Thanksgiving in Retrospect

Sorry it's been a couple weeks since my last update.  Been too busy to blog, what with Thanksgiving craziness, and holiday gigs lined up one after the other (I'm a musician, did I mention that?).  This was the first TG that I my mom didn't do the cooking at our house.  She left it in my capable hands (yeah, and my sister helped a little...  I guess...).  Here was the menu:

Pecan Pie (old family recipe)
Bourbon Pecan Pie (new recipe)
Pumpkin Pie (old family recipe)
Eggnog Pie (old family recipe)
Pumpkin Bread (old family recipe)

Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Cranberry Relish
Yams (not sweet potatoes)
Oyster Dressing (not stuffing)
Gravy
14 lb Fried Turkey, brined for 12 hours ala Alton Brown


Here are some pictures:

Me, prebaking the crust for the Eggnog Pie

Whole mess of Pumpkin Bread goodness.

Cranberry Relish

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Oyster Dressing

Bourbon Pecan Pie

Pumpkin Pie

The spread...  drumsticks were a little underdone...  more on that in a minute...

 

Me and the wife relaxing on the porch while waiting for the potatoes to cook.

So for my first attempt at frying a turkey, it wasn't half bad.  I had a some problems getting my oil up to temp.  I dropped the turkey in the oil at a low temp (~250° F) because I heard it would reduce the risk of boil over.  Well, when the turkey dropped it SIGNIFICANTLY lowered the oil temperature (we're talking about 100° drop) and it took 30 minutes to get up to 350°, my target temp.  And by that point my skin was starting to blacken.  Things I would do differently next year?  Leave the lid on while frying and drop it at a higher temperature.  I had a fire extinguisher in hand the whole time, so if anything had happened I could have managed it.  It would have meant no turkey, but that's better than a burned down house.


But anyway, I took the turkey out at 30 minutes, the skin was a nice dark brown.  It was MOSTLY done.  The only parts that didn't get done were the drumsticks, surprisingly...  which nobody ate obviously.  But the white meat was fantastic!!!  My sister, who hates turkey, said it was the best she'd ever eaten.  But to me it wasn't perfect.  In fact, nothing this year was perfect.  I felt like I was just scrambling to get everything done.  Oh well.  I learned something for next year.


How did my mom do it by herself for so many years?  Man.  What an exhausting day.


-CJ