DalTxHornFan

This is the way to do post-Thanksgiving.

Nice deer. The head looks pretty old. IDK if it is just the pic, but he doesn't seem to have the belly sag that our lease looks for before we take out a trophy deer. You know your ranch better than I do, but I'd most likely pull the trigger on this guy in Bastrop County.

My wife prefers Rudy's Smoked Turkey to Franklin's! Bon Appetit!

Mixed charcuterie plate with some red wine blends to open with. Smoked whole turkey breast (Franklin BBQ style, drenched in butter), two smoked whole pork loins, one filled with sage pork sausage, one filled with Italian pork sausage, and both wrapped in bacon. Corn pudding casserole, sweet potato casserole with bacon and pecans, garlicy green beans, yeast rolls, and home-made cranberrry sauce. Guests are bringing dessert (and hopefully, lots of wine).

My only tip (and I may have previously posted this up stream -- I tend to repeat myself at my advanced age) is to fry up your sausage/pork/bacon/turkey first and use this grease and the pan solids as your starter for the roux process. Then add your lard and flour (All you guys make your own lard, don't you? It's so easy.) and then you can really begin to make your roux.

I like to drink while I stir the roux in my cast iron Dutch oven. Not exactly sure how that would work with the oven roux method.

My Mom and Dad were part of those young JFK true believers. She had already laid out mine and my brother's clothes for all of us to get dressed up and go to downtown Austin for the Presidential motorcade after JFK arrived from Dallas. My Dad came home from work unexpectedly (I assume to tell Mom the news), and she came outside tearfully to tell us that we wouldn't be going downtown after all. They both took it pretty hard. Rinse and repeat when RFK was killed. We were camping out at Inks Lake when that news came down.

Glad that aren't fussy about things like wiping off the table. That kind of stuff is for sissies.

You are not alone. Crispy boudin is the way (unless you are eating it at room temp with saltines and Louisiana Hot Sauce) -- there's no rules!

"Stuffed" Cajun Meat Market in NW Austin makes the best local boudin I've come across in the Austin area. They do a good job on other cajun food, too We've bought a couple of turduckens from them in the past and really enjoyed them. https://stuffedcajun.com/index.htm

The last time I was over that way was to buy a whole pig at Costco Business Center in the summer. There were lots of shady vagrant types hanging out on Shady Brook. Costco parking lot had plenty of security keeping them out. Two blocks away from the steak joint. Maybe errything has been gentrified and made safe at this new steak joint by now?

Wow! That seems like an ambitious location. Hope that the valet parking is behind a tall steel wall.

Respectfully disagree. The texture of the individual kernels of Zatarain's or other similar brands of par-boiled rice along with a solid gumbo is an other worldly experience. Let boudin be boudin. Let gumbo rice be gumbo rice.

How long has your freezer been out? If your answer is never -- the answer is never. Bring it to a boil if you have any reason to question it.

Sorry for the continuing thread derail, but it brings up some funny memories. My grandparents were married over 60 years, but when my Grandfather died in his early 80s, my Grandmother started living her best life for about 10 years before she died at 91. She replaced all of the household furniture that she'd wanted to get rid of for the last 30 years, bought a new TV and sound system, updated her kitchen, and finally bought a Cadillac!

Righteous! Anchovies knock it out of the park.

My parents were married for 53 years before my Mom died. My Dad remarried 10 months later and had a great time with the new wife until she died 5 years later. He now plays the field with all of the 80+ year-old ladies in his Sunday School class. Never too old!

I'm mostly on team spatchcock for chickens and turkeys when I'm doing regular barbecue, or smoking something to use in gumbo. However, the Franklin approach to whole skinless turkey breasts is the way to go when doing more civilized smoked turkey for Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. That mahogany color and bathing it in butter makes for a nice presentation and great eats. Very easy, too.

You're screwed. The default Surly password of "Muledick" requires more than four digits.

Not the worst guest story I've heard. We had one that decided it would be cool to try and shoot some doves off of a high power line that crossed our lease. (Narrator: It was not cool, and he ended up writing a big check.)

Righteous place to just eat at the bar.

Yep. I pretty much riff off of Julia Child's famous Beef Bourguignon recipe when I do short ribs. Don't skimp on the pearl onions or on browning them well. (I've done shallots before and was pleased with that, too.} I'd seen some folks using cognac in addition to the wine and tried that to good result, especially when deglazing the pan after the browning is done Oven is way better than stove top -- set it and forget it. Importantly, it is going to taste better the next day or two after you cook it, so start early and have a leisurely Thanksgiving Day knowing that you only need to heat it up before serving it. Bon Appetit!

Agreed. This type of ceremony has gotten out of hand. Same for when a firefighter or EMT dies in the course of duty. Obviously tragic and deserving of respect and recognition. That said, why does almost every single big and even the podunk departments from all around the state have to send vehicles and personnel to participate? Even just all of the locals is a bunch of equipment and folks (which raises the question of why we have so many police departments in just the Austin Metro -- it has to be around 50 when counting APD/smaller cities/county sheriff departments/school districts/airports/parks/community colleges/hospitals, etc.), but at least those guys have some connection to the fallen that is being honored. It strikes me as basically a two-day paid vacation for all of the out of towners and a huge expenditure of taxpayer funded resources. And that doesn't even address the disruption of the citizenry before, during, and after the event. P.S. I was pretty shocked to see all of the para-military equipment that was rolling today. Who knew that we own/need all of that stuff?

To less than stellar reviews: https://www.yelp.com/biz/top-notch-hutto?sort_by=date_desc