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dr_phil_physics) wrote2012-11-23 04:22 pm
dr_phil_physics) wrote2012-11-23 04:22 pm
Entry tags:
Alt Thanksgiving
The New Usual
We used to do our Thanksgiving dinner as we had grown up -- big meal on Thursday. But for a long time we've moved the cooking to Friday or Saturday, and chosen to go to the movies on Thanksgiving Day itself.
This year we got to the movies on Wednesday, so decided to stay home for a change. A lazy, warming and partly sunny day with temps near 60°F. Used the TV remote's Jump button to flip between the NFL games and a 13-hour Castle marathon on TNT. We are way behind on that series, as we'd only seen a few Season 1 episodes and then had conflicts at that time slot. Wendy would've approved -- she adored the show and we had fun.
The Thanksgiving Word of the Day is Spatchcocking
We didn't spatchcock a turkey, but it came up with our research on Alton Brown's site.
Actually what Mrs. Dr. Phil was looking up was how to brine a turkey. We've heard about good results from people who had brined their turkey before roasting, both in terms of flavors and keeping it moist. Alas, we realized that while our big canning kettle was probably big enough to immerse a turkey, we didn't have a cold place to store while brining, so it wasn't worth it to unearth the canning kettle from a packing box, which we haven't used in probably 25 years.
Instead, I pointed out that since we prefer dark meat, why didn't we just see if we could buy drumsticks and thighs and brine those? We ended up with a couple of turkey wings and some six turkey thighs -- those drumsticks are too full of tendons to be as much fun as thighs. The cook made half a batch of the brine, which was split between our Revereware stockpot and a similar sized pressure cooker, both of which easily fit in a bed of ice in our big cooler.
For cooking, one group of thighs went into a roasting pan filled with stuffing, the other thighs and the wings went onto a Revereware roasting pan with some chicken broth in the pan below so that the drippings would make gravy. Then 70 minutes or so in the oven.
Brilliant
The brined turkey thighs on a bed of stuffing fresh out of the oven. (Click on photo for larger.)
Our Thanksgiving spread of turkey, stuffing, root vegetables and two kinds of cranberries. (Click on photo for larger.)
Thankful for Mrs. Dr. Phil who built this feast for us. (And yummy leftovers for days to come!) (Click on photo for larger.)
And of course there's pie. Pumpkin pie. (Click on photo for larger.)
The Day After
We'd planned on going back out to the movies to see Lincoln today, but the cold front roared through last night and so we had high winds and snows today. Nothing that was going to likely stick, but with the temp falling to around freezing and all those silly people running out to the so-called Black Friday shopping, we didn't need to involve ourselves with their inabilities to remember how to drive on slippery roads.
Instead, a year after Mrs. Dr. Phil got a Kindle Fire, we decided to abandon Hulu+ and reactivate our Netflix account as a streaming account and connect up with out Internet/WiFi enabled Blu-Ray player. MUCH, much easier to negotiate and better response. More on Netflix streaming anon.
Dr. Phil
We used to do our Thanksgiving dinner as we had grown up -- big meal on Thursday. But for a long time we've moved the cooking to Friday or Saturday, and chosen to go to the movies on Thanksgiving Day itself.
This year we got to the movies on Wednesday, so decided to stay home for a change. A lazy, warming and partly sunny day with temps near 60°F. Used the TV remote's Jump button to flip between the NFL games and a 13-hour Castle marathon on TNT. We are way behind on that series, as we'd only seen a few Season 1 episodes and then had conflicts at that time slot. Wendy would've approved -- she adored the show and we had fun.
The Thanksgiving Word of the Day is Spatchcocking
We didn't spatchcock a turkey, but it came up with our research on Alton Brown's site.
Actually what Mrs. Dr. Phil was looking up was how to brine a turkey. We've heard about good results from people who had brined their turkey before roasting, both in terms of flavors and keeping it moist. Alas, we realized that while our big canning kettle was probably big enough to immerse a turkey, we didn't have a cold place to store while brining, so it wasn't worth it to unearth the canning kettle from a packing box, which we haven't used in probably 25 years.
Instead, I pointed out that since we prefer dark meat, why didn't we just see if we could buy drumsticks and thighs and brine those? We ended up with a couple of turkey wings and some six turkey thighs -- those drumsticks are too full of tendons to be as much fun as thighs. The cook made half a batch of the brine, which was split between our Revereware stockpot and a similar sized pressure cooker, both of which easily fit in a bed of ice in our big cooler.
For cooking, one group of thighs went into a roasting pan filled with stuffing, the other thighs and the wings went onto a Revereware roasting pan with some chicken broth in the pan below so that the drippings would make gravy. Then 70 minutes or so in the oven.
Brilliant
The brined turkey thighs on a bed of stuffing fresh out of the oven. (Click on photo for larger.)
Our Thanksgiving spread of turkey, stuffing, root vegetables and two kinds of cranberries. (Click on photo for larger.)
Thankful for Mrs. Dr. Phil who built this feast for us. (And yummy leftovers for days to come!) (Click on photo for larger.)
And of course there's pie. Pumpkin pie. (Click on photo for larger.)
The Day After
We'd planned on going back out to the movies to see Lincoln today, but the cold front roared through last night and so we had high winds and snows today. Nothing that was going to likely stick, but with the temp falling to around freezing and all those silly people running out to the so-called Black Friday shopping, we didn't need to involve ourselves with their inabilities to remember how to drive on slippery roads.
Instead, a year after Mrs. Dr. Phil got a Kindle Fire, we decided to abandon Hulu+ and reactivate our Netflix account as a streaming account and connect up with out Internet/WiFi enabled Blu-Ray player. MUCH, much easier to negotiate and better response. More on Netflix streaming anon.
Dr. Phil