Tag Archives: Thanksgiving

And the Hickory Smoke drifts Skyward

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The turkey is in the smoker; an 11 pound specimen1 buttered, seasoned, and lightly stuffed with citrus, apple, and onion.2 The fowl is over a water pan, to which some wine and additional seasonings have been added. And the hickory chips and chunks are now working their magic.

It is a little windy for my liking today; it seems that I was always downwind from the smoke. Oh, well, it will turn out OK anyhow.

Now for some live booze testing, as we await the checking and reprovisioning of the water pan at 2PM or so.

-k-
[stags]Holiday, Thanksgiving, Eats[/stags]

1 Free Range, Organic – from Trader Joe’s.

2 No, we don’t eat that stuff.

Soakin’

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Home from work, earlier than normal, but it still wasn’t like getting cut loose at 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Sipping a cold one, and soaking the hickory chunks for the turkey smoking extravaganza tomorrow. My little bride has cleaned the smoker, and lined the fire pan and water pan with foil. We just estimated that our smoking apparatus is around 30 years old; what it lacks in elegance has been more than repaid by all the good eats we’ve prepared in it.

Here is how we prepare our smoked beast.

-k-
[stags]Holiday, Thanksgiving, Eats[/stags]

Safe Travels

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To all who take to the roads (or heaven forbid, the skies) today, please travel safely. I’m doing my part, I’m only going to work and back, and plan to spend the holiday ensconced here at tbbs WorldHQ. In that fashion, there will be one less vehicle adding to the congestion.

Happy Thanksgiving!
-k-
[stags]Holiday, Thanksgiving[/stags]

Turkey Day

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SWMBO and I usually smoke a smallish (11-13 pounds) turkey on Thanksgiving. We have a meal or two and save some breast meat for some sandwiches for the next week. On the Monday after Thanksgiving, SWMBO takes all the dark meat off the carcass, slices it up, and takes sandwich fixin’s to treat her co-workers. Last year, we were in Arkansas for Thanksgiving. Her co-workers were really bummed about not having their Monday Morning Turkey, so we promised to do one for New Year’s.

It’s smoking up a storm right now, and best part of all is there are no firefighters in sight.

-k-

A Tale of Two Networks

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I’d previously bemoaned the fact that my brother-in-law’s CableCo doesn’t carry the NFL Network, resulting in our not watching the Kansas City Chieves on Thanksgiving night. Scott, aka The Fat Guy, suffered through listening to his Cowpokes on the radio, since he couldn’t get NFLnet.

Only yesterday, I wrote about NASCAR’s HotPass package for 2007.

Let’s compare and contrast the two plans:

Neither the NFL nor NASCAR is ashamed to squeeze the last nickel out of fans, but the NFL’s network is in the position of browbeating CableCos, SatelliteCos, et.al., into carrying it. And the NFL wants the carriers to pay them up front, and oh by the way, please put NFLnet in your base package lineup. The result is spotty coverage for the network at best, and the ones who lose are the fans, who are deprived of the chance to see their team play. To say nothing of market penetration and such.

Now, look at NASCAR. Fox Sports has paid dearly to carry NASCAR events next year; on their own, Fox developed the HotPass idea, ran it by NASCAR, who loved it. Presumably, NASCAR got paid again for HotPass. Fox is providing the additional cameras, equipment, and announcers to make it a reality. Now, Fox has subscriptions to sell, with making a profit in mind. In the meantime, conventional race coverage is not affected; fans won’t miss out on what they’ve had for years. Those who opt-in can have a real value add in HotPass.

So let’s sum up: NFLNet tries to squeeze out more money, by providing just another means to distribute an existing product. It can hardly be argued that Bryant Gumbel and Chris Collinsworth bring much to the microphone to make the telecasts sizzle.

NASCAR, having already been paid, probably twice, provides another way for the fans to enjoy the sport, without taking away what anyone already has.

-k-

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DirecTV Channel 212

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That would be the NFL Channel, on which Baltimore and Cincinnati are now playing the Thursday Night game. I don’t care much about the outcome of the game, I just wanted to see whether DirecTV carried it. I missed the Kansas City Chieves (against Denver at that) on Thanksgiving night, because my brother-in-law’s cable company doesn’t carry the NFL Channel.

The NFL wants money and lots of exposure for the channel, evidently more than the CableCos are ready to fork over at the moment. Aside from being an argument for switching to satellite, it’s a classic case of the market at work. No one has a “right” to see a sporting event, and as a customer in the market, an individual can either petition the NFL and Cable, forget the whole thing, or switch to satellite.

The above all sounds great until the Washington Redskins, or some other team favored by one of our congressional representatives, is relegated to an appearance on the NFL Channel. If cable doesn’t carry it, all sorts of pressure will be brought to bear on cable, the NFL, and anyone else they can think of, to preserve some “right” that isn’t a right at all.

-k-

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Lots of Good Reasons to Drive

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Via Homeland Stupidity, many reasons to avoid TSA ineptitude at airports around the country.

Pies are common fodder during Thanksgiving; however, travellers who had the misfortune to go through Cleveland were met with:

Thousands of Americans this holiday season are going to go without Grandmother’s homemade pie, because the Transportation Security Administration has apparently banned pies from aircraft. “In the last two days, we have taken a dozen baked pies,” Rick DeChant, TSA assistant federal security director at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. But the pies didn’t get thrown out like all the other potentially explosive liquids seized at the checkpoint. Instead, the potentially explosive pies were fed to soldiers waiting for connecting flights in the USO lounge.

Cleveland was presumably the only airport so afflicted.

There are plenty of good links in the referenced article; read the whole thing. Pay special attention to the DHS alert warnings and what they mean for the rest of us.

Now, I’ll offer a solution to this mess: stop flying. The TSA operates on the whims of individual, untrained, government-bureaucrat wannabes, with security of the airline system not even a by-product. The TSA has done nothing in its 5+ years of existence, there is no review of its processes, if there are in fact any processes to be reviewed, and the cost to the taxpayers is astronomical. So: stop flying.

If enough people stop flying, the market will move the airlines to get the message, and pressure will hopefully be brought to bear against this inane security theater.

There may even be a little “No Fly Zone” banner flying from this blog in the near future.

-k-

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Happy Thanksgiving

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From Hot Springs AR, where SWMBO and I arrived tired and crabby yesterday afternoon. A good night’s sleep, and excellent weather, and we’re much better now.

I’m posting this from the blog’s admin interface; a first for me. I’m also using my brother-in-law’s Windows powered machine to post. I’ll try not to make the Windows thing a habit.

Happy Thanksgiving, and safe travels to all.

-k-

The Road Show Rolls On

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West to Memphis, across the Mighty Mississip’, and then into Arkansas. 400 miles to go. If I’m not heard from for a day or two, blame my brother-in-law’s recalcitrant internet connection. Or my exuberant participation in depleting his liquor supply. Or both.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

-k-

Searching for America Tour No. 2

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SWMBO and I find ourselves in Nashville TN tonight, 2/3 or so of our way to Hot Springs AR for Thanksgiving. We drove; I’m so sick of TSA’s ineffectual security grandstanding that I’ll go to great lengths not to fly again.

Plus, when one improves the life-to-date mileage of a Buick Lucerne from 21.7 to 22.8, while simultaneously lifting the average lifetime speed of the vehicle from 45.3 to 47.9 MPH, it’s been a good day.

And, the only suckage was some as yet unexplained 2 hour delay west of Knoxville, wherein I-40 West was a parking lot. But a nice room, free wifi, and a few cold ones that can be had with a half-block walk to the Shell station, and life is good again.

400 miles from Hot Springs now; an early, though not too early start tomorrow, and we should be there in the early afternoon.
-k-