Cherry Smoked Turkey and Fixinz

 The forth Thursday in November is Culinary Nirvana.  Chefs spend months thinking about this one day, and how to make it perfectly sublime.  We want to Wow! everyone, and make them say "This is the Best meal I have ever had."  Sure, not so easy for the Chef, but everyone delights with the creation of the Perfect Thanksgiving Meal...

Well, you gotta haz The Big Bird.  Not really the biggest, just big.  Turkeys are ambiguous, overbreeded specifically for Thanksgiving.  Turkeys probably outnumber humans.  I know Chickens do.  That is because they are delicious.  Om nom nom nom...  So there are some very specific, and deliberate things you have to do to "The Big Bird" to make it Thanksgiving savvy.  Brine, uh...  Salt Water...  Very Important!  Smoke...  Even more Important...  Culinary skills are perhaps the apex of importance.  To take a raw Turkey to "The Best Thing I have ever ate" takes skills, and not easily acquired skills.  I have around three and a half decades invested in what I do...

One of the accolades I enjoy is Gravy.  The Turkey concurs...  You must make Gravy...  My process includes the acquisition of Turkey Fat.  It is a quintessential element of Thanksgiving Gravy...  Thanksgiving cannot proceed with out it...  Traditionally there is Giblet Gravy.  Well, over time I think I like Mushroom Gravy better.  So this year it is Mushroom Gravy.  It still has the Turkey Dripping from baking the Turkey at a low temperature before we smoke it.  This year I baked the Turkey at 350F for around an hour, then reduced the temperature to 225F overnight, around 6 hours.  This let the Turkey come up to temperature over a long period of time, rendering the fats necessary to make Gravy.  Then in the morning I built a Cherry Wood Fire, and smoked the Turkey for around an hour.

Then there is the Stuffing, er, uh, Dressing, also a Thanksgiving Ubiquity...  You Must Have Stuffing (Dressing)!  It is a unwritten rule...  It just haz to be there...  If you at the Fanny Farmer Cookbook, specifically at Cornbread Stuffing, there is a 50/50 mix of Bread, and Cornbread.  OK, yea, I live in Texas, and we know Cornbread Stuffing...  Mix up a batch of Jiffy Cornbread (Denton, Texas), and bake it off.  Let it sit for a day, and then dice it up.  Get some nice rustic sourdough, and dice it up.  Saute some Celery, Onions, and Mushrooms in Butter, then throw in the Breads, some Herbs (Weed), and some Chicken Stock.  Load them into a Pan, and bake it off at 350F for 20 minutes.  The combination of the Cherry Smoked Turkey, Cornbread Stuffing, and Mushroom Gravy is almost perfect.

The last, perhaps most important thing, is the Cranberries.  The perfect Thanksgiving has to have this Sweet Tart addition.  This is a contrastural addition to the Thanksgiving Dinner.  Everything that we have made before this has been Savory.  We need this Sweet Tart contrast to smack your palette to the other end of the spectrum every once in a while.  This resets your palette, and when you go back to savory it is really delicious again.  It is Umami, but in a Uniquely American Way...  Trust The Plan...  Patriots are in control...  and...  Bon Apetit ala Americana...

Friday the 13th Crescent Moon

 Today has some interesting astronomical phenomena to be seen.  One day before the New Moon, on Friday the 13th we have a conjunction of Mercury, Venus, and this nice Crescent Moon.  Also, Mars is going direct today.  It is interesting both astronomically, and astrologically.  This should make for an interesting day...  LOL!

Beef Lo Mein

 I've been playing with Asian Spices again.  That and the Beefz.  Cherry wood smoked Beefz.  Homemade noodles are always better than take out.  This one is Beef, Mushroom, and Onion...

Lets look at the Beefz first.  I am not starting with raw meat.  My Grill was down when I made this so I used the Smoker.  I don't usually smoke steaks. but it was the only option this time.  This was a couple Chuck Steaks that I seasoned with my usual rub, Tony Chachere's, and Black Pepper.  Then they hung out in the Cherry Wood smoke for around an hour.

This is the next day after I prepared the Beefz, and they are cold.  This helps to make nice thin slices.  Then we need some Beef compatible vegetables.  My favorite are Mushrooms, and Onions chopped into large pieces.

This is an Asian flavored preparation, but I am still going to start with butter, and not oil.  It's a country boy thing.  Also I am using Extra Wide Egg Noodles instead of Lo Mein Noodles.  I don't like messing around with noodles that are too long.

Once the vegetation softens up, and the Egg Noodles are cooked I'll add the Beefz into the pan with the vegetation to warm it up.  Then dump in the Egg Noodles and mix them up.  The last thing is the Asian flavor.  This time I have used Soy Sauce, and toasted Sesame Seed Oil.  Itz Nomz Time...

August Barbeque

Wow, it's a nice day out there.  Really mild for August in Texas, low 90s.  It makes me want to play with Fire!  Apple Wood Smoke specifically.  I found some Pork Shoulder cuts at the grocery store today, and Apple Wood Smoke seems like the right way to cook them right now.

I am simplistic with the seasoning so that the smoke flavor can stand out.  All of this drives Harley krazy.  He's been waiting for the Barbeque for many hours, and getting restless about it.  I like a fairly light smoking of the Pork, and I'll keep it in the smoke for two or three hours.

Also I like to use cuts of the Pork Shoulder Roast, and not the whole Pork Shoulder, sometimes called a Boston Butt, or Pork Butt.  The reason I use cuts is to get more surface area to season, and smoke the Pork.  Better flavor penetration is the whole idea.  Then after smoking I put the Pork in the Crock Pot for several hours.

At this point the flavor is delivered, but now we need to use slow, and steady heat to breakdown the connective tissue in the pork.  This gives the correct texture to the meat, and when it is done it will be like Pulled Pork.  Finishing in the Crock Pot also produces Au Ju, the meat juices, which I will then add to the Beans I have prepared separately.  This is Sunday Nomnomz...

 Once all the cooking is done I package the Pork and Beans in 12 oz. containers, and label them with both the preparation date, and the expiration date.  This is a little side business that has earned a formidable reputation where I work.  I have people asking about when I am going to start cooking again.  Well, I guess now is the right answer...

Charlie Brown Christmas Tree...

We had one of our Bradford Pear Trees die this year. Over the past few weeks we had the dead tree removed. Then, last Thursday, we had the stump ground down. So, I had a big pile of mulch in the front yard, and needed to do something with it. Hmm, well I do have a potted Pine Tree in the back yard. Lets see what we can do with a big pot, a pile of mulch, a pile of clay soil from a post hole, a bunch of stones, and a small Pine Tree...

 and the pile of mulch...

Greenhouse Stub Fence

I've been working on a way to seal the south end of the garden from my little garden glutton.  Given the opportunity Harley will eat everything in the garden.  Yes he is just a walking stomach.  Previously I had an impromptu piece of wood blocking the north side of the greenhouse to the garden.  Well, that wasn't really a good solution, and it was deteriorating.  So, I had a need to replace it, and also one of the fence posts broke adjacent to the spot I wanted to add this stub fence.

Above is the finished stub fence.  Below is where I started.  On the right there is a broken post on the outer fence.  Need to fix that, but also wanted to tie the outer fence into the greenhouse frame to make this stub fence.  The greenhouse has been in this state for about seven years.  It is time to do some renovation.

I cleaned out the greenhouse several weeks ago, and that gave me some ideas about where I wanted to go with it.  At first this was a legitimate greenhouse that I used to start plants.  Then I kept building on it, and the Trumpet Vine grew over it, so it wasn't as useful as a greenhouse.  Then it was repurposed to overwinter plants.  Well, it wasn't sealed very well, and the heater broke, so it failed that mission.  After that it became sort of a garden shed for the power equipment, and garden tools.

So, first I need a new post for the outer fence.  This is a regular thing for me.  The outer fence was built with Cedar posts, and they just don't last very long.  So, when they break I replace them with Pressure Treated Pine Posts.  Also, I use two posts per panel in the middle of the runners instead of at the ends.  This doubles the strength of the fence.

Post holes are tough to dig in this Texas Clay Soil, and it is oppressively hot during the day, so I've been digging my post holes at night.  I did this one at about 10 PM.  It's still hot, but not beat you down, and burn you to a cinder hot.  Also I have added a 2x4 support beam on the greenhouse to support the runners that hold the slats.

Previously I had tried to seal the greenhouse for overwintering plants.  Well, that didn't work too well.  So, now I am going for a flow through design to let the air freely circulate through the greenhouse.  This involves removing that materials that I had previously used to seal the greenhouse.  I've pulled the slats off the sides of the greenhouse to remove the plastic sheeting, and I'll replace the slats with an air gap between them.

Then, finally, the white door has to go.  It was another attempt to seal the greenhouse.  Again, didn't work very well.  I am going to replace it with a gate type half door that can be folded back against the greenhouse on the right.  After cleaning all of this up the last thing to do is to put the slats back on.  This has been a neat project over the last week.  Now I got to hit that Trumpet Vine again...

Saured Kraut

This is the Red Sauerkraut after 6 days.  It is starting to get that "Kraut" smell which I sense as Chlorine Dioxide.  It has a very chlorinated smell.  This may be why Cabbage is a Super Food, possibly a Super Healing Food because it outgasses Chlorine Dioxide.  Cruciferous Vegetables are known to have super health enhancing properties, and maybe also some healing benefits, but what if it is more.  What if Sauerkraut can kill viruses?  I know that the Lactobacillus Acidophilos will take over a culture, and kill off all other inoculations.  What if it also kills off viruses?  I don't know but, I do know that eating Sauerkraut gives me Mega-Energy, and makes me feel like a Super Hero...