Well, I had a wonderful Thanksgiving Week! I don't want to rub it in to anybody, but the weather around here has been absolutely wonderful. It's been in the mid 60's and sunny almost everyday for the past couple weeks. The surf has been pumping and the beaches have been beautiful. Justine and I have been keeping ourselves busy playing tennis, hiking, surfing, camping, cooking up gourmet turkey, and all around reveling in the beauty that is the Creation. We're looking forward to the upcoming month, as we have several rounds of friends visiting and we're planning trips to Bend, Oregon, Crater Lake, San Fransisco, and Santa Cruz...not to mention our usual day-trips to our favorite local beaches, coves and up into the redwoods to walk amongst giants.
Thanksgiving Day was great. It was our second Thanksgiving away from family, so it wasn't quite the shock as last year. We were able to celebrate the holiday with a couple of local friends, some house cats, and several tasty beers. Last year's turkey was good, but definitely the first turkey Justine and I had ever baked. This year, we did some research and I think we nailed a recipe down. Brining a turkey is certainly the way to go. We brined our turkey overnight in a crazy concoction we derived from a couple different recipes.
Turkey Brine
1 gallon veggie stock
3/4 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
allspice berries
aromatics (sage, basil, parley, any spices that smell good)
Boil all those ingredients down and cool them down. Put your turkey into a bucket. Pour the brine over the turkey, and then cover with super-icey water.
We brined our turkey and baked it with bacon on top for the first 40 minutes or so. It ended up delicious. I made all of the Caywood family standards; stuffing, mashed taters, corn casserole, and cranberries. Justine made some delicious broccoli casserole and some very tasty pies.
I'm enjoying establishing our own Turkey Day traditions, but I'm looking forward to next year. Hopefully we'll be back at home for the holidays and be able to enjoy a Hoosier style Thanksgiving.
On Friday, we spent the morning playing tennis and then went to the beach to surf off some turkey. Justine and I spent two or three hours surfing really good waves at Camel Rock, until the crowd took over and we moved down the beach. It's always annoying surfing with a crowd, especially a crowd of beginners/kooks. The waves were good, but not huge...which always brings out the crowds. Justine caught some really great waves early in the session and my last three waves of the day, were the best I've caught in months.
We managed to spend the rest of the holiday weekend going to the beach, playing tennis, and putting up Christmas lights. I have almost 25 strands adorning our old Victorian by now. My main problem is a lack of extension cords and outlets at this point. I am currently accepting donations...
More to come later, many adventures await us this week...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment