Weekend Plans Post: Thanksgiving in Iceland
The irony, of course, is that it was originally Maribou who was going to be vacationing on Thanksgiving. She was going to be going out West this week but I pointed out that she missed Thanksgiving dinner last year because of her awful health and, this year, wouldn’t it be nice if we could all go to Thanksgiving dinner together?
She sighed and agreed and, next thing I know, *I* am the one travelling out to Iceland.
Funny how things work out.
So I know that Marianne will be doing Thanksgiving dinner with the fam and I will be in Iceland trying to dodge lava and maybe catch a Northern Light or two.
But I will try to make my friends endure either Dan Bern’s “Thanksgiving Day Parade”:
Or, barring that, Alice’s Restaurant:
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Featured image is a snoozy purring Radar. Photo taken by Maribou.)
Still haven’t seen any Northern Lights. I *HAVE* seen lava.
I will console myself with the thought that tens (hundreds?) of millions have seen the northern lights but only millions have seen lava.Report
We saw them. On our last night here at the B&B, we got the alert, we drove down the road to a long country road where there was minimal light pollution and we saw them.
I should have pictures when I get back.Report
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Looks really cool!Report
We had a very successful Thanksgiving, so successful that we had to pull out the extra tables. Two turkeys deep fried without damage to the house, took in a few friends and acquaintances with nowhere to go. Seventeen month old reached a state of total turkey ecstasy it was giving me flashbacks to my days going to sketchy rave parties up in Baltimore back in the day.
Name of the game this weekend is productivity. Not only do we have a total break from children’s sports, but my oldest will spend not one but TWO nights with my mother in law. I am going to take this opportunity to do all the touch up painting, taking junk out of the garage to the dump, and a bunch of other chores around the house that have been pending since September. Plus putting up Christmas lights, getting gifts ordered, etc. etc. etc. With a little luck my wife and I will also have some time in the evening for a couch date. So a good way to finish out what is IMO the best week of the year.Report
Bring the Dumpster to you!
https://dumpsterdudez.com/
They even have small sizes for your girlie sized suburban needs. Lady Marchmaine mentioned that she wanted a dumpster for her last birthday (I have it in writing) and was surprised that we could get one in 2-days.Report
Heh, sadly my girlie sized suburban needs included responsibly disposing of the oil I used to fry the turkeys. So off to the dump I went.Report
In case you hadn’t heard the sad news, Alice died last week at the age of 83. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alice-brock-arlo-guthrie-alices-restaurant-dead-rcna181486Report
Oh my goodness… I hadn’t heard that.
It never occurred to me that she might still be and I hope that it never occurred to anybody else either.
(Seriously, I rented the Alice’s Restaurant movie back in the 90s and thought that it’d be a lighthearted comedy with some social commentary and, instead, I got a movie about toxic relationships.)Report
Had a laid back Thanksgiving with ham (we don’t fancy turkey). Thanksgiving is the one holiday I’ll unabashedly admit that Americans do better than other nations.Report
It is our Secular Religious Holiday. But for Black Friday we almost have a universal multi-day feast.Report
On Weds I got our first deer; on the plus side fresh venison tenderloin for Thanksgiving; on the negative side, had to breakdown and butcher an entire deer the Weds before thanksgiving. Got it done and even managed to make one of the three side dishes I was hoping to make on Weds. Priorities.
We had all the kids home for dinner, less the middle son who is abroad on a walkabout, but plus the fiance to eldest daughter… so 6 kids of one stripe or another. Ate the afore mentioned venison and dry brined Turkey. We don’t usually do turkey, but got a small 10 pounder and treated it like chicken. Dry brining is much better (IMO) than wet brining… the meat was moist but firmer and had a slight ‘ham cured’ background note. Served with a Cotes de Nuit Burgundy and an Oregon Pinot so family could build-up their comparative palates.
Treating today like a Sunday knowing that I get a bonus Sunday in two days.Report
Nice!
We made a makeshift Thanksgiving in the B&B with the stuff we picked up at Costco: chicken breasts, Indian “butter chicken” sauce, spinach salad, croissants.
We talked about high school drama and laughed at the stories and joked and talked with the little kiddos at the table and, as Thanksgivings where I wasn’t with family go, it’s one of the best ones ever.Report
Sounds like fun; does the B&B have a fireplace? Is there snow in Iceland (one hopes)? It’s good to have family, but better to have a few friends and extras at the table.Report
It did but we were told in no uncertain terms to not use it.
So we jumped in the “hot pot”.
Which is like a “hot tub” except it has 1950s amenities and expectations. (Sit on some bricks, waterproof chairs/pillows won’t exist for decades. A frozen mustache is far more pleasant than one that doesn’t freeze, etc.)Report
Wayyyy too much food at our usual multi-family potluck-ish friendsgiving this year — like, every year there are plenty of leftovers but this time it was ridiculous, we were all stuffed by appetizers before anyone sat at the table, no one even went back for seconds even though the food was uniformly excellent.
The root cause we identified was that all the “kids” are now in their 30s and mostly paired off — so, our numbers were lighter than usual due to their unfortunate obligation to trade holidays with their significant others’ families, but also the younger generation are now bringing their own contributions to the meal while the parents are still bringing as much as they did as when the kids were teenagers. It was a lovely day, but for future holiday gatherings we will have a more careful conversation about expected number of servings to target.Report
We ended up leaving for Kansas in a hurry Tuesday night, and that turned out to have been the correct decision, as the roads in Colorado were a mess by 2AM. I did a brisket for our Thanksgiving dinner and it turned out excellent despite my severely underestimating the cooking time (it became a late dinner instead of an afternoon feast). This was on only the second brisket I’d ever done and I know conventional wisdom says not to experiment with Thanksgiving dinner but I got away with this one. It’s been nice hanging out with my people here. Happy Thanksgiving, y’all.Report
Brisket is a favorite of ours for Thanksgiving… we chuckle when we see recipes that say 2-3 hrs cooking time. We budget about 6 hrs… cooktime for braising recipes is like garlic … they always understate the right number.Report