tur-duc-hen

I truly hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with family and friends. We certainly did. Terrance, Kestlee, Brad, and Jane came over to celebrate with us. Thanks to the generosity of Keith's parents, the main course was a Louisiana tradition called "tur-duc-hen". My first experience with this creation was before Keith and I were married. In fact, it was the very day I met half of Keith's family for the first time in my pajamas...(after he had assured me several times they were not coming over any time soon and that I had plenty of time to get dressed...eh hem, i'm obviously over it.) Anyway, as was explained to me then...TUR-DUC-HEN is a partially de-boned turkey, stuffed with a de-boned duck, stuffed with a de-boned chicken, stuffed intermittently with dressings of your choice. We chose this year a cornbread stuffing and a dirty rice stuffing. All you have to do is pop it in the oven and, voila!...about 5-6 hours later, you have 15 pounds of greatness to eat for weeks to come. So, thanks to the collaboration of all our guests, we had a complete Thankgiving buffet. DELISH!!!!

Keith was the MAN! He handled MR. Tur-duc-hen from start to finish.

No heavy lifting for this Mama. Keith was in charge from start to finish.

The table's ready and waiting to serve it's first Thanksgiving dinner.

Mmmmmmmm! Look at all that goodness! Keith carved his first tur-duc-hen like a pro!

Open mouth, insert TUR-DUC-HEN! We are thankful for our friends!


Okay, I will end with a belly shot at the 2-week mark. This was taken Thanksgiving evening, exactly 2 weeks before Baby D's due date (Dec. 11th). Of course, I will keep you posted, but nothing to report at this point...except the pregnancy waddle has really become quite extreme. I finally told the dispatchers at work not to send me anywhere with an urgent need for an interpreter because people are lapping me in the corridors of the hospital. Oh, and today as I was walking into Stop and Shop to pick up some groceries, the Salvation Army bell ringer actually froze, stopped ringing her bell, and said..."WHOA!". Right. Then, when I popped into a liquor store to pick up some bottles of Guinness (for a yummy bread I make), you wouldn't believe the looks I got. Finally, in the check-out lane, after the checker and the man in front of me had given me that shame on you look several times, I announced it was for a recipe. Geeze people! And for those of you who are interested, this really is a killer bread recipe:

Guinness Bread

1 cup regular oatmeal (not quick), with a little extra for topping
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla
12 oz. Guinness beer

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease an 8x8 square pan. Combine first 6 ingredients. Stir in butter, mix well. Stir in buttermilk and vanilla. Gently stir in Guinness; do NOT beat.

Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle top with extra oats. Bake for 30 minutes. Reduce temperature to 400 degrees and bake additional 30 minutes. Turn off oven and allow bread to cool another 30 minutes with the door open. Turn out onto a wire rack. Delish with soup or served with butter and honey.

Warm wishes to you and yours!!!