217 - Happy Turkey Day

This was our first Thanksgiving in Tennessee. Also a few more firsts... first time I made cranberry relish, dressing, giblet gravy or deviled eggs or pecan pie. First time Mike fried a turkey. We had ourselves a feast and it's a good thing it came out like it did because we'll be eating it for the rest of the month... I also made rolls, horseradish escalloped potatoes and a green bean casserole. Forgot about the corn casserole... oh well. I can make it later. Probably for the best.

Fried turkey is delicious. We injected it with a marinade that gave the meat good flavor, but the crispy skin is what we really love. The turkey neck is like a rolled up version of fried catfish tails, I have a feeling if mom gets ahold of one we'll be fighting over it. We didn't quite get enough peanut oil, so I consulted the internet and we added some grapeseed oil and crisco to supplement since they have flashpoints over 325... still wasn't quite enough so Mike had to ladle oil over the tippy top of the bird. He made it work.

Last night it got down to 14 dgrees... or at least at 1:27 am it was 14 degrees. I did see it down to 13 at one point.

The kittens are in the holiday mood.

Bootsie has a huge back paw. He's like Hellboy the Kitten. (no, not really, it's the camera angle) He also has a giant mutant ear.

Our feast (dinner version...)

The bird is the word.

Love these potatoes... I cooked them all the way through this time and boy does it make a difference, hahaha. But seriously... they're amazing.

And now I get the rest of the week to relax and not have to be in the kitchen all day. Overall today wasn't bad because I did a lot of prep work the day before. And we didn't have a schedule so we grazed throughout the day and I liked it better than sitting down and attempting to stuff my face with everything all at once or get flustered trying to get everything into the oven at the same time and on the table by a certain time. And - we certainly didn't starve. I think that may become tradition at our house.

So it's time to wind down for the evening and let the tryptophan do it's job... zzzzz... Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

216 - Snowin' out yonder

It snowed.

To celebrate, we went to Walmart to do our final pre-Thanksgiving shopping trip because I DO NOT want to go to Walmart any closer to Thanksgiving than this. As it was, I was ready to smack a few people. They are just clueless... standing in the middle of an aisle so you can't go anywhere... not looking where they're going... standing in the middle of an aisle so you can't go anywhere...

The city gave turkeys to the volunteer fire department so we just needed the sides (and groceries for the rest of the week)... we'll be eating leftovers for months but that's okay. I'm planning to try my hand at cornbread dressing (mom may be getting a call if I get stumped but I think I've got it), maybe some noodles, green bean casserole, horseradish scalloped potatoes (which may be made at another time), corn casserole, rolls, cranberry relish and chocolate bourbon pecan pie for dessert. I'm full just thinking about it... (and tired).

Since we have a turkey, we needed a turkey fryer. That's the way Mike's family does turkey, so we're doing it that way too (yes, he knows not to put the frozen turkey into the hot oil and we won't be doing it on the deck). I have to admit... I'm not much of a turkey eater, but the crispy pieces are delicious. We're going to experiment with injections and see what we can do to make it extremely delicious. Finding a turkey fryer was a journey in and of itself... crappy one at Walmart, none at Ace until Black Friday (makes no sense), crappy one at Fred's, and too late to order from Amazon. Then I saw that Sam's had them, so we made a trip to Cookeville to get one. We can also use it to boil crawfish and fry catfish (so now that I have mom's attention.... hahaha).

It's supposed to be pretty cold this week, highs in the low 40's and the teens at night but I don't know if we'll get more snow. The snow we got was enough to put a light layer of ice on my hood and make the yard slushy - but hey - those boots I bought a couple of years ago are REALLY coming in handy, as is all my cold weather clothing. Bo helps too, he is a snuggler.

Pic of the snow on my car before we left for WM, probably about half again that much was piling up on people's cars in the lot... not a lot, but it's snow and I'm sure there's more to come.

So today I am doing winter car maintenance, removing dead leaves from under the hood and getting washer fluid for icy weather. Got another ice scraper because I couldn't find the old one, then Mike showed me where the old one was... oh well, redundancy isn't a bad thing.

Today we're smoking again. Beef ribs, pork ribs and a chicken. It's 28 degrees out... we're a little nutty, but it's soooooooo good. Gonna go make some tater salad and start doing some prep for tomorrow.

But first, more pics.

Icicles on the rock wall on the way to Walmart.

Front of the turkey injector syringe package. Just looks dirty.

Where there's smoke, there's ribs... mmmm... can't wait to eat them tonight. It smells soooooooo good.