Cooking at home Thursday? Double check your lists and menu today.

[No Elephants]

Need any spices or flavorings, ingredients, beverages, side dishes, desserts? Whipped cream for the hot chocolate? Bread?

(BTW, Fall is a good time to replace old spices with new. The flavor gets a bit lame after a year.)

How about pots and pans, serving dishes, etc.?

If you are using special dishes that you only use once or twice a year, you may want to run them through the dishwasher today.

And to complicate matters for Jews, Thursday will be Hanukkah and Thanksgiving. Having only one holiday instead of two? Not fair! Having no time between Thanksgiving and gift giving? Also not fair!

This is something that will not happen again for centuries. So is the turn of the millenium. We who were alive in 2000 and are alive now have seen very rare calendar milestones. If I were superstitious, I'd think that must mean something. Then again, our calendar is a man made creation. The sun and the moon and the stars shrug, saying "We do the same thing cycle after cycle. You folks be crazy."

[Enthusiast]

1. We got a turkey breast,

one that fits perfectly in the crock pot. We will monitor the internal temperature to make sure it isn't over cooked.

Turkey alert! The unscrupulous grocery store operators are foisting old turkeys off on us. Of the last three turkeys we have had two were complete losers. Now we know to make certain the date is at least one year away. Year old turkeys have none of the vibrant flavor of a fresh new one.

[No Elephants]

2. Boneless?

That store has some nerve! I can order a fresh (never frozen) bird at the supermarkets in my area, even the ones that are not Whole Foods-ish.

Okay, here's my turkey cooking story.


When I made my first turkey, I was a newlywed. Being me I read up on it. (I even do a lot research just to go on vacation.) I learned that the two most common pitfalls were are turkey and leaving the innards bag inside the turkey. No problem forgetting the innards because I was making giblet gravy from a James Beard recipe.

So, then, I read up on how to have the juiciest turkey. Problem is, the drumsticks take longer to cook through than the breast does. So, while the legs are cooking, the breast--the only part of the turkey my husband would eat--is drying out.

I followed all the tips. I basted faithfully. I also started the turkey breast side down, flipping it over midway through roasting. This was not at all easy as the turkey was huge and very hot and wet from pan juices and basting; and I did not have those huge turners. I got a few burns and splashes, but I managed somehow.

Then, I carefully tented the breast, remembering to remove the tent in time for all the skin to brown and crisp beautifully.

The finished bird looked gorgeous, but had I succeeded in avoiding the curse of dry turkey breast?

After his first mouthful of turkey breast, my husband asked, "Next time, could you make the turkey dry, like your mother and sister make it?"

:banghead:

On the bright side, never again having to worry about the turkey drying made my life easier every Thanksgiving thereafter.

[Enthusiast]

3. That sounds like a wonderful first bird.

The breast has bones, probably like the wishbone and rib bones. I'm not up on my turkey anatomy.

When my MIL asked me to carve the turkey one year I pulled something new on her. We never carved the turkey at the table as some do. I fileted the entire whole breasts off the carcass. Then I sliced them into neatly even slices. I believe it blew her mind. We continued to do that for years after until the death of my MIL when our Thanksgiving tradition came to an abrupt halt. It was nice, all the family around that way. But my wife doesn't seem to miss it so much. Her mother could be quite difficult.

[No Elephants]

4. Our family is partial to breast, but we all roast a whole turkey when we make Thanksgiving dinner.

As we clear the table at my sister's, she immediate takes the carcass, drumsticks, wings, etc. and makes turkey noodle soup, in case anyone gets peckish later but not hungry enough for a whole meal. Those who are too hungry for soup can make a sandwich, too.

If I've cooked, I am almost always too fried after I eat to do anything else, let alone start cooking again. So, anyone who gets hungry later has to make a sandwich or fill a plate with leftovers and nuke it.