Am I late to this party?
Tonight, we had a mini-Thanksgiving dinner. I mentioned back in December that we bought a turkey after Thanksgiving and tonight we had sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and turkey. It was awesome. (Also awesome? My mom’s fool-proof, no-defrosting method of cooking turkey. Freezer to oven is very much my style).
But a turkey is kind of gross – I prefer my meat to come without a neck and a rib cage. Last Thanksgiving, Bart’s parents were here and when Bart’s mom offered to do the gross things like break apart the carcass and pick the meat off the bones, I didn’t even pretend to consider her offer. I was out of the kitchen in a flash, leaving her alone with the dead bird. This time? We had to do it ourselves. Yuck. (Of course I made Bart take the neck out of the innards . . . don’t you know me at all?)
Of course, I love turkey with all my stomach, so even seeing it as a real dead bird couldn’t convince me not to eat a big helping. And then another post-dishes helping. Yum. Happy Thanksgiving.
Update: By popular demand (one person), here is the “freezer to oven” turkey recipe, compliments of my mom, via my brother’s piano teacher:
PERFECT LAST MINUTE FROZEN TURKEY
Remove plastic wrap from the frozen turkey; don’t worry about the giblets and stuff inside the turkey. You’ll remove them later. Place frozen turkey in a sturdy dripper pan and into a heated (250 degrees) oven. Begin early (about 6 or 7 AM). Let the turkey cook/defrost in the oven for a couple of hours. Check on it occasionally to see how things are coming along. There is no science to this “recipe.” Yet, somehow it turns out every year. Check to see if the turkey is thaw enough to get the giblets and such out. Keep checking until you can get those out. When you can, then season the turkey how you like. I usually baste with oil and then sprinkle with salt, pepper and paprika. You can cook the turkey either breast up or breastdown. I think breast down gives you a moister white meat selection. Afterthe giblets are out and the seasonings are on, just let it keep cooking –turn up the heat to 300 if you think you need it to be cooking faster –until it’s done. Remember to baste the turkey every 1/2 hour or so. Test it for done-ness with either a thermometer or by moving one of thedrumsticks to see if the meat begins to tear away from the body of the bird.If it is getting too brown, but isn’t done yet, then cover the bird looselywith foil while it keeps cooking. That’s it! Good luck!
Will you share the freezer-to-oven technique?
Too funny. Lots of people where in a “Thanksgiving” dinner mode over the last few days. On Sunday, my husband and I madea “Thanksgiving” dinner and invited our friends over. Then another group of friends did the same thing on Sunday too.
It must be in the air.
Wish we would have had your no defrost version. Ours worked out too, just defrosted it over a few days and used the handy dandy Turkey Bags.
Aren’t you grateful I degizzarded your Thanksgiving bird. Yuck.
I love the new set up of your blog. THat is a gorgeous picture of you!!!! I just added goodreads today, I need to explore the website but I was happy to see you were a member as well.
(that is so funny b/c I wrote my comment first and then found your next two posts were addressing the things I had commented about) I felt kinda dumb!!!