Thanksgiving Countdown

Thanksgiving means cranberry chutney, fruitcake that non-fruitcake people like, and brining turkeys.  I pulled out the turkey yesterday from the freezer, unwrapped it, put it in a huge bag and stuffed it in a cooler full of water.  I then stuck that cooler out in the garage.  It hit about 10F last night, and I was worried I'd have a turkey-cicle, but I didn't, thankfully.  So, I dumped the water, added more, and left it to thaw.  With a 35 lb turkey, it's a major undertaking.

I try not to stress about that as there really is not much I can do.  If worse came to worst, I guess there's always an emergency run to a store or thawing the breast/legs of the other bird I cut up.  My mom would peg the anxiety meter on Thanksgiving which always made the holiday stressful.  Which is too bad because I think it needs to be a day of enjoying family and friends.  If that means takeout turkey, then so be it.

Yesterday was COLD and so I had to check on the livestock.  The major problem is keeping fresh water for all the birds.  I have a heater for the horses' troughs, Sid's bucket, the ducks' bucket, and heat lamps over the various chicks and their waterers, but it doesn't fix everything.  I literally dug out the mat heater that had sat under compressed  wood shavings and got it started.  Hopefully it still works and will heat up the water to melt the ice.  Otherwise, I may have to buy some waterer heaters.

Made the chutney yesterday.  I took a recipe off the web and modified it sufficiently to make it mine.  It's awesome.  Last night I soaked the dried fruit in rum and today baked the fruitcake.  I have a recipe in my King Arthur cookbook that is similar to this one, but it allows you to put in 6 cups of your preferred fruit.  In my case it was pineapple, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, and raisins.

Now, to plan out the rest of the meal and also get the critters fed tonight, as well as plow the road.