The turkey virgin diaries entry 3 - Thanksgiving Day.

It was finally here Thursday, the pressure was on, not only was it my first Thanksgiving ever where I was required to cook, but this was the first thing I've ever roasted.

To spare you more turkey washing pictures I'm just going to describe the process.
1 - take the Turkey out of the brine and rinse it off under cold running water with Justin helping out and commenting, "That smells like my kind of turkey."
2 - Pat the turkey dry (this makes complete sense this time, cant be cooking a wet bird)
3 - Baste the turkey (olive oil, butter, herbs/spices, garlic)

3 - Stuff the Turkey, a cornbread based stuffing, made from scratch with Kathleen's amazing secret family recipe that I've been privileged to see and use.

Cover exposed stuffing with foil, (I ended up making a foil tent)
Cook the turkey for 2 hours at 375'F (I think or it was 475'F)

Voila, it is ready, the juicy stuffing in the middle and the dried out baked stuffing on the outside, to make it look picture perfect and tasty crispy and juicy on the outside and moist on the inside.  The turkey was cooked breast side down to keep the breast juicy, which worked amazingly.

Just before the cooking process was over, I admitted defeat in the form of exhaustion, see the blog below for the sordid details that accompanied the turkey making process.

The turkey virgin diaries entry 3,1 - Thanksgiving Day.

I might have mislead you when I said 'sordid' but you're here now so you might as well read about my travails in the kitchen.

Its noon, time to begin Thanksgiving dinner making.  But before I launch into the details, I would like to point out that EVERYTHING was made from scratch (except where chicken broth was added)!

I made the butternut soup yesterday...
As you can see comparing these photos to the lack of those to follow, I was clearly a lot more relaxed and strategic about what I was doing.

I also made the cornbread on Wednesday, I figured it would need to be a little bit stale.  The making of cornbread from scratch was set in motion by the fact that I couldn't find already made stuffing.

Wednesday's prep done, in hindsight I should have prepared a lot more the day before, I was in the kitchen at  Noon getting what I thought would be a late lunch but became dinner ready.

Dijon mustard green beans - easy no brainer and really good, it took about 15 minutes.
Then I made sweet potato biscuits (kind of like a scone), this took over an hour including cooking time.
While the sweet potato biscuits were cooking I made parmesan croutons for the soup, and salad - my own concuction of spinach, cherry/grape tomatos, celery, oranges and Philadelphia cream cheese - its really a good salad.
Then it was stuffing and preparing the turkey and waiting for the oven to preheat, this took much longer than expected as I was waiting for the preheat light to turn off when it should really be turning on.  Yes I was kind of tired by this stage, while the turkey was cooking, I started on the apple pie, mixing the ingredients together and time having flown it was about 4h30pm by this stage, feeling like I had run a marathon, I looked to Justin and asked him if he wanted to do this.  I then took up residence on the couch and rested my eyes.

Despite my lack of mentioning Justin in the cooking process, which is not an accurate depiction because he was involved, he also had the important job of mixing the champagne cocktail and preparing the peach cocktail that takes 2 weeks to prepare - this done in classic Justine style where I don't read a recipe fully, its in line with the time I wanted to bake a cheese cake but if needed 24 hours to set, oops.  At least we have that to look forward to in 2 weeks.

Below is our Thanksgiving dinner; greenbeans, mash potoato, gravy, croutons, salad, cranberry jelly, turkey with stuffing and butternut soup.

This is the ridiculousness of our dinning situation, we're both sitting on our respective chairs, you're either really high up or really low down, there is no happy medium.

The turkey virgin diaries entry 2 - defrosted, brined and prep.

Please note these photos are explicit sensitive viewers should leave the room or just close the tab.

This morning my tasks were laid out a head of me - the most important one pertains to the central element of Thanksgiving besides giving thanks, the turkey.  So here I stood bringing 4 cups of water to a boil.  Please note an American cup is smaller than a Metric cup, the American cup comes in at a meer 240ml, where as the Metric cup out 'masses' it by a whopping 10ml, thats right it measures up at 250ml!  Why the discrepancy I don't know.  But I thought it necessary to share this information with you.  I might stand corrected as I'm basing this on the new Ikea measuring cups, so it might be the Swedish measurement error as opposed to American, in which case I apologise ahead of time.

Boiling my water I added enough salt to the pot to the water to rival the bouncy of the Dead Sea.  Then to flavour it up some thyme, garlic and lemon juice amongst other herbs that I cant recall at this time.

So the brine is ready, now to wash the turkey, rinse it off with running cold water.

Then to dry the turkey off with paper towel, this part did confuse me, I'll explain why in a minute.

...and then place it in a HUGE brining bag and cover with the WET salty spice flavoured water I'd concocted...

and then some how manage to tie up the bag.

Place in the fridge for 24 hours and we're ready to go, tomorrow...

The turkey virgin diaries entry 1 - Defrost the turkey.

Tuesday, 2 days before Thanksgiving, I've printed my recipes, done grocery shopping and Justin has bought everything from cooking utensils, to roasting pans and serving plates and a dish rack, baring some last minute shopping which we will tackle tomorrow we're ready.

My turkey line up looks like this...
Tue - defrost turkey 1 day for every 4 pounds of bird, its a 5 1/2 pound bird.
Wed - brine the turkey
Thur - cook the turkey

Here we go I took the turkey out of the freezer at 8 o'clock this morning, ready for it to get it's defrost on.  At 4 o'clock this afternoon it was still frozen solid, no semi-squidgy poultry but rock hard ice bird.  This is when panic sets in, oh my gosh what if its not fully defrosted and then it doesn't have 24 hours to brine oh my gosh what will I do?  Back to my Martha Stewart cheat sheet, she says its okay to defrost the turkey in the microwave so here it is in the microwave (which is not on) for 3 hours and we have a semi squidgy bird!

Here it is the central theme of  these blogs, the turkey, defrosting on its rack!

Now we cross our fingers and hope for the bird to be fully defrosted by tomorrow!

Too many title options

I honestly couldn't think of the best title for this post, my list of options will be available below.  But this, I must say, is one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life, this is the kind of stuff that should be sold in gift shops (refer to earlier blog on the topic http://thoughtsandfancies.blogspot.com/2010/10/awkward-tourist-gifts.html). 

Here we have Med with his wife Tullah (I've shortened to common names) looking cute an innocent.

Until you realise what they're hiding under their 'robes'

What a best!

In looking at these pictures and trying to think of a GOOD name (and I'm not saying any of these names are good), but I was overwhelmed by the options presented.  There are so many my head could explode.

The real reason behind airport security


How to bring liquid in excess of 3oz through airport security


What airport security doesn't know


Thats what's under those robes!


These bottle covers could inspire a whole world of characters - I love these guys.

NY High Line

The High Line, is a decommissioned freight railway line that has been transformed into a 'rooftop' garden with a beer garden.  You can see the railway tracks between the plants.

Walking down the high line you can see the Statue of Liberty (it didn't come out in photos so I haven't posted those, but its cool to see).

Its really a project of genius and great use of what was once a railway track.  Makes you think of all the derelict buildings in Joburg, with some creativity they could become trendy hot spots.

Comfy Coach and a Cup of Tea

Lani (my much loved adopted American mom) has professed to loving life in New York (having recently moved to the city from Dallas) and how could she not when this couch screams sit in me, gaze out the window, drink a cup of tea, welcome in the morning! 

New York!

Savannah Georgia

Justin and I left early in the morning to catch a flight from New Orleans to Savannah, with a layover in Charlotte, South Carolina.  We landed in Savannah and Justin’s friend Moti (not like the African medicine moo-tee but  Mow-Tee), and his wife Debbie picked us up from the airport, with their dog Herman.  Moti is one of Justin’s high school friends an officer in the army and he recently came back from deployment in Afghanistan.

Debbie would become our good food guide, taking us to the hot eating spots in Savannah – she did a GREAT job, at making sure we ate well.

We went to a restaurant on the Bayou (thats a fun word – and a wish fulfilled, having told Justin repeatedly with a very bad Southern Accent, that “We should go to the bayou.”) for sundowners (drinks at sunset) on a deck over the water, we ate steamed oysters (which we needed to break out of their shells) and got to throw the shells into the water – which I probably enjoyed more than eating them.

How beautiful, right on the water, with long grass marshy reeds, marking the channels.

After this we went to another restaurant for desert – you have to love the Halloween scare on the cakes.  (I figure Halloween scare because you have Christmas cheer).

Paired with cocktails – my choice pumpkin pie, turns out it was a good call.

 This was the beginning of our good Savannah eating.

The next day would see us taking a beautiful scenic walk through Savannah, the trees with Spanish Moss hanging off them.

To MRS WILKES a historic boarding house.  Its open from 11 am until 2pm, they don't take reservations, so you queue for your meal, Debbie graciously stood in the queue for an hour, so Justin and I could walk around.  We then came back and queued for another hour - needless to say we were RAVENOUS by the time we got in, which was good because we got fed A LOT of good Souther food.

You file in and sit at a table that seats about 10 people, and the food is brought out and laid on the table and you eat, and eat and eat.  For the life of me I will never be able to name all the foods we ate, but I can tell you there was AMAZING macaroni cheese, OUT OF THIS WORLD fried chicken - the best I've ever eaten, biscuits (like scones but buttery), corn bread, baked beans, sweet corn and of course sweet tea, because you cant be in the South and not drink sweet tea.  I bought the cook book, so you'll have to borrow a recipe to find out how good it could be.

 The old man next to Debbie is a local Cleave, he's been "eating here for 40 years."  He was a source of entertainment for us all, ear bashing Debbie, he gave her his life story we learnt...

1) alimony is tax deductible

2) his ex wife called him to apologise and he said "You cost me a lot of money, you can go to hell"

3) he has been to every state and not just touching down and flying but he has "rolled through" one state his wife swears they never went to he said "she was sleeping and we just rolled through while she was sleeping"

4) Cleave doesn't need to queue to get into Mrs Wilkes, he just comes on in through the back door.

There were many life lessons learnt from Cleave that day, I'll have to consult with Debbie and Justin to re-iterate them all but he was the life of this party!

Jesse and JJ's Wedding - October 30th

Justin and I landed in Bioxi MS at 1pm, we had to locate his luggage which had made it Biloxi the day before us, we should have travelled as baggage.  After an arduous wait we finally managed to find a man to give us his baggage, we got our rental car and then we were off to the wedding.

Me getting changed into my wedding garb in the car, with out flashing anyone, and finishing our costume change in the parking lot of the church, we missed the ceremony but got there for the ceremony.

Jesse was (is) absolutely gorgeous with her beautiful dress and blue and white head band.

The waste coat JJ is wearing is made from west African fabric, the brides maid dresses were made out of the same fabric.

Jessey looking radiant and so happy, JJ so proud of his beautiful wife.

As we all know Jessey moving back to the States is a major loss for her friends in South Africa - so to forward the congratulations on from RSA.

Congratulations JJ and Jessey!

Getting to the Wedding – October 28, 29, 20th

Thursday October 28^th

Today we were supposed to be boarding a red eye (00h25) flight from San Francisco to Biloxi Mississippi via Dallas Fortworth for Jesse’s wedding.  Instead we ended up spending the night at the airport, the flight was oversold, over the next 18 hours this is a term we would become all too familiar with.

Friday October 29th

The flight left without us, the next flight to Dallas would be leaving at 6am, with 4 hours to go Justin and I found a dark corner and tried to sleep.  The night played out something like this - lying on the floor, sitting in uncomfortable waiting room chairs, freezing because we were right near the air conditioner moving away from the air conditioner into the light where it was warmer, Justin using my wrap skirt as a blanket, sitting on a chair with my scarf over his head, my pink eye mask to block out the light and my pleather jacket. I crawled under a table (because it was darker).

I couldn’t tell you how long we slept, but I can tell you that the carpet at San Francisco airport has an uncanny taco smell.

Looking at the bright side, the sunrise was beautiful - a little blessing from God.

Justin and I were bumped from about 4 oversold Dallas flights and then clued up we could fly to Dallas via Chicago, we were then bumped from another oversold Chicago flight and finally got onto the 11h00 flight to Chicago.

We got to see the leaves changing colour from the air, really pretty.

Arriving in Chicago after 5pm, we missioned to another gate and got onto a flight to Dallas.  Landing in Dallas after 7pm, we went to our gate to attempt to catch the oversold flight to Biloxi.  If you’re catching onto the common theme here, we were bumped from that one to.

The American Airlines attendant was gracious enough to give us a discount card for the Hyatt, we got to experience the heavenly luxury of showering and sleeping in a bed.

Saturday October 30^th

We got to the airport for our 8h55 flight to Biloxi, the 57 seat airplane, with about 15 people on it to off with us on it this time!  25 minutes into flying the pilot announces “Our landing gear won’t come up, we are turning back to Dallas and switching airplanes.”  You cant do anything but laugh in situations like this, especially when your informed that “we probably would have made it to Biloxi in the last plane,” and Justin tells me he heard the Captain say “ten more minutes and we would have just continued onto Biloxi.”  Never the less back in Dallas we switched planes, and sat in our new one for about 30 minutes at which point we were informed “There is something wrong with blah blah blah wing blah blah airflow the mechanic/engineer is coming out we’ll just speed tape it and hopefully be on our way soon.”

Tape the airplane, probably get there – hmmm words you want to hear when flying.

Currently I am sitting in the taped up airplane flying to Biloxi, and hoping to get to the 2 o’clock wedding.  We will probably be late, but what can you do when its taken you 42 hours to fly from San Francisco to Biloxi.

My terror realised, the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco - 29 October

Upon leaving San Francisco in 2008 I told the city I would come back with a goal of walking out to the south  tower of the Golden Gate Bridge and to go to Alcatraz - I achieved the aforementioned task of the two and let me tell you it was terrifying.

So we begin, my memories of the 2008 trip were, the bridge bounces up and down with the traffic and the walkway is semi detached from the actual bridge.  My task looming before me!

  

I grab onto Justin at what I deem is a comfortable grasp (only later to be informed that my clasp was somewhat tighter than what one would deem comfortable).  I think, the bridge is not bouncing and I cant see the water through the street side - this is going to be okay, I must have imagined the separation and bounciness.

We set out and the distance from the walkway to the ground and then the water below keeps getting further and further away - I'm freaking out, this was a bad idea!

As we approach the south tower, Justin goes off to take photos and I 'casually' lean up against the south tower.  Completely calm and at ease - hmmm*

Justin tells me - stand there and I'll take a photo of you!  Ummm I don't think so - the wind blowing quite fiercely could blow me over the edge of the bridge.

As elated as I look to have achieved my personal goal - that look is sheer terror as you will see in the picture below.

Back on land, with my heart rate slowly spiraling down to normal and the terror ebbing, we set off to find a diner location and a stiff drink.

With another opportunity to play a featured favourite travel game - the Tunnel Game.

Rules: As a tunnel approaches, take a few last breathes.

Just before entering the tunnel take a DEEP breath and hold it.

The aim of the game is to hold your breath for the entire length of the tunnel.

The winner is the one who holds their breath for the longest.

Let me give you a visual representation of the game.

The tunnel approaches - get ready!

Take a deep breath!

Hold that breath,

keep holding that breath.

On the other side of the tunnel

EXHALE!

We finished off our evening with dinner at a random restaurant in San Francisco - where neither of us knew what any of the food on the menu was - turned out our choices were really good.

Then we headed off to the airport, which is a whole other story, you won't want to miss.