Turkey Prep

I do things differently...I'll be cooking and deboning my turkey today; boiling down the carcase for broth to use in the dressing tomorrow. I can't make true 'stuffing' in the bird, and there's no nice pretty presentation at the table, but with the meat reheated in a sprinkling of the broth it's moist, and, best of all, there's no messy carcase to deal with on feast day. My grandmother always make her turkey and dressing this way, and as a kid I felt deprived because we never had the traditional-looking table on Thanksgiving. But once I grew up enough to cook a turkey myself, I learned rather quickly that my grandmother (who was a professional cook and ran a country-style restaruant for a while) was on to something.

And yes, it will be yankee-style dressing with stale white bread. The first time I ate cornbread dressing was after I married and moved south. It was at a church carry-in Thanksgiving dinner...and I really believed that the lady that who'd made the dressing had messed up somehow. I'd never eaten gritty dressing before. I thought everyone who was complimenting her on her wonderful dressing was just being polite, and I was relieved that they were being so nice. But it turned out that she had made some especially good cornbread dressing. Live and learn.

But, I spent the bulk of the day yesterday scrubbing my kitchen and dinette floor (I won't embarrass myself by telling you the last time I really cleaned it, as opposed to swabbing it down with a wet Swiffer). As a reward, I let myself spend the evening sewing, and I got my Cityscapes dress done and a good amount of progress made on the holiday jacket. Here's a preview: I put one of the fronts on the scanner so as to show off the totally sharp pocket binding. ;)



I anticipate some sewing time today while the turkey cooks; my goal is to finish the jacket by Friday afternoon, so I can wear it in the required Annual Family Picture. But I won't sew (or post) tomorrow, so I'll wish everyone a happy and joyful Thanksgiving!