Thanksgiving 2010
We had a good day.
I brined our turkey overnight in a solution of 3/4 C salt, 1/2 C sugar, vegetable broth, pepper corns, thyme and rosemary. It rested for about 22 hours total until I was ready to cook.
I dried the turkey, then put the into a 500F oven after coating it with canola oil and generous amounts of salt and pepper. I also put aromatics into the cavity: one sliced apple, half a sliced onion and a cinnamon stick, which I first steeped in a cup of water for 5 minutes.
I started the turkey at 11a with plans to have dinner ready at 3p. My inlaws showed up a little earlier than expected, so I had to scramble to get a shower (I hadn't planned on doing that till after most of the cooking was done) and finish up the sides.
Christene had to run out in the morning to get some sweet potatoes: what we had purchased at Walmart had gone bad in just two days, with mold. With the fresh sweet potatoes I made a sweet potato casserole that was VERY sweet on top and light underneath.
I also made mashed potatoes, which also didn't quite work as I had expected. I had peeled and boiled nearly 5 lbs of potatoes. But when they were ready for mashing they barely filled up a serving bowl. It seemed that most of the starch had boiled away, leaving less potato than when I started.
Christene made green bean casserole and, with the cranberry dressing and gravy, we had a full meal. The turkey was very moist and tender. The skin had that perfectly golden hue and crisp, and the salt and pepper were just right for it. And there was so much meat left over that we have two wings, two drumsticks and a ton of white meat in a gallon freezer bag for leftovers.
For dessert we had apple, pumpkin and mincemeat pies and vanilla ice cream. And except for a little incident with the coffee were somebody mistook my salt cellar for sugar, dessert was delicious as well.
I hope everybody else had a great Thanksgiving as well!