Gobble gobble

All right kiddos.

According to Lee and Alton Brown, brining a turkey is the way to go. As I honestly have no idea how my family cooks the Thanksgiving turkey (my mom wakes up early and sticks it in the oven and then I hover vulture-like while my dad carves it), I am up for anything. If I brine my turkey, I'm going to need a big pot or bucket and ample refrigerator space. Here are my limitations:

1. I am having one brother, two sisters, a grandmother, an aunt and two in-laws for dinner. Including Phillip and me, that's nine people with the possibility of a tenth. According to this website, I'm looking at a 13 pound turkey. How big is a 13 pound turkey? More importantly...
2. Is a 13 pound turkey going to fit into my big spaghetti sauce pot? And will my big spaghetti sauce pot fit in the refrigerator? I don't think so. I'm wondering if we're going to have to unearth the big bucket we got for painting the bathroom. (WHICH DOES NOT HAVE PAINT IN IT ANYMORE, SIT DOWN ALEX.) I have no idea how THAT is going to fit in the refrigerator.
3. AND, refrigerator space is at a premium during the holidays. My fridge was a work of art right before the Halloween murder mystery dinner party, with 5 casserole dishes and 8 appetizer plates stuffed in there in addition to the regular fridge inhabitants. But a 5 gallon bucket with a turkey inside?
4. I will also be borrowing my grandmother's big roaster thing. I actually don't know what it's called. A roaster? It's a big tub and I have to use that so the oven is available for everything else. All the turkey recipes I've looked at recommend turning the turkey while it's cooking. How am I going to do that in a roaster? Leading to the biggest question:
5. AM I GOING TO RUIN THANKSGIVING?

The good news is that I will only be responsible for the turkey. And maybe one or two last minute dishes like mashed potatoes. But Alex will bring stuffing and the girls will bring side dishes and my aunt will bring pies and my grandma will stand next to me and make tsk tsk noises while I attempt to make gravy (OH NO I FORGOT ABOUT THE GRAVY) and hopefully my mother-in-law will make her super fantastic sticky rice stuffing.

In other news, I only own enough plates and silverware for eight people. You can only put eight people around my table. I suppose we can park Alex in front of the television, but that doesn't seem very happy family-ish.

Anyway, I appreciated the turkey/Thanksgiving advice. My next stop for advice is my sister-in-law who was an actual Chef at an actual Restaurant before my nephews arrived to introduce us all to the wonders of the Wiggles.

I always thought it would be fun to throw a Very Boozy Thanksgiving with my "urban family", but as my urban family has real family close by, I don't think this is ever going to happen. I do adore my own family, but I also miss the rag tag groups my mom and dad used to throw together at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. We lived on an overseas military base, where no one has family living near by, and our holiday dinners always involved the neighbors, the single teachers and the people who were "substitute" family. I remember being appalled when my parents invited people who were not grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins to our first Christmas away from the states. We were going to have OTHER PEOPLE around when we OPENED OUR PRESENTS? But it was decidedly weird when I attended my first family Christmas since then, only 2 years ago, and the "other people" were nowhere to be found.

I say that only because I am disappointed that I only have 8 plates. When we were looking for houses, one of my main criteria was how many people it could hold (seated and buffet!) But when one has never cooked a turkey before, one must start small, right? If you have any more turkey experience, I'd love to hear it. I read the Roasting Poultry chapter of Joy of Cooking last night and now I'm all I HAVE TO BUY A TRUSSING NEEDLE???

Comments

[yoonie]

If you want to avoid the hassle of brining and trussing needles etc you can always BUY a prepared turkey from Whole Foods. It just involves sticking the turkey in the oven for the requisit amount of time. An attorney I worked with did that last year and she said it turned out beautifully. (Then your grandmother really may tsk tsk you, but it saves you the hassle of trying to find a big enough pot!)