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Winter Holidays 2021!


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Here in Seattle, earliest sunset happens on Dec 10 or 11 (both are listed as 16:19:36 local time).  Days will continue to get shorter until the solstice on the 21st, and then start getting longer; latest sunrise will happen on the 31st.

 

Ho ho ferking ho.

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But ducks are.
Mine should be about thawed.  Tomorrow it goes into the oven bag with the spicy lacquer liquid.  (Soy sauce, sesame oil, hoisin sauce, fake sugar, ancho chile powder rather than cayenne.  2 days suggested, I'll probably do 3.)

 

Haven't done one of these in several years.  Whole ducks used to be reasonable but they've gone up.  And they're something of a pain to cook;  there's that thick layer of insulating fat that gets rendered and needs to be drained off several times over the cooking period.

But by the same token, OMG, does it taste good later!!!

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Speaking of birds......

 

For those of you who don't want to hassle a turkey simply because you're not in the mood for leftover turkey for a month...a wonderful alternative is a brined, roasted chicken.  Brining is simple;  it just means to give it a nice, long soak in salty liquid.  Anything else is optional.  The point of the brine is to get the salt WELL into the meat;  this helps retain moisture and obviously helps season the whole bird.

 

https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/brining-meat-zerz1508zcwil

 

I have a funky brine for holidays...the strangest ingredient is a can of frozen raspberry lemonade.  Why?  Adds some sugar...check.  Adds nice aromatic touches from the lemon and the raspberry...check.  Other additions can include dried ginger, and dried orange or lemon zest.  Not sure how much these can be tasted in the end.  I've got some square 6 liter plastic containers with lids that holds 3 quarts of brine and a 5+ pound chicken perfectly.

 

If you actually stop at the raspberry lemonade...a can of the concentrate isn't usually very expensive.  I used to make this decently often on Friday nights, but I got lazy.  Full birds are messier, and do take longer.  

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I made a habit of non-turkey Thanksgivings going back to college. A bunch of us who weren't going home for the holiday got together and made an annual event of experimenting with different non-traditional foods for Turkey Day. The first one was Mahogany Duck, which took three days of basting in a slow oven. It tasted wonderful, but they swore never to do that again. 

 

When mom moved out here I started doing more traditional stuff for her. This year we're doing a ham because neither of us really care for turkey. The only thing she demands is my Green Bean Casserole. And she's gone Keto, so we're not doing a lot of the usual carbs since I'm the only one to eat it. No pies, I got a little ice cream for me. 

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On 11/21/2021 at 5:58 PM, Starlord said:

Don't forget Black Friday!

 

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I don't need another stinking television or the latest kiddie toy.  When. Black Friday becomes a thing at grocery stores, _only then_ will you see me lined up in the cold and rain, looking for two-for-one gallons of milk and 39 percent off steaks.

 

Until then, I stay home.

 

At least until relatives start dropping by.  I know LL said it as a depressing observation, but _I Drink Alone_ is a Thanksgiving staple for me.  You have to be aware of things like this, though:  I am the only vaccinated person in my family, and I am married to the only vaccinated person in her family.  We can wax poetic all we want, but batspit crazy relatives is _exactly_ why I cant remember a holiday that wasn't an exercise in abject horror, and I totally understand (and on several levels, empathize) with the spike in suicides this time of year.  The holidays are thirty days of nightmare if you weren't extremely lucky with the birth lottery.

 

Up until we had kids, my tradition since I was 11 was to wrap up warm on Thanksgiving morning, fire up one of the motorcycles, and not be back home before bedtime, just to avoid them.

 

 

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Had to go to Publix today to get a prescription. Just for fun, I checked the price on turkeys. They have very large frozen turkeys for only $.49 a pound! (Even Butterball brand was only $.99 a pound.) That's a great price. Where are the $5.99 birds that we were warned about? Of course, if you're buying a twenty pound frozen bird now, good luck having it ready by Thursday. 

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