TURDUCKEN XI

Held out on Nate's property in Edwards this year, 80 degrees, storms pending, 7 kegs of delicious beers (I only tried small samples of 3), 4 kids and 2 babies, more dogs, one big turducken, and one even bigger piecaken. The annual Turducken party is always a smash hit!

 (We came home a few hours before daddy, so they got to crash in my bed. Until the storm got too close and we retreated to the relatively safer downstairs bedrooms until it passed.)

T-LITE

With newlyweds Sandy and Barrett living in DC for 6 months (Sandy is on a temporary assignment... at least we HOPE it's temporary!), Team Lindsay accepted the challenge of hosting her annual Turducken event in her absence. However, not having her here to coordinate the bird prep and brew competition (and provide her extremely large guest list), we decided to call this ninth year T-LITE.

For recaps of years past (Sandy's recaps left / Team Lindsay recaps right) click below:

(2013) T-VIII

(2012) T-VII

T-VI (2011) T-VI

T-V (2010)

T-IV (2009)

T-III (2008)

T-I and T-II (2006 and 2007) T-II

We ended up having a huge turnout though (we invited friends and coworkers and running buddies and everyone in between), and an amazing array of delicious food! I would have been happy with the smoked Turducken and deep fried turkey, and my choice of desserts (OK,  I'll be honest, I tried ALMOST all of them), but the variety of sides was pretty incredible too. So we stuffed ourselves silly. There were pudding cheesecake pies, "oysters" AKA cream puffs stuffed with fruit and caramel sauce and dipped in chocolate, deep fried cherry pie on a stick (think cake pop, but with PIE), brownies, cookies, s'mores bars, blackberry and peach pie, lemon buttermilk pie, and bourbon pound cake. And then we had to find room for the mashed potatoes, baked mac-n-cheese, cornbread dressing, sesame asparagus, green bean casserole, kale salad, sweet potato dumplings, and more!

I was so busy mingling and eating (and sampling the 5 homebrews) that I didn't take many photos, but this will show you the gist of it all. I think we counted about 30 adults and 20 kids?...

POST TURDUCKEN SNUGGLES

We were too busy eating and drinking and being merry (and chasing kids around Sandy's house) to pull out the camera, so this is what we have to document the party - the post Turducken snuggles! 

The kids and I left Jay to party until the wee hours and opted to head home for snuggles (not that we left early - we didn't get home until after 9pm, but I was wiped out after a 14-miler this morning and a couple hours skating at Coltin's party this afternoon). This is how Jay found us at midnight. 

Yes, those two completely melt our hearts.

P.S. Jay's brew didn't win any awards at Turducken this year, but the keg was EMPTY, so we know it was enjoyed (there was more than enough beer there to go around, what with most Delta Brews members bringing a keg for the competition). He called it Sanguine Temperament, and he described it as a deep reddish copper color, moderately sweet and malty, Irish red ale brewed at double strength (ABV 9.6%)

TURDUCKEN VII

 If you haven't been to the south between November and December and partaken in the Turducken "delicacy" yet yourself, I highly recommend it. This year was Sandy's SEVENTH Turducken party, and as expected, it was bigger and better than ever before. She was up at 4am to assemble the birds (which included a special surprise in one), she balanced house guests and party prep, a bunch of us showed up really early (especially the Delta Brews crew and honorary members, since there was a People's Choice Homebrew Competition), we took over her kitchen for last-minute cooking, the kids ran WILD (but were generally well behaved), and she held onto her title as Best Hostess in town - THANK YOU Sandy, we really had a blast and ate more delicious food in the span of 4 hours than we ever thought possible!

Bird assembly over at Martin's at Midtown (Sandy's got connections EVERYWHERE)

Cooked birds. Traditional Turducken on the left, Turduckenator on the right. Who can guess what the surprise was?



The Hostess with the Mostest and some of her labmates (well, ex-labmate in Mindy's case)

Alex, Al, and Sophie help demonstrate the size of the crowd. Sandy's count was 82 bodies in and out of her house throughout the evening. Now THAT'S a party (in fact, I think that's more people than we had at our wedding...)

Playing train (James designated himself conductor and continually kicked the other kids out of the front chair)

Will and Cora playing in the recycle bins

Don't worry, Will WANTED to be trapped in there. And we didn't let him stay in long.

There were 15 brews entered into the competition!

 Jay's brew was called TNT. It's a Belgian Trippel, and if you want to know more about it than that, you'll have to ask him. I can tell you that it was delicious! It was crisp and had a clean finish, and I could definitely taste the honey in it. He won second place in the competition (that's the high-tech voting system up there on the left) and he was super proud to beat out some of the guys who've been brewing a lot longer than he has. I was just glad there was some leftover to take home and enjoy when I don't have wild kids running all over the place to keep track of!

I'm also glad he won second place and not first, otherwise we'd have brought home this giant turkey as the prize!

Towards the end of the night we realized neither kid had eaten more than cheese cubes (not for our lack of trying), so we caved and gave them Santa cookies. They were happy, and actually sat still for a few minutes to consume them. Pictured here are Jenny (Sandy's best friend) and her husband. We wish they lived closer because we could absolutely see ourselves hanging out with them on a regular basis. They're a cool couple, and our kids LOVE Jenny!

 And before I sign off for the evening, I'll leave you with some random James and Manu antics...

For those not in the know, that's a "Belly Button Hug". And I have no idea if they urinate together at school or if this is a new trend, but whatever. It cracked me up and I HAD to take a picture for posterity.

Thanks again Sandy! We can't wait until next year!!

TURDUCKEN VI

Sandy delivered yet again, hosting an amazing party featuring the turkey-stuffed-with-a-duck-stuffed-with-a-chicken, and we ate ourselves silly!

And by we, I mean me and Cora, since James couldn't be bothered to stop playing with the multitude of other kids in attendance for anything but my cake (which I grudgingly shared - it was a raspberry chocolate torte) and Jay was hit with a tummy bug (though he did eat more than he probably should have).

(Just look at that face. She is so SERIOUS when it comes to eating...)

TURDUCKEN PARTY

Haven't heard of Turducken? Well, it's a southern thing. It's duck stuffed inside a chicken stuffed inside a turkey... poultry to the max. It's weird, and it looks funny, but it tastes great! Generally served around Thanksgiving and Christmas, with all the normal fare: green bean casserole, corn, rolls, cranberry sauce, apple pie, you get the idea. I don't have a picture of the turkducken (I was at the end of the food line and you couldnt' really tell what it was by then), but here are a few photos from the party, which was hosted by Erin and Jeff (coworkers of ours at ERDC):

Tom, Natalia, and Christina

Ed, my team leader at ERDC