Happy Thanksgiving!

[Chef Dave]

Happy Thanksgiving!

Since I live in a small log cabin with a tiny kitchen and no dining room, I hosted a small dinner party on the back patio by my pond.

Here's a picture of my pond. It's 18 feet long, 12 feet wide, and has a maximum depth of 4 feet. Pictured in the background is my waterfall and planter, which were built using old poured concrete blocks, logs, and old stumps that I found on this property.

My home is an old log cabin that was built in 1910. When I excavated the area for the pond, I found a cooking iron that was once used to hold pots over cook fires. This iron is now being used to hold a solar lantern that helps illuminate the pond at night. (See foreground).

Instead of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, I served up turkey ragout. A ragout is a braised dish. The ragout featured turkey braised with forest and portabella mushrooms, onions, and bacon. I served it with orange-honey glazed grilled sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, and oyster-cornbread dressing.

For dessert, guests had a choice of vanilla cream cheese stuffed pumpkin bread or a two layered chocolate cake.

 

[DrDave]

Very nice Dave. I'm surprised that a Chef would settle for a small kitchen. I should talk, ours is so small, my wife and I are always running into each other. We both like to cook.

 

[Chef Dave]

Very nice Dave. I'm surprised that a Chef would settle for a small kitchen. I should talk, ours is so small, my wife and I are always running into each other. We both like to cook.

I really didn't have much of a choice. When I moved here two years ago, there was a mining boom. The local copper mine had expanded operations and there were no rental properties to be found within a radius of 50 miles. Housing was at a premium. Miners and contractors were living in RVs and trailers parked anywhere they could find space.

When this house came on the market, it was largely ignored because it was small and old and located in a somewhat run down neighborhood. The old shingle roof was in poor condition. The flooring was in even worse condition. It turned out that the rotting floorboards were sitting on rough hewn pine which were in turn sitting on a "foundation" of poured concrete blocks.

The roof and floor have since been repaired ... and the old concrete blocks have been incorporated into my backyard.

The kitchen is just large enough for a two person table. My living room is much too small to also accommodate a dining area ... so I don't have a dining room.

One nice thing about this property is that it's on the edge of a "gentrified" neighborhood. Older houses are being bought up by people like me and as they're remodeled, the character of the neighborhood is slowly changing.

My house sits on a large corner lot and I have a rather large backyard for a relatively small building. As time permits, I plan to build an outdoor kitchen complete with gas grill and a smoker.

If I convert my covered back patio into a bedroom, my living room will become a dining room and the living room area will be moved into what used to be the master bedroom.

 

[DrDave]

When you get ready to do your outdoor kitchen goto my plans website listed below. I have helped people for 10 years in designing and planning BBQ Islands. Many have smokers, sinks, refrigerators, WOK's, Pizza Ovens, Fire Pits and so on.

 

[Chef Dave]

When you get ready to do your outdoor kitchen goto my plans website listed below. I have helped people for 10 years in designing and planning BBQ Islands. Many have smokers, sinks, refrigerators, WOK's, Pizza Ovens, Fire Pits and so on.

I hadn't thought about a sink but having a sink would certainly be convenient. I already have a commercial quality stainless steel food prep table that I've been using to support a small hibachi grill.

I think it'd be neat to have a smoker. I don't have a smoker at work and it'd be fun to experiment and develop a variety of BBQ recipes for eventual use at work. Developing good recipes and the expertise to use a smoker would also justify the expense of having our restaurant acquire its own smoker. If we did this, we'd be the only restaurant in the Gila Valley to have our own smoker.

We're already fairly good in the baking department. For Thanksgiving, we produced dozens of Brioche rolls, vanilla cream cheese stuffed pumpkin bread, and pies for sale with our takeout orders.

 

[Ian]

I'm so hungry after seeing those photos, Dave. Very nice work :grumble:

 

[DrCase]

I,m getting hungry now!!!!