What I Want Instead: Tale of a Turkey

Continuing with my holiday stories, ever since late November I've been wanting to try roasting a turkey. This idea was fueled by Thanksgiving (US Thanksgiving - remember, ours is now in October) but also by the KitchenAid roaster on sale. We thought first to do a get-together using Thanksgiving as an excuse, but the date didn't quite work out, so we switched it to a Christmas party last Saturday. We made it a potluck - all we had to take care of was the turkey and dessert. No small feat.

I obsessed over recipes for a long time, searching whether our closest supermarket would have frozen turkeys or would we have to rent a zipcar to get one somewhere else, deciding whether to go through the trouble of brinning... In the end, I found the simplest brine (salt and brown sugar), got the turkey at the local store (on sale - bonus!) and slabbed some butter+spices+peppercorns (from that bulk store I've raved/posted about). It took a long time to prep - yuck yuck - and 3.5 hours to cook, but it turned out really yummy! I was nervous carving it, especially with our 6 guests watching over me and taking pictures. Siu genes don't fail me! I hacked away at it, getting some nice clean white meat pieces out, but after that, who cares right? turkey is turkey. hehehe.

The meal was awesome with all the dishes everyone else brought: cheesy mashed potatoes, orange-glazed green beans, and beet + goat cheese salad. Could not have asked for a better meal with friends :) For dessert, apple pie crumble, fruit and chinese sponge cake (with a weird version of vanilla sauce which I was not too keen on).