Well, I decided on Wednesday at noon, while shopping for food for pre-Thanksgiving dinner with the family that night, that I wanted to roast a turkey, just so we could have turkey soup and leftovers. I guess I was craving a turkey sandwich on a yeast roll with mayo, salt & pepper, and cranberry sauce...So, I stopped by Sunflower Market and asked the boys at the meat counter if they had any 10 lb fresh turkeys. They brought out a free-range, super-cold "but not frozen" organic turkey. They gave me simple instructions: place it in the sink in cold water for two hours. It should be ready to cook by then. I gathered up all my purchases and headed home, first stopping by Alyssa's house to kidnap her for a cooking extravaganza in my tiny kitchen. We made Italian stuffing with spicy Italian sausage, cornbread, butter, pecans, dried cranberries, butter, onions, chicken broth, white wine, parmesan cheese and butter. It was extremely flavorful. And buttery. Then we made traditional stuffing with 5 different fresh herbs, celery and onion and chicken broth. And butter. Then we made The Pioneer Woman's mashed potatoes. They were fantastic - creamy and buttery. Meanwhile, I kept checking on the super-cold turkey in my sink. It was far more than super-cold...it was nearly frozen in the middle. I kept refilling the sink with cold water, trying to hurry up the defrosting process. At 6pm I finally pulled a couple of packages of chicken out of the refrigerator and started doctoring them up with the fresh herb/lemon lemon zest/butter concoction which I had planned to use on the turkey. I pan-fried them in olive oil and finally had dinner on the table by 7pm.
At 7:30pm I left the family gathering to go pick up Michael at Chick-fil-A (1 hr round trip). When I walked in the kitchen door, to my utter amazement, Alyssa had cleaned up the entire kitchen and was graciously serving pumpkin pie w/whipped cream to the family. We decided to watch some movies so we split up the family - boys in the living room with the big screen watching "Live Free Die Hard" - - girls in the lodge with the medium screen watching "What A Girl Wants".
Alyssa & Joshua left at 11:30pm. I checked on the turkey again - by this time I had moved it to the refrigerator to continue defrosting. It was still a little icy in the middle but at least I could pull out all the little bags of nameless innards and discard them. Then I decided to bake the turkey. So, I whipped up another batch of herb lemon butter. Got out the kosher salt and the pepper mill. Pulled together all the aromatics I could find for the interior of the bird - whole head of garlic, onion, lemons, whole thyme sprigs. Then at about midnight, I slid the whole masterpiece into the 350 degree oven for 2-1/2 hours. By 3am, I had fallen asleep with the TV on. Dan woke me up and asked me what the high-pitched beeping noise was. I emerged from my perfect dreamland and realized that the oven timer had been ringing for more than a few minutes. I dragged myself out of bed and rescued the turkey from the oven. It was perfect and beautiful. I covered it tight with foil and went back to bed. I DID remember to turn off the oven. In the morning, I carved a little piece of turkey - it was divine. Perfectly seasoned and juicy with a crispy, flavorful skin. Worth all the trouble.
At 10am, Dan, Michael and Steven headed over to the Bakalar's home for their annual Thanksgiving Day hike with Jeff. I stayed behind, boiling potatoes for more mashed potatoes, baking sweet potatoes for sweet potato casserole and making a gigantic mess in the kitchen. Pots, pans, dishes, serving spoons, mixer, butter - - the mess took on a life of its own, spreading, overflowing, spilling, until I finally finished cooking. I had to look away from the mess as I loaded up the car and headed over to join the rest of the Urban Tribe for our annual Thanksgiving Day feast. As usual, we had a wonderful time just hanging out, eating, talking, being the tribe. It was a beautiful day yesterday - not cold at all. It didn't feel like November. Nice breeze, lots of mild sunshine. At 4pm we squeezed in a few family photos by the pool.
Then we packed up and drove home. Dan and I changed into "youthful" attire - jeans & long-sleeved t-shirts, tennis shoes, sweatshirts draped over our shoulders. We were ready for the ASU vs USC game. We had awesome seats, courtesy of Jeff & Pam. 26 rows up from the field in the endzone area. The game started out great for both teams. Then gradually, with accelerating competence, USC pulled way ahead of ASU. We ended up standing for at least 50% of the game because all the spectators in front of us were standing. I had a tall, beefy man, a loyal USC fan, sitting directly in front of me. It was like being seated in front of a brick wall. I couldn't see anything unless I stood up. The game was really fun. Lots of team spirit on both sides. The ASU band played at half-time - special guest artist was Little Richard. Lots of fireworks. We didn't need our sweatshirts because it was probably only in the 70's. After walking to our car (seemed like miles), we decided we were still young and could go out and get something to eat real quick. Well, we didn't have much luck finding a place that was open that wasn't a full-on club or bar. So, we finally pointed the car toward home. Dan made some little turkey sandwiches on yeast rolls with mayo, salt and pepper, and little bit of cranberry sauce...yum, the things sweet dreams are made of!!!
