Oregon Juncowatercolor on 140lb hotpress watercolor paper
Redwing Blackbirdwatercolor on 140lb hotpress watercolor paper
I found a nest like this once, and wondered in awe how the little mother recognized the reeds that were close enough to use...and how she kept the first grasses in place as she started to weave...and do the fathers know how to weave?
The day before Thanksgiving 2009...and this year it means nothing to me. Relatives aren't around...I'm just over an illness....things are peaceful and that's the way it will be tomorrow...peaceful and turkeyless...by choice. I've had many a year of full sized dinners stuffed with relatives...and mostly my giving. The younger generation works full time and can't cook anyway...haha. I'm afraid if they gave a dinner it would be tv dinners.
My turkeys always had the stuffing inside...which doesn't seem to be the popular thing these days....might get sick or something. Also, turkeys are cooked breast down these days...and have been for a few years but not when I started. Then I heard two more new things, (to me)
The first was a cooking show discussion on the best roasting pan to have...They had four...a $200 one...a$100 one...an $80 one and a cheap one for $50...ahh me. I won't bore you with the discussion and which one won or why....In the beginning I used to use a blue and white speckled roaster that was closer to fifty cents than fifty dollars and the turkey was great. Later, I used just the broiler pan and the little V shaped holder that turkeys rest in. Worked great.
The second new thing discussed the fact that the white meat and the dark meat needed different cooking times...the white meat a lower temp...so the plan was to line a huge bowl with bags of ice and put the turkey in upside down so the breast meat was resting on the ice. Then they put a bag of ice into the turkey cavity and another into the neck cavity. They left the turkey cooling until the white meat was 36 degrees...Then into the oven...and the two types of meat were supposed to come out perfectly. Well.....a lotta trouble unless all this works makes you supremely happy.
Hope your Thanksgiving is/or was just the way you want it...ours will be.
The day before Thanksgiving 2009...and this year it means nothing to me. Relatives aren't around...I'm just over an illness....things are peaceful and that's the way it will be tomorrow...peaceful and turkeyless...by choice. I've had many a year of full sized dinners stuffed with relatives...and mostly my giving. The younger generation works full time and can't cook anyway...haha. I'm afraid if they gave a dinner it would be tv dinners.
My turkeys always had the stuffing inside...which doesn't seem to be the popular thing these days....might get sick or something. Also, turkeys are cooked breast down these days...and have been for a few years but not when I started. Then I heard two more new things, (to me)
The first was a cooking show discussion on the best roasting pan to have...They had four...a $200 one...a$100 one...an $80 one and a cheap one for $50...ahh me. I won't bore you with the discussion and which one won or why....In the beginning I used to use a blue and white speckled roaster that was closer to fifty cents than fifty dollars and the turkey was great. Later, I used just the broiler pan and the little V shaped holder that turkeys rest in. Worked great.
The second new thing discussed the fact that the white meat and the dark meat needed different cooking times...the white meat a lower temp...so the plan was to line a huge bowl with bags of ice and put the turkey in upside down so the breast meat was resting on the ice. Then they put a bag of ice into the turkey cavity and another into the neck cavity. They left the turkey cooling until the white meat was 36 degrees...Then into the oven...and the two types of meat were supposed to come out perfectly. Well.....a lotta trouble unless all this works makes you supremely happy.
Hope your Thanksgiving is/or was just the way you want it...ours will be.
Beautiful paintings!
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of a turkey being cooked breast down. Interesting. I stuff mine on the inside with sausage dressing. All irrelevant for this weekend here though since I'm Canadian and Thanksgiving was in October here;-)
Oh great....now I want turkey;-)
ReplyDeleteYour art is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteahhh too long since I've had time to visit. But now, I have time. These are gorgeous birds.
ReplyDeletelove the song of the redwing blackbird. That is my daughter's name sake. wonderful
ReplyDeleteSounds like you will hopefully a peaceful and restful day today. I hope you are feeling better. I love these little bird paintings, truly. They bring with them a lovely fresh image of springtime.
ReplyDeleteLove your birds! Very very nicely done.
ReplyDeleteWe watched the same cooking program... ice and all. And $200 roasting pans. WTF? All I kept saying was "WTF?" I can't imagine me going thru all those steps to cook a turkey....although I was toying with cooking the turkey breast side down for a while. My luck would have the breast skin sticking to something and being pulled off when I went to turn the bird. But that will have to happen on another Thanksgiving. My daughter thinks I don't know anything so she cooked the turkey this time... again.
Oh My! How times are a changing. I sometimes wonder how I got my 5 children raised without killing them from laying them on their stomachs to sleep, to the cribs they slept in. And now all the hoola poolu about not stuffing the turkey, how did we live to be this old anyway, without food poisoning ourselves over the years? I wonder?
ReplyDelete