Brrrrrrrrr...

Serious arctic blast at our house this week.

The poor birdies are fluffed out so much to keep warm that it amazes me they can even fly at all.  Our feeders and suet baskets are covered with a nonstop flurry of starving creatures, and the dog barely wants to go out to the yard.

Spent part of the morning fighting the crowds at the grocery store, gathering some of the things needed for our Thanksgiving meal.  Since I use a lot of fresh herbs in my stuffing, I've found that they are out at our local grocers if I don't snag them early.  It's a sort of balancing test between how early I need to get them and not having them go bad before they get used, you know?

Planning for a big feast day meal can be tricky.  But, thus far, things have gone pretty well in terms of planning and such.  (For a copy of what I normally do as a pre-Thanksgiving plan, you can read here and here.  Planning ahead and doing a little every day instead of doing it all at once keeps me sane.  Mostly.)

Managed to find some turkey necks and thighs this year to make my yummy slow cooker turkey stock.  Delicious stuffing and gravy, here we come!

Tomorrow will be cranberry salad and turkey stock day.  Wednesday will be stuffing (which technically is really dressing, because I cook it in a pan and not in the bird, but my Granny always called it stuffing, and thus so do I.)  And I have to pick up my fresh turkey, and get it dry-brine seasoned for overnight, so it will be delicious when we pop it in the oven in the morning.

All I want now is to curl up under a blanket with a book and some hot tea.  Alas, that will have to wait until later today, I'm afraid.  The holiday rush is upon us...


(Photo via Alexey Kljatov. Gorgeous macro shot!)