Day 152: Two days to go and the Turkey is a'gettin' ready

It's easier to work on the computer than it is to go to the grocery store, pondering what you might need, what you might cook.......I have the best of all possible worlds getting ready to happen.  My two adult children are returning to the nest, one with her new dog Gertrude and one with his wonderful girlfriend and her two children. 

A full house and a house full of gratitude

that this is where they choose to be.

My best possible world?  A houseful of family.

I'm going to be cooking a turkey the incredible way that the Los Angeles Times figured out several years ago. Go to this link if you're curious.  You've never tasted a turkey like this!!  It's called the "Judy Bird" after Judy Rogers of the Zuni Cafe in San Francisco.  This recipe in the Times created so many questions that it had its own follow up pages in the Food Section.  Here is a discussion by Russ Parsons the Food Editor. 

The rest of the menu is up for grabs. Because everyone likes to cook and everyone has a new recipe or two, we actually go to the store on Wednesday and Thursday to buy what we need.....and we've never had a bad meal yet!

Reading the Wall Street Journal the other day created a hunger for a fine roast chicken because of the article with 3 chicken recipes. We cooked the first one, the "Naked Roast Chicken".  OMG is all I need to say.  Here's the link to the three recipes.  This chicken recipe is very much like the turkey recipe above if you're wondering why in the world I'm talking about it.

You can tell I'm far away from painting even though I did work, yesterday, about 2 hours on the drawing of a little prairie girl. Can't wait to paint it next week.

Here's to all of you having a wonderful day together, with family? by yourself with a fire and a good book? in the rain? in the snow? in the gorgeous 70 degree blue sky weather of Pasadena, California?  This weather in Southern California during the winter months is why all of the east coast had "winter houses" here.  Blue, blue, blue skies. Purple San Gabriel mountains. White, white clouds.  Because of rain a few days ago our mountains are actually dusted and look like this. It's spectacular and we're grateful.