Gobble Gobble 2009!

Because of JD's work schedule, and a few other factors, we weren't going to be able to make it up to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving to see his family. So, his family decided if we couldn't come to them, they would come to us! I could go on and on for a while about how much it means to me that his family is willing to drive the 11 hours plus to see us, but THAT would take forever. Anyhow, because his family needed to be able to get time off of work, it was just easier if they came down earlier in the month than for actual Thanksgiving. SO, we had our Thanksgiving, on Friday the 13th, how often does that happen....ummm I think, NEVER?!?!?

Well, since everybody came to our place, that meant I got to do the cooking. I gotta admit, I was a little intimidated by the turkey! I mean...what if I actually RUINED Thanksgiving by screwing up the turkey? After days of thawing (I cannot believe how long it takes to thaw out an 18 pound turkey) I cut open the bag and was just....appalled... at what was in there! Ummm...did I mention I don't usually cook with anything but chicken breast because I really do not like the idea of bones in poultry? So here's the scene:

I'm standing there over this bird as it sits in my kitchen sink where I hoisted the big ol' sucker and left it there for oh, 10 minutes, as I just sat there staring at it. I pump myself up with a little jog-in-place warm up and some breathing exercises, then plunge my hand into the great unknown: The turkey butt. It wasn't so bad, and that was when I got worried.

I call my mom (who picked up my turkey for me since I was scrambling like a mad man to get my house ready for the in laws), and this is what I say, "Mom? Did you buy a giblet free turkey?" She says, "uhhh, no" I say, "Well, they're not in there." She says, "Hmmm...don't know what to tell you sweetie" I hang up, and curse the stinkin fowl thing in front of me (hehehe cool pun, eh?) Then, I called in reinforcements:

JD was so very chivalrous as to come and stick his hand in the turkey butt for me. So nice of him :) He pulled out the nasty neck, which was enough to make me gag, and then declares, the giblets are indeed missing.

Well, then he flipped the thing over, and what do you know, there's a hole in the other side of the turkey too! There, hiding under this nasty fold of skin, were the giblets. Which, if I thought the fold of skin was nasty.....

And JD, being who he is, proceeded to seriously gross me out with the giblets.

On Good Morning Arizona last year (back in the days when we still had cable...tear) they talked about brining a turkey. It sounded delish, so here is my go at it. The picture above is the brine as its coming to a boil with the salt starting to dissolve and the seasonings just chillin on top.

The next morning, after only 4 hours of sleep....the turkey in a bag! (may I say I got that sucker in there all by myself thank you very much)

Morgan and I were up while everybody else was still snoozing, so I decided, since nothing else needed to be done, to make place mats. It was fun! I definitely enjoy preparing two-year old hand painted turkeys more than the real deal :)

We still had time after the place mats were done, so I took the opportunity to teach Morgan a little about Thanksgiving by making up some place-markers for the table. We made Indian headdresses and pilgrim hats and I told her the Thanksgiving story which, toned down for her level, went, "A long time ago, there were some pilgrims (showed her the hat) and some Indians (showed her the headdress) They fought and fought and were so so so mean to each other-" She didn't like that part much, "But then, one day, they decided to be friends and have tasty dinner together. The end"

Indian Warrior Morgan

And finally, after all my worrying, the turkey didn't turn out so bad, what do ya think?

While we were eating, there were a couple random comments about how tender and juicy the bird was, which is the whole point of brining it the night before :) I sat there and accepted the compliments, silently thanking the cosmos that nothing went wrong and it all turned out according to plan.

And hey, Morgan only ate a whole can of cranberry sauce...that can't be too bad, right?