My driveway, Thanksgiving Day 2007
Here's a crazy thing about this part of Texas. Contrast this picture above with the one just before it.On Sunday, when I took that barn picture, it got up to the mid 80s F(29.5 C). Then suddenly a norther blew in, and when we woke up yesterday it was snowing and darn-tootin' cold -- only 28 F (-2 C)! You can see it even caught the trees, wearing their green leaves still, by surprise. It wasn't snow like Audrey gets in New York, mind you. But thankfully, here we usually have severe weather only a couple of times a winter. Otherwise, we spend the winter sunny and only mildly cold to just mild most days. Still, there is something about inclement weather that makes for a good winter holiday, all snug and cozy inside.
And by the way, my turkey was especially moist this year thanks to a tip I read online. Fill the cavity with ice cubes -- I guess I put in about 20 -- and as they melt, they create steam which helps keep it moist. Yummy!
6 comments:
Very interesting to hear the background behind the blue skies! Also to hear about New York. I have seen plenty of films with them skating on the ice in Central Park!
We don't get snow and ice like that here, though we used to. About twelve years ago I remember trying to pushing a pram around a park with snow about a metre high. When I was about ten I can remember huge drifts half the way up walls. If we get snow now it just lasts for one day, so we manage to get the kids pulled to school on a sledge and perhaps a little sledging action on a nearby railway embankment after school, if we are lucky. Good tip about the ice cubes. The one reliable source of ice nowadays!
Wow what an amazing contrast between the 2 days! You are lucky to have had a unique photo op dropped on your lap like that. I didn't know it snowed in Texas! Texa's in my mind has always been HOT with lots of cactus's!
It's hard to believe that it snows in TX, but it does! and everything stops functionning... kinda like Toronto, hehe (you'd think they've never seen snow before - it's chaos after every snow storm). We had the same weather as you these last few days, and a nice little snowball fight on the way back from school yesterday. I won.
Lovely turkey! Interesting technique to keep it moist - but is it safe? do you have to keep checking the internal temperature? I should try it, mine always sticks to the roof of my mouth.
What kind of stuffing did you make? We had our Thanksgiving a month ago, and I still have some turkey leftovers in the freezer - I've already tried turkey tetrazzini, but now what? any ideas?
Bev, it is disturbing to hear about changes in climate all over the world. So far, our area has not been as dramatic as you describe, but our weather in this part of Texas has always been prone to extremes. Frequently in the same day!
Lisa, Texas does have parts that never get snow. My mom in East Texas in the Piney Woods part of the state rarely gets snow because it doesn't get cold enough. But north of here, in the Panhandle Plains, those poor babies get miserable winters, frequently piled with snow and ice.
I guess we can thank John Wayne movies for depicting Texas as nothin' but cacti and hot. And we do have regions something like that (further west and further south). Texas -- as you might have heard once or twice, ha -- is a big state, with eleven distinct regions, each with its own weather and topography. So it's kind of hard to generalize Texas, afterall.
I live in the western part of the state, where three regions meet: Trans Pecos, Edwards Plateau, and High Plains. Maybe that's why our weather here is so erratic!
Map of the regions of Texas
Rima, thank you for the compliment on the turkey. I was pleased at how pretty it turned out.
I make my stuffing separate, using homemade chicken broth that I make throughout the year and freeze, and cornbread from scratch too. (I like stuffing a lot so its worth the effort to me.)
These days I always check the internal temperature of meat when I roast anything. Just too scary with all the weird bacteria around these days.
Leftovers! Egads, that's the eternal post-Thanksgiving question. I will freeze the leftover meat, too, and probably it will eventually all go into turkey enchiladas. (TexMex-style, but of course.)
Turkey tetrazzini sounds yummy! I'll trade my turkey enchilada recipe for your tetrazzini one. Whadya say? We could post over on Bluebird Cafe maybe?
Brrrr! and Yum!
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