Another Fine Evening Of Properly Wasted Time

This month's Third Thursday Dinner (from here on out called "3RD") was a success (despite a slight fiasco in timing with the damn turkey). Yet again, my mad turkey-cooking 5k1llz were frustrated by a non-popping pop-out thermometer and inconsistent temperature readings in the meat. In the end, however, the turkey was delightfully juicy and tasty, and no one has been sick as yet...

This 3RD was a Turkey Day celebration, with a 21 pound bird, a tray of dressing (no stuffing, thank you very much...stuffing only in the DFA/Smacky household), fresh green beans sauteed with butter and almonds, and fresh rolls. Oh and for dessert: a pumpkin pie, with fresh-whipped whipped-cream. All of it made from scratch, except the turkey and the pie which we bought. I changed up the recipe a little from the last time we made a holiday dinner, and was pleasantly surprised. Less rosemary this year, in its place some celery seeds...both of them ground really fine with a mortar and pestle. Then a pinch of paprika and cayenne brought out excellent flavor in both the turkey as well as the dressing. The dressing had four breads this year: pumpernickel, rye, potato, and whole wheat. YUM!

Horrory brought a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau, Nemo brought a bottle of strong Italian table wine. We provided a merlot and a couple chards. We polished off a fair amount of wine, evidenced in part by the gaggle of three giggling women sitting at the dining room table, cackling almost to the point of peeing themselves, while wearing their dinner napkins around their face, calling themselves "The Turkey Bandits." No, I'm not making this up. Yes, you read that right. "The Turkey Bandits." That shit stopped quick when I said something about veiled women needing to defer to men's needs and putting out on demand...that made the Turkey Bandits unmask pretty darn quick. Heh.

Nico brought a couple bottles of mead, meant for dessert, but it was so late by the time we were ready for dessert, people had to start sobering up. So we saved the mead for December's 3RD.

All in all, an excellent evening, despite a few problems. Food, drink, friends...that's what life's all about. Or, "DRINK! GIRLS! FECK!" as Father Jack would say.