Summing it up

It's been slightly more stressful than I prefer for the week between Christmas and New Year's, traditionally an oasis of downtime.  Our furnace conked out on the 26th, and finally got fixed this morning; in between we stayed warm with borrowed space heaters, but were worn down by uncertainty about when the needed part would come and whether it would work.

Still, even with that hassle, we had a much more enjoyable post-Christmas week than many people across the nation, who were snowed in or stuck in airports for days.  We were warm, we had our gifts to enjoy, and we could get out for treats.  I knit a balaclava to keep Noel's head toasty when he goes to Sundance in a few weeks.  And today, with the heat back on in quantities sufficient to keep a tropical fish healthy, we finally completed Cady Gray's most heartfelt Christmas wish (and the holiday video below).

So here in one tidy package are our wonderful holidays, from what we were thankful for to what we'll be writing thank-you notes for.

What I'm thankful for

1. The health of my children.
2. Our jobs.
3. Studio screeners stacked by the TV for end-of-the-year listmaking.
4. The bins of yarn tucked away by the garage, waiting to be made into beautiful things.
5. My husband's talent and prestige in his field.
6. My kids' enthusiasms -- for Nintendo games, Pokemon, chess, comic strips, whatever they choose to love and enjoy.
7. Leftover turkey sandwiches with bread-and-butter pickles.
8. A new retaining wall that makes our property infinitely more presentable.
9. Free public-domain books on my Kindle.
10. A Christmas and New Years to look forward to -- with no travel to dread!

Planning a feast

It's the weekend before Thanksgiving, and that means it's time to decide what we're making for the big dinner on the big day.  My parents are going to be visiting for the occasion, which thrills their grandchildren to no end.  It makes me think of all the Thanksgiving dinners I enjoyed at home over the years.  When I was a teenager, that meant my mom taking dishes down the driveway to my grandparents' house, where my favorite parts of the meal were waiting: Nana's stuffing (casserole style, cooked in the oven) and her yellow layer cake with thick caramel icing made on the stovetop and spread quickly before it hardens.

I know people who are fanatical about making every component of the Thanksgiving meal themselves, right down to the cornbread used in the stuffing and the scratch yeast rolls.  Call me a child of convenience foods, but brown-and-serve rolls (or even better, Sister Schubert's) are about my favorite bread of all time.  We've got a number of prepared items that will be on our table -- apple pie made by local bakers, to be sure, but also cranberry sauce and gravy straight from the factory.

Last year's feast was one of the best we've ever had, and we're going to pretty much duplicate it on Thursday for the other set of grandparents.  I love eating, and I've always loved Thanksgiving just for the food.  But the longer the live, the more you have to be thankful for, and the more you appreciate the side of the day that your parents tried so hard to teach you about when you were a kid.

Mmm whatcha say

Today's post about a lotta sweater for a lotta man is at Toxophily.

Noel put together a little video of our Thanksgiving, complete with magical appearance of turkey and cute kids saying what they're thankful for. Check it out.

Giving thanks

I'm thankful for my grandmother's china.




I'm thankful that little girls love looking for colorful ginko leaves.




I'm thankful that they remain curious about the world around them.




I'm thankful for fall color on our table.




I'm thankful for the bird, and for Alton Brown who helped me make it perfect.




I'm thankful that they have so much to be thankful for.




I'm thankful for the happiness that overflows our lives.

The best turkey in the world

For the past several years, I've gone to great trouble (and Noel has gone to great expense) to brine my turkey, the Alton Brown way.

What kind of trouble? You have to defrost the turkey a day early. (For me, this usually means half a day spent changing the water every half hour while speed-defrosting.) You have to buy vegetable stock in such quantities that the price rivals the turkey itself. You have to soften brown sugar. (At least I have to, because I use brown sugar about twice a year; put a bowl of water in the microwave beside it and nuke for 2 minutes or so.) You have to numb your hands chucking a half-gallon of ice into a bucket. You have to get up in the middle of the night to turn the turkey over in the brine.

But I would never consider making a turkey without the brine treatment. A brined turkey is moist, juicy, and tasty all the way through. It's absolutely foolproof.

I also use the Alton Brown trick of putting the bird in at 500 degrees for half an hour to get a beautiful golden brown skin on the top, then turning the oven down to 350 and putting an aluminum foil shield over the breast to keep it from overcooking. Throw in an electronic probe thermometer that beeps when the turkey reaches the target temperature, and there is nothing that can ruin your meal except lumpy gravy.



And once again this year, our turkey was perfect inside and out. If you've never brined, you don't know what you're missing. Ditch the hit-and-miss recipes, go for the bucket and the kosher salt, and never serve dry turkey again.

An Archer Thanksgiving

There are songs composed for the occasion.*



And there are wise sayings: "Turkey with stuffing is 88 times better than regular ol' turkey."


* Song lyrics:

Say Hello
Say hel-lo all day!
All day be-cause it's nice!

Craw Fish

It is a great day for catching craw fish.
I will study them right here.

Turkeys

Can't you smell the turkey in the oven?
The tur-key is rea-dy.

Thanks

We give thanks on T'giving.
We give thanks on T'giving. That's it!

Giving thanks

It's not quite the official holiday yet. But given the precariousness of the American enterprise at this moment, every little blessing seems like reason enough to celebrate daily. So here's what I'm thankful for.

1. A relatively secure job. Tenure in a unit that is almost universally regarded as a bright spot in the university's operations is certainly a rare privilege these days.
2. Beautiful, intelligent, healthy children who amaze me every day.
3. Our new garage door opener. I can't believe how happy this makes me.
4. Cashmere yarn 70% off.
5. Tarzan of the Apes on my Kindle.
6. Kirby's Pinball Land on the Super Game Boy, and Cady Gray talking about spelling "Scarfy" while she plays her favorite land, "Kracko!"
7. My Macbook Air.
8. Christmas knitting -- fingerless gloves, scarves, and mug cozies for everyone I can think of.
9. A new Bed Buddy after mine sprang a leak.
10. Hope.
    

Give thanks

This holiday I give thanks for:

1. The fact that I am not a day-after-Thanksgiving shopper. 4 am this year, the crazy loons.
   
2. Ravelry. And Jess and Casey.
   
3. Alton Brown's brined turkey recipe.
4. 7 pm bedtimes for the kids.
5. Clarity.
6. Google (for Reader, Docs, Notebook, etc., etc.)
7. Sandy.
8. Kids who grow up even though you think you never want them to change, blossoming into unforeseen vistas of personality.
9. Noel's lucrative freelance gigs.
10. Rumors of a Mac tablet.
11. Moleskine journals.
12. Screener season.
13. BookMooch.
14. Noro Kureyon.
15. Koigu Painters Palette Premium Merino.
16. The A.V. Club T.V. Club.
17. Ken Jennings and his blog.
18. The Criterion Collection edition of Days of Heaven.
19. TiVo. Someday we'll have you back in our lives full time, we promise.
20. Handknit socks. There's no such thing as a bad day when you're wearing handknit socks.
21. My readers. I don't know why you show up day after day, but I'm glad you do.