Yes, I got a 24 (!!) pound turkey from a local 4H kid. I'd always wanted to have a truly locally grown, humanely-raised turkey. This was the smallest one the family had! Well, I figured if the breasts came out dry, I could either make soup or congee, or give them to a friend with a dog team.
I didn't pick a lot of cranberries this year, so I bought this bag from the store. They are HUGE. Alaskan wild cranberries are actually lingonberries. Amazing they taste so similar and even have the same physical properties. Natural pectin, I suppose.
Oh yes, this has to happen. Mise en place!
The turkey took 5 hours and 30 mins.
It came out pretty good! Even the breast meat wasn't cardboard-like. And there was SO MUCH ROOM for stuffing. SOOOOO great!
The rest of the spread.
And there it is.
Rounded out with a brussels sprout salad and of course pie.
Oh man I didn't get salad on my first plate. I did, however, have gloopy green bean casserole! The Splendid Table had a caller this year on their Thanksgiving special, one Emily of Corvallis, OR, who called saying that she likes to make everything from scratch, but that the green bean casserole was missing that "nostalgic texture" LOLLLL which means goosh, right? It totally means goosh. Francis Lam laughed his delightful laugh and punted the question to Kenji Lopez-Alt, who said pretty much just to cook the beans to death. You can listen to it here. The discussion of "that nostalgic texture" begins at 18:45.
The next day was my inaugural ski of the year! I let the girls run loose, but for some reason that day they stuck very close to me. It was very sweet.
And then I did Thanksgiving cleanup. I stripped the meat off the turkey and apportioned some for friends we could not actually have over, I reserved the drippings for tamales, and I put the bones in the freezer for stock.
And I scrubbed the pan clean and ready to go back to the bedroom closet. Yes, one gets funny storage habits when one lives in a tiny place. Whenever I get annoyed with it. I look at our heating and property tax bills and feel happy again. I'm thankful, too, that DL was willing to give up his big ol' Real House and cram himself in here with me..
The next breakfast: turkey omelettes. Not bad!
And the following night's dinner: grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches. I had to make some fresh green beans though. I could not abide more gloop.
I'm glad I got my inaugural ski in, because the rest of the weekend was positively brrrrrrr-tacular!
Cricket seems comfy though, what do you think?
What about Miss Thistle? Do you think she is comfy? I sure hope she is comfy.
