cooking

Thanksgiving is a mixed bag for me emotionally. Suffice it to say that yes, the holidays are the worst, especially the further out you get.
Still made a Turkey though...
Skipped the small, scary Syrian ones (now with extra feathers and blood!) and went for a shiny clean frozen Butterball. I know, I know, not regional, not carbon friendly, probably filled to the brim with the hormones but yeah, it was damn delicious.

For the turkey: Once you have washed it, slip your hand up under the skin on the breast to separate it from the meat. Then take generous handfuls of basil pesto, I used about 1/2 cup total for an 18lb turkey, and rub it into the meat. Do this on the legs and anywhere else you can get up under the skin without tearing it. Then cover the outside skin with a generous rubbing of butter.

For the stuffing: Saute one onion, two cloves of garlic, a chopped carrot (or two), two stalks of celery in one tbsp olive oil and one of butter until beginning to brown. Add one chopped green apple, and about 1/2 cup golden raisins. Pour over your stuffing mix (I used Paxo sage and onion flavor, at home I use Pepperidge Farms), add two eggs and mix by hand, stuff into your bird.

Tent the bird with aluminium foil and bake at 350 for about 4 hours. Use the Butterball hotline (1-800-BUTTERBALL) if you have questions about time. I usually cook a turkey for 30 minutes per pound if it is stuffed, 20 min if not. But there is a lot of wiggle room here. Go by the smell and look of the turkey too. Slightly underdone can go back in the oven, overdone and you are done, nothing grosser....

If you've got a good amount of pan drippings, then you can make gravy. I just take all the pan drippings, bits of stuffing, bits of meat and skin, and throw them in the blender with a bit of flour and then cook it down until it thickens. This only works if you have washed and salted the turkey well beforehand...

Happy Thanksgiving all!