Last week I went grocery shopping at Walmart and did a very strange thing...I bought a whole turkey. Why is this a strange thing you might ask? Well, it all started many years ago ( 12 years ago, almost to the day) when I decided to have Thanksgiving supper at our home. Dan and I were living in married student housing at Montana State University in Bozeman. The apartment was, well...small, but it was perfect for a newly wed couple. The kitchen, for example, did have all the appliances (frig, stove, sink) but all were of "smaller" size. So, not having ever even attempted a Thanksgiving meal on my own, I boldly volunteered to cook for Dan and my parents, thinking "How hard can it be?" Everything went very well ..until...I decided to defrost the bird. My how quickly things go wrong! I thought you were supposed to unwrap the turkey and then set it in a sink of cold water. Nope! Don't do that, just in case you were thinking of trying it. So, off to the store for yet another turkey. This time it was mom to the rescue and she showed me how to properly thaw a frozen turkey without giving your guests food poisoning. I though this might come in handy some day. So, the next step is brush melted butter all over it, season it, and then put it in the oven. Sounds simple, and would be simple if you had a normal sized oven. Can you believe the turkey didn't fit in the oven???!!!! Quite honestly I don't remember what we did to make it fit, but eventually it did. In the end the meal turned out pretty good (thanks to my mom) and I haven't attempted a turkey since then.
So, why did I make this spur of the moment decision to buy a turkey? My friend Autumn was talking about how she has never made a turkey, but was going to give it a try for a church Thanksgiving meal. Now, Autumn is a number of years younger than me (and an amazing cook) so I thought, OK, I need to get it together and try this again. She inspired me to give it another go.
On Saturday night, after a very FULL day, including a no show open house, I attempted turkey #3 (remember the first experience involved 2 turkeys!). And guess what... It turned out GREAT! I was so proud of myself! It looked good and it tasted very good! What a treat So, I couldn't resist taking a few pictures just to prove that I really did conquer the bird.
