Brining and Dining

Ah, Thanksgiving. You've got to love a holiday centered around family, food, and gratitude. We spent Wednesday with my side of the family, taking the annual family portrait and catching up with my brother Andrew who is in town for the holiday. Of course, we were so busy snapping group pictures that I forgot to ever get our own camera out of its case. Bleh.

We spent Thanksgiving Day with Phillip's family--or at least, the members of it that are in town.

Joy and Grandma H worked on their fine motor skills, while I worked on . . .

. . . my turkey cooking skills. I've never cooked a turkey before, and I've been curious to try a method called brining, where you soak the meat for several hours before cooking it to add flavor and keep it from drying out. The most basic brines are just salt, water, and usually some sugar, but I found many recipes that add spices, herbs, etc., to the mix. A whole turkey is supposed to soak for 24 hours or so, but since there were only going to be four of us at the table we just cooked a 3-pound half-breast (shown above in its brine bath). The resulting meat was very moist and flavorful (as turkey goes)--not bad for a first attempt. Next time I may try one of the brine recipes that uses apple cider instead of water.

Here we are preparing to devour hours of work in about twenty minutes. Everything was tasty, but I must say my favorite part of the meal was the mashed potatoes. I usually view mashed potatoes as merely a bland vehicle for getting gravy to one's mouth, but these potatoes were good enough to eat on their own. I really must get that recipe from Mom H . . .

In case you're wondering where Joy is, she was actually fast asleep when this picture was taken. Since she has little interest these days in any food that isn't applesauce or Cheerios, we figured it made more sense to let us adults enjoy a peaceful meal, and invite Joy to partake next year when she'll appreciate it more.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!