Day before turkey time and preperations are well underway. The bird, which we bought fresh today, weighs 14.88 pounds. We paid less than 5 bucks for it, about fiz-twiz actually. The coupon gave us the fresh bird for 29 cents a pound and it looks great. The brine is pretty much the same this year as it was last, this year featuring nectarines and lemons, with rosemary, thyme, and sage. There is a loaf of bread currently being produced for the stuffing and all the various ingredients are in place. I am gonna get up tomorrow around 11 maybe, maybe a teense earlier, and put the turkey-bird in the roasty-mc-roast pan so it can cook during the foozball game. Its gonna be tough to determine exactly towards who and when the boos will occur during the T-day brawl between two of the most evil franchises in sports history: Bears and Cowboys.
I fucking love Thanksgiving. I love it so much, without question my favorite holiday. The reasons for this are manifest, its all about cooking, eating, and football. There is no pressure involved in gifts or trees or decorations. You buy some food, you cook some food, you eat and drink all day. Its just fabulous, completely fabulous. Now, I am open to other people liking other holidays better, but what I refuse to tolerate is the hating on Thanksgiving which is so prevalent amongst the hippy crowd these days.
Look, you can be all vegheady and shit if you want, your loss. But don't give me the "turkey genocide" biznuts, you can imagine my feelings about it. I won't go into it today. Waste an oppotunity to cook up an entire bird if you want, I will feast on everything this 15 pound gobbler has to offer.
More relevantly are those political objections to the holiday. Look, feel free to hate on Columbus day for the destruction of Native Americans, Columbus was apparently a dick. Hate on Valentine's Day because its commercial. Whatev. But look, Thanksgiving is not a celebration of arrival in this country, its not a celebration of "discovery." Its a celebration of giving fucking thanks. Yes, that originated in the context of the "pilgrims" but could have well just originated last week in my basement. The point of the holiday is to recognize the wonderful things in your life that the daily shitfucking sort of overshadows. If you let the fact that certain holidays have their origins during periods of quesionable history ruin them for you, you'll pretty much not enjoy your life so much.
Not to mention that just because something is associated with people that did some shitty stuff doesn't mean we should abandon the good things we have as a result. Should we abandon all the medical discoveries that are direct results of experiments done during the holocaust? Not giving up a large part of contemporary medical science doesn't consitute endorsement of those events. Isn't even living in this geographic space a direct result of the same occupation that resulted in the destruction of Native populations? Again, that is not to say that what was done is in anyway acceptable, obviously it wasn't. But if following in any of those traditions is a problem, give me a call from the other side of the Atlantic (or wherever you may be from) and we can talk. If you do this holiday correctly it should not be in any way offensive. Much to the contrary, it should be observant of all sorts of historical injustices, explicitly related and otherwise. Anyway, thats my pointless and not very articulate rant. I fucking love thanksgiving.
As a couple of more relevant notes. First save-israel.org is a porn site? Seems like an odd domain name to select for that purpose, but I'm not the one with the advertising degree from Stanfod, what would I know. It even seems to feature a "free ass ezine" which is pretty awesome if you ask me. I haven't read it, but I did have to make a zine for AP Composition in high school, so I think I have a good idea what is inside. I wish I would have come up with the idea to theme it around "ass" rather than whatever the fuck I thought was cool in high school.
Second, I know I am a Favre-fanboy, I proclaim it loudly. Every week that he does something awesome or historic and the press spends all weekend talking about him, I wonder what football will be like without him, if I will ever think about another professional athlete like I think about Bret Favre. I don't know how his numbers will finish up, he may not overtake Marino in any of the big categories. Nonetheless, every passing day I find it harder to say that he isn't the best ever to play that position. Today's espn.com front page on Favre and Len Pasquerelli's article spurred this specific mention. Maybe he will only finish with one Super Bowl, we'll see what I have to say about him when its all over, but I think thats still a ways off.
So I intended to post this last night, but its obviously Thanksgiving now, so I might as well add a brief passage before I do so. We made dinner today and it was indeed quite awesome, despite the complete lack of adequate kitchen space. My turkey was incredibly delicious and is pictured, both pre and post roasting, on the moblog.I really don't think there is a question that it is the best turkey I have ever fabricated. It was incredibly moist, the brine set exactly how I wanted it. I also managed to roast it a little slower than usual and by alternately tenting and untenting the breast while keeping the thighs covered everything hit 168 exactly at the point the exterior was dead on. I also made a stuffing, built upon a homemade loaf of bread, a cup or so of crushed toasted walnuts, about a pound of parsley-pork sausage, some onions and celery sauted with butter and garlic. I would have spiced it up to the trinity (i.e. add green bell peppers) but Katie votes neg. The stuffing was packed pretty tight so it was perfectly crisp on the outside and just the right level of gooey in the middle. Katie did the potatoes and corn, which were wonderful as always. She also made her classic "lionheart dinner rolls" which were divine and will serve as the rock upon which I shall build my turkey sandwiches for days to come. We have a full 2 dozen and they are a perfect set, one pan is light and airy, the other a golden brown leaning towards Amber, like they are pre-toasted with a fluffy interior that screams for a pat of butter.
My gravy really may have matched up with the turkey bird, caue it was great. I had read a couple articles on gravy recently and watched AB's sauce making show on meat gravies, so I was well prepped. I cooked the roux a little longer than usual and altered the proportions based on a suggestion by Cooking Club Magazine so that there was a bit mroe fat. I also boiled the turkey fat on its own for a minute, letting the brown-bits of goodness beome fully deliciosified before any flour went in the pan. I also took AB's advice and thinned the gravy just moments before serving, so it would remain at approximately the consistency I wanted it. I think Katie's greatest accomplishment for the day, besides looking simply radiant, is yet to come as we have not tasted the pecan pie which is cooling atop the kitchen counters as I type. We got some whipped cream ready to whip and oooh baby are we gonna continue the feast.
While technically this was Katie and my second Thanksgiving together as a couple, it was our first Thanksgving as a married couple, so we got to break out our wedding china. It was the first time for that and they really are quite pretty. We had the gravy bowl, plates, waterford glasses, etc. While I miss all our family and friends, there is always something fun about spending a holiday wrapped up at home with my wife. Anyway, I will let you all get back to your leftovers, pies, and t-day nights. I have had a pretty fantastic year and have alot to be thankful for, I hope the same is true and will be ever more so for you and yours.
Peace,
MB-K
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