Harvest turkeys a few days before (photos not included)
Start cooking the day before (pies, cranberries, and other sides)
On Thanksgiving Day, get up at 5:00 a.m. to stuff the turkey
Put turkey in oven at 6:00 a.m.
Guests arrive at 12:00 p.m. with additional, amazing food contributions
Take turkey out of oven at 12:30 p.m. to rest
Bake bay-leaf-scented spoon rolls
Eat Hors d’oeuvres
Feast!
Apple and onion dressing (The Joy of Cooking) to stuff in the bird.
A 37 lb. turkey ready to bake with an olive-oil soaked cheesecloth covering the breast to moderate its cooking/moisture loss.
Bird stuff and trussed.
Until it is time to brown the bird, it bakes under cheesecloth soaked with olive oil.
For the first few hours, we bake the turkey in a foil tent in the oven
Foil-tented turkey in oven, ready to go.
Fresh, organic cranberries with orange zest jelled and ready to go. Recipe is typically on back of package. We substitute zest for juice with the orange.
Pies. Homemade, whole-wheat pie crusts with pumpkins and apples grown on the ranch.
A recipe for cider-brased collard greens with ham from Sunset, 2002. Modified on the ranch to include our organically grown Swiss chard and kale and smoked turkey instead of ham.
Bay-leaf scented spoon rolls. A recipe out of Sunset in 2002 that we have turned into tradition. The Bay leaves grow wild here on the ranch..
The recipe and dough for bay-leaf-scented spoon rolls.
Spooning spoon roll dough into the muffin containers.
Bay-leaf scented spoon rolls ready to go into the oven. The bay leaves grow locally (native).
A platter of our own goat cheese (chive, curry or lavender) with our persimmons and apples, and Trader Joe’s crackers.
Preparing a puffed-pastry dough with goat cheese and local garden veggies.
The table is set. The table is eastern black walnut that Neil and his father salvaged from a creek in Missouri. The chairs are also walnut, crafted by Amish artisans.
We un-tented the turkey at 10:00 a.m., four hours after putting it into the oven
The turkey is roasted
Looking outside over the Thanksgiving table.
That last of David and Neil’s tomatoes with home-made goat cheese, home-cured olives and a store-bought, organic cucumber.
David’s, cubed, North Carolina candy-roaster squash
Donna’s broccoli salad.
Mike’s yam casserole.
Brenda’s famous yam puff.
The pot of cider-brazed greens.
One of Brenda and Holly’s contributions: a gorgonzola / broccoli casserole.
White meat or dark?
Loading plates for the feast.
After feasting, we went out to visit the critters. Fun for all. Lucy loves Brenda, and Brenda loves Lucy!
Before: old carpet was on old linoleum glued to pine planks (not high quality or tongue-in-groove)
New floor (below) is hardwood (hickory) planks installed by Moore Flooring out of Oroville – highly recommended. Dillon and crew installed identical floors in our main house before we moved in. Pictures below show the new floor. We still need to buy, paint and install new baseboards.
A few nights ago, Maggie didn’t show up with the other goats. We got out the ATV and spotlights and trekked the mountain in the dark, hoping to hear or see her, but no luck. We did not know if she had been carried off by a predator, eaten something poisonous, escaped … Luckily, David found her curled up in a ravine the next morning. Unfortunately, she would not walk and one leg looked crooked. David carried her all the way home. Of course, that was a weekend and no vets available. So, we waited until we could get her to the vet and he confirmed a broken leg. He said, “For adult goats, we normally can’t remedy this. However, since she is so young, we can try a cast if you want to.” Well, Maggie is a registered, Nubian doeling and sweet as a button, and was homed with us after the rest of her family was killed by predators. So of course, we are trying the cast. Hope she has a speedy recovery! She does not like being separated from her new buddy, Guru.
We are uncertain what happened. She may have fallen, or while running slipped or stepped into a hole or log, or maybe even was rammed from the side by another goat. Since she was in a ravine, we suspect she slipped and tumbled. There was no sign of any other damage, and it was a clean break at the bottom growth plate of the big bone in the leg. The vet said goats often break their legs at the upper or lower growth plate on their legs, it’s a vulnerable spot (growth plate breaks are also common in other young animals and also in human kids).
Hopefully, when she goes back to the vet in a couple weeks for another X-ray, the bone and plate are still in the proper position and healing properly.
There are two sad stories with a happy ending here.
Some of you may remember Guru lost his sister, Story, after she had triplets. Guru is the big, Nubian/Kiko wether pictured above. Red Magnolia (“Maggie”) was the sole survivor of a predator attack on her family on a ranch a few miles from us. Maggie is the small Nubian doeling pictured above. After the attack, Maggie’s humans contacted us for a new home for Maggie. When Maggie arrived, we first put her in with some of the other kids her age (born this Spring), but they were not as accepting as we’d hoped. As soon as we sold Bucko this week, we put all the goats back together again. Immediately, Guru took to Maggie and Maggie to Guru.
Nobody messes with Maggie now. Maggie and Guru go everywhere together.
Pomegranate margs from juice we squeezed today, lime juice from Brenda and Holly’s limes, and then of course a little “agave” from south of the border.
David makes the enchiladas from scratch with our smoked turkey and fresh tomatillos from the garden for the sauce.
