The day after turkey day

Tags

feast, hard work, postaday2012, relaxation, rest, turkey

The infamous day after Thanksgiving. To some Americans, it’s back to work as usual, for others it is still a vacation day, but for so many die hard shoppers, it is Black Friday. The day of the ultimate sales for the upcoming holidays, I have never gone shopping on Black Friday specifically, on purpose, to take advantage of sales. I dislike shopping on a good day so I am definitely not going to go when you are guaranteed mob-like settings and scenario’s.

The baby girl had a doctor’s appointment today, because with her being away at college, these little school breaks are the only opportunity to squeeze in health maintenance, so this had the three of us out of the house. On our way back from the doctor’s, someone asked for a stop into T.J Max. That store I didn’t mind, because they do not abuse their employees as far as I know. On the other hand, I signed a petition supporting the Walmart workers who went on strike today due to poor working conditions, forcing them to take on larger percentage’s of their health care coverage thus making their take home pay even closer to poverty level, all this while the company is reporting sky high profits. Moreover, a large percentage of Walmart employees have to depend on food stamps to make ends meet. We were not going to Walmart today or in the future if we can help it.

I’ll get off my soap box, I am suffering from a Thanksgiving preparing, baking and cooking hangover. I woke up this morning feeling really slow and headachy. I think that it was the adrenaline of being in the kitchen for hours and coordinating everything to the minute and even the day before Thanksgiving was packed full of chores and activity, so I am pooped, but in a good way. I spent time doing something that I love to do, cooking and baking, it makes for a very good tiredness.

Thanksgiving and the bird

Tags

family, feast, postaday2012, spinach gratin, Thanksgiving, turkey

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Can you believe that a turkey takes fours hours to cook. This bird came in weighing 16 lbs, I know that there are many families that go even larger, such as twenty-two pounds or even higher than that, those birds must take all of six or seven hours in the oven. The kitchen in those houses must be steam baths by the end of the day.

I was feeling the heat myself in my kitchen, but it has been very mild outside for the past two days, of which I am not complaining. I think that I lost an ounce or so between all the chopping, peeling, stuffing, sauteeing and basting.

The meal for our family of four was fairly simple. The baby girl made a request for the first course; smoked salmon with a dill cream sauce layered between potato pancakes and the main course was the turkey with wild rice, long grain rice and sausage stuffing both inside the bird and the extra was baked in a casserole dish, and the baby boy asked for spinach gratin. We had salad just in case for any who wanted it after the main course (no one had any) and there is the pumpkin pie for dessert. For the moment we are still too full from the smoked salmon and the turkey and its fixings to think about dessert for the moment.

All in all I am very happy with how everything turned out, Martha Stewart’s technique for the perfect turkey has not failed me in the four years that I have been following her directions. It’s actually very simple; you pour a bottle of good dry white wine in a pot, melt three sticks of butter in the wine, let it cool and put a big section of cheesecloth in the buttery wine so that it is completely drenched and after you have prepared your turkey for the oven, you drape the cheesecloth over the entire breast and if it covers the legs, that’s fine. The oven has been preheated at 450 in the meantime and you put the turkey legs in first, in that hot oven for 30 minutes, at the 30 minute mark you lower the temperature to 350 while you are basting the cheesecloth with the buttery wine. Every half hour, you baste it until the last hour, when you discard the cheesecloth and you flip the bird and point the breast towards the back of the oven. When the juices run clear at the thigh, you know it is done. This will give you a wonderful turkey each and every time.

The spinach gratin was easy also, I got the recipe from the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten and it is basically creamed spinach with grated Swiss cheese on top and put in a hot oven 425 for 25 minutes or until the Swiss cheese turns golden brown on top.

We gave thanks at the table for each other and for everything in our lives. It was a very nice and quiet family time, just the four of us.