Saturday, December 20, 2008

Three Pictures

Another balmy day yesterday -- the Christmas greenery and red bows look oddly out of place in all the sunshine. I love the Georgia O'Keeffe look of the deer skull ( a gift from a roving dog.)



This year's baby chicks are full grown now and beginning to lay -- handsome birds, all of them. Note the black beard on the biddy at the rear -- a common trait amongst Ameruacanas/Aruacanas



Miss Susie Hutchins poses by the Shaker boxes, ignoring her nemesis who lurks on the stairs.

A hasty post as we have 20 some folks coming for dinner tonight. Time's a-wasting! Turkeys to dry rub, a ham to glaze, lemon squares to bake . . .



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5 comments:

Pat in east TN said...

It does seem a bit strange having such warm weather, but over here they're saying the temperatures will drop drastically, although no white Christmas for us.

Today is my marathon baking day!

Vicki Lane said...

The butter is softening for my lemon squares even as I type!

Tammy said...

Your rooster looks so similar to mine. (a picture of mine is located in the sidebar of my blog, if you scroll down). I love the color combinations on them. Your chicks did turn out to be a lovely bunch. I have homemade granola baking in the oven, and then I'm hunkering down to the task of (as Pat says)marathon baking!
Have a great day.
Tammy

Kathryn Stripling Byer said...

Vicki, how do you do your turkey? I've never tried the brine route. Do you go that way? I've gotten tired of the same old holiday way of doing things.
We have five dogs in right now. I don't think we humans really live in this house anymore. It reminds me of the house years ago on the way into Sylva that was inhabited only by goats.
Hope you and yours have a lovely holiday. K.

Vicki Lane said...

Hey Tammy -- Ummm . . homemade granola! Justin's girlfriend Claui make a wonderful version that includes tiny bits of crystallized ginger. And yes, our roosters ould be twins!

Kay -- I don't brine my turkey because I usually buy whatever's on sale and they are invariably 'injected' with something or other, broth, I guess, to make them juicy.

Our Thanksgiving turkey usually gets a mixture of red currant jelly, butter, and thyme leaves under the breast and thigh skin as well as being basted with this yummy stuff.

Our Christmas party is tonight and John is deep frying two turkeys by the Martha Stewart recipe here-

http://www.garlicvalleyfarms.com/recipe4.html

I just use the dry rub -- don't do the brining or injecting.

We almost never have turkey for Christmas dinner. Last year we had stuffed pork tenderloin -- this year we're having duck.

Merry Christmas to all you "hot sweaty women in the kitchen." (That's a line from an ancient Jonathan Winters comedy album that has entered our family language.