemed to have morphed to 24 oz) and the onions and just knew I over did it. There was about a cup left over after I packed the goose tight. The stuffing looked and smelled fantastic, a mixure of diced, cooked onion, apricots, chestnuts & wild rice. I was supposed to have brown rice, but I had wild rice in the cupboard and thought it would add some very American flavor to this British tradition.

If it is good, I'll be cooking it for Christmas. I've got 50 minutes of baking left and then 30 minutes of resting. It looks and smells great. I'm quite excited. Greg is fussy - we've got too long until we can eat it.