And as a compulsive list maker, this is my very favorite time of year. Planning requires lists, after all! I have to admit, I’ve done something psychotic… I’ve joined a 52 Project Challenge on the one of the forums I frequent. It’s basically like a crafter’s support group – the goal is to complete one project each week of the year. Here’s what I’ve got planned -

It’s quite a list, right? And I’ve actually gotten one done already – I made two of the pour spout mason jars. It literally took two minutes to put together. I’m using one for my bulk instant yeast and one for cinnamon sugar, and I love how convenient they are.

And as if that list weren’t enough to keep me busy, I do have a couple more goals for this year in the foodcrafting department -

That list is destined to get longer as I hop around on Pinterest and come across new things to make and try. And of course, I’ll be sure to post about all of the good stuff I accomplish. What are your goals for the coming year?

As many of you know, it is our Christmas day tradition to celebrate at home together – no traveling, no guests – just a special day for us. It was extra special today since it our son’s first Christmas. We woke at a leisurely hour and breakfasted on scrambled eggs and bacon, because that’s what we had a taste for. We lounged around a bit and then dove into our gifts. We celebrate modestly at our house, with just a few well-thought-out gifts for each other. My husband got me a game I’d had my eye on, which will be great fun to play after dinner, as well as a cast iron cornbread pan – which I had to try out right away at lunch. I baked up a pan of cornbread to go with 15 bean soup and it was great. It’s a round pan divided into wedges, so every piece is an end piece! And that’s the best piece of cornbread if you ask me. I gave him some acrylic risers to display his award-winning miniatures pieces as well as a pair of glasses etched with Viking helmets and a bottle of his favorite adult beverage. And for our son – fabric fruit and veggie baskets, a book, an embroidered name plaque that I made and a quilt that I sewed him. In his stocking he received felt booties that I sewed as well as four miniature Sesame Street board books. So a nice, simple gift exchange.

This afternoon we relaxed – played with the baby and his new fabric food set on the floor, read the Saveur that was in my stocking and worked on a little sewing. Husband worked on some of his miniatures. The baby got to nap a lot. I’ve mixed up the dough for Russian teacakes and it’s chilling in the fridge, and I’ve got bread dough for pain d’epi on it’s third rise in the kitchen. In a bit here when I get up, I’m going to make a double batch of snickerdoodles and do a bit more sewing. Maybe have a bath later.

Dinner tonight will be our traditional meal – Norwegian meatballs, mashed potatoes, dill gravy, bread stuffing and ligonberries. And I’ll mix up a little warm glogg to go with it as well. Cookies for dessert, of course. One of the best things about Christmas day has got to be dinner. We’ve been having this one for years (sometimes we add a ham or turkey breast alongside) and it really hits the spot.

Oh, and about that cocoa. You didn’t think I’d mention hot cocoa and leave you all hanging did you? When I want hot cocoa, I do not want some fancy triple chocolate concoction hiding under a pouf of whipped cream. I don’t want peppermint. I don’t want home made marshmallows. I want the Swiss Miss that I grew up with. But I don’t want the preservatives and dairy by-products that pre-packaged drink mixes are laced with. And besides, it’s just as easy to make your own. If you just want one decadent cup, or you want to make a batch for a small crowd, here’s what you’ll need -

Single Mug

2 tablespoons cocoa

4 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

big pinch of salt

2 cups soymilk (or milk, if you can have that)

For a Crowd (serves 6)

3/4 cup cocoa

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/3 cup vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

12 cups soymilk (or milk)

For either quantity, you’ll want to put your cocoa, sugar and vanilla into a saucepan over medium low heat. Slowly whisk in your soymilk until the sugar and cocoa are dissolved and it’s heated through, but don’t let it come to a boil. If you still have little lumps of cocoa, just pour it through a fine-mesh strainer. It happens, and it can be hard to whisk them all out. You could also make it with water instead of soymilk if you’re inclined – it’ll still taste great, though not quite as rich.

I hope you all have had a Merry Christmas and got to spend some good quality time with your loved ones. And fortunately, the holiday isn’t over yet! I encourage you to whip up a batch of tasty hot cocoa this evening and let the good times linger. And hopefully you all get one more free day like I do tomorrow – hot cocoa also makes a nice breakfast beverage treat.

I’ve also been baking cookies (of course). Recently I’ve done chocolate chip and soft gingerbread drop cookies. Tomorrow I’m going to do a double batch of snickerdoodles, dipped in red and green sprinkles, as well as some Russian teacakes since those are husband’s favorite. I don’t think I’m going to be able to get to the spritz this year since I have no idea where the press is. I think it’s in a plastic bin at the bottom and back of the canning cupboard, where it will have to stay. I just don’t have the energy or the will to unpack everything in there to dig it out. Next year though.

And despite some drama, we were able to purchase our annual Christmas ornament – a nativity scene of Mary and Joseph with the baby Jesus. We thought it was especially fitting this year since we brought home our own wee babe just three months ago. And we didn’t have a nativity ornament yet, so double-win. The baby loves looking at the Christmas tree – all the bright colors and shiny and glittery ornaments really catch his eye.

We’ve been having a lot of cozy time in at home, which is the perfect way to spend cold winter days where it gets dark before four o’clock in the afternoon. We actually have a fair number of Christmasy Golden Books, so we’ve read through those. And we’ve gotten a few Christmas and winter-themed books from the library. We watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer together. This week we’re going to try to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas. And I’ve been doing a lot of crockpot and casserole dinners – bean and ham soup with rosemary, scalloped potatoes, chicken with onions and tomatoes in red wine, and the like.  And I try to bake fresh bread every week – I’ve been doing a lot of pain d’epi and rye loaves.

So we’ve been busy, but we’re really enjoying the season and hope all of you are as well!

The gear -

I’m going to use my Sow & Grow windowsill greenhouse that I got a few years ago from Veseys (that’s a stock photo from their website, by the way – I’ve got to dig mine out and clean them up before I plant).  Since I’m going to be growing some greens, I’ll just direct seed into the flat without the black seed cell inserts.

I’ve got tons of lettuce seeds, including Tom Thumb, Lolla Rossa, and I believe, some Little Gem. So I’ll do a flat of those. In my second flat, I’m going to try to do some Evergreen Bunching Scallions – I have both the green and red varieties. I just love scallions, and it’s one of the easiest ways to add fresh, green goodness to just about anything.

I’ve also been spying out new grow light set ups.  I tried some battery operated lights I found on clearance at Target last spring, but those didn’t quite work out. The adhesive to stick them up under the cabinets wasn’t strong enough to hold them in place and they burned through batteries much quicker than I thought they would. So those are out. I’ve done a little research, and it seems like T8 fluorescents are the way to go, and are the lights that are generally used in those fancy seed starting shelves and setups that a lot of the catalogs sell. Unfortunately, I can’t shell out several hundred bucks on one of those things. Also, they’re ugly and take up space I just don’t have to spare. I just want something simple, that can be mounted underneath a cabinet easily. I think I found some that will work on Amazon -

The particular light is from a company called Good Earth Lighting and runs about $15.00. Now that’s in my price range. I may be extravagant and spring for two. And they don’t look totally awful. We already own several plug in timers, so I’d simply plug it to one and I wouldn’t even have to worry about turning it on and off.

Now if only I had a way to remember to water them everyday – but hopefully with everything sitting on the kitchen counter that won’t be a major concern. At any rate, I’m looking forward to getting something growing again. And making way for new goodies to arrive as well.

What made this turkey different for us? I have one word for you friends – brining. Allow me to reinvent the wheel here. Authorities greater than I have been extolling the wonders of brining for a good long time in the culinary world, but leave it to me to ignore sound advice. I’m pretty sore about the fact that I haven’t tried it before recently. But now that I’ve brined, I’ll never go back. No more dry birds at our house!

In addition to brining our bird, we also apple smoked it. Last year’s apple smoked pheasant was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever eaten, and I wanted to capture the incredible mahogany color and intense apple flavor again this year. Why not throw a turkey on the Weber? It’s really easier than it seems, so I’ll give you the run down. Maybe you’ll brave the weather and smoke yourself a turkey on Christmas Day. Wouldn’t that be a show stopper?

This year we did a fourteen pound bird. You’ll need to have a thawed bird forty-eight hours before you want to serve it – an overnight for the brine (the longer the better – we only did twelve hours, but twice that would’ve been better) and a second overnight uncovered in the fridge so the skin gets super dry (which will make it nice and crispy when you cook it).  So for a Thanksgiving bird, start on Tuesday. For a Christmas Day bird, start on the 23rd, the day before Christmas Eve (this year it’s a Friday).

First up, let’s talk about gear. Like me, you probably do not have a non-reactive food-safe plastic or glass container in the 21 quart ballpark in order to brine your turkey. For less than five bucks though, you can put together something that will actually fit in your fridge. All you need is a disposable turkey roasting pan and a turkey cooking bag. While I think those bags are fully useless for actual cooking (and I just don’t trust heating any kind of plastic with food in it) they’re great for brining and curing. I actually use them when I make my own bacon because I can’t find two quart zip top bags in my area and I never get around to ordering them online. But I digress. If you have a proper roasting pan that will fit a turkey, by all means use it with the bag. It’s just one of those big ticket items we haven’t acquired yet. A word on brining in chest coolers – I see it recommended a fair bit of the time, but I just can’t get behind it. I don’t trust the temperature being stable at all. Better, and safer, to do your brining in the fridge. Aside from the brining ingredients, the only other thing you’re going to need is some apple chips. I still consider myself a beginner food smoker, so I cheat like hell and use the Camerons Flavorwood cans. I love these things. They’re absolutely foolproof and everything I’ve ever smoked with them tastes great. You’ll need three to four cans to do a whole turkey for three to four hour smoke time. Basically, one can per hour.

Now let’s discuss the brine. As it’s most basic, a brine is a water/salt/sugar solution. Where it gets fun and exciting are the flavor components. There are a billion different combinations you could come up with. Since we apple smoked, we thought an apple brine would really make for intense flavor. My point of reference was a recipe I found on Serious Eats. Naturally, I made some modifications -

half gallon of apple cider

1/2 cup of lemon juice (next time I’ll use 2-3 large fresh lemons, but I only had juice on hand this year)

3 quarts water

2 1/2 cups light brown sugar

1 cup kosher salt

2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into chunks

15 whole cloves

3 fresh bay leaves (if you don’t have a tree like I do, you’ll need 6 dried)

6 whole peppercorns (I forgot to add them for Thanksgiving, but I plan to put them in next time for a little extra kick)

First up, you want to dissolve the sugar and salt in the apple cider. The quickest way to do that is to heat it up in a saucepan on the stove. Bring it to  a boil for just a minute, stirring well until both the sugar and salt have completely dissolved. Let it come to room temp – I came back to it after an hour while I was doing other prep.

As a matter of fact, you can take down your bird while you’re waiting for the cider to cool down. We’re not big on presenting the whole bird and carving it at the table at our house, and we wanted to put it on the grill in pieces to make sure everything got evenly smoked, and we could take off meat when it was done. Turkeys are notoriously hard to cook right whole – half the meat is often overdone, half underdone. Not too appealing. Now I’ll be honest. I was pretty mentally fried after a long day of Thanksgiving prep and baby care, so I didn’t take apart my turkey before putting it in the brine, which was supremely stupid for a couple of reasons. First of all, try holding a plastic bag full of liquid open with one hand while lifting a fourteen pound turkey with the other hand into it. Want to guess how long it took me to clean up that sticky mess? Longer than I cared to spend on it as the clock was nearing midnight. The other reason has to do with flavor. Forget flipping the bird in the brine in the middle of the night so that it brines evenly – which is another disaster waiting to happen. If it’s it in pieces, you drop them in one by one no problem, everything gets brined equally and you’re all set to go. Learn from my mistake. Never took down a turkey before? Me either. But it’s just a chicken, only much, much bigger. Leave everything bone in for the best flavor. You can do it.

Then put your turkey bag into your roasting pan. You probably want a sheet pan underneath the flimsy disposable so it’s easier to lift – the disposables will bend and warp at the drop of a hat. Pour your now room temp cider mix into the bag. Add the rest of the brine ingredients, and plunk in your turkey pieces. Tie up the bag and make sure it’s sitting pretty in the pan, and stick the whole affair in the fridge for twenty four hours. You can get away with eight-twelve, but longer is better in my opinion. You really want the cider and spices to penetrate all the way to the center of the meat.

When you feel like you’ve brined enough, take your turkey pieces from the brine and rinse them really well under cold running water. You want to remove any excess salt that may still be on the skin of the bird. Pour the brine down the drain (it’s done it’s good work) and put the bag in the recycling. Hang onto the roasting pan for drying out the bird. Once the turkey is well rinsed, dry it thoroughly with paper towels and stick it back in the disposable roasting pan and return it to the fridge for another twenty four hours. Make sure there’s nothing weird in your fridge – like an uncovered bowl of chopped onions or anything. It will reek up your turkey. I don’t know why anyone would have a bowl of uncovered chopped onions in their fridge, but you get the idea. The only naked thing in there should be the turkey.

You’ve now made it through forty eight hours of turkey preparation. It’s now time for the big show. Pull the turkey out of the fridge about a half hour before you want to put it on the grill so it comes up to room temp. You want a simple two zone fire in your grill. Throw one of the smoke cans onto the coals, give it a couple of minutes to start smoking, then place your turkey pieces on the cool side. Put the lid on and position the upper vent over the turkey so it draws the smoke up over the meat. You’ll need anywhere from three to four hours for a fourteen pound bird – temp it periodically when you get towards the end. And since your bird is in pieces, you’re halfway there with the carving. You’ll still want to let it rest for 20 minutes or so before carving so all the juices don’t run out.

And that’s it. With a little advance planning and some simple tools, you can have an amazingly flavorful, beautifully browned bird. And it won’t be like every other turkey on the block! Be sure to set a couple extra places at the table – when your neighbors smell your bird smoking away out back, you can bet they’ll abandon their boring oven roasted birds in favor of pulling up a chair at your house.

Problem is, I don’t really need to buy any seed for 2012… I have a huge stockpile of great varieties already. And I plan to buy my tomatoes and hot peppers as starts from Midnight Sun in the spring. I just never get them started and going strong early enough. I still have to perfect my grow light set up one of these days so I can make it work. But until then, I’ve got good farmers who can get them set for me. Good thing to, since what’s a garden with tomatoes and hot peppers?

But even though I don’t plan on buying seed, I probably will end up getting a packet or two… I just can’t resist. I do have it in mind to try some dry beans this year – both Jacob’s Cattle and Vermont Cranberry are supposed to be excellent in soups and baked beans, and Jacob’s Cattle is a bush variety, with Vermont Cranberry being semi-bush. So I could likely get a plant or two going well in a large container. But I’ve got a lot of good seed for things I haven’t gotten to grow yet, including Lacinato kale and Envy soybeans (I just love edamame). I think this winter I need to draw up a proper seed starting and rotation schedule.

But the hardest part, aside from deciding what to grow and how to make the room to grow it? There are more catalogs still to come! I’m looking forward to getting Baker Creek and Seed Savers Exchange especially. I better set myself a $5.00 limit now…

According to the USDA factsheet on turkey it can take 3-4 days to defrost a 12-16 pound turkey, and up to 5 days to defrost a 16-20 pounder. So that means you’ve really got to get on it! Leave it in it’s original wrappings and place it on a rimmed baking sheet on the lowest shelf.

But fear not – if you didn’t see this post in time all hope is not lost. The USDA also says it’s safe to defrost your bird in cold water – 6-8 hours for 12-16 pounds and 8-10 hours for 16-20 pounds. You could even put it to defrost on Wednesday night and be able to put it in the oven Thanksgiving morning. You’ll need to change the water every 30 minutes. You can do it in your sink, but if you’ve got to use the sink for other things (as most of us do) you can do it in a large stockpot (at least 16 quarts should work, but if you’re a canner your 21 quart canning pot would be perfect) or even a clean plastic bin or tote. One of these days I’ll get a proper food storage container to tackle these types of jobs, but until then I’ll just try to remember to defrost my turkey on time.

The Menu

Roasted turkey (still trying to convince husband we should also apple smoke it)

Honey glazed ham

Mashed potatoes

Bread stuffing (with white and rye breads)

Stuffed sweet potatoes

Braised greens (whatever’s on sale – Swiss chard, kale, collards…)

Home made cranberry sauce

Turkey gravy

Pumpkin crescent rolls

Pumpkin pie

Chocolate icebox pie

Shopping List

12-15 pound turkey

8-10 pound ham

5 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes

celery

carrots

onions

chicken stock

4 sweet potatoes

3 large bunches greens

cranberries

flour

sugar

eggs

soymilk

mini marshmallows

Prep Itinerary

Monday – Bake white bread and rye bread for stuffing.

Tuesday – Parbake and freeze crescent rolls; make chocolate pie; make cranberry sauce.

Wednesday – Bake pumpkin pie; prep all veggies and keep in fridge.

Thanksgiving – Get turkey and ham in oven by 9:00; cook bread stuffing in crockpot; cook mashed potatoes; bake sweet potatoes; braise greens; finish baking rolls.

Of course the Thanksgiving work list needs expanding and refining. I like to have times listed out so I know when to start each item so that everything is ready to eat at the same time. It takes a little maneuvering. That’s why I’ve decided to sacrifice the crisp crust on the bread stuffing this year and do it in the crockpot. I can just set it and forget it. Actually, I suppose I could throw it under the broiler for a few minutes if I’m so inclined, but personally I like a softer stuffing anyhow. So we’ll see. And juggling the turkey and ham in the oven will be tricky. Another pro to apple smoking it, as it can be done on the grill. But if we go that route, I’ll have to take the turkey down into pieces so it will fit on our grill. Not a big deal, since we don’t make a big thing of presenting the whole bird at the table anyway. But if we don’t smoke it, I may have to cook the ham through on Wednesday night so I can just heat it up on Thursday when the turkey is out and resting. So, I’ve got the master plan all set to go but we’ve still got some planning to do in the next week. And we’ve got to do the grocery shopping this weekend for sure!