Thanksgiving and Gotcha Day

   A holiday all about gratitude!  I am thankful for my amazing son, Penguin.  Today is his Gotcha Day.  Gotcha Day is the holiday we celebrate his adoption on.  He became our son the day before Thanksgiving, 2005. It has been an amazing time - full of wonderful ups, and heartbreaking downs (there are always downs with a kid with Reactive Attachment Disorder or RAD) but I wouldn't want my life any other way.  And, did I mention he is absolutely gorgeous, smart, funny, compassionate, athletic?  Love my young man!

  I am  grateful for my beautiful daughter Tiger Lily, who just moved in again last night.  It's been several years since we lived together, and we all will have some learning to do!  I, for instance, have never lived with an 18 year old, but we are already having fun!  And  Penguin and Tiger Lily have an amazing bond - partners in crime.  They are already terrorizing each other and the rest of the house.

   Thawing a turkey now.  Planning the cranberry sauce.  I think I need potatoes - that's it.
   My Thanksgiving turkey recipe is borrowed from Flylady.  You can see the original at   Flylady.net    My version is:

Turkey Roast

A big ol' bird
1 carrot quartered
1 onion quartered
1 celery stalk quartered
1 apple quartered
Salt, pepper, sage and thyme.

Preheat the oven to 500.  Oh yeah, I'm wild like that.  Remove all the innards from the bird (keep for the gravy or to make soup.)  Rinse the turkey, inside and out.  Pat outside dry, stuff with veggies and a little of the spices.  Place in pan, liberally rain down the spices.  Roast at 500 for 30 minutes.  Turn down the oven to 325.  If the skin starts getting too brown at anytime, cover it with foil.  Cook for approx 15 - 20 min per pound (total time in  oven at both temperatures), or follow the table on flylady's post.  Small birds are closer to 20 min/ lb, big ones are closer to 15 min/lb.

Turkey Gravy

When you put the turkey in the oven, place giblets, 5 C water and 1/2 bottle red or white wine in a sauce pan.  Cook at a low simmer until turkey is finished cooking, you may need to add water.  Add the turkey fat and any crispy brown pieces to the stock.  Stir, serve.  You can also add thickeners like arrowroot powder, which I may try tomorrow.


 Makes a fabulous, juicy turkey with to die for skin.  And as Penguin and I always fight over crispy turkey or chicken skin, that's very important at our house.  Obviously, ignore the stuffing information.  And I have never put butter on my birds, and they come out beautiful.
   I will be cooking a 20 lb bird in the morning.  Yes, for 4 people.  I got plenty of ziplocs ready to stuff and freeze with turkey meat, and that will take care of our turkey needs for a while.  Most years I buy 5-8 turkeys when they are on sale.  I typically roast 1 a month during the winter. This year's sales were pathetic.  I am hoping to find a good sale around Christmas to stock the freezer with.  If I don't find a good sale, I may buy several anyway.  Free range turkey is still a lot less expensive than free range chicken.

11/25/11 Update
I made the gravy with white wine this time (I usually use red) and it was excellent.  Also, the arrowroot worked well as a thickener.  I used 6 Tbsp to a big pot o' gravy.  Could have used more.  So good!




What, your cavekids don't beat each other with their turkey legs?