Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday overall, but my most favorite for its food. Oh how I love turkey. I could eat turkey every day. All day. Standing over the turkey leftovers and nibbling those refrigerated bits is a certain kind of bliss. And turkey sandwiches? I won't go on.
Ian and I spent the day alone, together. It was lovely. Intimate holidays are the best and I love them for their simplicity. We get along so well together that spending the day puttering around in the kitchen is the best thing ever. It's mostly stress-free. This year I didn't mess up any recipe or run out of ingredients. Staying home is wonderful, as is feasting on the fruits of our labor.
We bought a deep fryer and at least a vat of peanut oil to fry it in a few weeks back. Ian bought our turkey around the same time as well. Then for the past few days I've heard about how he was rooked at Kroger because their price on Butterballs was higher than anywhere else. Not a big surprise to me about Kroger.
Our twelve pound turkey cooked in just under forty-two minutes. It was heavenly. Ian said it tasted, the skin, that is, like bacon. And I agreed. Yum. I've always been a skin-lover. That's the best part. Forget the meat inside. Yet, the meat was juicy and tender and remained hot even after we'd eaten and were picking the carcass clean of its meat.
Before easing it into the fryer, I rubbed the turkey with a mixture of sea salt, pepper, cayenne, and garlic salt. No injections here. I read about them online, but figured since this was our first deep-frying experience we'd keep it simple. The fryer was set up outside and fueled by a propane tank. Ian heated the oil to 325 and then we were set. The day was cold, windy, and wet.
Besides being Thanksgiving, it was Ian's birthday, and my step-sister-in-law's as well, though I didn't see her until today (Saturday). And it started out kind of crappy because Ian messed up the first batch of deviled eggs. We think the mayo was bad.
He likes Miracle Whip, I prefer Hellman's. We both like his mother's deviled egg recipe and it's usually what we go by. Exact amounts are not important and for the most part I usually don't pay attention to how much of something I use. Making things to taste is just intuitive. Anyway there's mayo, mustard (or mustard powder), vinegar, salt, pepper, and sugar in Barb's deviled eggs. I'd love to try something more frou frou with the deviled eggs, like a caviar stuffing, but Ian wouldn't go for that.
Deep fried turkey, stuffing, deviled eggs, roasted veggies (mushrooms, pearl onions, carrots, brussel sprouts, garlic, and yellow potatoes), sweet potato souffle, green bean casserole, cranberry-pecan bread, and gingerbread cheesecake.
Now we have leftovers that I was told to take care of. That means either scarf it all down by the time Ian returns from his latest train trip, or toss it into the garbage. No way I'm eighty-sixing the turkey. It'll go into the freezer.
New recipes I tried this year were the gingerbread cheesecake (from MSL, 12/07), the cranberry-pecan bread (from Bon Apetit, 11/07), and the roasted veggies since I saw something similar on Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger a few days ago. I so missed the mashed potatoes and swear I won't go without them again. But, sweet potato souffle and mashed potatoes? Too much starch. It's potato overkill.
A day alone, together? That in and of itself sounds like absolute bliss - and then to have all that fantastic sounding food as well? Pure heaven....
(sorry about the rogue batch of deviled eggs, though - that's kind of a bummer!)
Posted by: lla | Monday, 26 November 2007 at 05:00 PM