The 40 lb. Turkey Saga
moosemac
16 years ago
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kathleen_li
16 years agomsmarion
16 years agoRelated Discussions
Turkey Day Tips
Comments (12)Sit down with paper and pencil and plan your day ahead of time. Write down in the order of time needed to cook each item, and when to put onto the fire, or in oven, so everything is ready and hot to put on the table at the same time. Take care not to overcook your veggies. I cook my vegetables just to the very brink of doneness; pull off of the heat; put a lid on the pot and allow to finish cooking on their own. Then when you are ready to put the vegetables into the serving dishes they will be cooked just right and not overcooked. (It took me a while to "catch wise" to this method....I had a tendancy to overcook!) Then post your schedule on the fridge door, or a spot where you can easily refer to the list as you work....See MoreWill dividing conquer this 24-lb bird?
Comments (23)The results are in! Daughter's DH had no difficulty splitting Tom in half (though I did not ask her what tool he used, sorry). The smoked turkey was out of the smoker before we put the other half into the fryer (timing a result of the chaos associated with the fetivities!), so we kept the smoked half in a 225 oven until taking it out to "rest" for 15 min a bit before the deep-fried half came out. Since everyone was more than ready to eat, we sliced up the smoked part to serve first. It was very well received with a lovely smoked flavor. Now, I had not found out until we arrived at our daughter's that not as many people were coming as had originally planned (very rude, if you ask me, since we had made side dishes enough for several more people. I like leftovers but not for 4-5 days afterward...), so we did not need to serve the other half of the turkey -- AND there was plenty left from just the one half, too! But OF COURSE we sampled the other (always room for a smidgen more turkey)!--and found it to be moister as well as more tender & even more flavorful, with the herbs from the brining in evidence. The smoked flavor had masked that of the subtle herbs. Bottom line: next year, a smaller deep-fried turkey. Though if left up to me, I'd opt still for the old-fashioned roasting in the oven. The lovely smell tantalizing the appetites for hours in advance is worth a lot; but then I will gladly trade that for not having the shindig at MY house! I am much happier cooking all the side dishes myself at home and taking them with me! On Wednesday, I thawed the green beans from the garden (destined for the ubiquitous casserole with mushroom soup topped w/fried onions from a can), pumpkin roll, 2 pumpkin pies, and roasted the summer squash for the squash/corn casserole (the corn also was from my garden). Thanksgiving morning I made the 2 squash/corn casseroles (one with cheddar for the faint of palate, the other with pepperjack and other spicier ingredients) while our granddaughter, who had spent the night, used MY granny's old hand-cranked grinder to make the apple-orange-cranberry relish. This year we opted to forego the homemade dinner rolls (my late aunt's traditional recipe) since we really needed no more food! Maybe for Christmas... Thanks to all of you who offered suggestions!...See MoreThe Continuing Saga of Cini and the O.Z.Z.Z.Z. Crew's Quest
Comments (11)LOL! Here they are: Oberon -- 22 pounds of attitude! He'll be three on Nov. 6. Zora the Diva -- she just turned 3 on June 22 (she actually climbed into bed and pulled the covers up over herself) Zigfried (125 pounds, but Obie punks him out all the time. His bark is definitely worse than his bite!) and Zelda (she's a Pepper & Salt Giant, and one of 10 -- yes, TEN -- of Zora and Zig's litter born March 1 and 2 of 2007. Her coat is beginning to get more gray in it now; this pic was taken at the first of April) And finally, Zena (Zena is a puppy mill rescue that I intended to foster, but she fit in so well with my pack that she stayed) So, I guess you understand that I don't just want a pool -- I NEED a pool! Giants literally have webbed feet and will swim for hours if allowed to do so. Making the trek to White Rock Lake for swimming with my motley crew is no longer an easy thing to do. LOL! They are really humans in fur! Oh! And here's the ten little Giants last year, about a week before they went to their new homes (at seven weeks, they were alreay weighing between 20 and 25 pounds -- the size of my Mini! LOL!):...See MoreWarning: This is a coffee saga...
Comments (66)>>The headline on the company history page says "It All Began on Vine Street", at the corner of Walnut in Berkeley.>> The first Peet's store was opened in Berkeley. But he sold his beans through a few other shops before opening the Peet's-only stores. I remember being very sad that his store opened in Berkeley instead of being in SF where I could reach it (didn't drive and no car in those days). Even Herb Caen mentioned it, I believe; the Peet's French was highly coveted stuff. We were all hoping his first store would be in SF.....sigh. Aliceinmd, interesting that your recipe uses salt. I used to work in a big hotel in Chicago way back when, and one of the waiters was known for making the best coffee of anyone. I watched him one day and he salted the coffee grounds before turning on the big urn percolator. Much later when "food science" started to become popular, I read that salt offsets bitterness and thought, "Aha, that's why he did that!" Intriguingly enough, according to several articles (NYTimes, Serious Eats) they still don't know quite how salt works to offset bitterness (whether the salt somehow disrupts the bitter receptors on the tongue or whether itâÂÂs some sort of post-processing by the brain)! This post was edited by jkom51 on Mon, Jan 12, 15 at 18:49...See Morescott55405
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