This Reminds Me

Archive for October 19th, 2009

Keith wanted to try an all-day turkey smoking on his Egg, so we did a “dry run” of Thanksgiving tonight.

The turkey – brined for 24 hours – was anything but dry.  Keith boiled Kosher salt, sugar, allspice, cloves, peppercorns and onions in water, plus added herbs from his garden-  rosemary, sage, thyme and oregano – to complete the brine.  That’s butter dotting the skin to give it that lovely golden glow.

This fragrant still-life is entitled, “View of Turkey Through an Egg Vent Hole.”  I keep telling the girls – Marry a man who can cook!

A-well-a Everybody’s Heard About the Bird…but those onions are m-i-n-e.  Forget flowers or chocolates.  Keith romances me with extra onions any time he grills or Eggs meat.   The way to my heart is strewn with 1016′s.

Our favorite Julia Child quote:  “The food was just lovely.  You could tell someone’s hands had been all over it.”

Turkey gravy, made with those luscious drippings, which Hannah described as, “All my hopes and dreams in a pan.”

If you ever suspect I’m dead, wave a serving spoon of Spinach Madeline under my nose.  No response?  Dig a hole.  Judy’s slightly-spicy creamed spinach recipe is an absolute family favorite.   Well, except for Julia – who suffers through the one bite she must ingest.  Here’s the recipe – I’ve never served it or given the recipe to anyone who didn’t rave about it.  Rachel, Lois and Hannah stand at the counter with crackers when we prepare it, eager to scoop any time I’m not looking. I leave plenty clinging to the sides of the huge mixing bowl for my “laborers” to enjoy.

Some of my best recipes are from my sister Judy – and the very, very best ones are given over the phone beginning “Well, I don’t really have a written recipe for that.  I just sort of start with….”

Dinner time!  Monday night is almost always tacos, hamburger stroganoff, red beans and rice, or spaghetti – so turkey, mashed potatoes and Spinach Madeline was really uptown.  Keith built our kitchen table, BTW, about 15 years ago from the red oak floorboards of a friend’s sagging tear-down house.    For Thanksgiving, we break out the china, plate chargers, cloth napkins, etc. but antique Fiestaware (which I bought at garage sales when it was cheap, believe it or not) and Costco paper napkins are in use every day.

In a couple of weeks, I’ll call Lackland Air Force Base and reserve our two airmen trainees for Thanksgiving day, as will our good friends John & Linda, with whom we’ve shared Thanksgiving for several years.   Keith and I will start compiling the menu, and dropping grocery lists into Excel by day/store.  I’ll look around with dismay – figure out how much of the house we have to shovel out – and sigh deeply every evening.

But you know – we do have a house to shovel – and friends – and nearby grocery stores – and jobs so we can shop in them – and a family that is my heart clustered at Keith’s hand-crafted kitchen table.  So I will rinse the plates tonight, and repeat next month.

Because I’m already thankful.