Christmas Already?

I'm wondering how it can be Christmas already.

Last night I cooked the turkey The Man's work gave him as a Thanksgiving bonus. I made stuffing, biscuits, mashed potatoes, and still had cranberry sauce left over from the big batch I took to the 'official' Thanksgiving at my brother's. I only made cranberry sauce, rolls, and a cheesecake for that dinner. We brought home the leftover cranberry sauce because I knew we had a whole turkey ourselves, but there weren't really any other leftovers. SO, last night we basically had Thanksgiving dinner all over again. Now my fridge is full of the leftovers The Man has been craving!

I brined this turkey - it was my first time doing that with anything. It was really so simple, and even though I only soaked it for 5 hours, it was so moist and juicy. It made a difference! I would recommend anyone try brining with turkey or chicken. Here is my starting point for the brine. I did not have veggies on hand other than one small onion I put in the stuffing, so I used a heaping tablespoon of chopped garlic. I also put in about two teaspoons of Liquid Smoke (I made 2 gallons of brine for a 14.5lb turkey). I usually add that to marinades - I like a touch of smokey flavor. I also cut the sugar in half, because I had read somewhere comments that it can cause the turkey to get that sweet taste like ham. I didn't want that, I wanted smokey/garlicy! I used pickling salt rather than kosher salt because I had that on hand. It also has no additives like kosher salt, but is finer.

You might check out the cranberry sauce recipe too - it is so easy and people just rave about it. This year I used whiskey rather than Grand Marnier, it's all good! Make it a few days in advance - it's even better if it's allowed to sit for a bit.

So anyway, back to Christmas. I've still got Halloween decorations in the garage that need to be put back into their boxes for storage. I've got a fridge full of turkey. How can I possibly be thinking of putting up a tree tonight? I must be CRAZY! Muah ha ha ! ;)

In job search news - I had two telephone interviews yesterday and am interviewing in person for one of them on the 6th. It sounds very positive. Some of the other applications I put in last week haven't contacted me yet, but there was a 4-day weekend there, so I'm expecting to have a good response after they get a chance to get to them.

In weather news - we were waiting for snow to come. The news channel said we might get 0-2", and we did. We got the "0" part. I went outside into the frigid air last night and could smell the snow. It was out there, but fell on other hills in other counties. I'm one of those people who loves snow - as long as the electricity stays on.