The first weekend in December turned into Merry Thanksgiving weekend. Since David IV was working on Thanksgiving day he decided to come home the next weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving. And since he will be working on Christmas eve we decided to have a little Christmas too.
Lately a lot of conversations with family and friends have centered around how to do the holidays. It's just a plain honest fact that every year in everyone's life some things change and we are all challenged to figure out how to adjust holiday celebrations. Some times the changes are bigger than others.
The trick is to try and focus on what really makes the celebration a celebration instead of a bigtime headache (or worse a bigtime heartache). Being rigid about the details of how things are done is the best way to ruin any kind of celebration. The best thing is to try and assess what will bring the most joy to the most people and then assess what is actually possible to accomplish.
Music once again saved me because I was really struggling with how to put a little Thanksgiving and Christmas together in one weekend.
Basketball was involved as well. After playing away for 7 games, GWU had two home games. One of the games was against UNC-Asheville and Jay knew that Bruce Hornsby's son happens to play for UNC-A. Jay and I were talking about that and I mentioned one of my favorite Hornsby song lyrics - "that's just the way it is. Some things will never change."
And that's when it hit me that I needed to focus on what HAS NOT changed instead of what HAS changed during the past year. What HAS changed most is David IV's location and schedule. There are a variety of other changes just as anyone should expect in a years time.
That's just the way it is. Or as PawPaw used to say, "That's the way it tiz and it can't be no tizzer."
What HAS NOT changed is that we still want to celebrate Thankfulness. And Love. And Hope. And Faith. And Family. And of course - food.
So we put up the Christmas decorations a little earlier than usual and just as David IV and I were putting the last lights on the tree - first Rhett and then KC appeared with big smiles at the front door. It was a Friday morning but it felt like a Christmas eve. And it's amazing how much faster a tree gets decorated with eight hands working together.
Later on that day a few people dropped by fairly spontaneously to visit David and then some music broke out. Jeff blew us away with his beautiful rendition of Mary Did You Know? And David Martin blew us away playing Sweet Hour of Prayer. On a saw. I teased him asking if it was a band saw. And we threw in a crazy version of Twelve Days of Christmas which has been a family tradition for a long time. As always, Mama and Daddy knew their part - A Partridge in a Pear Tree. The rest of us kind of winged it.
We had brined a turkey and made sage dressing again because David IV said sage dressing was the food he missed most on Thanksgiving Day. And we had a few of his other favorite things like ribs, tenderloin, cream cheese and olives. And rotel dip. I even pulled out Aunt Burnette's punch bowl to make it feel like Christmas.
During the whole weekend I was walking around the house trying to remember if it was Christmas or Thanksgiving and then I thought about Bruce Hornsby and Paw Paw and others near and far and I was at peace. Because while change is gonna come, there are some things that will never change. And it really is best to focus on that. Peace and Love and Goodwill toward men. Merry Thanksgiving to all!
BRINING TURKEY
Jamey and David III had collaborated on our brined and smoked Thanksgiving turkey and it was so good we decided to do it again so David could enjoy it on Merry Thanksgiving weekend.
There are plenty of brining recipes out there. Susan and Thomas said Gene brined their Thanksgiving turkey in a cooler with a brine mix that looked like it was from the 1800s and it turned out wonderful too.
Jamey found this recipe on Epicureous.com and being an intuitive cook like a lot of us, he doesn't measure anything or follow the directions exactly. I did look up brining and learned that the main thing is the sugar, salt and water which actually change the molecular structure of the meat to make it more juicy and tender.
Water
2 Large Onions - Peeled and Quartered
2 cups peeled and chopped Fresh Ginger
1 1/2 cups Dark Brown Sugar
Coarse Salt
8 Bay Leaves
Star Anise - 8 whole ones if you can find them. If not use Anise seeds
Whole Black Peppercorns - crushed with the back of a knife
A whole orange quartered (to put into turkey cavity before cooking)
Mix everything except the orange together in a large pot with several quarts of water. Stir over medium heat until spices are completely dissolved. Cool and pour into a five gallon bucket. Add a little ice if needed and then a little more water. Put thawed turkey in the brine with the cavity up so it will fill with brine. Cover tightly and put in the refrigerator for a couple of days. You can brine in a large cooler if you don't have enough fridge space. You can turn it a few times during the brining process or not. Jamey turned the first one we cooked but I didn't turn this one because I didn't have time and nobody could tell any difference.
When ready to cook, remove turkey from brine and place a quartered orange into the turkey cavity.
David smoked this turkey in the big cooker with hickory wood at low heat for about 7 hours. It was so flavorful, tender and juicy. We haven't tried a brined turkey in the oven yet, but everyone who does says it turns out great that way too. Generally a turkey should be cooked to an internal temperature of 180 degrees.
Brining a turkey is a winner. I love a new tradition.
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