Category: Life

California :: December 2010

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Many of you already know, but I once lived in California and made some pretty amazing friends while being out there.  We have a tradition of visiting either here or there every year (hopefully something that will always continue).  We actually just got back a few days ago from one of these visits.

Many of you also know that I’m horrible at taking pictures while on vacation or really anything from my personal life.  I tried to do a better job this time around but I still need some work.  I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of all our friends but I did get a few.

:: The first few are from Riverside, CA at the Mission Inn ::

:: We then went to visit some of our best friends in the Huntington Beach area ::

:: Laguna Beach ::

My First Turkey

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Since I am 29 years old, I decided it was time I tried to cook a turkey.  Luckily, we were having people over for our friend’s (Ben McDonald) 30th birthday so this was a good chance to try out my turkey roasting skills.  My whole life, cooking the turkey was a grandparents job, we just brought everything else.  After posting a few questions on facebook and then google-ing a couple of things, I decided to go with Tyler Florence’s Maple Roasted Turkey with Sage Butter.

Here’s the 12.78 pound turkey

Sage, Butter, Salt, Pepper

mix it in…

This was the fun part.  Putting the sage butter in between the skin and breast of the turkey.  Next time I’ll put more.

Tie it all up…

Then layer it with bacon!

Baste it with maple syrup…

Then put a tent over it for the first 1.5-2 hours…

My wife’s decorating skills…

And it’s done!

And carved…

And friends…

Overall, I thought it went pretty well.  I give the turkey a 7/10.  I think I may try this recipe without the bacon but still do the maple syrup.  I totally expect to be a professional the next time I attempt this.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Retreat in BW

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We had a great retreat with our church this past weekend. We’re not a large church (75ish) so it’s easy to go on weekend things like this. I was leading worship for most of it but I did get a chance to take just a couple shots.