Music: The Smashing Pumpkins

Mood: Nag Champa

What's up gang? I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday. Mine was all right. Not great, not terrible. I had an organic turkey from Organic Valley. Spendy bird if you pay for it. I had an awesome recipe. I had a set time the bird was supposed to be done... And a time we were gonna eat. Of course... As per usual in the planning of multitudinous events such as this, one person had to throw the entire time table off for everyone...

My Dad's brother and his wife, seem to have forgotten to thaw their bird properly... No one bothered telling me this until 2pm or so... My bird had been in the oven for 2 hours by this point. We were supposed to eat at 4:30pm... So... All of a sudden, I find out their bird won't be done until 6pm... Dinner is now at 6:30...

This means I had to play the guessing game and turn the temp down on the oven so that it could cook for an extra 2 hours and come out some at 6pm... NOT the best way to cook a bird. Too long will dry it out... Thanks be to the cheesecloth I had it blanketed with, and my tenacious basting... It turned out awesome none the less. (All parties forgiven, of course.)

Dinner that night was pretty good. It's nowhere near as cool as I remember it being... If you can call the voracious consumption of all thing "cool..."

I actually indulged on a few avoids... I had a big serving of my Mom's dressing/stuffing. (Best taste on Earth if you ask me...) I had a couple of bites of this crazy sweet potato/pecan/coconut casserole thingy... It was delicious. I also had a small pineapple chunk from the fruit salad (butter cream, sugar, etc.) And a small bite of something that resembled cole slaw... (cabbage, etc.) I managed to avoid all the pies, mashed potatoes, gravies, bread, rolls, relish tray olives and peppers, etc. Not that I ever found this to be a challenge...

All in all, I'm very surprised I actually ate a few avoids. I'd say it was 47% to satiate my own tastes, 47% "crowd pleasing", and the other 6% can be chalked up to the lowering of inhibitions due to alcohol. I felt like crap the next day... Although I am sure 90% of it was due to how much I ate and the amount of red wine consumed... With a paltry 10% attributed to the avoids on the menu. All these percentages... I oughtta be a pollster!

Diggin' on the leftovers still. I took half of my leftover turkey, the drippings from the pan, some seasonings, some water, 2 T. of ghee, and broccoli, snap peas, and sliced carrots, and made a delicious soup/stew. YUM. The other half I've been feeding to my roommate...

Here's to enjoying your leftovers. Peace be with you.