Let's Talk Turkey

This is where the day began (well - AFTER the cleaning, and the baking of the cake, and the preparing of the turkey and such). Mister Man and I sat down to play our new and most fun game "Rummy-O" while awaiting the arrival of our guests.

The pre-party/dinner party phenomenon is a strange one. It's like you're all puffed and buffed and ready for the ball, and then after the hustle and the bustle, you're sitting there in limbo! So we played this game which is fun, and makes a nifty tile clacking sound, so I can pretend I'm playing Mah Jong.....

This is how it looked when I won (the object of the game is to get rid of all your tiles). Not that I'd do anything so unsightly as to GLOAT or anything.

Here's the first recipe (after a glimpse of Mister Man in his element - being the turkey whisperer and such...)

Mister Man's Spectacular and Happy Turkey

1/2 cup finely chopped sage

2 Tbsp lemon zest

1 oz kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 12 lb free range happy turkey

2 large carrots, cut into 1-2 inch chunks

1 medium yellow onion, cut into 1-2 inch chunks

2 celery stalks cut into 1 to 2 inch chunks

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 1/2 cups lower salt chicken broth

1 1/8 oz all-purpose flour

In a medium bowl, mix the sage, zest, salt and 1 Tbsp pepper. Remove all the spare bits from the bird (neck, gizzard and such). You can make a broth from this if you like. Or not....

Rinse and pat the turkey dry. Rub the spice mixture under the turkey's skin, over the entire breast, legs, thighs as well as in the cavity and over the wings. Set on a platter large enough to hold the turkey and refrigerate uncovered overnight.

Position a rack on the bottom of the oven, and preheat to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, toss the carrot, celery and onion with the oil. Put half the vegetables under the bird, and the other half in the cavity. After roasting, save the veggies for the stock pot. Tuck the wings behind the turkey's neck and truss the legs with twine. Set a V rack in the roasting pan on top of the vegetables. Roast at 400 degrees, 15 minutes per pound, covered until the last hour. Pull it out when it's cooked and let it rest for 45 minutes before you carve it.

This bird was seriously delicious and tender. Yum.

The only thing that made this better, was GRAVY!

Unfortunately, the recipe for the turkey was one of those "a little of this - a little of that" scenarios, so I'm not able to reprint the deets here for you now.

I can suggest that you stay tuned for cranberry sauce! Word games! Crafty Corner! (I mean the latter sort of ironically...) PLUS sweet potato pie, broccoli with cheese sauce, uptown green bean casserole, triple chocolate fudge cake and so much more...!

Oh - and one last thing: today marks the final day of NaBloPoMo, and I am one of those who happily dashed across the finish line having completed her mission! So now I can proudly wear this badge (and we know how much I loves me a badge!!!)

Kickin' it American Style

We have a lot of American friends, and many of them actually live right here in Canada. So Mister Man was thinking "Wouldn't it be nice to host an American Thanksgiving dinner for our U.S. friends?" And that's exactly what we're doing today.

Originally, we were going to host the Grey Cup Snack Food Smack Down, and then that sort of blended in with the part where you get to eat a turkey dinner (BEST. MEAL. OF. THE. YEAR.)

So here's what's going to happen. In moments, our American friends are going to descend on our home with casserole dishes a pipin', seven swans a swimmin' - oh wait a minute - that's a different occasion! Some friends will sit with Mister Man and watch the game (the strange one with Canadian rules and one less down). Some of us will sit at the table and play Scrabble, and make origami Christmas ornaments and drink red wine and such...

And all of this is going to lead somewhere excellent. I have told each casserole bearing guest to bring (or email me) their recipe, and explained that I'm gonna need to take a smart snap of them proudly holding their Thanksgiving dish which I will then publish rights here on this blog!

So far, we have Teri's Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake (with a white chocolate mousse filling). Mister Man is working magic on a turkey, and the most deadly brown butter mashed taters you've ever tasted. He also made a killer mac and cheese (cuz if it's good enough for the Obama family, it's good enough for us!). I also made a traditional stuffing with Newfoundland savoury.

We're looking forward to a bunch of really delicious dishes, and I promise that this blog will be overflowing with flavour and festivities. Stay tuned! And happy (second) Thanksgiving everyone!

P.S. Go Roughriders GO!!

'Tis the Season (almost)

There's so much to share with you about the weekend, but I'm still sorting through photos, so today I thought I'd post this image. I shot it a long time ago in Seattle at about this time of year. I think of it as a kind of prelude to the festive season......

I love this image because there is SO much going on and I think it kind of exemplifies post modernism. First of all, we've got our ubiquitous golden arches. Then we've got the ye olde horse and carriage driver offering festive rides in the crisp chilly air, hunkered down underneath a blanket. The driver is holding the reigns - poised and ready to ride. She's also talking on a cell phone. And i have to say that I loved that.

And while we're on the subject, you do realize that, as of American Thanksgiving this Thursday, I will legally be able to talk about the coming festive season without fear of being spat upon, right? Because nothing signals the start of Christmas more than the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.....