The Surls

Some how it’s just not as exciting as it used to be.
Then again maybe it was just that it was 17 degrees F!

Seriously.
Our life group decided to have a thanksgiving feast for our last get together of the year.
I volunteered to bring the bird.
Then promptly forgot about it until last Friday, the day before the Saturday feast.
I bought the bird Friday evening and bathed him all night in the tub.
As I slowly came to terms with morning over a cup of coffee, I started to look thru the November issue of Better Homes and Gardens.
I came across this page, read it through, and decided it sounded worthy of a try.
I mean, what with oranges and Maple syrup, how could I go wrong.
Of course Deb freaked.
I had to explain what was involved and show her just how easy it really was.
There is no dressing! (Hard part gone. Messy part gone.)
Gravy…Deb was on it.
She took off to get her hair cut and I went to the store to get Tarragon, fresh that is.
I followed this recipe to cook a 22 pound bird, adding what ended up to be 2 hours to the cooking time, more about that later.
It was hard to believe how moist the meat turned out.
I thought it would be dry with foil just draped loosely over the bird.
I guess the glaze seals the bird for the last hour and keeps it moist.
Just remember the glaze will seal the little plastic popup shut, so cook by time.
I ended up cooking mine a half hour longer than I needed too.
The skin turned out a little darker than I would have liked.
I found that by using a cooling rack in the bottom of the pan it held the bird up out of the drippings, so the bottom was just as good as the rest.
It also made it easy to remove the bird from the pan.
Oh, and make sure you get SEEDLESS grapes. Geez, what a drag.
And by all means MAKE THE GRAVY!
WOW! That’s good stuff!.

So pick up a copy of the November issue of Better Homes and Garden and enjoy!

Michael

Here is a view of the the Marshall Playground showing the entrance.

I helped build a new community playground in Marshall back in mid October.
This a picture during the build.

This is almost the same view of the completed playground.

Garrett and I had the opportunity to attend the 2005 EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, Wi the last week of July.
We drove the camper over and spent the week enjoying all the aircraft, airshows, and each other.
It is hard to imagine what an incredible show Oshkosh represents. I encourage anyone who has never been to go.
No matter who you are, you will be impressed. A word to the wise…It takes several days! It’s that BIG!

Up in the sky!
It’s a bird!
It’s a plane!
It’s SpaceShipOne!

The White Knight is carrying SpaceShipOne.
The first private aircraft to reach space!

SpaceShipOne landed on Monday and was on display all week.
It was on it’s way to the Smithsonian to be placed on display.

On Thursday Garrett was given the honor of touching SpaceShipOne!

Here is an image of just a small section of the grounds.

I hope EAA doesn’t mind I borrowed this image from their website.
I encourage you to visit them at www.eaa.org