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Thanksgiving Warm-Up Feed

Event Details

Time: November 16, 2012 at 2pm to November 18, 2012 at 12am
Location: Del Valle Regional Park, near Livermore, CA
Street: 7000 Del Valle Road
City/Town: Livermore, CA 94550
Website or Map: http://www.ebparks.org/parks/…
Phone: 888-327-2757), option 3, extension 4524
Event Type: campout, and, potluck
Organized By: John LaTorre
Latest Activity: Jan 25, 2013

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Event Description

Let's get into condition for Thanksgiving with our fourth (or is it fifth?) Annual Thanksgiving Feed. This year we'll be at Del Valle again, since it worked well last year. We'll provide a turkey, but bring whatever side dishes you want for the Saturday Potluck under the Tent of Doom.

Please note that the park locks its gate at 10 p.m., so you have to arrive before then.

Friday Night will be Pizza Night. Those of you with camp-stove ovens are encouraged to bring them. And those of you without them are invited to use ours, although you'll be on your own for the actual pizzas (8'' diameter maximum).

We'll be using the same part of the park as last year ... the loop that contains campsites 31 to 41 (31 is the only one with power, if you need it).

A map of the campground may be found at http://www.ebparks.org/files/Del_Valle_campground_09.pdf

Reservations can be made after Labor Day Weekend.

I'll try to reserve space 38, and suggest that we start booking the ones on either side of it and directly across the road. I am willing to share my space with somebody else, so let me know if you want to do that or get your own.

And, of course, bring wood, bring wine, bring musical instruments if you've got 'em...

(Speaking of firewood, I suppose that the info we got last year still applies:

"FIREWOOD: To limit the spread of Sudden Oak Death fungus, you may NOT BRING UNPROCESSED/NATURAL FIREWOOD into the park. You may bring wood which has been commercially purchased and certified to be uncontaminated, processed fire logs or cut lumber. Family campground kiosks at Anthony Chabot and Del Valle have firewood for purchase".)

Comment Wall

Comment by John LaTorre on November 5, 2012 at 4:37pm: Sorry you can't make it, Mary. Our next GTW (for sure) is the Rio Vista thing on Super Bowl Weekend, which I'll get around to posting by and by.

And thanks, Rick and Laura, for letting me know about site 37. I'll make a note of it.

Comment by Gene Burris on November 6, 2012 at 3:33pm: Hi. I will bring Pumkin Pie and Pecan Pie.

Comment by westywoman (Melissa) on November 7, 2012 at 6:38pm: Turkey Question:

John-

In the past, when we deep-fried the turkey, I usually bought a turkey no larger than 14 lbs. The question is, what is the best size for the Weber? Can we go a little larger? I will be shopping this weekend.

Comment by John LaTorre on November 7, 2012 at 10:43pm: The official Weber cookbook says that it will take turkeys up to 24 pounds. So knock yourself out. (But my personal experience has been with the smaller turkeys ... fifteen or sixteen pounds.)

Comment by westywoman (Melissa) on November 10, 2012 at 7:28am: My Weber cookbook indicates that stuffing and/or vegetables can be cooked on the grill along with the turkey itself. The stuffing can be in the bird and cooked in foil on the grill. We'll also have the Coleman Easy Bake Ovens available to cook stuffing. I could volunteer to make the stuffing- non-tradional with butternut squash or sweet potato in it. Doubles as a vegetarian main dish if we need one.

Comment by John LaTorre on November 10, 2012 at 9:11am: I think that would depend on the size of the bird ... if it's a big one, there's not much real estate left on the grill for anything else. And I am obliged to point out that those little ovens can't hold a lot. It might be better if the stuffing were pre-cooked and just heated up on site either in the little ovens or the grill.

Comment by westywoman (Melissa) on November 10, 2012 at 9:14am: Mike Fernandez has a really cool oven-maybe he'll chime in? Good thinking on pre-cooking. When I did it at Rio Vista, it was precooked and I had a hot plate (with electricity).

Comment by Joel Bubeck on November 10, 2012 at 9:30am: I will have my charcoal grill along (always under the seat) for doing veggies. Also, I bought a coleman oven a few months back and dying to break it in.

Comment by westywoman (Melissa) on November 10, 2012 at 8:23pm: Got my hand-me-down Easy Bake Coleman Oven (thanks, Cane Rattler!) ready today, to cook pizza Friday or stuffing Saturday. It fits nicely over a single burner stove. Looking forward to trying it out for the first time.

Comment by John LaTorre on November 10, 2012 at 8:58pm: Sounds good to me!

And I've sewn up some curtains for the front and the back of the Tent of Doom/Annex of Despair, which should make things a little cozier if the weather gets foul. So far, I've heard that there is around a 50% chance of rain on Friday and Saturday. Those are odds I can live with.

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