This is why I blog: a beautiful woman has offered to cook a turducken for my birthday party in two weeks' time; with this assurance I made the $30 investment in the frozen meat-stuff (improbably labeled as having just 2 grams of fat per serving). So, wine, women, song, and turducken. And a good cheese platter. Perhaps some Thai food for vegetarian guests. It's been a good year.

Of course, Tyler Cowen had a better idea for Thanksgiving than I did; I just went to the Eden Center with a friend for Vietnamese food.

The Harris Teeter had a 4.5-pound frozen turducken breast and I almost made an impulse purchase until I realized that it would take 36 hours to thaw and I don't trust myself not to destroy it in the process of roasting. Plus, what am I going to do with 4 pounds of turducken? But, one day.

My next attempt will involve the following recipe:

1 lg onion
6 cloves garlic
1 oz fresh ginger
1 lb spinach
1 c plain yogurt
4 oz buttermilk
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp garam masala
pinch white pepper
pinch cayenne pepper
1 c half and half
6 oz cubed paneer
pinch sea salt
fresh cilantro

Grind onion, garlic, and ginger into a fine paste.

In a medium saucepan, combine the paste, spinach, yogurt, buttermilk, chili powder, pepper, and garam masala. Simmer at medium heat for 20 to 30 minutes. Mash the ingredients with a potato masher. Add half and half. Simmer until the mixture has a creamy consistency, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the cheese, simmer 5 minutes. Season with salt. Garnish with cilantro leaves to taste. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Will report back in a few weeks. Previous attempts hadn't thought to use buttermilk, and that might be the ingredient I've been missing in trying to replicate my favorite instantiation. Not sure the half-and-half will work, but I'm reluctant to make this any unhealthier by using full cream. You'll note that I'm still resisting using ghee, which probably also has quality implications in these recipes.