Thanksgiving 2011 - Celebration

We had 21 people over.

My nephew Christopher with his girlfriend Lauren; Carla; Glenn's step-daugther Stella 

Christopher and Stella

Carla's brother Glenn with Jeff (it's very rare to get a picture of him)

Carla's sisters Linda and Starr

John; father of our nieces Jessica and Megan

Jim brought over a deep fried turkey; I'm practicing my carving skills.

Dinner is served. Deep fried turkey on the left; smoked turkey in the middle.

From the left: Starr's husband Jim, Jeff (background); Linda's sons Paul and Kevin; Kevin's girlfriend Carmina; Lauren, Christopher

Starr's daughters Jessica and Megan; Megan's boyfriend David; Jim's son Garret.

Kevin and Carmina; Kevin's a little fuzzy here but I like the picture

Carla and Howard having a blast

A bunch of folks (Christopher, Lauren, Jeff, Jimm, Starr, Paul, Carla, Stella, Glenn)

Most everyone

Dinner is winding down. Jeff's girlfriend Sarah (right) joined us for dessert!

Sarah with Megan and Christopher

Carolyn and Glenn take their leave

The matriarch committee: Carla, Starr, and Linda

Thanksgiving 2011 - Preparation

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. I took Wednesday off to prepare the turkey. Based on my experiment in September my cooking plan went like this

• Tuesday night: prepare the brine; cool overnight
• Wednesday morning: put turkey in brine
• Wednesday afternoon: prepare the drip pan gravy; make cornbread for stuffing; oil the new cutting board; move furniture
• Wednesday night: remove turkey from brine and put in fridge over night to dry out.
• Thursday: cook the bird; reduce the drippings and make the gravy

The brining and other prep went much better this time compared to September. I used an Alton Brown recipe for the brine instead of the Amazing Ribs recipe which called for 7 cups of salt (insane). Plus the gravy just wasn't that tasty. I think next year I'm going to just get a Butterball and cook it in the smoker just like I would in the oven. 

Pictures and descriptions of the preparation.

Tuesday night

Brine ingredients

Brine ready for cooling in the refrigerator overnight

Wednesday
I use a 5 gallon insulated drink cooler for the brine. This is like football teams use on the sidelines. It's great; the temp stays below 32 for hours. I weight the turkey down with a milk jug filled with ice. It takes a long time to break ice cubes down to a size that will fit through the opening. There's got to be an easier way.

Turkey in the brine. Weighted down by a milk jug of frozen water.

Pan drippings setup

Simmer the vegetables and aromatics with the turkey neck

Cool overnight. I'll microwave it Thursday before putting it in the roasting pan

My new cutting board! I treated it with mineral oil

Corn bread mixings

The cornbread; just short of burned. This will be turned into dressing for the turkey

Add some thyme and sage to olive oil overnight before rubbing. 

Turkey out of the brine and drying out a bit in the refrigerator. You can see I tore the skin a bit trying to loosen it for the wet rub underneat

Thursday

Wet rub and aromatics

 Smoke for 45 minutes then cook at 340 until the breast registers 160*

Onto the smoker. On a rack over a roasting pan holding the gravy

Set the tables

After 45 minute sof smoke; add some aluminum foil to legs and wings for protection

An hour later remove the foil 

Leave the lid closed a few hours. If you're lookin' you ain't cookin' 

All done!

I was ridiculously pleased with my carving this year. I sliced the breast differently; take it all off then cut sideways.

Carve

Ready 

Halfway to Winter

Halloween marks the midpoint between autumn and winter. In the past week it has definitely turned more towards winter as many of the leaves are down. Two weeks ago I captured these trees with all the leaves still on the limbs.



No bright blue skies today; the rains are coming in

But it's a schizophrenic time. There are still flowers in bloom. I guess that's what makes Halloween so interesting; not fall but not winter either.

With Halloween tomorrow I hoped to get a few shots of Jack 'O Lanterns on today's walk.

Not sure what this is supposed to be

I couldn't figure out what this was until I downloaded the picture to my computer

Crazy scary!

Interesting: painted, not carved

A classic

 Here's my punkin; I've got to figure out what to do with it.

As usual my craftsmanship doesn't match my vision. I wanted a big clown mouth and my theory on Jack 'O Laterns is that that the bigger openings the better. I think I made the mouth too big; I wish the candle wasn't so visible. Maybe pumpkin is not my media.
Carla did a nice job on getting the crazy sideways looking guy.