Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you all a very happy Thanksgiving!  Today I am thankful for:

• Family to eat with and share holiday hijinx all weekend long.
• A big helper boy in the kitchen and another little BOY on the way.
• This blog for storing my Bipartisan Sweet Potato recipe all year long.   ‘Bout to go make a double batch.

Gobble gobble!

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Its Turkey Time

On Friday afternoon I ran into a friend in the grocery store and she said she was doing her Thanksgiving meal shopping.  First I was stunned at her organizational skills that she would shop that far out.  But then I was shocked by the fact that she really isn’t shopping that far out!

Public Service Announcement: THANKSGIVING IS THIS THURSDAY, PEOPLE!

Bordeaux Family Thanksgiving 2012 – There are 42 of us….and 2 dogs, in case you were wondering!

The past few years we’ve headed to Bladenborough, North Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with Keith’s grandma and extended family.  It’s quite a huge crowd and so we do things pot-luck style, so I come out easy in the cooking department.  But I know that some of you out there are feverishly trying to figure out how to cook that turkey before the in-laws and various extended family members start dropping in, so I thought I’d give ya’ll some pointers.  And by “thought I’d give ya’ll some pointers” I mean, “I called my dad and my brother and they had some great tips to pass along.”  Full disclosure: I’ve never actually cooked a turkey.  But when I do….I will absolutely follow this primer that I’ve put together for you below.   I’ve eaten plenty of them cooked by the dynamic duo of Mason Daniel and Mason Daniel Jr. and I can attest to the fact that they are mmm, mmm, goooood.  “Cooking a turkey” in our house means we fry it or we smoke it….and I’ve given you instructions for both below.  If you’re wanting to do something that involved the oven…well…..I’m sure there are plenty of instructions out there for you….just not on this blog.

How to Cook The Perfect Turkey According to The Mason(s) Daniel

Part One: How to Fry a Turkey

Frying a turkey is great if you’re having to cook for a crowd or don’t have a whole lot of time.  It can also be a super risky way to go though if you don’t know what you’re doing.  Here are some tips for staying safe and turning out a tasty bird.

1. Turkey Fryer – Make sure you use a turkey fryer such as this one.  You can easily find them on Amazon.com, at Home Deport or Walmart or at an outdoor store.
2. Peanut Oil – Use 100% peanut oil. Other oils, even blends, have a much lower flash point or ignition temperature and will catch fire.
3. Thaw Your Bird -MAKE SURE THE BIRD IS COMPLETELY THAWED OUT AND YOU HAVE DRYED THE BIRD OF ALL WATER! Sorry for yelling but we don’t want oil boiling over and catching the whole fryer on fire.  Turkeys not thawed all the way through can explode!
4. Cook Outdoors – Set your fryer outside away from the house, preferably out of the wind. DO NOT set up in your kitchen or your garage.  A driveway or similar away-from-the-house location is ideal.(My brother is a firefighter, so he’s very serious about this one. He’s seen lots of turkey-frying-gone-bad scenarios.
5. Save the Neck Tag & Empty Out Your Bird- Be sure to take out all contents from the bird such as giblets, neck etc. and save the tag from your bird, it has the weight of the bird.
6. 4 Minutes Per Pound – is the magic number. Be sure to cook your bird to that weight. ex. turkey weighs 18 lbs. 18 lbs x 4 minutes per =72 minutes. no more or less for a perfect bird that is done down to the bone.
7. Cook at 325 degrees – it’s the magic number when frying. Most every restaurant (ie. a famous fast-food-chicken place) cooks their chicken at 325.
8. Babysit Your Bird – Frying turkeys is like babysitting except you are also babysitting a stopwatch. You need to keep a constant watch on your temperature and your time.One common mistake people make when frying a turkey is in the initial dipping their turkey into the fryer, and that is they have the temp of the oil right at 325 degrees. well the problem is even though the turkey is thawed and dried it is still cold and when dipped will drop your oil temp too low to cook the you spend all this time ramping up your oil to compensate. The better solution is to INITIALLY get your temp up to about 400 degrees. Then set your turkey down in the oil,it will usually drop your temp down to guess what… 325 degrees…perfect! When removing the turkey let it drain over the oil pot until you see no more oil dripping, then carve and enjoy.
9. Turn Off The Gas – Unless you have additional birds to fry….turn that gas off!  My brother and his firefighters answer alot of calls for cooker fires because people go inside to eat and forget to turn the fryer off!

Part Two: How to Smoke a Turkey

Smoking a turkey is a whole different animal all together because with smoking, your pretty much duplicating what your doing in the oven but with smoke.  The steps outlined below also work really well for chickens, so you can smoke poultry all year long!

1. Outdoor Smoker – All the men in my family (dad, both brothers, husband) have some version of this outdoor smoker and it’s served them well.  In fact, my dad has two of them so he can do multiple birds at one time.
2. Beer Can Stand– Something like one of these.…or my brother says you can find them at Publix next the tongs/grill brushes etc.
3. Use 1 CAN of beer – Cut the top of a beer can out with can opener and pour out 1/2 of the beer, add whatever spices you would like to use (ie. minced garlic onions etc.) into the beer can.  Put it in the beer can stand and set the turkey on top of it.
4. Set the smoker to 225 degrees! – Smoke at 225degrees until the internal temp is at least a 175 to 180 degrees. Keith uses this great remote controlled grill thermometer that might be something you’d want to consider.
5. Cook for 6 to 7 hours – smokers differ, and temperature is important, but this is a good estimation.
6. Babysit Your Bird – Just like with frying, you’ll want to babysit closely to keep an eye on temperature, fire, amount of water in the pan, etc.   Smoking takes a lot longer and has to be babysat to ensure you keep that 225 degree temp 6 to 7 hours should do it but smokers differ.

The great part about smoking or frying a bird is that they keep well.  Growing up my dad would smoke several chickens at once…he’d spend all Saturday in the driveway cooking.  We’d eat one for dinner and nibble off the leftovers all week.  But the others would go in the freezer and we’d take them out as we needed them.  Also, further proof that smoking poultry runs in the family….here is my other brother and his son making a beer-can chicken.

My brother Michael and his son Drew smoking a beer can chicken.

And if cooking a turkey isn’t in your plans…well…..maybe a little re-run of  “The One With All The Thanksgivings” is.  You’re welcome.

Don’t you just LOVE classic Friends?

Foto Friday – Found It!

Back in the early days of this co-blogging adventure, every Friday we would share a photo of the two of us from one of our many joint adventures.  We kept that up for 30 weeks or so before exhausting the supply of “good ones”.  I covered our 9th grade year book already, but just 10th grade was lost until last weekend.  Joyous occasion!

In truth I think Bethany and I enjoy these posts more than anyone else, and I know she has had a really wild ride these last few weeks, so B – hope this makes your Friday better!

So, back in 1998, Bethany and I spent every morning in homeroom listening to announcements over the PA system.  Our names were actually in alphabetical order in both 9th and 10th.

Okay this year book was whacked, as you can see.  Bethany’s last name got an extra “s” added to it.  My hyphen is MIA.  And if you actually knew the rest of those people, you would see how terribly wrong this all is.  In fact, we’re lucky our names are even in the proximity of our photos.  There’s one guy in there who wasn’t even in our grade!

Big news! Bethany got her flowing locks chopped at some point that year.  Look how cute:

 

Meanwhile, my hair got harder and harder to manage.  Here we are in Drum Line and Jazz Band, respectively.

I really did kinda love band, although you may not be able to tell from this photo.

Bethany was not only cute, she was incredibly skinny, and also in the coolest extracurricular activity there was:  Show Choir. You think I’m kidding but I’m not.  In our weird high school, the ‘glee’ kids were the ones dumping the proverbial slushies on everyone else. Not Bethany, mind you.  She was just there because she could sing and dance and be cute all at the same time.

Look! She was so skinny, they put her at the top of the pyramid in the school musical!  This was a production of ‘Bye Bye Birdie,’ of which I have no recollection.

And here’s the only significant activity we both participated in that year: OM.  I would also like to point out that while we did come in 2nd place at State Finals, it was 2nd out of two.  Thank you very much.

Nice to see you, 10th grade!  Lots of fun times but I wouldn’t do it again for a gazillion bucks.

Addendum: Oh my stars. Proof that you really can find almost anything on youtube.

An Intentional Kid Friendly Advent Plan

Y’all, I’ll be honest.  I’m feeling pretty proud of myself for getting this done(ish) before December 1.  I had the idea last year on, like, 12/3 and it was just didn’t happen.  But that’s probably for the better, Ransom will “get it” much more this year than he would have last year.  And I’m posting it today, rather than in December, in case you also need a reminder to get on ‘that thing’ you meant to do last year but didn’t get around to it.  December is so busy that a little advance preparation is always useful.

For our Christmas season, I wanted to do something to help Ransom understand better what Christmas is.. what we are celebrating.. the meaning behind the gift giving.  My very toy-centric kiddo has a firm grasp on Santa Claus that he has developed all on his own, and he can answer simple questions like “Who’s birthday are we celebrating?” “Who was Jesus’s mother?” But that’s about the extent of it.  And honestly, we adults get fairly lost in the commercialized holiday madness, do we not?

Still, we are a family of Christians and I thought it would be great to try to shift the focus from Mr. Kringle in an intentional way that fits into a 3-year-old’s world.  My idea sprung from the Advent tradition of counting the days from 12/1 to 12/24, opening a small gift or candy on each one.  I like the counting of the days – the building anticipation of Christ’s arrival.  But instead of candy, the focus will be on the Christmas story and all the different players on the scene.

I hit up Ebay for a fairly complex nativity set.  With a little creativity, I stretched the set into 24 different “pieces”.  We’re going to open one of the nativity pieces each day, loosely in order of their arrival in the Christmas story.  We’ll start with the stable on 12/1, then the stable’s farm animal residents, then the inn keeper, Joseph, Mary, the manger, a big shiny star, an angel or two, shepherds, the three kings of Orient, and then finally Baby Jesus himself on Christmas Eve.  Ransom will open the gift every night at dinner and we’ll discuss who each character is and that part of the Christmas story.

I set out for a Fontanini-knock-off vein with colorful but realistic plastic figures.  There are a lot of options out there, but the nativity  I ended up with is actually a Playmobil set.  Doesn’t get more kid-friendly than that!  Its been in production for a number of years and still is.  This keeps the price fairly reasonable – mine was $30 for everything with shipping and I’ve seen them go for less.  Then we supplemented with a couple of horses and a “shepherd” from August’s childhood toy stash to get us up to the 24 needed pieces.  And a random Christmas ornament to be the star.  I have plans to make a wooden manger, since the one that came with the set is just paperboard and will not likely survive the entire Advent season.

So, that’s what we’ll be doing to make this Christmas season a little bit special and keep our focus on the Christ child. What about you? Starting any new traditions?

The shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

Playing Possum

I’m not sure if its due to the fact that it’s gotten cold here pretty quickly in Nashville, or if it’s just the time of year, or all the construction going on in our neighborhood or what, but it’s safe to say there has been a bit of a varmint invasion in our area.  My hilarious friends Paige and MK have begun a “ministry for squirrels in need of a fresh start” and have relocated several bushy-tailed friends out of their yards.  The cashier in the Home Depot the other day mentioned he’d pulled two racoons out of his attic (shudder).  And then this past Sunday, we found a possum in our yard.

We knew that there were possums in the hood….we’d seen two baby ones hiding under the shed in the back yard last year, one up a tree in the alleyway behind the house, and then our friend John had caught one eating my tomatoes one night back when I was trying to grow a garden.  But all had been quiet on the o’possum front for a while, so we’d kind of forgotten about it.  And then on Sunday morning I was using the leaf blower to clean off our back deck and I saw some commotion in one of the bushes.  I assumed it was one of the chickens or Booger the cat, all of whom were roaming around while I fixed up the yard.  But then a second later I heard Keith yelling at me to come and see what he’d found and then I saw the unmistakeable skin tail and realized that he’d found an unwanted little creature lurking about.

Possibly the best part of the photo below is that I happened to be wearing a “Possum Town Marathon” t-shirt.  Mary-Hall and I are both from Columbus, Mississippi, dubbed “Possum Town” by Native Americans until it earned its current monkier in 1821.  There’s even an annual BBQ festival called the “Possum Town Pig Fest.”  Believe it or not, I grabbed this t-shirt out of my drawer that morning not knowing I’d come face to face with it’s namesake a few hours later.

Me with our catch.

What ensued was nothing short of the makings of a great “you might be a redneck if…..” joke.  When the little critter refused to scurry out the back gate that Keith had opened, an all out chase began.  After about 10 minutes, we were able to corner him until he ran into a cat-carrier that I had snatched out of the shed just in the nick of time.  We took a few photos of our friend and then relocated him a few miles down the road to a little-used historic marker with lots of bushes and hiding places.

“Well hello there!”  – Little critter hiding out in the cat carrier.

My friends were totally weird-ed out by this story.  “Possums creep me out,” MK texted me followed quickly by Mary-Hall with the exact same text.  (seriously.) But not me.  I have a bit of a possum affinity stemming back to when I was five years old and we found “Dusty” in our garage one chilly morning.  His momma had met with an unfortunate end and this tiny critter was huddled next to the warmth of a large appliance.  My mom had a soft spot for animals so we took this little guy in without a second thought.  He lived with us for about a month or so until he was big enough to have a good shot at making it on his own in the woods next to our house.

Bethany and Dusty the Possum – November 1987

Dusty the Possum

Apparently things haven’t changed much since I was five…..my grown-up response to finding a critter in the backyard is to blog about it.  But as a kid I wrote a story about it.  The title was brilliant; “About a Possum We Have.”  And because my ability to spell did not match my ability to string words together, I dictated the whole thing to my mom who typed it out.  (Major mom points for that one.  Especially since that was in the pre-computer days and mom did the whole thing on her typewriter.)  I flipped through the pages to bring you a few quotes.  I’m pretty sure I was smarter at five than I am now.

“All possums have prehensile tails, like our possum’s.  Have you seen a monkey hang by its tail?  Well, possums can too, That is what “prehensile” means. His tail looks like skin; very little hair is on his tail.” (clearly mom had taken advantage of the situation to help me do a little research on possums and had explained the word “prehensile.”)

“We were also surprised when we looked in a book and found that possums have 50 teeth….” “We were really surprised because at his age he has teeth, and sharp ones too; whereas a human being baby his age would not…..”  “Now he is even crunching hard Cat Chow.  He eats it like squirrels eat acorns, holding the Cat Chow in his front paws.”

An illustration of “Dusty” from my story “About a Possum We Have.” Clearly my writing skills were more developed than my art skills.

Another illustration and part of the typed story, “About A Possum We Have.”

And because I totally couldn’t resist it, here are both photos taken exactly 28 years apart, side by side.  Pretty much I still look the same.

Bethany, a friend to possums: Then and Now: November 1987 and November 2013.

So there you have it.  Never a dull moment around here.  Anyone else have critters lurking in your yards?

Paleo and Modern Day Pumpkin Ice Cream

Today the pregnant lady wants to talk about ice cream, go figure.  Actually it was Bethany who started this with her post about fancy ice cream flavors last week.  I got to thinking about the eons of pumpkin puree in my freezer and just how it might make into a good ice cream.  And frankly, what this blog really needs is MORE pumpkin-related content.  1, 2, 3, 4, whee!  So first up I went with my standby B+J recipe, and then I decided to try a “paleo” variety too, just for kicks. Live on the edge, right?

Both are good.  You may be thinking, “ice cream?  Its cold outside!”.  But nay, my friend.  Ice cream makes an equally awesome dessert in cold weather as it does in the peak of summer.  If you don’t believe me, I dare you to try it.  🙂  And yet, who would eat pumpkin ice cream in the summer?  That just wouldn’t be right.  Seasonal ice cream flavors for the win.

So here are the two recipes.  Take your pick, they are similar… but different…

Modern Day (Sugar laden) Pumpkin Ice Cream

Pumpkin ice cream. If a caveman had access to this, I assure you, he’d eat some too…

• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg

Directions:

1. Whisk the eggs till your forearm hurts (2 min).
2. Whisk in the sugar.
3. Add the cream, milk, pumpkin, and spices.
4. Whisk some more.
5. Freeze according to your ice cream machine’s instructions.

Notes:

If you like pumpkin spice lattes, this recipe is your friend.  The nutmeg and cinnamon definitely dominate over the pumpkin here, in a good way.

Paleo Pumpkin Coconut Ice Cream

Paleo Pumpkin Ice Cream.

• 2 cans full fat coconut milk
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 can pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (is this paleo?  leave out if not)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg

Directions:

1. Mix it all together.
2. Whisk some.
3. Freeze according to your ice cream machine’s instructions.
4. Eat.

Notes:

I put ‘coconut’ in the title because there’s really no masking of the coconut flavor in here. Luckily, I love coconut.  Some paleo diet versions allow heavy cream, so if that’s your thing, then by all means sub it for the coconut milk.

This ice cream is great straight from the machine, so be prepared to serve it right away.  It freezes solid in the freezer, and develops just a hint of weird taste after thawing back out.

This being my first taste of paleo ice cream, I have to say, I’m intrigued.  I want to try a few more options, maybe include some eggs next time, and also rethink my old coconut rum recipe. I think the coconut milk would be a shining star in that mix.

S’mores

Last night Keith and I hosted a birthday party for two friends who just happen to have birthdays in the same week.  There was lots and lots of yummy food, tortellini soup, cupcakes, baked brie with honey and pecans, pulled pork BBQ…..the girls in charge of the menu went all out!  But one of the snacks was such a cute idea that I had to pass it along to you.

My sweet friend Holli had offered to bring stuff for s’mores, which in MY thought process means grabbing a box of graham crackers and a bag of marshmallows and a few Hershey’s bars at the checkout- line on my way to the party.  Holli however went all out.  She made individual s’mores “kits”  and put them all in a cute wicker basket to pass around the campfire.  Before she headed out the door, I made sure to secure permission to post her cute creations on the blog and she was gracious enough to let me!

What You’ll Need:

*1 bag/package of individually wrapped “fun size” Hershey’s candy bars

*1 box graham crackers

*1 bag jumbo marshmallows

*1 box NON-ZIPLOCKING, FOLD-TOP sandwich bags such as these.

*1 roll of baker’s string, ribbon or twine

*small paper tags such as these.

What To Do:

*in each sandwich bag, place 1 marshmallow, 1 individually wrapped chocolate bar, and 1/2 of a graham cracker.

*tie a short piece of string, twine or ribbon around the bag to seal it (probably about 6 inch lengths would work best)

*choose a number, monogram, or graphic to decorate the tags, then tie one on to the ribbon of each packet.

*place all the s’mores packets into a basket and serve around the campfire!

Because both the birthday boy and girl were turning 32, Holli chose to put the number 32 on each tag.  However, this would be a great way to customize the project to fit your own occasion.  You could easily use the initial of the birthday person, date (birthdate, due date, anniversary, etc.), some sort of cute picture (such as a pink or blue image for a baby shower), a holiday clip art, or even your favorite sports team logo for a fall tailgate!  The sky is totally the limit as far as labels are concerned.  And these cute favors are obviously adaptable to a variety of situations.

I hope you enjoy these around your next campfire as much as we did last night!  And speaking of campfires…..we have a guest blog in the works that might inspire you to put together some s’mores kits and head out to the woods!  Stay tuned!

Individual s’mores kits by Holli! So yummy and so cute!