The Best Turkey Ever!

This year I slooooooow roasted a turkey. The result were tender, moist, flavorful and delicious.

Sunday morning- I bought a 20lb all natural beauty from Trader Joe's.

Defrosted for three days. Partly frozen, it had until Tuesday night.

I then put in a giant ziploc bag with a solution of saltwater, maple syrup, raw sugar, lemon juice, a couple bay leaves, and thyme.

In the brine for about 12 hours.

Wednesday afternoon, out of the brine. Rinsed thoroughly. Outside and in the cavity. No stuffing this time. I wanted to keep it all meat.

Set my oven to 400 degrees and rubbed melted butter all over the bird .

Cooked for about 1 hour, 15 minutes at 400 degrees to burn off the surface bacteria and brown the skin. Then we got down to the business of slow cooking. Now, this was Wednesday afternoon at around 3. A full day before Thanksgiving dinner. I lowered the oven to 200 degrees. The turkey cooked all night and into Thursday. Around 10am I raised the oven to 225. I was a little leery of under cooking since I had not tried this slow cooking method before. So I raised the temperature again to 250 and then to 350. I think next time I'll keep it low. Cooked until 2pm. A full 25 hours. The meat thermometer read 185. Let it sit for 30 minutes. My boyfriend carved the bird. We served it with homemade Cranberry sauce. I had never made cranberry sauce from scratch before. Wow! Not hard and so much better than the canned stuff. All you do is put a cup of orange juice in a pan (I squeezed my own!). A cup of raw sugar and 12 oz of fresh cranberries. Melt the sugar, simmer and stir until the cranberries begin to pop*. Refrigerate and the sauce will thicken.

Thanksgiving dinner was held around 3. Dinner was delicious. All Thanksgiving staples were served. Mashed potatoes and gravy, dressing, green bean casserole, sweet potato and apple casserole, garlic bread. All that mouth watering food covered our table and everyone had enough to eat. We sat around the table- my boyfriend, his mom and brother and me. Ate, talked, ate, laughed, ate... A Good time.

You are a natural beauty.

Holy shit this is so cool!

Its native gold on white quartz from California!

And only $2,250. Ha!

rocks, gems, cabs, trees,

Pennsylvania day trip. Met a friend at a gem show.

Country radio blaring down the freeway. Trees rolling beyond the horizon. I had the open road away from city grime. Yee ha!!!

My finds: Turqouise, Varicite, Mookite, a raw Emerald and raw Rubies.

Mmmm Mmmm pretty.

New! custom 18 karat pendant

Oooo, Friday the 13th!

AND my photo importing froze up at the 13th photo!...something haunting my computer perhaps?

A lovely customer wanted the "Helicopter Maple Seed Necklace" as a charm. No chain, just the maple seed. And she wanted it in 18 karat gold.

Great! Sounded like fun to make. And it was! 18 kt gold= luxury to work with!

LASIK!

Here is me at my day job! I make molds, cast sculptures, fabricate, help set up film and photo shoots among other things.

Notice my big glasses... I won't be wearing those anymore. Yesterday I had LASIK surgery!!! Upon arriving at the doctors office I took a Vicodin and Xanax. I swallowed the pills gratefully and waited for a wave of relaxation to fall over me. It didn't happen. I was so amped up. I kept thinking, when will I relax? Can I make a run for it? The elevator is right in front of me...

The final waiting room was next to the operating room. When we arrived, another patient was waiting for her procedure. She was excited. Happy. A guy walked out of the operating room. Everyone whipped around to take a good look at him. He looked good! Wearing big sunglasses, lead the way out. "Wow" I thought, it cant be that bad. More patients filed into the room. Most accompanied by a partner who was trying to downplay the foreboding situation. Me and my fellow nearsighted patients sat facing one another listening to the sound of the laser cutting. K.K.K.K.K.K.K.K. A grating, high pitched sound. "That's her eyeball being cut!"

One big tough looking guy sat by his girlfriend staring solemnly. He was silent. The woman beside him whispered into his ear and he sat fixed. Trying to transport himself out of that room. "He was so nervous." my boyfriend later told me. That guy was not alone. My heart was pounding, hands fidgeting, trying to breath. We were all anticipating something unspeakable. One by one the patients were released from the room. Everyone looked a little dazed. Reborn. Gone would be waking to fuzzy faces. Gone would be my headaches from glasses pushed against nose and temples. Gone was the insufferable irritation and pain from wearing contacts.

I was in the operating room for about 15 minutes. The doctor and nurses were so nice and comforting. They talked me through everything. I held onto two stress balls under a blanket. I tried to squeeze and my hands wouldn't make a fist. Maybe those drugs were working! First they put lots of numbing drops in my eyes. I was terrified that those drops weren't enough. "You can put more" I laughed. The Vicodin was kicking in. It was hard not to smile. I was getting LASIK!

A big suction cup latched onto my eyeball steadying them for the initial laser cuts. The computer operated laser cut a flap into both eyes over my cornea and the doctor bent the flaps over. The doctor check and rechecked everything. I was temporarily blind with the flaps up. Only a fuzzy grey and a faint blinking light. "Keep looking at the light"

"Oh, there it is" I laughed. "Holy shit" I said to myself. "I can't feel the cutting, just some pressure. Its OK. Everything is going to be OK."

I wore big full face "retirement" sunglasses while my boyfriend drove me home. The rest of the day was spent in bed. I felt like I had an eyelashes in my eyes. Some stinging. But sleep heals. The eye's are amazingly resilient.

Today, I am taking off from my day job. The doctor said that I can go back to work today but for my job, I don't think so. Too much dust and fumes there and I want to play it safe. I will take it easy this weekend. My sight is AMAZING now! I have some halos around bright lights at night. This is normal. My eyes are dry and this is normal. I have three types of eye drops, and they are my best friends right now.

I will have a check up later today, I expect my vision will be near perfect.

This is a life changing event. I am so happy with my decision to get LASIK! I have had surges of emotion throughout this journey. Tears well up when the reality hits me that I can see. I just received a text from my wonderful boyfriend, "How's life with the new eyes?"

It is incredible!

gourds for fall

Love the textures.