Thanksgiving sure did sneak up on us. Hard to believe that we are writing our 45th installment of the year. I challenge someone to come up with a holiday more in line with the core values of the Play Gourmets. It is a day of feasting and sports. The weather is getting cooler, holiday cheer is starting to proliferate, and you get to catch up with friends and family that you have spent most of the year missing.

To get ready for the season, the little boy sits in the barber chair for the first time ever. We held out for nearly three years. And I would have held out longer, except that finally, the kid was tired of wiping the hair out of his eyes.

The holiday cheer was in full swing in downtown Austin, as we witnessed a Macy’s type of parade including large balloons, floats and bands.

There was one unique trait to this parade though. They halt the floats in the middle of the parade, so that all of the children can donate gifts to the less fortunate. Our little play gourmet waited for a long time to give the gift that he brought, and as luck would have it, Santa’s float stopped in front of us when it was time to give our gift. It was really sweet to see the pride in giving that this exercise instilled.

And although the season is in its infancy, we took the opportunity with Granny visiting to put up the Christmas lights.

The little boy assumed his typical position as my helper for the roof lights.

Now, it is a little early for us to do a turkey post, although by the time anyone reads about our turkey, everyone will surely be turkey’d out. However, we did explore a pretty good holiday option.

A pork crown roast.

Now, to make such a thing, you need to buy a substantial amount of pork, so we did not go all in for the presentation, but we were not dissapointed.

The thing about a crown roast, is that it is a large lean piece of meat, everywhere except for a little fat on the outside and the more marbled interior next to the bone. This makes for a very challenging piece of meat to cook, when the goal is not to have dried out pork accompanied with undercooked pork.

Luckily, we have just the solution for that. Sous vide.

First we season it, and vacuum seal it in a large ziplock.

Then we hand it over to the sous chef. Where he has set the sous vide for about 155 degrees Fahrenheit.

8 hours later….

It isn’t much to look at it, but it is cooked perfectly from rib to edge. Time to throw it in the broiler for just a couple of minutes and it becomes quite something to look at.

And like I said, earlier, had we a much larger roast, we could have made the crown effect, however, we just slice it up and serve.

It was so moist, and sitting in the salt and pepper for 8 hours, really helped permeate the flavor throughout. This was a phenomenal roast, and the boy absolutely loved the ribs, in fact he felt inclined to keep a rib with him after leaving the dinner table. However, he wasn’t a fan of having that image documented, so you will just have to take my word for it.