Goosecapades

sooooo, about those geese. they weighed in Christmas morning at about 7 pounds a piece. and, because this is how my life tends to work out, not very full of the golden elixir known as goose fat. apparently it's a big stinking deal. i may never know. due to a small eating disorder episode they didn't get very big. who knows if they could have worked through it if they had time and therapy. or if i had figured out how to force feed the obstinate jerks.... any who i looked into crispy goose skin recipes and found somethings about steaming the geese for 45 minutes the day before roasting them. one got stuffed with ginger root and orange segments and the other one with apples, prunes, port and thyme. they were steamed, patted dry, refrigerated over night and roasted for about 2 hours each at 350. if i sound unenthused, frankly, i am a bit. this turned out to be hard work. if you ever feel moved to carve a goose, just give up now. unless you have help. okay, okay, maybe with practice it wouldn't be so bad. my husband was in love with the meat, and the rest of the guests seemed to enjoy it too. the slice i cornered for myself was pretty good but when weighed against the loss of my garden to feathered terrorists, not worth it. maybe i'm just bitter. they were pretty when all roasty toasty, and the apple stuffing was good. personally i'm going back to duck. alot cheaper by the pound and easier to wrangle. with the added to bonus that i've never had to spend hours pulling nasty ends of pin feathers out of the blow torch scorched flesh. i will do you the favor of not telling you about the smell that filled my house when my husband brought them in to wash them out in the sink, i will do you the further courtesy of not discussing the slaughter itself. not pretty. the roasting smell was better, but by that point i could hardly enjoy it. for a more moving post about roasting foul, i direct you to my blog about duck.