Gobbled!

Before...

After....

My family assigned me the hard task of making the turkey this year. It was especially daunting to me since I haven't used an oven before, except to reheat store bought frozen chicken pot pies. And to add the pressure: my dad is a professional chef and my sister is the most creative cook I know. Her lasagna is killer, actually anything she makes is plate licking good. Oh and my brother-in-law is not too shabby himself, he makes chicken pot pies (among other yummy dishes) from SCRATCH!

Well, I did a lot of research online and found a billion tips...too many tips...and then basically had a mini-freak out, where my sister had to talk me down to reality. Many, many friends also gave me very helpful advice and shared recipes with me. I finally settled on the Thanksgiving Turkey Recipe from the The Bride & Groom First and Forever Cookbook. I really liked the idea of making the stuffing separate from the turkey, so the turkey would cook fast. And yes, the recipe calls for brining. I bought myself a nice shiny Anolon Advanced Roaster with Rack (all my cookware is Anolon, I'm loyal), meat thermometer, and industrial size baster from Macy's two weeks before. Hubby went with me, he's such a trooper! I cheated and ordered the organic fresh 10-12lb turkey, vegetables and stuffing ingredients from Fresh Direct, so no grocery lugging for me.

The day before: I brined (2 gallons of water + salt + sugar + bird), I don't know how I lifted that heavy concoction to the fridge. I also prepared the sausage and roasted garlic stuffing, also from the Bride & Grom cookbook, so it would be ready to bake the next day. The day of: everything is ready, I leave my turkey out for 2 hours (to make the skin crisp), chop vegetables and I get a phone call...we have to postpone Thanksgiving, my brother-in-law's cousin is having her baby! I was very happy for her, but that meant, the turkey had to be roasted and then put into the fridge to be re-heated tomorrow... and it will taste terrible. It was very anti-climatic. Needless to say it was very dry and not so great the next day, but a wing and thigh was noticeably missing (we couldn't resist a taste when it was fresh from the oven). Well, at least we had my brother-in-law's mouth watering prime rib roast and my sister's famous lasagna to fill in the turkey gap.

Leftovers: I used the leftover turkey meat in the Cassoulet Soup recipe from epicurious.com. I also made garlic bread from Ina Garten's recipe from foodnetwork.com. Both were delicious, hubby really liked the cassoulet soup, probably because it had kielbasa sausage. I planned to make a turkey bone stock, but haven't had the chance yet.