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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 11/23/2006 : 04:39:47
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The family is off to New Bern for Thanksgiving with my son-in-law's family this year. I'm still pretty much laid up & won't be going. Telle est guerre.....
I always enjoy this holiday. It is better than Christmas because there is so much less hassle; no frantic scurrying about trying to find suitable gifts for relatives and friends, who will probably exchange them for something they actually like anyway; no repetitive and endless and rather sticky music bleating from every commercial speaker within public earshot.
None of Bill O'Reilly's incessent & semi-coherent whining & snivvling & pissing & moaning about us atheists trying to ban it. 
I have been promised a generous doggy-bag platter from their feast, but have plans of my own in spite of it. I have, you see, a pork chop and a sweet 'tater.
Now as read, that doesn't sound like much. Howsomever, that chop is 1 1/2 inches thick and the 'tater is a fat one. I got the yam at the market and the chop from a friend who raises hogs on a small scale, and what I'm going to do, starting soon, is this:
I'll cut a pocket in the chop and stuff it tightly with onions, smoked garlic and an unseeded jalapeno pepper (also smoked), all bound together with a bit of cornbread, dried and rehydrated with chicken stock. I will lightly rub that chop with a mix of Hungarian paperika, onion powder, black and cayanne pepper, and sage. Usually, I put a little garlic powder in this, but there will be enough Frenchman's candy in the stuffing.
I will bake this lovely cannonball in a platter, standing upright on it's backbone end so that the fat will baste it as it cooks, The temperture will be about 250 degrees.
I will nuke the spud until almost done, then put it in with the chop to finish it off. I'll scoop it out of it's skin and mash it with butter and a finely chopped strip of bacon, salt and black pepper -- nothing fancy.
And then, happily ignoring the pitious entreaties of my abused and starving cat, I shall eat!
Even though I'll sorely miss the kids and grandkids, it's going to be an excellent, if quiet, Thanksgiving. May all of you, my friends in agreement and disagreement, on these boards, have at least the same!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 11/23/2006 : 04:52:46 [Permalink]
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Sounds like a fine Thanksgiving, Fil! You seem to be a country gourmand.
I'll drink a toast or five to you. I, too, will be going the solo route, aside from my little dog and one huge visiting one that my daughter left for me to sit while she's doing one of those "family" type holidays with her Chinese grandparents a few hundred miles away.
I have some fine beefsteaks squirreled away in the freezer, and plan to see what George Foreman can do with a few of 'em. That, and some A1 Sauce will be enough to make my belly happy, and the extra ones will keep the dogs from eating me when I nap.
Happy Thanksgiving, Fil, and the same to all you other lugs and luggettes, too!
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Original_Intent
SFN Regular
USA
609 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2006 : 06:48:43 [Permalink]
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A great blessing on Thanksgiving for all!
I am going to be surrounded by 30 people in my mothers mid-size house. It will be quite grand. Family in from Virginia, New York, and D.C. Plus all the locals. I have to say I am really looking forward to this. While crowds are generally not my thing, when I am surrouned by family, I am at my happiest.
Every Thanksgiving I take time to reflect upon all that I am thankful for, and also stop to question.....
Would'nt it have been better had the natives let them starve?
Peace
Joe |
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pleco
SFN Addict
USA
2998 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2006 : 08:25:37 [Permalink]
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quote:
Would'nt it have been better had the natives let them starve?
If only they had known....oh well, Happy Turkey Day to everyone! Remember to give thanks to Science and the FSM! |
by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2006 : 10:19:25 [Permalink]
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My family goes in many directions this year. Michelle will be with her parents. I will be with my mother and sister and her kids and lots of friends. Zachary will be with his mother. Tim will be with his girlfriends family. Sigh…
I will be making an apple, mushroom and sausage stuffing. (I refused to peal chestnuts.) Stuffing is now my job on Thanksgiving, as my stuffing has become the stuff of legend in these parts. And I will be making it for two families by request. (After cubing and toasting the egg bread, I rehydrate with the butter that I sauté the celery, mushrooms and onions in, which I do in a large sauce pan, do to the amount of butter that I use, and some stock. Anything with as much butter as I use in my stuffing is going to taste good. This is not a heart friendly food folks, but I only do it once a year…)
I have also been asked to supply our family's own recipe for creamed spinach, which I have tweaked to actually include some cream…
Once upon a time I would do the whole thing. But these days I am happy to not have to work a turkey. Even the fast cooking methods take a long time for prep. And I am very critical of the results. So while I may have several ways of cooking the perfect bird, it is still a long and arduous task best left for others to do.
I am sure I will be asked to make the gravy however, because I always am.
Here is the bonus for having any Thanksgiving that my mother is involved in. After fifty years of preparing fowl for my father, who only ate bird and sometimes seafood, she became so sick of bird that she will not eat it. So she always makes a prime rib as well. I will eat turkey and other fowl, but having grown up in that house, I too prefer the prime rib. The other bonus is that my mother was a chef. (In fact, all us kids learned to cook because we found much of the food we ate at other places, lacking…)
I'm not sure what the full menu is for this year, but it has never failed to be an awesome feast.
My only regret is that my very most immediate family (those I live with) will be in other places for various reasons that can't be helped. Oh well…
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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McQ
Skeptic Friend
USA
258 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2006 : 11:05:51 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by pleco
quote:
Would'nt it have been better had the natives let them starve?
If only they had known....oh well, Happy Turkey Day to everyone! Remember to give thanks to Science and the FSM!
I am absolutely giving thanks to science this year! Particularly, medical science, which has advanced enough to turn the two cancer diagnoses in my immediate family into non-terminal ones. How 'lucky' can you get to have primary papillary thyroid carcinoma in one person and Hodgkin's Lymphoma in another? Once you get a little perspective, you do feel lucky with these!
Would we have preferred no cancer? Duh! Yes. But in life, we don't get such choices, so I consider my wife and son to be fortunate in that they will survive these and continue normal lives.
So THANK YOU, SCIENCE! |
Elvis didn't do no drugs!
--Penn Gillette |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2006 : 11:36:48 [Permalink]
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So good to hear of the improvement in your family's health prospects, McQ! I'm a Hodgkin's survivor, myself. Got it way back in 1984, was diagnosed at Stage 3, yet survive cancer-free today. I give many thanks to a scientific treatment that was developed even before I was born. (And the back of my hand to a well-meaning New Age friend who'd tried to get me to refuse the treatment.)
May your family continue to thrive!
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2006 : 14:45:07 [Permalink]
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Gosh... reading all these posts makes me feel like this forum is some kind of community or something.
I'm here at my inlaws' house. They get Thanksgiving, and my family gets X-mas. My mother-in-law makes fabulous oyster stuffing, mashed potatoes, and sweet potato casserole. The only downside is that they cook the turkey a day before, cut it up, and keep it in the fridge over night. Then they microwave it for Thanksgiving day. But there is nothing like a beautifully browned turkey right out of the oven!
Fortunately my local grocery store gave me a free turkey - a 17 pounder! Will and I just bought a house and we're having a house warming party December 8th. I think I'll cook the turkey then. You know, impress the friends. Inspired by Kil's post above, think I'll make apple and sausage stuffing. And my special vegetarian chili for those wussie vegetarians. ;-)
Happy Turkey Day! |
"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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McQ
Skeptic Friend
USA
258 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2006 : 15:03:16 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by HalfMooner
So good to hear of the improvement in your family's health prospects, McQ! I'm a Hodgkin's survivor, myself. Got it way back in 1984, was diagnosed at Stage 3, yet survive cancer-free today. I give many thanks to a scientific treatment that was developed even before I was born. (And the back of my hand to a well-meaning New Age friend who'd tried to get me to refuse the treatment.)
May your family continue to thrive!
I remember you saying that, HalfMooner. I believe you received CHOP for it. Vicious chemo regimen, and not many choices of anti-emetics back then.
That just made me think of something.
Reminds me of the "When I was a kid" stories that people tell. You ought to go into some local cancer centers and talk to the patients:
"When I had Hodgkin's, we got CHOP...none of this sissy ABVD regimen! And we had to walk to chemo....uphill....both ways....in the snow!"
"You people with Hodgkin's now have it so easy..."
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Elvis didn't do no drugs!
--Penn Gillette |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 11/23/2006 : 16:35:05 [Permalink]
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Actually, what I got was called MOPP (Mustargen, Oncovin, Procarbazine, and Prednesone). While looking this up, I discovered that MOPP was "developed at the National Cancer Institute in the 1960s." So it wasn't as old as I thought.
No fun, but it beat the alternative.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 11/24/2006 : 01:59:40 [Permalink]
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Happy Turkey Day to you all too!
I wasn't sure how ours would go. This was the first time it was just me and Mike. But I made a small turkey, a few side dishes and it actually turned out nice.
If I had that turkey in the micro, Martha, I'd ask for mine cold on bread with mayo. That's really the best. It's funny though, how people all have these little traditional quirks. I have a picture every single year of my Dad (before he died) about to carve up the turkey. They all look the same except he has on some weird leisure suits in some of them. Those polyester leisure suits. Too weird.
Wow, your son and your wife, McQ? Some families just get more than their share of things. It is great what is being done with cancer these days. A friend of mine in high school died of Hodgkins. He went to Tiajuana for Laetril. Peach pitts were worthless but what do you do when other treatments were useless as well? He was only 21 when he died. But now the rate of cure is very high for Hodgkins.
You must have been a bit older of a Hodgkins patient HM? My friend died in the early 70s. I don't know what stage he was diagnosed at or what other treatment he got. It wasn't something he offered up in conversation.
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 11/24/2006 : 02:08:58 [Permalink]
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Glad you had a fine Thanksgiving, B.!
I was about 38 nor 39 when I was diagnosed in 1984, B. My oncologist (or maybe someone else) told me that the MOPP treatment was already 40 years old, but I guess that was incorrect, per Wiki. But maybe some of the MOPP ingredients had been used on Hodgkin's for 40 years.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 11/24/2006 : 03:35:23 [Permalink]
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Allen, we miss ya, bro..... You left us way too soon.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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