A Bunch of Frozen Turkeys

Many years ago when I was oh, twelve or so, Dad thought it would be a fabulous idea to go camping on Thanksgiving. It sounded like a great plan actually. We'd grab the tents, head out to Kodachrome Basin with his extended family and have a Thanksgiving adventure in the outdoors. Complete with dutch oven Thanksgiving dinner, of course.

Truth be told I don't remember a whole lot about the trip. Except for the fact that we all almost died from exposure. Ok, maybe it wasn't that bad, but it was close.

You see, in November it is not uncommon to see snow. And sometimes it's also windy. On our camping trip we had both of those things. The day we got there we set up our tents and tried to explore the surrounding area. This is a little difficult to do when the only place to hike is up the side of a steep mountain on a trail the size of a walnut which is also soaked with snow and muddy and slippery. So instead we spent the evening melting our socks on the campfire, trying to keep the frostbite away.

That night was the worst night of my life. Mom and Dad were snuggled in their tent and my sisters and I were in another tent. We each had our own separate mummy bag in which it was simultaneously impossible to move and to keep warm. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if the zipper on our tent wasn't broken. It only zipped half-way down which meant that the snow was blown into our tent by the hurricane-like wind. I spent the night swapping between a suffocating airtight cocoon with my sleeping bag pulled over my head, and leaving the top of the bag open to breathe while my hair froze to my scalp.

The next day was Thanksgiving. Praise the Lord, at least we'll get some food. Somehow cooking a turkey and Thanksgiving meal in dutch ovens actually worked. I had to put my gloves on in between bites to keep my fingers from freezing off, but that was by far the most delicious Thanksgiving meal of my life.

As soon as we'd eaten everybody decided they'd had enough of cold weather camping and went home. I'm pretty sure the trip was cut short by at least a couple of days. While this was probably the worst Thanksgiving ever, it was also the most fun and memorable. Breaking tradition doesn't always work, but it sure makes things more interesting.

Today's Special: Turkey Recipes

With Thanksgiving less than two weeks away, I'm sure you're all getting your brains and bellies ready for some turkey. Whether you'll be cooking a turkey or just eating it, here are some recipes I've tried out that are definitely worth your time.

Good Eats Roasted Turkey

This was my first real turkey and I have to say it turned out really well! I think the brining made a huge difference in how moist the meat turned out, so don't skip that part! There are a couple changes I think would make this recipe even better. I don't know that I'd spend the money on the candied ginger the brining calls for as I don't think it really affected the flavor. Also, the recipe has you start at 500°F then you cover the whole turkey with tin foil and finish it at 350°F. The only problem with finishing it out this way is the tin foil basically steamed the skin so it wasn't crispy anymore. Next time I would remove the foil maybe 15-20 minutes at the end of cooking and bump the temp back up to 500 deg. to crisp up the skin and give it just a bit more color.

Turkey Stock

This was also the first time I've ever made my own stock. To do this, I picked the turkey carcass clean and saved it in the fridge until the next day when I could make this. I also saved the raw turkey neck from the turkey cavity. This was very simple to do and although it took a while to cook, it was something I didn't have to sit there and watch. For those of you who have never made stock before, it will solidify (unlike the store-bought stuff), so don't be all freaked out thinking you did it wrong. It'll turn back into a liquid as soon as you heat it up again. This made approximately 6 cups, so not a ton, but definitely a great thing to have on hand!

Turkey Soup

I made this soup once before with Seth's wild turkey. It was just as good this time around and maybe even better having used the fresh turkey stock I'd just made. The recipe says to add salt to taste... I added at least 2 tsp. This is one of my favorite soup recipes.

Turkey, Brie, and Apple Grilled Sandwich

Ok I know I probably don't need to say anything about this sandwich given the name of it (and hello, look at the picture.... Mmm) but this was so good! The recipe says to use apricot jam (or a couple other types), and I tried it that way. It was good with the apricot jam, but I thought it was even better using Dijon mustard. And don't be stingy with the apple... cut nice thick slices or you won't be able to taste it.

If you have any turkey left at this point I would be very surprised. If so, lucky you! You can eat more of this stuff! Now some of you are probably like, "Yeah this is great and all, but I don't have to cook a dang turkey. I'm on pie duty." What's that you say? PIES? Pies just happen to be my specialty. Don't believe me? Check these babies out.

The Failure Patch

That's what I've started calling the fly patch on my fly fishing vest. You can usually tell how good the fishing was by how many flies are on my failure patch. If there are one or two, the fishing was pretty good. Three or four flies... I probably caught a couple. More than four: FAIL. No fish. Unless it's been a really long fishing day, but even then there are no guarantees.

Seth and I went out fishing on the Snake River over Thanksgiving break. The first day of fishing went well and we both caught several whitefish and a rainbow or two. The failure patch collected a couple flies, but remained pretty sparse for the most part. The second day of fishing did not fare so well. We both caught a couple fish during the span of several hours, but it took a lot of work to do so. By the looks of my failure patch, you'd think I came away skunked. Luckily the copper "Prince-of-a-Bugger" streamer I tied on to use while I made my way over to Seth when it was time to leave actually produced a nice rainbow. Good thing too. There wasn't much room left on my failure patch.

The Failure Patch

Oh and just for the record, I caught two fish at the same time. Two whitefish to be exact... one took my bitch creek nymph and the other took a green hornet. I am the master.

You'd look insane too, if you caught two fish at the same time.

Seth and a pervert brown. It got hooked in the butt.

Seth and his 17.5" brown. Got it right in the mouth with a white woolly bugger.

Thanksgiving

This year Seth and I spent Thanksgiving with his family up in Idaho. It was nice to have a long weekend to just relax and hang out doing what we like most.

We didn't have our Thanksgiving dinner until Friday so we went out trolling on Thanksgiving Day with Seth's dad on Ririe Reservoir. It was a beautiful day and we almost had the lake to ourselves. It was my first time fishing from a boat and I found it very relaxing slowly gliding across the water with my line in the water, looking around and enjoying the scenery. We actually spotted a golden eagle sitting in a juniper tree near the shore of the lake.

We ended up catching 5 cutthroat/rainbow hybrids and 1 kokanee salmon. It's definitely something I'd like to do again.

Friday was pretty packed with activity. Collette and Rachel's families had both done Thanksgiving the day before and apparently it's a family tradition to go rabbit hunting on the day after. Marty, Arielle, Seth, Grandpa Hanson, and I were the only ones who ended up going because most of the others had to stay back and work on Thanksgiving Dinner #2 (or they weren't big on huntin' wabbits). I didn't know about the tradition and Seth had forgotten about it, so neither of us brought our guns. Luckily Grandpa Hanson was nice enough to let us borrow some of his.


We decided to go hunt out between Sage Junction and Mud Lake. We chased out a handful... 2 jackrabbits, 1 snow hare, and a cottontail, but didn't get off a good enough shot to take any of them home. One of the Smith's grazed the snow hare, but after trying to follow the blood trail for a while, we gave up and let him go.

Am I dreaming or is that a really hot chick with a gun?

We got back from rabbit hunting just in time to help finish up the last couple dishes for Thanksgiving dinner. The food turned out amazing and of course we all ate way too much and had a great time doing so. Grandma Hanson's turkey was delicious and Rachel was the most talented turkey carver we'd ever seen.

On Saturday Seth and I went out fly fishing with Grandpa Hanson on the South Fork of the Snake River. It was a rainy/snowy day but it was fun nonetheless. We caught mostly whitefish and a couple browns. Of course Grandpa out-fished both of us. Every time we looked over he was reeling in another one!

We spent the rest of the weekend catching up on old "Perfect Strangers" episodes with Grandma Hanson, saw the giant trevache (catapult) that the Smith's built, and met up with a couple of Seth's old buddies. Oh and we also found out that Gracie LOVES road trips (OK not really).

It really was a great weekend and as usual we were sad to come home. We can't wait to go back up to Idaho again soon!