A murder of cake

As I was walking out to the trash with the turkey carcass, I got to thinking about an English wedding I attended. How did I get from turkey to wedding?

Well, at the wedding I noticed there was a tiny wedding cake, not nearly large enough to feed even a tenth of the people there. It seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. I could see that cake running out by the time the bridesmaids got their cut. That’s how small it was.

Then something peculiar happened. The newlyweds cut the cake, each had their ceremonial bite and put the rest on the table. Then. No one ate any more cake.

So I had to ask someone. What is the deal with the cake? Is a fake or something?

I was told it was indeed a real cake and I was very welcome to have some but I would likely spit it out, that’s how bad this cake was.

I went over and took a closer look. It was a freaky color, burnt orange or something like that. A rich fruit cake. Rich! They told me it was a tradition to serve it at weddings in England and no one ever eats it, but they do it because that is how it has always been done.

What a murder of cake.

Tradition sometimes just doesn’t make sense. And that brings us back to the turkey.

I hate turkey. The taste, the smell, and then the leftover meat that is wasted. I have decided I will never cook another one again. If someone insists on having it, I’ll cook a turkey breast. But no more full birds.

As for the English, what I find really funny is how beautiful their cakes are. Look at these I photographed through a bake shop window in York in 2005. I apologize for the quality of the photos.

I love that castle cake.

And the cute bears in a tub.

Oh, what a murder of cake photos…

Why Debone?

People who have not had a turkey this way ask “why debone?”

Besides it being a new twist (I’m a writer, I’m big on twists) on an old tradition, it’s great if you have a small oven and a big turkey. It also cooks faster, doesn’t tend to dry out, and the seasonings are more uniform throughout. When it’s time to carve it up, well, there is no carving. You just slice right through it like butter and everyone gets to eat it while it’s still hot.

Here’s a photo of the deboned turkey I roasted for Thanksgiving.

I didn’t stuff it since I don’t like my stuffing all sogged up with turkey drippings. After deboning, I rubbed it it with Cajun seasoning (Tony’s is good), some minced garlic, and about a stick of melted butter, then let it marinate for a few hours. It only took three hours in a 325 degree oven to cook. Considering this was a 26 pound turkey (bone in weight), I’ve lessened my carbon footprint along the way.

Here’s a good tutorial on Youtube if you want to know how to debone a turkey or a chicken. If you like to cook, you might want to consider trying it this way. Just make sure you have a sharp knife.

After a lovely dinner with my family and some friends, we all watched Wall-E. It’s a CG animated film, but I don’t think it was made for little kids. It’s about a robot that lives alone on Earth 800 years into the future, when humans have destroyed the planet with garbage and God knows what else. The humans have all gone to live in outer space on a luxury cruise liner where everything is so automated they have all gotten obese and can’t even walk because they’ve lost bone density (that’s what happens if you don’t exercise).

Anyway, poor Wall-E is on Earth cleaning up all the trash and trying to get the Earth inhabitable again for the humans to return. It’s an excellent movie and is out on DVD now.

A couple of our guests mentioned that they saw people were already lined up at Best Buy for their after Thanksgiving Day Sale. This was a full 16 hours before the store opened.

So we all took a ride out to the Best Buy near our house and sure enough, people were really lined up. Some of them had tents. Here’s a photo.

I rolled down the window and asked a guy in line what he was buying. He said a plasma tv for $599. A woman farther back in line said she was buying a laptop computer for $399.
Everyone seemed to be in a wonderful mood, I guess it was sort of like a party out there for them, something different to do.

Blane couldn’t wrap his mind around it. “Why don’t they just go work somewhere for a few hours to make up the difference and buy it at regular price?”

Although I’ve never camped out at a store for deal like that, I have punched a time clock. I can see not wanting to do my regular job, rather hanging with other bargain hunters for the night instead. Also, these people might not have the opportunity to put in extra hours at work. I can understand that.

At about three this morning Scrappy had a panic attack. That means one of two things. Garbage man or big storm. Looked out the window and it was like a monsoon rain.

I feel for the people in that line right now. I hope there was someone in that store to let them inside the first set of double doors to wait out the storm.

Happy Thanksgiving

I began preparing for the feast a couple of days ago by baking the pumpkin from Halloween.

350 degree oven for an hour.

I ended up with 20 cups of pumpkin meat so I packaged most of it and shipped it to the freezer.

I saved some for this pumpkin bread using this recipe.

Which is delicious.

The pumpkin pie did not turn out so well. It is inedible. Probably put too much egg in it. Yuck. What a disaster.

I deboned a turkey and now am too tired to do anything with it. So I’m left with this long sheet of raw turkey which at one time got so knotted up and inside out I had to just stop and laugh. It’s so heavy and floppy (26 pounds) and the skin was all over the place. I managed to get it all seasoned and rolled up and will wake up early and stuff it or something.

After a little bit of sleep, I will continue making the goods and by the time everyone gets here I will be thankful that it is almost all over with and I can relax.

It’s easier than Christmas, at least i won’t have to have presents for everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving, I’m going catch a few zzzzzz’s.

Wait. Check out Cartoon Network’s float at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade:

Coming Down

Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone stayed as sweet and cheerful as they were around Christmastime? Isn’t it funny how people open doors for you, smile for free, and help random strangers during the Holidays, then go back to being their same old nasty selves as soon as December 25th is crossed off the calendar?

Just a thought.

So here is my turkey deboning ordeal. It wasn’t that difficult, I used that link in my Cajun Christmas post and pretty much just shaved meat from bone.

I stuffed it with garlic and cornbread dressing, sewed it up with some unflavored dental floss, and put it in the oven. It turned out to be the best turkey we’ve ever had. It’s nice not to have to fight the bones when carving it.

The girls and I made a strawberry cake in the Christmas tree Bundt pan:

We exchanged gifts:

That was Sweetpea’s gift to Spanky. It cracked me up that she didn’t wrap the present. She says it’s what’s inside that counts. I agree. I know she spent four hours looking for the right gift and used her own money. Her thoughtfulness on that end is what’s special about it. That she didn’t waste any money making it look pretty and was bold enough to hand her sister something in a bag, well I just love that. It also reminds of the broke days when we used to wrap presents with the comic section of the newspaper.

Blane and Angela came over with their new puppy, Loo-B, and we all played Catch Phrase. It’s a fun game if you have a lot of people. Some of Sweetpea’s friends came over, so we had a crowd. In fact we had a hard time shutting it down.

Loo-B passed out on Spanky’s lap.

I hope you all had a great Christmas.