Thanksgiving 2009

I'm doing a brine turkey again, 13 pound beaut, with the only change from last year is that I did the drying period between brine and oven. I don't think I did it last year because I'm pretty sure I hadn't read that far in the instructions until oven time. So this time I was a little more prepared.

Defrosting the bird: We bought it on Saturday, frozen, so it had been in the fridge "defrosting" from Saturday until Tuesday night when I did the washing off and noticed it was still an EFFING BLOCK OF ICE! (I had wondered why there wasn't any juice in the bag!) So while I was washing it off, I spent an hour trying to get it somewhat defrosted, since it was going to be put in the cooler surrounded by ice and I didn't want it to stay frozen.

Brine: Crate and Barrel brine pack, again. Gives you the herbed and spiced brine, the bag, and also an herb rub. Tasted pretty good last year.

Drying the turkey in the fridge between brine and oven: I noticed there was quite a bit of juices in the pan, so I hope it doesn't turn out dry!

Stuffing and Trussing: God I hate doing turkeys. I probably shouldn't have slicked up the bird with olive oil and rub before needing to manhandle the fucker; trussing went not so well. I think I got the bits (carrots, onions, celery) to stay inside a little better than last year, so there's that. Also, I think this bird has an abnormal top hole. I can't get the neck skin to stay tucked inside, and it kind of just glops back out and slips around the string. So the string isn't really doing a whole lot to keep the bird together, I think.

Time for the Oven: It's in, breast side down for 45 minutes at 400degrees.

Still on my checklist:
- Garlic roast potatoes from my favorite cook Ina Garten. Well, OK, second fave after Bourdain, but I don't watch him for the cooking.
- cornbread muffins [don't have time!! :( ]
- dressing [in the home stretch]
- gravy! hope it turns out better than last year [it looks goopy. I poured the rest of the last box of stock in to increase volume, we'll see how that goes...]
- candied pecans


[9am] got my first burn turning turkey. Started the gravy with browning the nasty bits.

[9:40am] turned the turkey two more times, now it's on its final run: cook until done. Nasty bits still boiling in broth for 15 more minutes. Got another burn.

[1pm!!] I'm behind schedule, won't have time for cornbread muffins. Time to take the foil off the dressing and take a shower! and I may have a broken toe. Stupid cat.]

[after dinner] dinner was super yummy. Everyone liked the turkey. Hope it doesn't make anyone sick! There was ham, scaloped corn, and pie. There was others, but I only had eyes for turkey, ham, scaloped corn and ham. The gravy turned out pretty well, except I could have removed a little more fat from the drippings.

We're watching football now.
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Hey Maya, what have you been up to?

Well, glad you asked. In the last month I went up to the eagle spot and tried for some pictures with Godzilla. All the birdies were hanging out clear on the other side of the river, so not a whole lot of good pictures there. Every once in a while an eagle would fly over and land somewhere deep in the trees behind us. There weren't any eagles in those trees, and I'm hoping it's not permanent. They better be there next time I go up. If they have indeed left that nesting site, there is a road that goes along the river on the other side where eagles have in the past had lots of nests. Maybe we'll try over there sometime, even though you have to get out of the car and walk down a trail to see anything.

But anyway, I got a couple pictures over two days:

this is actually a turkey vulture. They like to hang out on the lower levels of the electrical towers with the cormorants.



















eh, some are OK, I guess. I don't do action shots very well, because the auto focus is a pain in my ass. Just wait until I can get one of a eagle in the near trees, right over the parking lot like last year.

So we went Saturday and Sunday a couple weekends ago. We got there in the afternoon, with about 2 hours daylight left both times. On Saturday they opened up the dam right when I was thinking it was time to give up. Opening the dam is like feeding time. It's stirs up the water and gets the birds hunting for fishies. When they did the same thing at the same time (ish) on Sunday, I began to think they do it for us photographers. I am starting to feel like going there is like going to the zoo, and at 4pm is when the animals are fed. At any rate, on neither day did we get any good eagle diving into the water moments. Sunday was worse, they just didn't seem hungry.

But we will try again!

So. What else have I been up to? Well, I stalked and met an internet friend 5 states away, and went to her Halloween party. It was a ton of fun, and was positive reinforcement to keep stalking internet friends in the hopes of them being as nice and awesome as this one. I have more thoughts on this real life vs. what I know or think I know about a person based on information from the internet, but I don't feel like writing. So maybe later. I did learn, though, that greeting someone with "I recognize you from the internet!" is probably not the best way to go.

One thing I DO need to write about is my trip home from the vet with Biscuit. It was humiliating for him and I laffed heartily. Not at him, of course. That would be rude.

More upcoming stuff is liveblogging Turkey cooking tomorrow morning. It is sitting in brine as I type. Why did I capitalize "turkey"? Hell if I know, it just feels right. I must have some German in me.


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