Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Thanksgiving open thread

Well my dear Mooseses, Thanksgiving is upon us once more.  I taught Shax’s Venus and Adonis this morning, his sexiest work by far and very weird, then spent an hour or so in one of my favorite guitar stores (Elderly in Lansing MI) fed the kids and took my oldest for a shopping run as the foreplay for the feast begins tonight.  We are having my wife’s sibs and their children, all coming from Chicagoland tomorrow.  I’ll be making bbq beef ribs and a variation on my drunk and smoked turkey.

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In a mixing bowl on my counter is a bit over a gallon of liquid.  Two kinds of bourbon (one good and one for volume) half a pint of stout, a quart of apple cider, 2 cups of cider vinegar, scant half a cup of kosher salt (it’s a kosher bird so salt must be used sparingly as the koshering process basically brines it already), brown sugar, maple syrup, lemon and pepper, herbes d’provence, and olive oil are all whisked in a mixing bowl on the counter.  I need to add a few smashed garlic cloves.  In an hour, my lovely and brilliant wife will help me put the turkey inside two large garbage bags, pour the liquid over the bird and tie it up around Thurs. night’s dinner.  I’ll rotate the bird every 6 hours or so until 8 AM thurs. when I’ll drain it and let it come to room temp while outside charcoal, hickory and apple woods all heat up.  Before putting the bird on the grill with the coals arranged for indirect heat, I’ll wrap the breast very tightly in foil.  After two hours or so, I’ll load the cavity with sauteed shallots, garlic cloves, and button mushrooms.  Here’s hoping it’s a good one.

So what are moose doing and cooking?  Share a memory and something to be thankful for.  I’ve got three healthy and astonishingly fabulous kids, a great marriage, a Ph.D. and work that I love, and two amazing guitars with a terrific tube amp.  Feeling pretty thankful tonight.  And thankful for my lovely moose.


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 52 Comments

52 comments

  1. HappyinVT

    “authority” that it was sacrificed to Allah before slaughter.

    I’m cooking most of a Thanksgiving dinner ~ no cranberry sauce.  And the turkey is just the breast ~ GET your mind out of the gutter!

    At the moment I’m “watching” the latest epic fail otherwise known as a GOP debate via Twitter.  Much better for my brain and blood pressure.

  3. trashablanca

    but I am going to see Lucinda Williams play at the El Rey Theatre tomorrow evening, and I just found a really tasty song on youtube:

  4. fogiv

    I got my National from Elderly. I’ve never been, but my wife considers their website ‘porn’.  

    Hey that bird sounds great. We did a bird on the ‘cue last year (one in the oven too) and it turned out great.  When I say ‘we’, I mean my wife.  I actually did next to nothing with regard to cooking/prep — we didn’t want anyone to get hurt.

    Yeah.  Elderly.  {sigh}

    Just now, I’m thankful that my kid enjoys He-Man as much as I did.

    …and yeah Strummy, that’s his guitar in the background.

  5. jsfox

    we are headed to NY to have Thanksgiving with my wife’s family. Then again we couldn’t cook if wanted to. Someone thought it would be a good idea to start a kitchen renovation (yesterday) just before Thanksgiving in the hopes of having it done or at least most of it done before Christmas.

    IMG_0146

    Given that I know the guy responsible for this bright idea I have my doubts about the completion date 😉 Then again I will need to crack the whip since I am cooking Christmas dinner for 15.

  6. janicket

    Hi there!

    Ben's eye

    Feeling stressed out, running around like crazy, like a turkey with its… well, you know?

    Tommy Girl runs

    Don’t sweat it, just relax and chill with your buds.

    tom.turks

    Winter is a-cumen in, loudly sing turkey….

    snowturkeys.1

  8. HappyinVT

    Photobucket

    In a column on The American Thinker, anti-Islam blogger Pamela Geller explains that halal meats are already prevalent throughout most of the meat industry, but now they have even infiltrated the popular frozen turkey producer Butterball.

       

    A citizen activist and reader of my website AtlasShrugs.com wrote to Butterball, one of the most popular producers of Thanksgiving turkeys in the United States, asking them if their turkeys were halal. Wendy Howze, a Butterball Consumer Response Representative, responded: “Our whole turkeys are certified halal.”

    “In a little-known strike against freedom, yet again, we are being forced into consuming meat slaughtered by means of a torturous method: Islamic slaughter,” Geller writes.

    She continues that if you like freedom and hate sharia, you should boycott Butterball and ask them to stop selling these nefarious birds:

     

    Non-Muslims in America and Europe don’t deserve to have halal turkey forced upon them in this way, without their knowledge or consent. So this Thanksgiving, fight for your freedom. Find a non-halal, non-Butterball turkey to celebrate Thanksgiving this Thursday. And write to Butterball and request, politely but firmly, that they stop selling only halal turkeys, and make non-halal turkeys available to Americans who still value our freedoms.

    http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpoi…

  12. fogiv

    THE NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING

    On Thanksgiving Day, many Native Americans and their supporters gather at the top of Coles Hill, overlooking Plymouth Rock, for the “National Day of Mourning.”

    The first National Day of Mourning was held in 1970. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts invited Wampanoag leader Frank James to deliver a speech. When the text of Mr. James’ speech, a powerful statement of anger at the history of oppression of the Native people of America, became known before the event, the Commonwealth “disinvited” him. That silencing of a strong and honest Native voice led to the convening of the National Day of Mourning.

    The historical event we know today as the “First Thanksgiving” was a harvest festival held in 1621 by the Pilgrims and their Native American neighbors and allies. It has acquired significance beyond the bare historical facts. Thanksgiving has become a much broader symbol of the entirety of the American experience. Many find this a cause for rejoicing. The dissenting view of Native Americans, who have suffered the theft of their lands and the destruction of their traditional way of life at the hands of the American nation, is equally valid.

    To some, the “First Thanksgiving” presents a distorted picture of the history of relations between the European colonists and their descendants and the Native People. The total emphasis is placed on the respect that existed between the Wampanoags led by the sachem Massasoit and the first generation of Pilgrims in Plymouth, while the long history of subsequent violence and discrimination suffered by Native People across America is nowhere represented.

    To others, the event shines forth as an example of the respect that was possible once, if only for the brief span of a single generation in a single place, between two different cultures and as a vision of what may again be possible someday among people of goodwill.

    History is not a set of “truths” to be memorized, history is an ongoing process of interpretation and learning. The true richness and depth of history come from multiplicity and complexity, from debate and disagreement and dialogue. There is room for more than one history; there is room for many voices.

    http://www.pilgrimhall.org/day…

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  13. wordsinthewind

    the last pie is in the oven, sweet potato for my sweetie. His oh-so-southern grandmother sent me the recipe after he didn’t get one on our first Thanksgiving. It’s very good and even surprises people who never thought sweet potatoes could be in a pie. He says it’s better than pumpkin and I say anything that didn’t come out of a can is going to be better.

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