Post Thanksgiving notes

Thanksgiving dinner was a delicious success and now my two fridges are full of stuffing and turkey and cranberry sauce. My freezer has a turkey carcass and a really messed up* (but delicious) pie in it, too!

Sid, Zoe, and I made 2 pies, vegetarian stuffing, sweet potatoes and the cranberry sauce Wednesday evening. During all of this my microwave caught on fire and one of the walls melted! I was pretty exhausted after all that and a bit concerned about what I still had to do. I nearly forgot to put the turkey in the brine! I finally got around to it at about midnight with Robert's help (my brining bag broke and I nearly poured salty, bloody, poultry water all over myself and the countertops). I took notes on the turkey this year. If it ended up turning out yummy I'd just replicate it year after year, if it turned out bad (like 2 years ago) then I'd have to fix something. Here are my turkey notes:

Turkey type: Diestel free range, fresh

Weight: 10 pounds

Brine: 4 quarts water, 1 cup coarse salt (I used mostly Hawaiian salt), 1/2 cup honey, one bunch of thyme, 10 peppercorns

Brining time: 12 hours

Prep: Rinsed, dried and set out to rest for about 40 minutes, then rubbed down with butter and sprinkled with cracked pepper, wings wrapped in foil

Stuffing: stuffed about 4 cups of sausage stuffing into body cavity and neck area

Oven temp: 500 degrees, turkey placed on rack (2 cups chicken broth poured into the pan) and set on the lowest rack for 15 minutes.

Lower heat to 350 degrees and start timing and basting: 1:20pm start, baste: 1:45pm, 2:10pm (tent bird with foil), 2:30pm, 2:45pm (check temp - 150 degrees in thigh), 3:00pm (150 degrees, raise rack up one rung), 3:15pm (158 degrees), 3:25pm (removed from oven).

Unstuffed the bird, wrapped it in foil and carved and served at 4:10pm.

There were a few problems. I used this Ikea meat thermometer and it seems to be broken (I recall having similar issues with it this summer). It didn't register a temp at all until nearly at the end of the cook time and then when it did it registered 10 degrees lower than my better meat thermometer that I inserted right next to it (the temps I show in my notes are from my functional thermometer that I inserted when I took the bird out to baste). I can't complain, the Ikea thermometer is cheap and it worked for a while. I'll probably pick up another one.

Another problem was the basting. I don't usually baste much (or at all) but the initial high heat caused the liquid that was in the pan to crisp up and burn so I added more to prevent further burning. I saw little, if any, juices running from the bird and since I wanted to use drippings for my gravy I panicked and added broth to the pan. Since I was adding broth and removing if from the oven regularly to check the temp I decided to go ahead and baste. I don't know that the basting made any difference in the final product. The drippings were good and helped make a delicious gravy.

Verdict? Delicious! Maybe the best one yet. The skin came out perfectly! The meat was tender. There was a tiny bit of pink in the thigh area but other than that, cooked perfectly. The stuffing that I removed from the bird was put into a casserole dish and cooked more just for safety.

***

Other highlights of the day:

Sid making the butternut squash and cheddar bread pudding. It was delicious! And really a meal in itself. I highly recommend it.

Foster kittehs** playing in the temporarily abandoned eating nook (we moved our table out into the living room and added the leaf).

Zoe set a beautiful table!

Everyone was happy and hungry! I finished up my food and was kind of surprised to see Robert going for seconds!

In the end my favorites were the cheddar bread pudding, the mashed potatoes (because it's the only time of year I make them with cream and lots of butter, plus I used my ricer so they were very smooth), the gravy (I ended up making the giblet gravy but left out the giblets in the final product), and most of all, I loved the turkey.

I was completely exhausted at the end of it all. I even begged Robert to steam the green beans (and he did A GREAT JOB)! I heard myself mumbling a few times that I was never going to do this again. But in the end, it was very satisfying. Since we'd moved the table out into the living room, after I'd finished my plate I laid down on the sofa (with my wine) and watched the family eat while two kitties snuggled with me. Was nice. The kids did the dishes and Robert finished up carving the bird and doing cleanup. He doesn't cook much but there was no sitting around for him that day either. He built a storm window for our basement office while I was cooking.

We paused between dinner and dessert to watched Smoke Signals. I like this movie a lot. Perhaps a new tradition will be to watch a movie about Native Americans on Thanksgiving.

We visited friends later to share pies. All four were delicious (yes, I sampled them all)! I woke up at 3am and realized I was still completely stuffed. It was a great day and I really do have so much to be thankful for.

*On our way home from pie eating I had our 2 leftover pies stacked on my lap. As Robert made a right turn, the top pie flew off and wrapped itself around the gear shift. The creamy mousse was fortunately contained (or so I thought) in its plastic wrap but its graham cracker crust escaped and it was everywhere. I only discovered this morning (after going out to the store to buy a new microwave) that I had chocolatey peanut butter mousse all over my purse and coat. Oops. The pie is back in the freezer and it's ugly but still very, very edible.

**Good news! Adult foster kitteh Tonks (was Peep) may be adopted tomorrow! She's going to be the "girlfriend" to an adorable flame point Siamese named Marco. I really feel like I saved a kitteh's life and because I have the opportunity to do this, I'm truly thankful.