I’m getting ready to eat. How about you?
Update [2005-11-24 19:46:52 by susanhu]: Our friend Real History Lisa will be on BlackOpRadio shortly. You can listen live or catch the archived show next week or “soon thereafter,” she writes. Lisa will discuss the JFK assassination conference that she attended in Washington, D.C. last week (along with JPol). You can also read Lisa’s Nov. 22, 2005 article at Consortium: “The Enduring JFK Mystery.”
Done. Pants unbuttoned. Tryptophan taking effect. Feeling verrrrryyy lethar…..
My neighbor — you know the one, the one with a wild sense of humor — just sent me this:
How to Write a Speech for George W. Bush….
it’s interactive. Please share your results.
P.S. Darcy just called me. She just woke up! It’s after noon! I hope our hosts are eating later :):)
I tried it but it’s a lil hard to get the inflections right and I wanted to be able to add or search for words. And I couldn’t figure out how to find it once I hit save…oh well, that’s the way it goes stimes.
I just found on the internet: here
Happy thanksgiving everyone!
Just finished. I was happy. No major errors (lumpy pots or gravy and nothing burned besides one finger–but it’s not the finger I would use to salute this worthless Admin with so no prob)..And it all came out on time, juicy turkey and praises from all…yippie, love it when a good plan comes together. Don’t you George? George?? Don’t you have a plan George? Still using the same one eh? Dodge and scowl, dodge and joke, eh Georgie? buhbye Georgie, you can pardon the turkey but we, the people, do not pardon you.
At some point this week, my husband decided he wanted a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Okay, fine by me – just tell me what to include on the menu, pick up the ingredients and all will be good. Well, that’s what I thought until a few hours ago.
Cuz that’s when I remembered that I had never cooked a whole turkey before. Don’t know how that slipped my mind. Today of all days. Well, allow me to say that Jenny-O certainly doesn’t package turkeys in a manner I expected. In fact, I found the packaging downright peculiar. Well, the story I’m about to tell . . . (damn – this is embarrassing) involves the Jenny-O 800 number. (But I guess that’s what I deserve for thinking I’m all that in the kitchen! ;^)
Here’s the deal. I wasn’t the least bit concerned that I hadn’t cooked a turkey before. I knew I’d merely need to click on over to the Food Network site and read through a few highly recommended turkey recipes to determine the cooking time, temperature and ingredients I wanted to use. (Recipe? Check.)
But when I opened the turkey packaging, there was a plastic device imbedded at the opening of the cavity. And I’ve never seen such a thing. So I needed to fall back on what little I knew from grade school science, combined with the little voice in my head that repeatedly told me to keep plastic away from hot ovens!
With that wisdom in mind, I proceeded to dress the turkey, while creatively using the plastic apparatus each time the opportunity arose. (For example, when I held the ring at the end of the device, I was able to lift the turkey while the cavity obligingly opened, which helped me a great deal in filling it with seasonings and other aromatics.)
But . . . like . . . THEN – I reached the point where I wanted to truss the legs and get the bird in the oven. And that’s when I found that I couldn’t remove the plastic device. No way. No how. No matter the angle from which I struggled. No matter the strength I invested in each and every grasp. (My husband was napping at the time, and we aren’t expecting guests, so at least there wasn’t an audience to witness my poorly choreographed performance.)
When all else failed, I scrubbed my hands and went through the garbage – looking for the turkey package, and trying to find the code – the key – anything to release that apparatus from the bird. Nothing. Not on the front of the package, not within the cooking instructions. Nada. No mention of that device whatsoever. (At one point, I thought it might even be some type of new-fangled thermometer – but then that little voice again reminded me that plastic doesn’t go near hot ovens)
When the package led me nowhere, I had to give in. I had to call the 800 number. The number that’s mocked on commercial after commercial, because no one needs to call the number. Except me. I was about to place . . . The Call of Shame.
After calling the first 800 number – the hotline listed on the package – I was directed to yet another 800 hotline. (The hotline that likely has one lone representative, waiting for that one lone call to come in so he can pack it in for the year.) But that’s when “Mike” (the lone representative) explained the device to me. It’s there to hold the legs together instead of trussing. Ohhh! Cool!! (Although I had actually wanted to truss the bird myself ;^) “But Mike, I said, doesn’t plastic melt in a hot oven?” And that’s when I lost a bit of confidence. Mike seemed puzzled, as though I’d raised a valid point. And then he asked if I had tried to remove the device. “Oh yes, I assured him. It’s not going anywhere” (while sparing myself the embarrassment of telling Mike the details of my struggles.) “Well then – I’m sure it’s supposed to stay in while you cook the turkey”. (Gee, thanks for the conviction in your voice there, Mike!)
That being said . . . the turkey has been in the oven for over an hour, and I haven’t yet smelled burning plastic . . . so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. (And my husband has been sworn to secrecy regarding my need to call The Number)
Wishing everyone a fabulous day filled with serenity and hope. Love, A
It stays in and won’t melt. I like those better than the wire gizzies that are used in the cheaper turkeys. I always manage to break a fingernail on the latter but I can’t pass up 29¢ a pound for the bird.
Our turkey was out of the oven at 12:30 and we were putting left overs away by 1:45. At that point, I curled up in bed for a nap and just woke up. The refrigerator is full so I shouldn’t have to cook again until Sunday at the earliest – that’s one of the best things about Thanksgiving.
Thanks for the assurance – what will they think of next? (Non-melting plastic – how will children learn the difference between “good plastic” and “bad plastic”?) Now I’m just giving myself a headache.
The bird is out of the oven and looking wonderful. As far as the taste, I’m about to find out whether onions, garlic, shallots, thyme and oranges combine for a decent flavor.
Back to mash the potatoes. Good day!
The high temperature plastic is limited to things like the gizzie on the turkey, the fasteners for baking bags, and things like frozen food containers that can be used in the oven or the microwave. At least I haven’t run into it anywhere else yet, but I don’t buy a lot of prepared foods. I use the turkey size baking bags every year because the turkey cooks faster and stays moister. I’ve yet to try seasoning it before cooking, so I’d be interested on how your seasonings turn out. I use a variety of dry rubs (the George Foreman cookbook has some good ones) on chicken & pork but never thought to try one on a turkey. The southwest rub with lime might be a good one – it’s great on pork chops.
Good morning DB,
How could I possibly forget about cooking bags? And that they’re made out of plastic? And that they don’t melt? ;^) I’ve only used them with beef (with great success) but it never occurred to me to use a cooking bag with poultry. Thanks for the tip! Not to embarrass myself further, but at this point I really have nothing to lose. Here goes: How is the poultry able to brown when you cook it in a bag?
As luck would have it, our turkey couldn’t have been closer to perfection (if I do say so myself ;^). My husband raved about the meal late into the night, but I had to draw the line when his enthusiasm got the best of him and he requested that I host Thanksgiving for his extended family next year. Needless to say, I had to quash that notion the instant it left his lips. (This introvert will NOT be hosting 50+ guests in our humble, one bathroom home.)
To clarify – I didn’t use a rub. I just seasoned the cavity with sea salt, pepper and fresh thyme, then filled it with: a quartered orange, (after squeezing a bit of juice in first) a quartered Spanish onion, a head of garlic halved crosswise, and a few large, halved shallots. Then I poured some homemade chicken stock in the bottom of the pan, and some melted butter over the bird. After that, I just topped it with salt, pepper and a little more thyme (while surrounding the bird with carrots, celery, onions and garlic, to enhance the juice for gravy.) I saw some recipes that used lemons – but I thought an orange would be more subtle. (I’ll definitely try lime down the road – good idea!) The fruit provides an added source for moisture and flavor, but lemons have been somewhat overpowering for our taste buds when I’ve used them inside chickens. (You obviously know your way around a kitchen, so I’m sure this is WAY more information than you cared to have me share. But given my two options at hand – writing this comment or doing chores – I had no choice but to write this comment. And write and write and write . . . so please excuse my verbosity, but if I continue to write, maybe the chores will take care of themselves ;^) That being said . . .
Here’s what I found most unusual: NONE of the recipes I saw called for any liquids to be added to the pan before baking. But if you don’t add liquids, how do you build up enough juice to make gravy? (Having just completed my maiden voyage into turkey land, this is all new to me)
Hey – thanks for the tips on the rubs. Another good resource is Alton Brown’s “Good Eats” on the Food Network. If you’re unfamiliar with the show, it’s really quite interesting, in that it teaches the science side of cooking.
Again – sorry for the ramble. Chores still waiting. Good day!
That’s priceless A… revenge of the turkey… 😉
this would be one of the reasons that a) I don’t cook and b) I’m a veggie… either that or I’m just exceptionally lazy.
Have a wonderful evening all
Hey S –
I don’t know about the lazy, but you’re most certainly exceptional. :^)
Wishing you a day full of good.
Heading for my sister’s in a few minutes. Her late in-laws owned a small Chinese restaurant some years back and we used to go there for our holiday feast. They’d shut the place down and we had all those commercial woks, ovens and dishwashers for our use. Easy cooking, easy clean-up! Almost got used to the taste of lopchong sausage in the dressing. They’ve both passed on to the Pure Land but I feel them surrounding us with love especially at holiday time.
And my mom also is here-she loved Thanksgiving and cooking for big groups of folks. When she lived in Hawaii she gathered up all her friends from the beach and fed them. One of them became my dear sister-in-law, Fran. Ahh..happy memories of days gone by.
Sending positive thoughts to starkravinglunaticradical who has been having an incredibly painful day.
I can now say safely that even my 3-year-old knows what a blog is. She just saw this one, asking me what I am doing on this blog. And she’s supposed to be taking a nap!
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Just another working day in The Netherlands …
THE HAGUE Nov. 24 — When CIA-prisons and detainee abuse in Europe is proven to be true, the Dutch will reconsider their participation in Enduring Freedom by its special forces in Afghanistan.
FM Bernhard Bot made this statement in parliament this morning. The State of the Netherlands has formally requested a clarification from the chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy in The Hague earlier this week. A possible use of Schiphol Airport for the spook transport of prisoners by the CIA has been put forward for answers.
The ‘consequences’ FM Bot referred to, is possible suspension of Dutch Special Forces operation under U.S. Command in Afghanistan. Participation of an extension within NATO to the Afghan province of Uruzgan within the ISAF contingent, may also be at stake.
The Dutch right-wing partner in the coalition, VVD Liberal Conservatives, already critized the suggestion by VP Dick Cheney to make an exception for torture by the CIA in Iraq or Afghanistan.
For the new ISAF-mission in Uruzgan, the United Kingdom and Canada have committed forces and Dutch troops are following special training assignments in preparation, and Minister of Defense Kamp has been an advocate for Dutch participation.
Minister Bernhard Bot as Foreign Minister has the possibility to veto the committment when the U.S. cannot provide adequate information and when the peace and security mission of the Dutch forces under ISAF interferes with the military operation Enduring Freedom.
The Dutch cabinet has requested written promises of the Afghan government, that prisoners handed over by the Dutch will be treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, will not be tortured during interrogation and cannot receive a death sentence.
Enjoy Thanksgiving Day!
LEAVE Iraq to the Iraqis
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
our sad little feast for two. Decades ago I left behind all the uber meanings of this day and focused on the immediate family and food preparation aspects.
This year it was just Hubby and me and we feel really sad about it. No ballet in the kitchen as we both swirl thru the preparations of our respected specialties. No table-full of hungry relations and friends drooling in anticipation. Each of us has referenced having Thanksgiving “alone” even tho we have each other.
We got the sad news today that Hubby’s oldest granddaughter lost her virginity to a swine who had another girlfriend on the side. The poor girl’s mother is a fundie and the child is now awash in suicidal despair over her “sin.” After reading a couple of diaries today reminding me of Christian barbarism in regards to Native Peoples, I am having a fiercely anti-Xtian day. Don’t get me wrong: I love Jesus; I just hate most of the people who claim to be his followers.
The whole standard of expecting hormonal teenagers to “save themselves for marriage” is a recipe for failure. Now, I am concerned that the girl was kept ignorant of birth control. Now, we wait to see if she’s pregnant from this misadventure. I have declared that I want her to come and live with our liberal, pagan selves. I want to assure her that she’s done no harm to her soul; she’s just learned her first lesson in how untrustworthy teenage boys can be. <heavy sigh>
WHoa, that’s just like last night’s episode of Law and Order. Fundie girl broke her “Golden Promise”, i.e. to remain a virgin until marriage, and then became pregnant. She’s too scared to tell her fundie dad so she waits many weeks then runs away to New York to have an abortion. Only it turns out it’s a fake abortion clinic and the fundie doctor tells her she has a fever and can’t perform the abortion for a couple more weeks, and then she’s more than 24 weeks so he can’t legally do it. So she has her boyfriend beat her in the stomach with a lamp until she miscarries.
That’s just scary on so many levels, but mostly because it probably happens. I hope she comes to live with her cool grandparents who can deprogram her.
I don’t watch Law and Order. I think the only way the mother will send us the girl is if she’s pregnant. Ya’ know, send her out of town to “hide her shame.” Personally, since I was adopted and if abortion had been legal I might not have been born, I’ve got conflicted feelings on this issue.
But this girl is not yet 18 and if, given a clear and reasonable environment, she decided to go forward with her plans to attend college next fall, then I told Hubby I would support telling her mother she had a “miscarriage.” I don’t want her life to be ruined because she was ill prepared to cope with pressure from her boyfriend. The whole “Golden Promise” shit is such a crock.
The incident that L&O was based on happened in Macomb County, MI, and it was a plastic baseball bat. Because Michigan has a parental notification law and the teens were afraid to tell their parents and getting off school to try to get a judge’s permission would lead to having to explain playing “hooky”, they chose to end the pregnancy through a beating. The boy was tried and sentenced to probation and community service at a right to life pregnancy center.
sjct, I’m so sorry for your distress, and I hope you can give counsel and consolation to her. She needs your views if she is to keep her sanity and her sexuality from being permanently disarrayed.
keep us posted.
I think she’s going to be fucked up sexually for a long time because no one told her the way it is. Dammit, sex is good! But, every woman needs to have a clear appreciation of what motivates young men. Hell, even older men are ordered around by their “little head” and make declarations and promises they don’t intend to keep. Young women need to know that their power lies in withholding, not in giving in.
I really wish we lived in a natural society where young people were expected to express their sexual needs and were prepared to cope by knowing disease and pregnancy prevention. The old “you’re going to hell if you let him touch you” routine just plain doesn’t work. Granddaugher being exhibit #1.
Just finished the first round. I can cook, thanks Mom all those years ago for making her boys learn to cook. And the secret is–Tah Dah–The ancient and beloved Fannie Farmer Cookbook which remembers the cooking times you forget every year. Plus, the candied yams came out perfect and the carrots and peas came out just right and, if I do say so myself, I make a good turkey gravey. Never could understand northerners who ate turkey without gravy. Shocked the heck out of my helpless male housemates.
Now for round two late tonight, turkey open face sandwiches on sourdough bread tomorrow. Turkey noodle cassarole and Turkey Soup! the next four days are covered.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody.
at the desk at LAX today asked my GF for her PASSPORT because she was traveling to Bangor, Maine. Agent stated that was not part of the USA. Fortunately, someone else corrected her. This was a 50ish woman, didn’t look new to the job or anything. Now, on one hand, it’s amusing ’cause Maine has more in common with the Maritime Provinces than many parts of the US…but on the other hand..how appalling…yes, I know 1 out of 7 Americans can’t find our country on a world map but a ticket agent not knowing a state? sheesh. On the good news side, my sweetie will be home in a few hours. 🙂
You should call your local newspapers … they love that kind of story. That’s just awful!
That is truly terrifying. No ticket agent left behind.
I’ve heard people say, and sometimes I tend to agree: We should secede and join Canada. In addition to the goodies like health care and a sane government, we’d be on the back end of the time zone instead of at the beginning of it–thus later sunsets this time of year.
fake turkeys into Iraq today – just relaxing at the Texas WH.
Maybe they’ll give him some pretzels to snack on tonight.
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≈ Cross-posted from my diary —
Scanlon Pleads Guilty in Conspiracy ¶
Jack Abramoff & Rep. Bob Ney Accused ¶ Updated ≈
A Dozen Lawmakers Helped Tribes Get Federal Money
WASHINGTON (15 min. ago) – Through letters and legislation, more than a dozen lawmakers stepped in to protect a school funding program for Indian tribes while reaping political money from the tribes, their lobbyist Jack Abramoff or his firm.
The members of Congress came from both parties, including House Appropriations subcommittee Chairman Charles Taylor, R-N.C., and Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, the top Democrat on the Senate committee currently investigating Abramoff.
… and most received donations, ranging from $1,000 to more than $74,000, in the weeks just before or after their intervention. One used Abramoff’s restaurant for a fundraiser a month after a letter. As a group, they collected more than $440,000 from Abramoff, his firm or his tribal clients between 2001 and 2004, when Abramoff represented the tribes.
But ethics rules require lawmakers to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest while performing official duties. This requirement became famous a decade ago during the Keating Five scandal when several lawmakers got in trouble for pressuring regulators on behalf of Charles Keating while taking donations from the savings and loan operator.
According to a former Assistant U.S. Attorney Melanie Sloan, who runs a watchdog group:
“We’re going to see an awakened Justice Department after years of turning a blind eye to the tie between legislative action and campaign donations. Members of Congress ought to be in general quaking today and thinking a little more about what they’re willing to do for those contributions.”
THE HILL – Robert Ney “Mayor of Capitol Hill”
Oversaw the Process for Awarding the Wireless Contract
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY