T-giving 06

Awrigh-tah,

Thanksgiving '06.
Battle Royale....
In one corner
the Deep Fried Turkey


In the other corner
the Roasting Bag Turkey


Here's the rundown.
Deep Fried Turkey..
You need the rig which absolutely must be set up outside. You also need over $35 bucks worth of peanut oil. It is fast fast fast.
11 lb turkey cooked in 36 minutes. The skin (which nowadays is mostly for platter garnish) came out golden brown.

Brad and I walking the turkey over to the neighbors 'fry pit'


ooops, dropped it!


the rig including spillbox


Golden Brown in 36 minutes!


Now the Roasting bag turkey
Super easy. Goes in the bag with seasonings and a little flour. Bag gets 6 1" snips on the top. No basting. no need to even check on the turkey.



When it was done we pulled it out by the end of the bag and snipped a corner off of the bottom and every last drop of juice drained neatly into a bowl ready for gravy making

Brad's mom Delores makes the gravy


Since the bird is 'in the bag' there was absolutely no cleanup required.


So,
the Deep Fried turkey was fast but required a lot of setup and expense but it was fun to watch. The Roasting
Bag Turkey was really easy, I mean easy and there was no cleanup plus it yielded all the gravy fixin's.
The Taste?
Wildest part is that these were the two tastiest, most moist turkeys I've ever had. They also stayed hot all the way to the table. I'd have to say that the Deep Fried Rig was fun but the Roasting Bag is the winner.

*****note on knives
I like to carve turkeys. I usually bring my own knives as I did last week for the "Pre Thanks Track Pot Luck Dinner".
On Thanksgiving I used an electric knife for the first time in a real long time. It worked fantastic. I think I'm gonna
get one.

Some more Thanksgiving pics.
pouring a pre dinner toast of some fine Champaign that my buddy Roberto sent to my folks for their 50th anniversary this September




Mary Lee & Emily


JoJo looks on


the bounty


perfect plate


We all had a great time at Sarah and Brads house with our family there.
After all that turkey don't even think about skipping desert!

Pre-Thanks

Saturday night ML and I hooked up with some friends and made some new ones at a potluck dinner that
was arranged by a loose group of folks most of whom race at the Kissena Velodrome. People brought all kinds of stuff to Roberto's loft near the Brooklyn Navy Yard to eat and drink. It was a blast. It was fun to have the big dinner with friends this weekend knowing that we'd all be scattering to have the big dinner again this weekend with family.


The Spread


The Bird post whack


Pals


More Pals


The Desert Challenge....with a little bike courtesy of Taliah's Bike Paintings


"Round The World" plate of goodness


Roberto's party Chaperone

Yayhoos in NYC

Hello friends,

I had a pretty darn good time last week with the Yayhoos in town for a gig at the Mercury Lounge with our old friends the Bottle Rockets. After rippin' it up over there we announced we'd be playing a happy hour show at the Lakeside Lounge the next day. We did the 2 gigs without repeating a single song. Terry's Blog has some pics of the gigs and some side adventures including a couple very nice looking cappacinos from 9th St Expresso which is my local fave.

Our new record Put The Hammer Down is coming out in Spain soon so we had to take some pics.


Yayhoos at the at Cowboy Technical Services Recording Studio


Terry checks out Mary Lee's new acoustic guitar


Dan, the black Toddcaster and the Cowboy


Stonetree Roscoe Deluxe that I've been playing nonstop


************* and************
Stay tuned... new Yayhoos Hoodie available soon at the Yayhoos Joint

Private Party

I first met Lou Whitney and D. Clinton Thompson at a Valentines Day gig at the old Peppermint Lounge on 5th Avenue in 1983. Those guys displayed a staggering combination of musicianship, record colector chops and humor. Their band was called the Morells Lou Whitney, who I'll quickly list as a guru, helped get the Del-Lords get signed and produced our debut album "Frontier Days". I learned too much stuff to list in a blog from Lou. Lou also produced my first solo record Roscoe's Gang. The Morells were the band on that record.

I could go on and on.... I used to visit Springfield, MO all the time to work with those guys or record or produce bands (like the Bottle Rockets & Blue Mountain) at Lou's Studio downtown.

Lou even helped me find both of my Suburbans.

The Burgundy '93 2 wheel drive Tony Soprano model

So anydamnway.... Through a long convoluted chain of events I ended up in Cranston, Rhode Island last Saturday night playing a 40th birthday party for a very nice couple of music fans with the Skeletons as the band. The diff between the Skeletons and the Morells are the drummers. Both bands share Lou, Donny and Joe Terry. The Morells have Ron Gremp on the drums and the Skeletons have Bobby Lloyd Hicks on the drums.

I had a great time playing with those guys. Charlie Chesterman opened with a cool batch of songs then the Skeletons played their own set, then I played some of my songs with the Skeletons then held on for dear life trying to keep up with them on theirs.

Since opening my own Studio I don't get down to Springfield as much. Those guys are fantastic. I count them as heros and friends and sure was glad to see them. Thanks to Bob and Kristen for putting us together.