Thanksgiving Feast

Ok sorry about this kids, but I have to whine considerably for several minutes tonight. I just spent like 4 hours in the kitchen, not to mention about 100 bucks at the grocery store. Why? Thanksgiving. I am hostess-with-the-mostessing on Wednesday night and I work on Wednesday. Below... some trials and tribulations SO FAR

Knowing I would not have time to babysit a bird, I thought maybe I could just go ahead and crock pot it. Got the smallest lil bird I could find at the grocery store, bout 8.5 lbs.

Guess what... they don't do crockpots in most stores for a 8lb bird. You can get teeny tiny ones up to about 6qts and then WHAMMO they smack you with a big fatty 18qt one that I'll never use again. so the conventional oven method was going to have to work. Save $20 by purchasing roasting pan instead of crock pot and onward we go.

Good Eats' Alton Brown introduced me to "brining" which he strongly recommends... this was confirmed by the Food Dude on Channel 933. Food Dude even gave several brining recipes and posted them. Martha Stewart also has a tempting brine recipe. I signed on... I went for the "Earthy" style one... though must admit was quite tempted to try the "Apple/Spicy" one... perhaps next year or maybe I'll do a game hen in that since I hear brining is good for all birds and I could use something new to do with game hens. Besides, the earthy one had a lot less ingredients and went along with the "how to cook it" recipe I wanted to try. So let's talk brine, cuz really that's where I'm at right now... I'll give you the recipe

Brine (for a bigger bird, per the recipe):
2qts vegetable stock
2qts cool water
1 tbls Dried Rosemary
1 tbls Dried Sage
1 tbls Dried Thyme
3/4 cup Kosher/Coarse salt

some notes...
I wasn't paying attention to the word "dried" and assumed I needed fresh... was shopping fresh for the cooking recipe.
Couldn't find fresh sage anyway... only dried.
I realized when i got home with yet another gargantuan box of Kosher salt that I had one already.
Wish I had made my mind up before I also bought the stuff for the Apple/Spicy one cuz I got a whole butt load of apple juice and OJ now... (1 gallon cold water, 2 quarts apple juice, 2 quarts orange juice, 3 cups Kosher or coarse salt, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 10 whole cloves, 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg) although it will be nice to have some cloves around and I can use the juice anywho.

I only made about 1/2 of the brine because it was a small bird. was very conservative with the herbs cuz I wasn't sure if dried or fresh were more potent. Put the bird in the stock pot and then opened up another veggie broth (which I now have to figure out how to use within 10 days before it goes bad... turkey soup anyone?) to top off the pot with that and cool water and a little more salt and herbs. Ooh and since Martha had a reisling in her brine (but lots of other stuff I didn't feel like hunting for), I thought I might throw in a little dry white wine just for kicks. It was a bottle I was scared to open anywho... just gave the turkey a couple splashes of it.

By the way, turkey doesn't quite fit in the pot so I'm having to rotate his briney butt a few times here and there to make sure all gets a good soak.

Tomorrow, hoping to leave work a little early and finish up work from home... will slip the turkey into the oven at about 4/4:30 so it will be ready by 6:30/7... in theory. Tomorrow is the easy part, right? Pull the turkey out of the brine, give him a quick rinse and a pat down. Now for the other recipe...
in the cavity, stick a half a lemon, a medium onion, quartered and peeled, 4 sprigs each of rosemary, thyme, and sage, all fresh (well in my case all but one). Tie the birds legs and set him in the pan. Squeeze the other 1/2 lemon out into a bowl. brush the bird with the lemon juice and olive oil; salt and pepper to taste. initial blast of higher heat (425) for first 15 minutes, then 325 for the rest of the time.

A word on turkeys... ew.
THANK GOD this was a pre-gutted turkey... giblets and neck were in lovely little packages in the cavity along with a turkey gravy in a packet (um no thanks?) and some strings that are supposed to be turkey lifters (whatever). that whole giblet and neck thing... gross. thank god it was in a packet and I could get rid of it instantly. grody. Also, mine spilled turkey juice all over the place. When I thought the last of the turkey juice was gone and drained... alas there was more. And looking inside the cavity? ugh... I barely tolerate this kind of thing for game hens. eesh.

Also on the menu, lil sis will be in charge of mashed taters and some kind of veggie, but I have back up veggies and taters in case she doesn't get a chance.

Ah, but what for dessert you ask? Well I'm so glad you did. About a year and a half ago, I bought a book for a donation to a local charity. it's called 'California Sol Food' and most of the stuff in there is a wee bit foo foo for me... but there was this pie that I have always wanted to try so now was my chance... Pecan Bourbon Pie...

Although I do want to whine some more, it's late and I actually do not know the final outcome of said attempt at home-made pie. But let me just say that making pie crust sucks and I'd rather not do it again. Lucky for me, I've got friends in high places... a certain someone I know has some tricks up her sleeve she is willing to pass on to me... IF ONLY WE COULD DO THIS LIKE TOMORROW??? I wanted to make one for my Wednesday night Thanksgiving thing and also one for the Thanksgiving shin-digs I'll be attending on Thursday.

More to follow on the rest of the bird saga and pie saga tomorrow...

-S