Thanksgiving Contest: the winner is the loser

DianaCox · Nov 28, 2014

Making the turkey today. Maybe I shoulda been a surgeon? Yes, the butt is on sideways, but it was the only way to bridge the gap. And I can't know for sure that this inbred bird wasn't made that way ...

It was 26 lbs before stuffing, and a fair bit more afterwards. Didn't quite fit in the roasting pan, so we had to improvise a bit with foil for spatter containment purposes.

And the Challah-day turkey we made last night:

hilary1617 · Nov 28, 2014

Both turkeys look terrific @DianaCox , and I am quite certain that the entire meal was delicious. Did you decide what to do with the purple yam?

DianaCox · Nov 29, 2014

Here is the result:

It was pretty good, if I do say so myself. And I don't have to cook for a month, so long as I don't mind gassing the house out on brussels sprouts, cheesy green beans, whiskey glazed carrots, mushrooms, yams, stuffing, stuffing and more stuffing (and ham and turkey, of course). All covered in citrus cranberry sauce.

We didn't touch the pumpkin pie, although we had some fancy birthday cake for Charles' and my would-be sister-in-law's birthdays (would be, if her mother-in-law would marry my dad).

I didn't do anything with the purple yam yet - at some point in the food prep, I was kicked out of the kitchen and told I had done E-nuf. Didn't even get to make the gravy. Yet. The carcass is cooking in the soup right now.

Munchkin · Nov 29, 2014

I did really well this year, only had to make one emergency trip for cream. My T-day dinner is much less elaborate than most. But it was the night before Thanksgiving and the store was a zoo. I'd never seen a Smith's with NO milk on the shelves before!

Both my turkeys turned out well. Lots of meat in the freezer. Stock is finished and cooling so it can be strained and then cooked down. There is some excellent turkey soup in my future. And we still have leftover other stuff too.

DianaCox · Nov 29, 2014

Stock is portioned out (I didn't need to skim it - there wasn't that much fat on top - or it was emulsified into the broth) into three nice batches.

Now I need to have some recipes for dark meat that AREN'T hockey pucks (croquettes). Last year I made a nice turkey pot pie - used extra tubes of crescent rolls to make the crusts. I'm thinking that sounds doable. I never used the frozen peas and pearl onions, we have leftover whiskey glazed carrots. The bok choy might also work (thought I'm not sure about the garlic/sesame/ginger/orange sauce clashing with the whiskey carrots), but it might be better to use those as the base of a turkey/bok choy stir-fry with some red bell pepper and onion.