In article <[email hidden]>,
Elaine Parrish said:Well, guys, another Thanksgiving down for another year! Its peaceful now.
Everyone is stuffed to the gills and alls right with the world. But it
wasnt like that earlier. Noooo. Yesterday, I made a deal with the
relatives that we would have a nice leisurely day. Wed all sleep in, there
would be no breakfast or lunch just juice, fruit, rolls, cereal, sandwich
fixings, etc and dinner would be at 3. Ok. All agreed. Fine.
After everyone went to bed, I finished the sweet potato casserole,
prepared the bird, and put the dressing together part-way. I baked 2 sweet
potato pies out of those I had leftover from the ones I cooked for the
casserole.
I went to bed about 3 a.m. As per our agreement, I slept in, took my time
in getting dressed, and enjoyed my leisurely early morning. Feeling
relaxed and energized, I headed to the kitchen only to find it filled
with little old ladies, my mother at the helm. Pots and pans and bowls and
spoons were everywhere. All semblance of organization was gone. My
beautiful, hand picked, apple and onion stuffed, butterball turkey had
been cooking since the crack of dawn. FIVE hours count em F-I-V-E hours.
It was dry as a chip. I super-glued the corners of my mouth to my cheeks
in a wide smile as I tried to take stock. They had made deviled eggs and
gotten the white potatoes peeled and has done a lot of prep work for the
other things. I turned around just in time to see my aunt with a sweet
potato in one hand and a paring knife in the other. I explained that the
sweet potatoes were in the frige outside in the baking dish ready to go.
Well, thank God! she said, I was wondering how we were going to feed all
these people with 3 puny sweet potatoes!
As time grew near to actually cook something for the 3 oclock dinner, I
left the now quiet kitchen to check on some other things. When I came
back, the little old ladies had descended on the battlefield once more.
Mom, who believes that canned English peas should boil for about 2 hours,
had the English peas rapidly boiling in the pot. My sweet potato casserole
was disappearing into the oven with the statement, I found your dressing
in the refrigerator by the sweet potatoes and its in the oven. My dressing
was short the 8 eggs and the milk that goes in last. I pulled my pan of
dressing out of the oven, poured it back in the bowl, added the eggs and
milk, and returned it to the oven.
Finally, somehow, we got a wonderful dinner and one dry-as-a-chip turkey
on the table.
Dry-as-a-chip Turkey $25.00
All the trimmings $125.00
Large bottle of Tylenol $5.95
Having healthy, loving family together Priceless
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone
Elaine, too
Oops. ;-)
Too bad you could not salvage the turkey...
Dry turkey goes okay in turkey salad, and gravy can sometimes help it!
I braised 1/2 of a turkey this year. My housemate has bad teeth and
won't go to the dentist, so I have to take that into account.
It was actually quite good! As well as being very moist and tender.
I made a small batch of dressing and put that into the cast iron dutch
oven, put the 1/2 turkey on top and smeared it all over with soft
butter, turned the heat on medium-high until I started getting some
simmering juices, turned the heat down and let it cook for 1 1/2 hours.
It was 1/2 of a 17 lb. turkey so was not very large. Covered with a dome
lid.
I cut the turkey in 1/2 down the center so it looked very nice.
The other 1/2 went back into the freezer as it was not totally thawed.
I cheated this year on the gravy. I bought 1 can each of seasoned
chicken broth and veggie broth, brought that up to a boil and added a
bit of Bragg's liquid aminos (It's an unfermented soy sauce and adds a
nice richness to things), then added 1/2 pint of sour cream and some
black pepper. Brought it back to a boil and added arrowroot slurry.
It was very VERY good! ;-d. I had no turkey drippings to add to it as
those cooked into the dressing, but it did not really need it.
Dressing was sausage based with lots of fresh herbs from the herb garden.
Too cool that you had family there. It was just me and dad today but I
still feel blessed. :-)
Cheers!
--
Om.
"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-[censored]." -Jack Nicholson
