See subject line. We had Thanksgiving dinner with ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
vigilantism, nightmachinery, and tuneinanytime. I made the turkey, they made everything else, which is actually not a bad division of labor at least as far as I was concerned.
I do turkeys Alton Brown style. There are actually two different turkey recipes out there with his name attached to it: one is from Good Eats and involves a huge list of spices in a brine that is mostly vegetable stock, and the other is from his book and is MUCH simpler. Of course, I'm running around like a crazy person last night, looking at the recipe online, trying to gather all the ingredients together, going I KNOW I MADE HIS TURKEY LAST YEAR, I MUST HAVE THESE SPICES IN MY KITCHEN. So I picked up a turkey, an onion, an apple, and a bunch of vegetable stock and then we headed back to the hardware section to get a five-gallon bucket. Last year we ended up picking up a disposable styrofoam cooler, which leaked brine all over my kitchen floor. Not repeating that mistake. We hunt all through hardware and camping goods, and can't find a bucket big enough. The only empty buckets we can find are mop buckets; this recipe calls for marinating the 13-pound turkey in 2+ gallons of liquid. We need a BIG bucket. The employee in hardware turns to us and very sadly informs us that they don't carry them any more. (Apparently they didn't sell? Whatever.) He says that another store had 8 of them in stock earlier, and if we go up to customer service they can call over there and have them hold one for us. I sendfinch up there while I look for a disposable roasting pan. (I am a big believer in disposable roasting pans. I cook turkeys once or twice a year; I am not going to invest in a real roasting pan that I will have to store 363 days out of the year. Last year I made EVERYTHING in disposable pans, so all we had to do at the end of the meal was throw the dishes away. This decision is why finch is still dating me.)
Anyway, while I'm hunting up the roasting pan, he has the brilliant idea to use a plastic storage bin instead of a bucket. We find one of an appropriate size ("Why are you putting your turkey in that plastic bin?" the woman behind us in the aisle asks. "Let me tell you about Alton Brown's turkey-making," I said. Apparently she roasts her turkeys upside-down to keep the breast from drying out. I can't imagine having to FLIP OVER a hot turkey.)
Eventually, we arrive home with our supplies, and I start hunting around my kitchen for the spices that should be there.
I can't find them.
Frantic, I pull out Alton's book (previously I'd been looking at the recipe online) and realize that he has a TOTALLY DIFFERENT recipe for turkey, AND I have most of the ingredients to make it. It calls for chicken broth rather than vegetable stock, and I have fresh orange juice rather than frozen, but this morning I put together a slightly bastardized version of the two recipes. I also roasted it with half an onion and an apple in the cavity (akin to the Good Eats version) and I rubbed it down with olive oil rather than canola. It worked beautifully.
Got a bunch more rows done on the Seafoam Shawl, a few more rounds on the Beer Gloves, watched pumpkins being hurled across a field on the Discovery Channel, and tomorrow morning I have to go to work. So for now, I'm going to bed.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. You are all one of the things I'm thankful for.
vigilantism, nightmachinery, and tuneinanytime. I made the turkey, they made everything else, which is actually not a bad division of labor I do turkeys Alton Brown style. There are actually two different turkey recipes out there with his name attached to it: one is from Good Eats and involves a huge list of spices in a brine that is mostly vegetable stock, and the other is from his book and is MUCH simpler. Of course, I'm running around like a crazy person last night, looking at the recipe online, trying to gather all the ingredients together, going I KNOW I MADE HIS TURKEY LAST YEAR, I MUST HAVE THESE SPICES IN MY KITCHEN. So I picked up a turkey, an onion, an apple, and a bunch of vegetable stock and then we headed back to the hardware section to get a five-gallon bucket. Last year we ended up picking up a disposable styrofoam cooler, which leaked brine all over my kitchen floor. Not repeating that mistake. We hunt all through hardware and camping goods, and can't find a bucket big enough. The only empty buckets we can find are mop buckets; this recipe calls for marinating the 13-pound turkey in 2+ gallons of liquid. We need a BIG bucket. The employee in hardware turns to us and very sadly informs us that they don't carry them any more. (Apparently they didn't sell? Whatever.) He says that another store had 8 of them in stock earlier, and if we go up to customer service they can call over there and have them hold one for us. I send
finch up there while I look for a disposable roasting pan. (I am a big believer in disposable roasting pans. I cook turkeys once or twice a year; I am not going to invest in a real roasting pan that I will have to store 363 days out of the year. Last year I made EVERYTHING in disposable pans, so all we had to do at the end of the meal was throw the dishes away. This decision is why finch is still dating me.)Anyway, while I'm hunting up the roasting pan, he has the brilliant idea to use a plastic storage bin instead of a bucket. We find one of an appropriate size ("Why are you putting your turkey in that plastic bin?" the woman behind us in the aisle asks. "Let me tell you about Alton Brown's turkey-making," I said. Apparently she roasts her turkeys upside-down to keep the breast from drying out. I can't imagine having to FLIP OVER a hot turkey.)
Eventually, we arrive home with our supplies, and I start hunting around my kitchen for the spices that should be there.
I can't find them.
Frantic, I pull out Alton's book (previously I'd been looking at the recipe online) and realize that he has a TOTALLY DIFFERENT recipe for turkey, AND I have most of the ingredients to make it. It calls for chicken broth rather than vegetable stock, and I have fresh orange juice rather than frozen, but this morning I put together a slightly bastardized version of the two recipes. I also roasted it with half an onion and an apple in the cavity (akin to the Good Eats version) and I rubbed it down with olive oil rather than canola. It worked beautifully.
Got a bunch more rows done on the Seafoam Shawl, a few more rounds on the Beer Gloves, watched pumpkins being hurled across a field on the Discovery Channel, and tomorrow morning I have to go to work. So for now, I'm going to bed.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. You are all one of the things I'm thankful for.
