Thanksgiving is a serious deal in our family. A couple weeks ago we figured out that half-Thanksgiving is on 5/22/2012 and decided we should do a turkey feast to celebrate. Back in January Ted did a smoked turkey and people fell in love. But in talking about tradition, Ted hasn't seemed ready to switch things up in November and trade the oven method for the smoker method when it comes to the bird.
It was decided that at half-Thanksgiving we could do the smoked version and at Thanksgiving we (and by we I mean Ted, our excellent cook) would keep with the also-delicious oven action. Awesome! Thanksgiving twice a year!!!
So when the head-count email came around on Monday and stated that Mark would be in town and a smoked turkey was on the menu, I was overtaken by the sense that I am a lucky, lucky lady. Thanksgiving three times a year!!!
Turns out in addition to Mark, who has been at school in Eugene and only been able to make a couple family dinners, we also had Steve and Walker join us for their first Wednesday night feast. Walker is about the cutest two-and-a-half-year-old around. When I showed up he was rocking corduroy Toms and a couple strands of golden mardi gras beads he found somewhere in Ted and Johnnie's house earlier that day.
Ted and Grandpa were on kid duty all afternoon and it sounded like they had quite the time throwing rocks into Green Lake, chasing ducks and doing other dude things. Walker knows how to work a room and added a fun vibe to the evening's affairs.
In addition to cooking, Ted was also making drinks and there were lots of options on the table. I started with a classic Rapture Hooch Gimlet and followed that with my new favorite drink, the Ginger Hooch Lemon Drop. YUM.
As Ted sliced up the turkey he had brined for a day and smoked for six hours, we took everything else to the table and got situated. Chairs were filled by Grandpa, Mark, Jessie, Steve, Walker, Eddie, Ted and me. Plates were filled by smoked turkey (lots of dark meat in my case), sauteed cabbage in butter, brown rice, baguette and green salad.
Everything was delicious! And the glass (or two) of robust red wine didn't hurt, either. Eddie and I got into a good conversation about traveling in Arizona with the intention of seeing the wildflowers in bloom. I think we are all in desperate need of spring weather right now. 80 degrees in Chicago yesterday? Something strange is going on...
Jessie made us another great dessert that she was a little apprehensive about. We've got some dietary restrictions in the bunch - gluten, dairy - and she accommodated until we put a scoop of ice cream on top. She made us a restriction-friendly pumpkin cheesecake! It looked beautiful and tasted really good, even though it was made with tofu and no cream cheese. I think she could have sold it as regular cheesecake and gotten away with it. No one was complaining; we were too busy licking our plates.
And the surprise of the night? I remembered my camera! But I haven't uploaded pics yet, so you are just going to have to wait to see the mouth-watering, golden-brown smoked turkey until tonight when I have a chance to post them!
And now I'm going to eat some leftovers.
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