Friday, December 16, 2016

Control - Alt - Delete

Terrible picture of a phone, but it's hard to take a picture of your phone using your phone, right?  Back in the old days of Dell Computers and Microsoft Windows where I worked ... even before Windows had numbers ... if anything went wrong, you could hit Control-Alt-Delete and a screen would come up listing everything that was happening on your computer.  If a program was giving you problems or had locked up, you could just highlight it and hit DELETE.  Magically, THAT program would close down, leaving everything else running.

Problem solved!!  Open the program again and everything would work perfectly.  Oh how I pine for the "old" days.  Yesterday however, I did discover that Control-Alt-Delete is still alive and kicking in my phone.  I know it went for a swim recently, but has been working just fine ever since.  That is until last night when I put it on the table and it went black.  Uh oh ... that's never happened before.

Nothing I did could revive it.  I pushed every button twice, plugged it in, shook it ... everything I could think of ..... and nothing.  It's a terrible BLACK HOLE feeling.  I have no communication with the world AT ALL!!  What if something happens?  How did I live previously with no cell phone?  I suppose I could use Facebook on my computer. 

I'm now imagining trying to get a new phone before Christmas ... good luck with that ... and I'm sure the price tag will cause a heart attack.  I gave up and sat dejected on the couch.  About an hour later, it hit me.  Control-Alt-Delete!!!  YES!!  I can do that with my phone!!  I held down the two keys at once for a count of ten and held my breath.  A little Apple light appeared!  SAVED!!!  I'm so excited I'm doing a little dance.  What a load off my shoulders.  It's now working just fine!!  Sometimes that old tech stuff still works!!
It's a good thing it was working when I cooked that turkey so you could see my beautiful bird.  I said there was good and bad ... here's the good part.  I cooked it uncovered at 350 for 1-1/2 hours.  It was nicely brown and beautiful when I covered it with foil and placed it back in the oven.  Verne said about 3 hours total.  WRONG!!  Here comes the bad part.

In another hour, I checked the temperature for the 145 degree "perfect" mark.  I watched in horror as the arrow climbed all the way up to 180.  I yanked out the gauge ... no use watching it go further.  RATS!!!  I sat the bird on the counter and waited.  Fifteen minutes later when the temperature was probably closer to 200 rather than 160, I cut it up.  The bad news .... it was WAY overdone and not the least bit juicy.  Tender, but dry as the Sahara Desert.
It tasted delicious, you just needed a glass of water with every bite.  Maybe lots of gravy will help keep it from the graveyard.  I dumped all the drippings into a saucepan and made delicious gravy like my Mom used to, adding a couple cups of potato water for a little more flavor.  I actually even cooked some broccoli and made these up for the freezer.  Instant dinner!!
So for the second time, I was pretty dejected.  I had such high hopes for this bird.  My advice is to cook the turkey until it's brown, cover it with foil, then check the temperature every half hour or so.  I'm determined to fine tune this recipe since I love turkey so much.  You will probably see this again.  

In other good news, I'm typing this morning, which means I survived the 60 mile drive in the horrible rainstorm last night.  There's nothing worse than driving at night with my bionic eye lenses ... unless it's driving at night when it's raining cats and dogs!!  That's tomorrow's story!!






15 comments:

  1. I always watched as my folks would cover the Oversized bird in the roaster with Aluminium Foil cooked it at 350 for four to five hours than uncover it baste it with its own juices on and off for another hour. It was then done to perfection.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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    Replies
    1. My family cooked turkey the same way, but it always came out too dry. I was hoping this new method would remedy that, but I left it in too long. Never give up ... I'll try it again!!

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  2. That's how my Mom did it as well. Cover in the beginning, baste every 45 minutes, then uncover to brown at the end.

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    Replies
    1. I think we all did it that way Allison! It IS weird to try and do it backwards ... hopefully next time I'll have better results.

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  3. There are remote control thermometers that tell you the temp of your turkey and you don't even have to open the oven door. Internal temps are the only way to know your turkey will be perfect.

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    Replies
    1. I've never heard of remote control thermometers. I'm getting one!!!!

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  4. I wouldn't go out at night without my yellow shooting glasses. They sure help in the rain.

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    1. Really? Yellow glasses help? Well for heavens sake Jan ... I think I have a pair of yellow running glasses. I'm putting them in the truck!!

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  5. I got so excited about your control-alt-delete solution until I realized my phone doesn't have those keys. So we went researching. For the rest of you who want to know you hold the power button and the home button down at the same time for 10 seconds which causes a hard reset. Good to know.

    Now that I realize that I remember trying that on my dead iPad which would have revived it had it not been a truly dead screen. (My iPad worked I just couldn't see anything; I could hear it, though. That, of course, also happened right before Christmas a couple year ago. I'm so glad the local Apple store actually had one in stock. And that I had done a backup to my computer the previous Sunday so they could restore from it.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right Linda ... not really Control Alt Delete. It is the power button and the home button held down until the apple sign appears. It resets the whole thing, like taking the battery out. Lucky for me, it worked. It takes two weeks and an act of God to get an appointment at the Apple Store here.

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  6. To reset the iPhone, or iPad continue holding the home button and sleep/wake button even after the power off slider appears. If you continue to hold the buttons, the screen should go blank in a few seconds. Remember to continue holding the buttons until the Apple logo appears.
    that's Apple's way of taking the battery out
    On any other phone you could take the battery out and re-insured and restart that's how there reset

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    Replies
    1. Exactly Ed .... and that's what I did. Lucky for me, it worked!!

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  7. One more thing
    What would you all say, if I told all of you you're doing it wrong COOKing Turkey that is ,,,and that you have been doing it wrong for years
    Cooking turkey is not a rocket Scientific formula
    The scientific formula is the fact that you've been doing it the way your parents have done it and you see it on TV and in add,s
    Please don't take my word for it,, look up on the Internet
    cooking a turkey upside down

    Next time cook the covered bird,, upside down,,for the appropriate time. the juice will run into the breast
    The only real reason you cook breast up is to make it look Golden beautiful
    And all the Juice runs to the bottom

    Paragraph from the Internet
    Why You Should Roast Your Turkey Upside Down
    Often the biggest complaint about turkey is that it's dry, but this method solves that problem. When roasted upside down, the turkey breast isn't directly exposed to the heat. In fact, being inverted means it's actually protected and insulated by the rest of the turkey. Instead, the dark meat is exposed with the thighs cooking faster in this position.

    Having the thighs exposed over the breasts comes with a few added benefits. As the turkey roasts, the fatty dark meat of the thighs renders fat and juices that drip down onto the breast meat, slow-basting the bird through the whole cooking process. The thighs cook quicker when directly exposed to the heat and no basting means less time spent opening the oven. So beyond this ensuring juicier breast meat, you'll also find an upside-down turkey cooks a little faster.

    3 Reasons to Roast an Upside-Side Down Turkey
    It cooks faster.
    The white meat won't dry out.
    It doesn't require basting.

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    Replies
    1. I heard of this once ... I think from a turkey farmer. I distinctly remember having to turn it back over to brown the top, which was a real feat in itself. My main problem seems to be just cooking it too long!! This would be fun to try again however!

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    2. I have one set of oven mitts I use for things like turning a turkey over. They get washed after every use.

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