Saturday, December 07, 2013

Another Blast From The Past

This, like the preceding genealogy photoblog, is an orphaned post I found on Blogger from last year; it was originally titled "And So This Is Christmas Eve." It's obviously unfinished, and I was going to toss it but I liked the turducken photos.

Well, it's getting a bit quieter here, though the bread is still a-baking and the table is still covered with food. We're down to Emmi and Ben: Jaime left for Pittsburgh the day after the ""end of the world" party, and Amanda just took off for Washington about an hour or so ago. So we're now just winding down to a silent night...



Me and the Turducken

The turducken came out great by the way. Here's a shot of the turkey getting stuffing, with the duck waiting in the wings, so to speak, and one of the chicken still waiting in the brine:

We got a huge new pan to cook it in, one that just barely fit in our oven, and the turducken barely fit in the pan. Here it is before cooking, with my head for comparison -- we estimated we had about 35 pounds of meat and stuffing to cook.
Turkey Getting Stuffing
Brining the Chicken

The final result was beautiful.

The Finished Turducken
Turducken: A Cross Section
Anne and I had started the cooking and other preparations the day or so before, with a firing of the oven to do some slow cooked ribs, and of course going to the Allentown Farmer's Market to get the ribs, turkey, duck, chicken, and other supplies... Anne boned all three birds and we put them in brine to soak overnight, got the ingredients ready to make stuffing, and by the time we put the ribs in the oven it was past 1:00 AM. At 6:00 AM we got up, did the stuffing and Anne sewed the birds back together, and the birds went in the oven maybe around 9:00.

Blast From The Past

These are my maternal grandfather's paternal grandparents: Heinrich Barth was born in Leese, Germany. He was a 30-year-old a sailor living in New York when he got married in 1869. His bride was Helene Euschen, a 23-year-old originally from the tiny German village of Moringen. They look a a bit older than that in this picture, but I have no idea when it was taken.

This other photo is of Heinrich Barth, much later in life and probably taken in Brooklyn.