Turkey!

Brine the Turkey - best way to start then ensure all is washed and dyed before a salt and pepper rub.

Add butter inside the skin and drizzled with olive oil.

Cook as per the instructions.

Make sure you let thee bird sit after you bring out - for longer than you think you should - this way the bird soaks up the juices and stays moister.

Bon Appetite

Thanksgiving - What's the Sense

The sense of Thanksgiving is to stretch oneself - not your stomach from too much turkey - well that too! But look to stretch your thoughts as to why we really are and should be thank full. I've heard so many stories of family drama - well we all should be so lucky. It is a responsibility an privilege to be included and to spend time with one another - given that attitude - all seems to work out well.

One great story was the head chef at the Salvation Army in Mobile AL - he was famous for taking the folks to task and trying to get them on the road home and back to a "normal" life. This man was homeless and on the street fro several years before someone helped him to get back on his feet. He conveyed that he knew what it felt to go a week without eating - what it felt like to belong nowhere - these are the stories that should give us pause - make us want to more for others, and ourselves. For that is the true first task - be thankful for you and who you are - once you are there you can extend that feeling to others. Good for the chef - good for all of us that serve in the soup kitchen - good for all of us who really get the meaning of the day -

Space Insantity

We are currently faced with quite the dilemma - what to do about the Shuttle and the space program as a whole. In short, we have only 5 more Shuttle flights until the program is a scrapped and we look to a replacement launch vehicle. Problem is there is projected to be a 2 year gap between programs. Knowing the government, I suspect 2yrs will easily become 4 years. So in the interim, we have invested 100s of billions on the international space station and we will consciously leave ourselves no credible way to reach our own property for in upwards of 4 years. We have stated that we will depend upon our good Allys, including the Russians to provide us a lift up to our property in the interim. We all understand hitchhiking - but this is ridiculous.

Saved by the Stimulus - should be the headlines here. But our stimulus dollars have propped up the financials - which was a necessary evil, protect car industry - which have been allowed to fail and to pad the cash for clunkers program - which gave profits mainly to foreign car manufactures - with US tax Dollars. Stimulus should be used to make investments that will yield returns over time and keep and promote jobs.

Stimulus support to keep the shuttle flying and keep the thousands employed by the current program seems to be a no brainer. This is seriously valuable intellectual property and knowledge. We need to keep our engineers gainfully employed and pointed in a direction that continue to pay this country dividends for future generations - not bolster frivolous spending for immediate gratification - of which a majority was used to pad the profits of foreign companies.

Biltmore Stays

Accommodations for a Biltmore visit are quite abundant. Best options will be to stay on property or in the adjacent Biltmore Village - which is just outside the main entrance. Two fine options are the Inn at Biltmore which is on the Estate Grounds and the brand new Grand Bohemian Hotel Asheville located in the Biltmore Village.

The ambiance of the Grand Bohemian cannot be matched as it brings the visitor into a grand hunting lodge setting Worthy of George Vanderbilt himself.

Fall in North Carolina

Great times to be had visiting Asheville, NC and in particular the Biltmore Estate. America's largest home at 175,000 square feet was constructed in 1895. Primary construction took 6 years to complete at an estimated cost of $10 million (1895 dollars). Exterior was finished in Indiana limestone over a brick interior and steel skeleton.

This time of the year you can find the estate dressed for Christmas with each room decorated accordingly.