I won't keep you in suspenders. We did not find a goose-- Christmas or otherwise-- in Oxford. But on the way to Oxford, we did find Water Valley, a previously "derelict Mississippi town."
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| This is from the famous B.T.C. (Be The Change) Grocery* |
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| It ain't a K-Roger, |
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| but the trees were reasonably priced, given the market. |
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| This I will share. The fallen soldiers of Water Valley. |
*Please note that this is NOT an authentic Mississippi sign. It was not written by a redneckbackwoodsignerntboniefied Mississippian. There are no apostrophes, no quotes, and too few capital letters. Should be:
... Farmers... ice cream maker's...Bread Bakers...grit grinds'... ... bee's keepers'... and "Christsmas' Tree Planters'".
Our first Christmas was spent in Germany. Communications were not then what they are today - so I was on my own. Completely. We had a duck. My stove-oven was a German one (we lived on the local economy) with no temperature markings. Such recipes as I could find indicated a "short", "long" or "medium" flame. In order to determine the length of the flame, I had to get down on my hands and knees and peek through a small opening at the flame level. Oh...and did I mention that I was about 8 + months pregnant? In any case, I started it with a "long" flame, but at some point decided it was roasting too fast, so turned it down to "short" flame. I have no idea what temperatures I used, or what timing I used, but it was delicious with the crusty skin standing away from the body meat in a way that I've never been able to reproduce. (ok...I've only tried it a couple of times since then..)
ReplyDeleteOther than that, we always had plain old turkey - cooked breast down, like my Mom taught me! Not so pretty, but not dry either! And you don't have to baste continuously to get the moistness.