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i hope the saints win the superbowl this year. this monday night game is so exciting!!

View of the Charles River from Longfellow Bridge, Thanksgiving Eve

Although I was unable to spend Thanksgiving with my family (or Andreas’s family), I was really looking forward to spending the day relaxing, cooking, watching football, and most importantly, not going into lab! I can’t remember the last time I hadn’t gone in, except when I was out of town, so obviously it had been way too long since I had taken a day completely off. It was great not having to worry about when to go in (do i go before Andreas wakes up? before and/or after i hang out with friends? can i incorporate it into the route for my run?), and not having to spend the 20 minutes before I actually head in mentally prepping and psyching myself up for it. Instead, this Thursday I woke up early… AND THEN WENT BACK TO SLEEP!!! Until noon! It was awesome! I felt so thankful! And then I got started on…

Our Thanksgiving Menu

• Pan-fried quail with shallot gravy over grits (Andreas found a Paula Deen recipe and was sold at “fried”)
• Cornbread stuffing with sausage, leeks, mushrooms, celery, sage
• Roasted butternut squash
• Pumpkin cheesecake

Of course my mind had a few additions to this menu, and I had even bought many of the ingredients for these sides, but this is what we actually ended up devouring while watching the Cowboys stomp the Raiders.

I bought 6 quails partially deboned- the only bones that remained were the bones in the wing and leg, but there were no other incisions besides the opening at the head and tail. I have no idea how it was done! We started by brining these little guys for about 2 hours in the fridge.

After drying them on paper towels, we seasoned them up with salt, pepper, and paprika, and then coated them with flour.

Then they were off to the swimming pool of hot oil in a cast iron skillet!

After about 10-12 min total per bird, they came out all DELICIOUS.

It was the best poultry I’ve ever had on Thanksgiving (with Uncle Angelo’s turducken coming in 2nd- and mainly because it’s meat in DUCK in meat). The skin was delicate and crispy, the meat was juicy and so flavorful (is that the “game-y-ness”?). My mouth is watering, just looking at this pic and thinking about what it tasted like.

And yes, we finished off all 6 of the quails.

i stumbled across the word requiescence when trying to find synonyms for “spare time” or “free time.” strangely, it seems to only exist in the thesaurus, but not in the dictionary. anyway, the synonyms for requiescence include: ease, peace, contentment, freedom, leisure, quietude, relaxation, satisfaction, enjoyment, spare moments, one’s own sweet time.

perfect.