Turkey Day 07

Turkey Day 07
We had a good Thanksgiving even though:

The turkey was frozen, which meant I had to cook it with the neck and bag inside since all in the center were solid and rock-hard. Luckily I found a USDA recipe for cooking the turkey from frozen to done. I loves me the USDA!

Rob put the candied yams in to broil--to brown the marshmallows. However, not ever having broiled marshmallows before he didn't know how long it would take. So he cranked it up to high and wandered off to do other things. After a bit he looked in and the marshmallows were on fire. They were black and crispy. He ended up scraping as much as possible and we did without the marshmallow-y goodness this year.

The frozen turkey recipe said not to put the bird in a pan with sides as the bottom would end up getting less heat--so I decided to use the two-part broiling pan--but this meant that the juices could have gone everywhere if the bag burst. Mid cook, ominous crackling noises could be heard coming from the oven so to be safe I decided to siphon off the juices using the bulb baster. I sucked a big bulb full up through a slit in the bag, tipped it up so it wouldn't drip and I could put it in the de-fatting cup and a hefty stream of piping hot juice/fat leapt from the baster bulb onto Rob's bare feet. This is what I mean by entropy having a perverse precision.

Zoe is a vegetarian. No turkey for her...or gravy. We bought a Tofurkey (and vegetarian corn dogs just in case) and used vegetarian stuffing--cooking it on the stove-top. However, we couldn't find room in the oven for the Tofurkey, and the recipe on the package was adamant that we not microwave it--no way, no how! Rob went on the website and although they also said not to microwave it in big bold letters at the top, at the bottom of the page they grudgingly gave up some microwave instructions. Phew!

When the turkey was finally done I discovered that I had put the turkey in upside down so it browned on the bottom rather than the top. This also meant that the thermomater was inserted into the bottom of the bird instead of the top where it's supposed to go.

But, except for being hungry, we mostly kept our good tempers. The turkey was done and tasted really good (it was a butterball), as did the Tofurkey. The bag didn't burst and we had plenty of juices for gravy. Rob didn't have blisters and the candied yams absorbed a bit of the marshmallow taste even though we had to scrape the marshmallows--and you could hardly taste the charred bits. The green beans were perfect and delicious.

Dave, Rob's brother, came up for TG. It's nice to see him. Ooof, to tired to go more into detail.

Darwin LOVED the turkey and thinks he should have some every day.

Rob bought 4 pies when he went to the Pennsylvania Dutch Market in order to get some rhubarb pie to try. A guy in his office described rhubarb pie as a life-changing experience. Unfortunately, Rob thought this version was too sweet and his life remained unchanged. The pumpkin and apple were delicious though and the raspberry was amazing!