am culinary grownup
Aplsaucy and I missed our respective family functions today due to the weather/craptastic road conditions. I was supposed to provide the turkey for my family feast. As the little sucker had been thawing in the fridge for the last three days, it had to be cooked. By me. Uh oh.
Now, I'm a pretty good cook, but it's mostly of the stir-fry/semi-homemade variety. I was a little daunted by actual turkey roasting as this has always been the territory of the married mom-type people in my family. I just show up with awesome appetizers and great wine ;0)
So with a little help from Giada, several hours of cold baths (damn thing wasn't thawed yet!!) and some freaked out calls to friends/family (thanks guys!), I have mastered the turkey.
Shorthand version of recipe- actual to be found on food network site: Stuff turkey with lemon, orange, onion and fresh sage and rosemary. Rub entire thing with combo of butter (NOT 7 tbsps as I did, though it is AWESOME) olive oil, herbs de provence, salt, pepper, and my twist: orange ginger pepper spice mix. YUM...
I skipped all the tent foil thing and used a reynolds wrap plastic bag thing.... Brilliant!!!
Much peeking and longing later- one fricking awesome bird!!!! To further complete the Christmas dinner feeling we had shrimp cocktail appetizers (a tradition for both of our families) around 7 because the bird didn't get done for 3 hours. Served turkey at 930 with fruited couscous. Bonus points that it heated up the house cause it's frakking cold!!!
Silly how accomplished this makes me feel!! Tomorrow-gonna try my hand at homemade turkey soup...
Now, I'm a pretty good cook, but it's mostly of the stir-fry/semi-homemade variety. I was a little daunted by actual turkey roasting as this has always been the territory of the married mom-type people in my family. I just show up with awesome appetizers and great wine ;0)
So with a little help from Giada, several hours of cold baths (damn thing wasn't thawed yet!!) and some freaked out calls to friends/family (thanks guys!), I have mastered the turkey.
Shorthand version of recipe- actual to be found on food network site: Stuff turkey with lemon, orange, onion and fresh sage and rosemary. Rub entire thing with combo of butter (NOT 7 tbsps as I did, though it is AWESOME) olive oil, herbs de provence, salt, pepper, and my twist: orange ginger pepper spice mix. YUM...
I skipped all the tent foil thing and used a reynolds wrap plastic bag thing.... Brilliant!!!
Much peeking and longing later- one fricking awesome bird!!!! To further complete the Christmas dinner feeling we had shrimp cocktail appetizers (a tradition for both of our families) around 7 because the bird didn't get done for 3 hours. Served turkey at 930 with fruited couscous. Bonus points that it heated up the house cause it's frakking cold!!!
Silly how accomplished this makes me feel!! Tomorrow-gonna try my hand at homemade turkey soup...