Thanksgiving Dinner in Maryland

Dad and I returned to Maryland for another Thanksgiving dinner with the T.s. I began driving on Thanksgiving day and picked Dad up from the airport in Baltimore. Traffic was generally not bad and we made it to our old neighborhood during the daylight hours. The T.s were our across-the-way neighbors for pretty much my entire life. They and my parents went to Royal Ascot together for quite a number of years, and I really appreciate their ongoing family friendship and their willingness to include us in their holidays. Here is a very cute cream cheese Dorito pumpkin that B. made.

Here is the dinner table.

There were two kinds of turkey this year...I think one was a bourbon glazed variety, grilled...and the other perhaps a more traditional roasted turkey? I feel like this was the first year I really tried stuffing with oysters...I've never been a big stuffing person, but I have to say that particular stuffing (there were about 6 different varieties) really spoke to me.

As in past years, the birthdays of R. and me fall quite near the Thanksgiving holiday...so we each had the opportunity to blow out some candles and sing the 'happy birthday song to one another.

Mmmmmmm. Sweet heavenly dessert.

B. and T.'s nephew and his wife recently had a baby, who did quite well during the entire evening, I would say. Here is a picture of him meeting his cousin-uncle for the first time.

I really am thankful for being able to spend this holiday with a great group of folks whom I have known in one way or another for quite a number of years. I'll have to post some of the photos that B. and D. gave me for my birthday...major throwbacks from childhood, and images I feel like I've never seen or only saw at the time. Very neat.

Spatchcocked Chicken on the Grill

So really, I am a lover of sitting outside and grilling things, and I have definitely been making the most of our decided change in season over the past couple of weeks.Between the improvements I've made to the deck through replacing very past-due deck chairs and planting a nice range of additional flowers, it's getting to be an even more awesome space than it already was.

I think it was a Friday evening that I went to my local whole foods with the intention of buying some combination of things to grill that night and over the weekend. I debated purchasing another steak or perhaps a tuna steak or nice piece of salmon, but in the end they had a deal on organic free-range chicken that especially caught my eye. It felt like a good day to spatchcock a chicken and roast/grill it outside. I didn't do anything very fancy with this particular chicken, other than cutting its backbone out. While I tend to brine my chickens, I didn't feel like waiting around for the brine solution to cool or for the chicken to actually soak. Nor did I desire the mess that accompanies making any of the herb butters I've tried throughout the years. All I did was rub a little olive oil on the outside and sprinkle salt and pepper over the whole of the chicken. Then put it on the grill and let it do the rest.

I accompanied my finished chicken with an ear of corn, some green beans with garlic and a grilled/baked potato. All was delicious. The chicken had that nice grilled aspect and crispier skin that I usually am I able to finagle in the oven. The corn wasn't local, but it did get me excited for the corn of the true summer. Potato and beans also didn't disappoint. A very good meal.

Sandwich, Snacks and Drinks c/o Prohibition; Comedy and Music c/o Underground Arts

LMP Brigade strikes again. In other words, I had a last minute plan idea and I asked BC if she might want to join in. She said yes and so on the night in question a plan was born. Basically, I was interested in seeing Starlee Kine and the West Philly Orchestra at Underground Arts. We decided before getting there that we'd have some drinks and perhaps food at Prohibition Taproom. I walked there and it took a lot less time than I had thought, which made me a good 20 minutes early. BC then ended up being a little late, so I sat at the bar alone for a bit of time. When I sat down there were people on either side of me, but eventually one person departed, which made me glad because I could then save the seat for BC. It was a crowded house for a Thursday night, so I wasn't really aggressive about the seat...didn't put a jacket on it or a bag or anything. But when a big guy came up and asked about it I said, well no one's there now but I have a friend coming in 10 minutes so....He got quite grumpy about that, went to another section of the bar and grabbed a seat. Meanwhile the bar manager came up to me and gently chastised/scolded me, saying they have a first come first serve policy on seats. All fine and good really. I wasn't trying to be difficult. At the same time the guy's extreme grouchiness/telling on me and the bar managers faux conciliatory/judgy tone were kind of off-putting, even if I get it: it's busy, you'd rather have an ass in a chair now then have me leave because my friend won't have an chair for her ass later. But I didn't leave. A nice lady sat in the seat next to me, had a drink and left just as BC arrived. So all worked out. I just found it a little something. We decided to split the grilled cheese sandwich of the day, which included brie, pears and I forget what else. Good, but not quite hot hot hot enough.

I'm a sucker for fried green beans and I think they do an excellent job at Prohibition. The dipping sauce is also quite addictive.

They had an 'old man drink' special, which was the 'Fine and Dandy.' It was a mix of gin and other things. Potent. Old mannish for sure.

After our drinks and meal, we departed Prohibition for Underground Arts. There, we the 215 Festival put together a show that allowed us to see the comedy stylings of Juliet Hope Wayne whom I had seen perform once before. She is funny, but it kind of makes me sad that her entire schtick is 'I was poor, doing heroin and drinking too much and these are the decisions I made as a result.' It's legitimately funny, and she seems to have gotten her act together now, but after only hearing her two times, I kind of wish she'd find fresh material.

Then there was the West Philly Orchestra. They came out and played and it was fun and good.

Many of the musicians were wearing costumes. One girl was dressed up in a kimono while playing her tuba. I think it was a tuba.

And then came Starlee Kine. She decided to do a bit with two audience members, except she chose pretty much the two worst people in Philadelphia to do anything with on stage. The basic set up was: she had recently attended a wedding of two people she in one way or another had helped bring together...and she wanted far more credit than she got. So she brought up these two people and the bit was supposed to just be this list of how many points she'd get if they ended up doing a variety of things together. The problem is that these two were just surly and weird. In the initial introduction they quickly established themselves as being unable to 'go along with a bit' and kept on saying pretty much the opposite of what Kine expected or could have wanted. While this could have ratcheted up the comedy, it really didn't. It was just aggravating. Both the dude and the woman had this strange Philly swagger/I don't give a shit attitude and Kine struggled to keep them and the audience engaged. I truly believe it would have gone over so much better if she had randomly called out two more recent Philly transplants or just other people altogether....unless the whole thing was supposed to be a little Andy Kaufman/Tom Green socially awkward. If so, totally nailed it.

While there were more performers after Kine, it was getting late and BC and I both had work the next day. So, alas, we left before it ended. A good and lovely LMP.

Sewanee 4th of July: Small Town Dog Show & Parade

So my father's house in Sewanee is not far from the town's central artery, which is pretty much 'Main Street' with a different name. Each July 4th the town's parade is along this road. A few hours before the parade there are a few other Independence Day events that I like to check out. Well, mainly the Mutt Show. There's a cat show, but that seems far less fun. Because of our proximity to the main drag, Dad thought it would be nice to invite folks to our place pre-parade for beverages and snacks. I volunteered to make a few different things, so on the day itself I woke up relatively early to get some of the heavy lifting on that front completed while still allowing myself the necessary time to go take a good luck at the mutts. There are a number of different categories for this event, which include prizes for best dressed dog, best matching dog and owner, smallest dog and largest dog, and there's a trick category too. I stayed for the majority of these categories but time ran out before the tricks. Here are photos proving as much. The basic structure was that each owner and dog would take one turn around a small circle, which was lined on all sides with folks of all ages. Certain patches of the circle featured congregations of kids on their knees, leaning over the largely ceremonial and entirely miniscule wall separating the audience from the contestants, reaching for each and every dog that walked by. I should note that at 10 AM it was easily over 80 degrees and wasn't really going to do anything other than get hotter throughout the day. Here, a dog was just done with the whole walking in a circle thing.

I believe this was one of the best dressed contestants.

And another. There were a lot of blonde little girls.

I think this is a dude with whom my father plays poker. He was one of the panel of three judges.

The MC for this event was my cousin E. When the judges were deliberating over the winners for each category E. would pick a member from the audience to answer a trivia question. This kid was levitating with excitement, but ultimately got the question wrong. I believe it was: true or false, dogs have sweat glands in their paws?

That really tall dude in the back? I don't know him. But he is the quitessentially dressed and coiffed young man you'll see around Sewanee, both when the University is in session and even when it's not. I spent a portion of many of my childhood summers in Sewanee and have a strange secret appreciation for this overly preppy Republican look. But whenever I have actually spoken to the majority of dudes like this, I realize it's all looks. That will be my greatest generalization of this post...I think.

This dog had 'firecrackers' coming out of its ears.

Picking her next trivia victim, I think.

This was one of the contestants in the smallest dog category.

The judges, taking notes.

I may be wrong, but I think these girls a) won first place in the little dog category and b)that they had eye make up and perhaps other make up on. Or their faces were just flawless. I'm the sort of person who would almost prefer to wonder what the hell their mother (or grandmother) was thinking than that they just had these faces all on their own.

This was for the look alike category. I'm not sure if they were going for a particular costume per se or just matching.

T. is a pretty long-time member of the Sewanee community. She suffered a stroke a few years back, which from what I understand was pretty dire. But she rebounded better than some might have thought and was certainly properly done up for her turn in the circle, complete with tinseled parasol and streaked blue hair.

I believe she and her dog, of whom I never actually got a good photograph, won first prize. Well deserved. Especially considering how many people competing seemed to have few actual ties to the town. I guess Sewanee's relatively timeless 4th festivities were written up in a magazine or two, so there definitely people who were in town on a kind of 'tourist basis.' While I have a fair amount of historical connection to the town, it's not like I grew up in town, attending the schools or making friends with the locals. So when a woman standing next to me asked questions about the town with the assumption I was a local (fostered in part by the fact that I was able to say hello to someone else in the crowd), I felt pretty good about the fact that I was actually able to respond to her questions from a place of knowledge. I'll never be a townie, but I don't think you could call me a tourist either.

This little guy had a patriotic bow tie.

Matching shin splints, of course.

This was a pretty minimalist dress the same effort. The dog was all white. The boy wore all white. I believe this is the grandson of A. and Z. but I may have misunderstood that.

For the largest dog category there was only one entrant. So she necessarily won. Of course I was quite pleased for her given my long-held coveting of such a creature. Great Danes, one day I might have one of you. One day.

Her glory lap.

And then I left and went back to the home front to finish up on the various dishes while Dad did a fair amount of sorting, organizing and cleaning. Here, the dip.

Here the spicy slaw with green apples.

Here the bean salad. These three things have definitely become my go-to dishes for summer shindigs.

Dad made gazpacho.

And J. helped grill hot dogs.

I put some skewers into the mix.

And then it was off to the parade, which is a mish mash of folks advertising things, folks showing off their old cars, not all that impressive beauty queens, folks declaring their political preferences, and an assortment of other things.

This was probably the most subversive of cars with a bunch of kids apparently in drag. I have no idea what they were selling or who they were representing.

No small town in the south would be complete without the token hippie couple on a tandem bike.

This old car broke down pretty much as it passed us. You can see that a few people are pushing it to the side of the road.

The Sewanee Kazoos: an actual thing.

No idea exactly what these two were about, but I'm glad they brought their cooler.

Amurica.

The one stop light in all of Sewanee.

No idea.

Seems like she's doing a hard sell for America.

I've always enjoyed this final golf cart that definitively lets you know that there is no more parade for you to see.

The end of the end.