This is “Vern,” relaxing nicely in the brine as he awaits his stage debut sometime this afternoon. He’s named after Vern Gosdin, one an opening act (with the Gosdin Brothers) for The Byrds and a extra voice on their Sweethearts Of The Rodeo LP. Ironically, his last big hit was This Ain’t My First Rodeo.
There is no container in this house that could properly brine Vern, so I resorted to a food lug and frequent do-si-dos to make sure all is soaked. Most of the brining happens from the cavity anyway and I got the neck and giblets out after a few hours. They’ll cook up with whatever leftover root vegetables are in the refrigerator and will eventually become gravy.
All the kitchen knives will get a thorough sharpening today. That’s another Thanksgiving ritual, one of the most enjoyable. It began for me when my mother had me sharpen all the knives at home on Thanksgiving Day and I accepted the task as an honor. I still have my Dad’s Arkansas stone in a yellowed cardboard box that says “CarbOmagnetO” on top, but now I use a Chef’s Choice 110 electric diamond hone sharpener and do the final hone with a ceramic sharpener. You can hear a sharp knife with one of those things.
8:20:00 AM 
|
