First off I took the turkey out of the brine in the morning, rinsed it, and gave it an olive oil massage. Next up was putting it into the oven at a blistering five hundred degrees for a half hour to brown it up. Then down to three fifty until the internal temperature of the white meat is just over one sixty.
It only takes about two hours to accomplish this instead of the low and slow method which generally robs the turkey of its juices and produces the dreaded dryness. Think about it, a large bird in a dry hot oven for hours? It's bound to dry out.
Remember your grandparents doing the constant basting thing? Unnecessary now and much faster to produce a better tasting bird:) Thank you Alton Brown! You do this and you are guaranteed to produce a turkey that can't be beat!
That was round one of yesterday which went very well. The parade was on, which I enjoyed until football came on of course. Then we ate, and ate, and ate:)
After that I pulled out the Cure 81 ham and put it into the oven to bake at three twenty five for about two hours. These are precooked hams so they are really simple to do. Then we loaded up and headed to Beersnob's house for round two!
Witchy, Chianti, Chianti's beau, and my clan and Beersnob's clan all enjoyed each other's fellowship as a turducken was devoured as well as many sides and the ham. An outstanding second round of food, fun, and frivolity was enjoyed on this very memorable day:)
Again I'm very thankful for all of my family, and my friend/family:) You all add to the quality of life that few enjoy as I do!
Friday, November 27, 2009
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving
I've got a turkey in brine at the moment, been there for about eleven hours now. I'm following the Alton Brown preparation method which should get the bird done in about three hours.
Today is the day for all American to reflect on what they are thankful for.
I'm thankful for my family and my friend/family.
I'm thankful in this economy I have a solid job.
I'm thankful for the roof over our heads and the ability to pay for it.
I'm thankful for the food that's being prepared.
I'm thankful for our troops who keep us safe at home.
I'm thankful to live in the freest country in the history of the world.
I'm thankful to you, the reader and wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving feast!
Today is the day for all American to reflect on what they are thankful for.
I'm thankful for my family and my friend/family.
I'm thankful in this economy I have a solid job.
I'm thankful for the roof over our heads and the ability to pay for it.
I'm thankful for the food that's being prepared.
I'm thankful for our troops who keep us safe at home.
I'm thankful to live in the freest country in the history of the world.
I'm thankful to you, the reader and wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving feast!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Got A Lot To Do!
The turkey is thawing, has been since Monday. It'll have to be prepared tonight for the oven tomorrow! Woohoooo! Can't wait!
Then tomorrow I've got to bake a ham (Cure 81 spiral cut ham! AWESOMENESS!!!) and get over to Beersnob's for supper! I'll be super stuffed when this is all over with and we'll have left overs for days!
Going to try and watch the parade in the morning, Macy's parade. I love the balloons and the little handlers who always look like they are having a tough time holding the bigger ones down. Wonder what those people get paid, maybe nothing but what seems odd is they always have people who are fairly thin and young holding them down instead of bigger people who could do a much better job at it. Seriously they usually look as if they were plucked right out of high school!
I'd much rather have a handful of sumo wrestlers in full sumo garb roaming the streets at parade time holding Snoopy and his doghouse at street level and keeping it from escaping into the flight path of all of New York instead of some teens who have no work ethic yet.
Last night I made my first rehearsal to the Christmas show at the Theatre. A Christmas Carol. The normal lighting designer has his hands full this year and asked if I'd design the light plot. I eagerly said yeppers and we sat in the audience to go over how to light it and where to put the cues.
This will be a great show!
Then tomorrow I've got to bake a ham (Cure 81 spiral cut ham! AWESOMENESS!!!) and get over to Beersnob's for supper! I'll be super stuffed when this is all over with and we'll have left overs for days!
Going to try and watch the parade in the morning, Macy's parade. I love the balloons and the little handlers who always look like they are having a tough time holding the bigger ones down. Wonder what those people get paid, maybe nothing but what seems odd is they always have people who are fairly thin and young holding them down instead of bigger people who could do a much better job at it. Seriously they usually look as if they were plucked right out of high school!
I'd much rather have a handful of sumo wrestlers in full sumo garb roaming the streets at parade time holding Snoopy and his doghouse at street level and keeping it from escaping into the flight path of all of New York instead of some teens who have no work ethic yet.
Last night I made my first rehearsal to the Christmas show at the Theatre. A Christmas Carol. The normal lighting designer has his hands full this year and asked if I'd design the light plot. I eagerly said yeppers and we sat in the audience to go over how to light it and where to put the cues.
This will be a great show!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Captains Courageous And His Rascals
The Date was less than 100% last night so I made her stay on the couch and I put in the Spencer Tracy classic, Captains Courageous featuring Freddie Bartholomew. The Date and Thing 2 were glued to the screen with rapt attention.
Zip played on the floor, Scrat was trying to make up his mind to be a lap kitty or not, turns out not, Rocket found his way to my lap. All in all it was a great movie watching experience:)
Next up was a disc from my Little Rascals collection! Hal Roach really had a good thing going! Yeah they are a little crude (and un-PC) by today's standards but they were fun and millions of children grew up watching and loving them.
I was looking for a specific episode but couldn't remember the title so I'll have to do some episode reading tonight to find the right title. Spanky and Alfalfa were private eyes and they get locked in a fun house. Scary for a kid but it watches as intended for an adult!
Yeah it was a good evening:)
Zip played on the floor, Scrat was trying to make up his mind to be a lap kitty or not, turns out not, Rocket found his way to my lap. All in all it was a great movie watching experience:)
Next up was a disc from my Little Rascals collection! Hal Roach really had a good thing going! Yeah they are a little crude (and un-PC) by today's standards but they were fun and millions of children grew up watching and loving them.
I was looking for a specific episode but couldn't remember the title so I'll have to do some episode reading tonight to find the right title. Spanky and Alfalfa were private eyes and they get locked in a fun house. Scary for a kid but it watches as intended for an adult!
Yeah it was a good evening:)
Monday, November 23, 2009
Short Week
That's a good thing too:) This is going to be a good week, it kicked off with a NASCAR league championship, a win over Skate in my keeper league (effectively ending his season and the final nail in mine) and a quiet and peaceful Saturday.
The turkey will get moved from the deep freeze today and start the thawing process, it'll take a while. The ham is ready to be baked. Groceries have been bought, the house has been rearranged, and all is right with the world.
I enjoy four day weekends. It'd be nice if more weeks had them but then again I guess that would take the special out of them and it'd be like any other week. Last week I finished all of my paper work to change beneficiaries, insurance is updated, and dependents are added. It wasn't as hard as I imagined it would be and now I don't have to worry with it.
All in all it's a good start to the holiday season:)
The turkey will get moved from the deep freeze today and start the thawing process, it'll take a while. The ham is ready to be baked. Groceries have been bought, the house has been rearranged, and all is right with the world.
I enjoy four day weekends. It'd be nice if more weeks had them but then again I guess that would take the special out of them and it'd be like any other week. Last week I finished all of my paper work to change beneficiaries, insurance is updated, and dependents are added. It wasn't as hard as I imagined it would be and now I don't have to worry with it.
All in all it's a good start to the holiday season:)
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Victorious!
I won Cigar Asylum's fantasy NASCAR contest! First place out of seventeen teams and the only team to break ten thousand points:)
Jimmie Johnson won his fourth consecutive title and I won my first in my inaugural foray into this league! The margin of victory was one hundred sixteen points and I put points onto second place this week. I had a good qualifying round and went from fifty seven points to seventy and gained the remaining points by performance today.
I finished the season with twenty eight top tens, sixteen top fives, and seven wins totaling ten thousand fourteen points! Second place had twenty eight top tens, eighteen top fives, and three wins for a total of nine thousand eight hundred ninety eight points.
What a good start to a good week!
Jimmie Johnson won his fourth consecutive title and I won my first in my inaugural foray into this league! The margin of victory was one hundred sixteen points and I put points onto second place this week. I had a good qualifying round and went from fifty seven points to seventy and gained the remaining points by performance today.
I finished the season with twenty eight top tens, sixteen top fives, and seven wins totaling ten thousand fourteen points! Second place had twenty eight top tens, eighteen top fives, and three wins for a total of nine thousand eight hundred ninety eight points.
What a good start to a good week!
Quiet Day
And it felt really nice:) The Date had to work open to close. The guy who was supposed to go to work at four called in sick and they didn't have anyone else to work. We had dinner plans at six but canceled them. We actually wanted to enjoy the meal but she would have been rushed to get ready and would have had to go back to work afterward.
We now will have a nice meal at a later date. Thing 1 went out with her bf and played video games for hours on end, Thing 2 had a birthday to go to. That left me home alone with The Venture Brothers!
A fabulous cartoon series that is a take off on the classic Johnny Quest, not the idiotic remake. Johnny Quest is a legendary series, bad guys got killed, good guys won. There was a clear definition between good and evil and there was NO Political Correctness on understanding the villain's viewpoint.
The Venture Brothers features Rusty Venture, a washed up (and standing in the shadow of his legendary genius father) scientist who has a one man killing machine as a body guard, Brock Sampson. Brock is easily my favorite character, a muscle car driving, cigarette smoking, John Wayne of a character who does his job with either his bare hands or his ever present knife at his side.
The actual brothers are Hank and Dean Venture, the main charge of Sampson and you do tend to wonder how well Brock does his job as the boys get killed off numerous times. The Monarch is Dr. Venture's main archenemy with his ever present henchmen. The Monarch is inept at almost everything he does but he is a pleasure to watch as his hatred for Dr. Venture and the family just exceeds rational thought.
The show is irreverent, crude, at times vulgar, but always a self parody and satiric. The season three DVD set is uncensored so you get the whole enchilada and more. Watch it from start to finish (season four is airing now on Cartoon Network) and you can knock off a day on the couch:)
We now will have a nice meal at a later date. Thing 1 went out with her bf and played video games for hours on end, Thing 2 had a birthday to go to. That left me home alone with The Venture Brothers!
A fabulous cartoon series that is a take off on the classic Johnny Quest, not the idiotic remake. Johnny Quest is a legendary series, bad guys got killed, good guys won. There was a clear definition between good and evil and there was NO Political Correctness on understanding the villain's viewpoint.
The Venture Brothers features Rusty Venture, a washed up (and standing in the shadow of his legendary genius father) scientist who has a one man killing machine as a body guard, Brock Sampson. Brock is easily my favorite character, a muscle car driving, cigarette smoking, John Wayne of a character who does his job with either his bare hands or his ever present knife at his side.
The actual brothers are Hank and Dean Venture, the main charge of Sampson and you do tend to wonder how well Brock does his job as the boys get killed off numerous times. The Monarch is Dr. Venture's main archenemy with his ever present henchmen. The Monarch is inept at almost everything he does but he is a pleasure to watch as his hatred for Dr. Venture and the family just exceeds rational thought.
The show is irreverent, crude, at times vulgar, but always a self parody and satiric. The season three DVD set is uncensored so you get the whole enchilada and more. Watch it from start to finish (season four is airing now on Cartoon Network) and you can knock off a day on the couch:)
Saturday, November 21, 2009
My Mistake
After all of the running around yesterday I did and errands that were erranded I forgot to get coffee! The Date has to have coffee in the morning, it's safer for everyone involved.
Right now she is sound asleep but I know it won't be long before she is awake. So I'm going to put on my hooded coat and head down to the store and get a bag of coffee for her first thing this morning after posting this.
The smoker at my dad's place will not work. It was older than I thought and had rusted through in several places. I'm stuck with an oven and baking the turkey and then later on the ham for Beersnob's Thanksgiving with football:)
I had my second film festival meeting last night. I've got to say I'm thrilled at the progress being made thus far. This town can use a film festival! We plan on utilizing the Theatre as well and with any luck it might bring them some revenue!
Had an awesome lunch yesterday with Witchy, a great evening with Beersnob, Bunnicula, Skate, Invader, Witchy, and of course The Date (for whom I'm now headed out into the cold to get her coffee so she can have it when she wakes up in a very short while).
Right now she is sound asleep but I know it won't be long before she is awake. So I'm going to put on my hooded coat and head down to the store and get a bag of coffee for her first thing this morning after posting this.
The smoker at my dad's place will not work. It was older than I thought and had rusted through in several places. I'm stuck with an oven and baking the turkey and then later on the ham for Beersnob's Thanksgiving with football:)
I had my second film festival meeting last night. I've got to say I'm thrilled at the progress being made thus far. This town can use a film festival! We plan on utilizing the Theatre as well and with any luck it might bring them some revenue!
Had an awesome lunch yesterday with Witchy, a great evening with Beersnob, Bunnicula, Skate, Invader, Witchy, and of course The Date (for whom I'm now headed out into the cold to get her coffee so she can have it when she wakes up in a very short while).
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