Brined Thanksgiving Turkey

We decided to experiment and do our first brine this year on our Thanksgiving Turkey. This Alton Brown recipe with it's mixture of aromatics, really has the potential to make a savory tasting bird. If it tastes as good as this brine smells, I'll be a happy camper.



Turkey or Chicken Brine Recipe
Recipe Courtesy of Alton Brown

1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon chicken stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
6 bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
1 gallon heavily iced water


Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.
Combine the stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, bay leaves and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:

Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.

Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.

Last Days

Okay, I guess I have Armageddon on the brain lately. We saw 2012 on Saturday, what more can I say. But this isn't about that, it's about wrapping up the last few days of our Williamsburg trip.

Finally we are to our actual anniversary. As we got ready to leave our room for the day we opened the door and were surprised by a lovely gift from the hotel, hand dipped chocolates and a lovely ornament of the building. I thought it was very sweet.



We started the day in our favorite building. The governor's palace. I love this building because the colors are right up my alley. Bold greens, yellows, blues, and fun patterns.









Plus the grounds are beautiful. I love the manicured hedges, the lush greens, gravel paths, fall trees, the river that runs behind it, everything.







This is the place I most remember being with Dan 10 years ago.



And I guess this is what happens when you try to take a photo and hold an umbrella...



We also enjoyed a cooking class where we learned to make sweet potato bisque. I enjoyed the presentation, but not the bisque. Dan however loved both.






We had our 5 star anniversary dinner that night at the Regency Room in our hotel. We enjoyed a wonderful meal with beautiful piano music in the background. We tried to take pics of our food, but it was a little too dark. But know that it was as beautiful as it was excellent tasting.





We spent the next day seeing EVERYTHING. The silversmith, print shop, yarn spinner...





To round off the day we saw a trumpet and organ concert in the Wren Chapel on the College of William and Mary campus, and got to see the local kids do the fifes and drums parade again (poor things even did it in the rain).





Ending with another fabulous meal at King's Arms, another restored tavern. This is the place that reminds me the most of my dad and the stories I heard of his love for the peanut soup here. I also have vivid memories of sipping apple cider from pewter cups with my family when I was a teenager. What I don't remember is them making us tie on our napkins like bibs. It was funny when the waitress made the guy at the table next to us do it (I thought she was punishing him for being kind of a jerk), and less funny still when she moved on to the next table. I was having none of it by the time she got to our table and she could tell. She forced Dan into his and looked at me and said I could feel free to if I wanted. Dan made me. Don't we look cute?



It was really, such a great way to spend our 10th anniversary. I look forward to fall here again in 10 years for our 20th anniversary, and maybe then we'll take our little girl with us.

Yummy Cranberry Salsa

Thanksgiving is yummy food time, and many people have asked for the cranberry salsa recipe that I make every year. This recipe is based on a Martha Stewart recipe from a few years ago. I've changed it to our liking. Instead of sugar, I sweeten this up with honey. Additionally, it called for a bunch of celery for texture and I leave that out. The last thing I need is celery strands in my teeth while I'm conversing around the Thanksgiving Table. Also, I don't put nearly the amount of jalapeno's it originally called for. Way to hot!

Dan's adjusted Martha Stewart Cranberry Salsa
Makes 2 cups

2 cups fresh or cranberries
1/4 cup diced red onion
1 large jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 oranges, peeled, sectioned, and cut into 1/4-inch pieces, juices reserved
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
¼ cup honey
¼ cup fresh mint leaves, coarsely chopped
¼ cup pecans, toasted, broken in pieces
Zest from limes
Zest from oranges

Directions:

Place cranberries in food processor, and pulse to chop coarsely, about five pulses. Transfer to a medium bowl. Add onion, jalapeno, lime juice, orange sections and juice, ginger, sugar, and celery; mix gently. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 2 days. Just before serving, add finely chopped mint and pecans, and toss to combine.

Let there be rain (in Williamsburg)

And so day 2 began with rain. LOTS of rain and wind. This was us. Do we look happy?



Since we were experiencing remnants from hurricane Ivan we decided we decided a good way to get out of the weather would be to go to the De Witt museum and spend some time looking at their collections. We saw it all, some was interesting, some not. Mostly I liked the silver and pewter, the china dishes and the quilts.











After the museum we braved the elements and went into some of the restored stores, homes and other buildings. I loved walking down the little empty street. It seemed like there was a memory around every corner and in each shop. From remembering what Dan and I saw 10 years ago, to being there with my family years beyond that, to recognizing things from the home I grew up in.








We went back to our suite to dry off and get ready to go to Christiana Campbell's, another historic tavern, for dinner. The dinners are really fun because they have someone either singing, or playing an instrument or giving a little speech about what happened taverns in the 18th century. I love the ambiance with candles, but for that reason sadly none of our pictures really turned out. So, imagine warm candle light, an upbeat atmosphere, and the best sweet potato muffins I've ever had.





We ended the night with a ghost tour, which was well...kind of lame. We liked it mostly because we were walking around at night with lanterns. We love candles, especially the ones in all the windows of most of the buildings.

Birthday Time

We both had a fabulous and busy weekend. This past Saturday, we celebrated Holly's Birthday. I decided to make her a yellow butter cake. I'm still experimenting with from scratch cake recipes. This one was from Cook's Illustrated. It tasted good, but was a tad dry. Next time I'll probably add sour cream to the batter before I bake it. Also, this chocolate fudge frosting is a great recipe.

I decided I wanted to make a chocolate cookie monster cake topper. So I got out my food dies, white chocolate, milk chocolate and made a 5" cookie monster face, to go on the 6" cake. I thought it turned out super cute! We had fun munching on it yesterday as we decided to do Birthday festivities over two days.



We had a lovely dinner at Saltoro. We both LOVE that restaurant up on 143rd and Greenwood Avenue. We had amazing risotto cheese balls with tomato jam for an appetizer. We both followed that with salads. Holly had a caesar with house caesar dressing. I had the Saltoro salad with blue cheese, dates, candied walnuts and sun dried tomatoes with orange vinaigrette. We both rounded out our meals with pasta dishes. Holly had some spicy chicken sausages in a fettuccine cream with spinach pasta. I had smoked salmon in white wine cream sauce with capers, tomatoes and roasted veggies. It was a perfect meal.

Happy Birthday to the cutest girl in the world!