The Thanksgiving Post

For some reason I am always sluggish to write about holidays.  They are always fun...then the fun dies as everyone leaves and the holiday is over and I am left not wanting to do a whole lot.  So I figured it's time to just get this Thanksgiving post out of the way before I wait too long and don't write it at all. 

This year I hosted Thanksgiving at my house.  The plan was for my family and my aunt and uncle(and a kid or two of theirs) to come.  Last minute they fell sick so it ended up just being my family.  I must say it was a grand old time.  It wasn't the most formal thing in the world but we were with family and we ate good food and that is really what matters. 

I was in charge of the turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans and salad.  My sister Becca made the rolls and my mom made the pies and the sweet potato dish.  I am pretty much and old pro at everything but the turkey so this Thanksgiving was big for me.  After doing some research I finally decided what I wanted to do.  For any curious this is what we did for our Thanksgiving turkey:

About 2-3 days ahead of time make the brine.  In a large stock pot combine:

1 gallon(4 cartons) of vegetable broth
1 cup sea salt
1 onion cut into wedges
1 lemon cut into wedges
1 orange cut into wedges
6-8 garlic cloves
2 sprigs rosemary
2 sprigs thyme
3-4 bay leaves
1 Tbsp. peppercorns
1/2 c. sugar


Bring to a boil stirring occasionally and making sure the salt and sugar dissolve.  Remove from heat and cover with a lid.  Let brine come to room temperature, leaving the lid on the whole while.  Do this in the morning as this will take most of the day.  Once the brine is sufficiently cooled place it in the fridge to become completely chilled. 

When it comes time to brine the turkey make sure it is completely thawed.  We had a 14 lb. turkey and we thawed it in the fridge for 3 days.  I would suggest 4 days or getting a fresh turkey a couple days in advance. 

The night before Thanksgiving(or the day the turkey is being served) make all the necessary preparations.  Remove all the yucky stuff and make sure to have a nice large bucket(5 lbs.) that has been cleaned with soap and hot water.  Do not use one that has been used for yard work etc. as that would be disgusting.  Pour the chilled brine into the large buckets and add 1- 1 1/2 gallons of heavily iced water.  Place the turkey in the brine breast down.  If it isn't completely covered than halfway through the brining time flip the turkey over.  This probably means setting an alarm for 5 in the morning! 

The morning of, pull the turkey out of the brine and hold in the sink(wearing food gloves would probably be a smart idea).  With some help rinse off the turkey completely.  Having already placed the roasting pan next to the sink transfer the turkey to the roasting pan.  With some paper towels pat the turkey dry. 

For the aromatics you'll need 1 more orange, lemon and onion, 2 more sprigs of rosemary and thyme and more bay leaves.  In a 9X9 pan cut the orange, lemon and onion into wedges and place in the bottom of the 9X9.  Add about an inch of water to the bottom of the pan and microwave on high for about 5 minutes or until the water starts to bubble(optional, add a stick of cinnamon to the pan before heating in the microwave).  Using some tongs place the rosemary, thyme and bay leaves in the cavity of the turkey.  Continue by adding the lemon, orange and onion wedges.  Then take about 1/2 cube of butter and melt in the microwave.  Separate the breast skin from the meat.  Pour the melted butter in between and massage around.  Then tie up Mr. Turkey so he's nice and tucked in and none of the aromatics in the cavity escape. 

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.  Rub a bit of the butter onto the outside of the turkey.  In the fashion of Alton Brown make a triangle of foil that will cover the breast of the turkey but leave the legs and wings exposed.  Spread some oil on that and fit it to the turkey.  Remove.  Using a digital meat thermometer that stays in the turkey the whole cooking time place the rod into the thickest part of the turkey breast(coming from the front near where the head was and pushing it in back towards the behind).  Make sure to not touch bone or readings will be wrong. 

Make sure the oven rack is two up from the bottom and place the turkey in the oven.  The oven can shut over the cord.  Make sure the digital reader is on the outside of the oven.  Set the digital thermometer to 161 degrees and set the timer for 20-30 minutes.  After this time the turkey should have received a nice browning.  Place the already formed foil cover over the breast meat(forming around the thermometer if needed) and reduce the oven to 325 degrees.  Put the turkey back in and let it cook until the meat thermometer alerts you that the breast meat has reached 161 degrees.  A couple times throughout check the pan drippings.  Add a cup or two of water to the bottom of the pan after turkey has been cooking for an hour or more. 

Remove the turkey from the oven and cover(leave all thermometers in so as not to lose juices).  Let sit for 30 minutes.  Carve the turkey.  Once the turkey is carved remove the drippings from the pan and add a thickener to make a gravy.  This gravy will be very flavorful and have all the wonderful flavors of all ingredients in the brine.  Serve over any or all of your Thanksgiving food.  It was a nice match with our cheesy garlic potatoes and also went beautifully over the breast meat.  The flavor of the brine was only mildly in the breast meat but really abundant in the dark meat so next time I may try roasting the turkey breast down....we shall see.  But this was a delicious turkey and I feel really accomplished for my very first turkey turning out so well.

Thanks to all that helped.  Especially Mark for doing all the turkey handling so a pregnant woman like myself wouldn't get queasy from touching the raw meat.  Thanks Becca for making tons of delicious rolls!  Thanksgiving dinner just wouldn't be complete with out mom's rolls!  My mom's rolls are absolutely perfect for sandwiches.  Not one of us needed butter or jam because for maximum enjoyment you place that delicious turkey inside those awesome rolls and enjoy complete deliciousness.  Over the next 2 days I am certain that almost all of us had at least 5 turkey and roll or ham and roll sandwiches.  Some of us probably had 10...

And thanks to my mom for making the pies!  They were gluten free and surprisingly delicious.  Who knew a gluten free pie crust could actually be enjoyable!? 

I also have a funny little story about silly little Arya!  We used to always do Thanksgiving dinner with my mom's side of the family.  That tradition seems to be dying away unfortunately but when we did have it my aunt Linda would bring this garlic salad.  To say the least we all loved it.  It was always the first thing gone and it just has thing amazing garlic bite to it.  Luckily we have the recipe and I was able to make the salad to go with our Thanksgiving dinner this year.

So you all probably know that at Thanksgiving your idea of how much you can eat is always much more than you can actually eat.  Well a few of us had some leftover pieces of salad hanging around on the table.  Our little scrounger Arya climbed up to the table and went around to each plate and finished off everybody's salad.  I think she may have even finished off everything that was left in the salad bowl.  I had no idea she liked that salad so much!  LOL!  She is such a silly girl.  I am not sure she ate but 2 bites of her own food but she goes around and finishes off everyone elses.  Poor Audree can walk away from her food for 1 minute and Arya moves right in and starts eating off Audree's plate and drinking Audree's drink. 

I can't say we did anything amazing while my family was here but who said you had to go out and do stuff and spend money and brave traffic just to have fun?  We spent lots of time playing Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games, resting/relaxing/napping, watching movies and laughing at everything(mostly Audree and Arya).  It's so good to be around family and enjoy each others company. 

My dad made us a big breakfast Sunday morning before they headed home. My dad's breakfasts always consist of sausage or bacon(we had sausage because I really dislike bacon), hashbrowns(this time we had potato cakes because we had leftover mashed potatoes we wanted to use up), cheesy eggs and my daddy's peach delight(a very yummy mix of blended peaches and ice mixed with orange juice).  It was a great way to start off a Sunday morning although it sadly had to end in them leaving.  My sister Becca hung around until last night and it was nice to have her around so my kids didn't go so quickly from such a high of having everyone around to having no one around.  Just now Audree asked me if she could go wake up Becca :)  I had to tell her the Becca had to go home and she was so disappointed. 

I love the Thanksgiving holiday and I have been very grateful this year for everything I am blessed with.  I have so many things in my life to be grateful for but the biggest things are my wonderful husband Mark and my sweet Audree and silly Arya.  They make life so worth it and they have made this year a great one.  I am so thankful to have each and every one of them in my life.  I love my family! 

Now for Christmas!!