The movable feast

Thanksgiving is a universal, one size fits all, no present required, small effort holiday. What is not to love about that! For our family it's also a movable feast. To accommodate the odd schedules we shift it around a bit and this year it landed the Saturday before the traditional date. This works on a number of levels. No crowds at the market before the event. All the store are stocked with all the appropriate items and they are super fresh. Why not?

We had three together to cook the day before; a great idea. Doodles, step-mom Mary, and myself chopped and mixed and baked up a storm leaving the turkey for the actual day. You must have that wonderful roast turkey smell awaiting the guests. Our guests this year were Pat and Frank, Mary's sister and brother-in-law. We must do the prep early as it is our tradition to drink Mimosas on Thanksgiving.

This year we had the traditional Thanksgiving fare. A wonderful fresh Foster Farms turkey from Costco. It was the tastiest bird I've had in a long while. Sometimes the turkey can taste something like a big chicken but this bird had flavor. We didn't brine it because I sort of ran out of energy but you would have thought we did. It was so juicy even the wings were tender.

Everyone has their own favorite way to roast a turkey and I give it a blast of high heat for about fifteen minutes, then cover the breast with heavy foil and reduce the heat to 325 for a good long time. The last thirty to forty minutes I remove the foil to crisp up the skin. The thighs get done without the breast drying out and it was amazing. Also, don't try this without a meat thermometer and let it rest a good thirty minutes before carving. Don't forget it give it a nice foil blanky to keep it warm. If in doubt, go to the Butterball Turkey website. It has all sorts of tips and roasting times.

Not anything new except a wonderful cranberry relish from lil bird. Maybe she'll share that recipe. I will put a link to our must have broccoli casserole.

Oh, and Christmas this year, a day or two after. Like I said, "It's the people, not the day."

You do know that Thanksgiving can be celebrated anytime

And that we did!!!

It seems Sister Moon and her hunky husband, my Mr Doodles, stepmomma, oh and me, were all together last week. We missed niece Lil Bird and her Big Bird husband cause they are off to a conference in some far away place.

Anyway we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving last Friday. And we did it with all the trimmings. Well all the trimmings that we do as a family unit.





The bird was done on the grille, potatoes cooked for mashing, apple salad, sausage stuffing/dressing, and sister moon made some to die for turkey gravy. A little wine was served and of course dessert, compliments of Marie Callender's, which is a local pie shoppe. Our choice was a lemon cream cheese pie in a graham cracker crust with whipped cream as a topping naturally.

So HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all of our visiting friends.

Addendum
This is Moon and I'm adding my two cents here. We didn't miss having our obligatory morning Mimosa while we did the prep for dinner. We also learned a new card game, we love games, and that kept us busy all day long in between fussing with preparing dinner.

The turkey is a tradition my father started a very long time ago. They live in Palm Desert and the temp is usually in the 80s that time of year so why cook a bird in the oven, the BBQ is much easier. It's quite easy.

There are many ways to do this but here is what my Dad always did. Prepare the bird like you do for the oven but no stuffing. Instead we do celery, sage, and rosemary but most any herbs would do. Season it, rub some oil on the dried skin and roast on a pan on the grill. We start about 400 then turn it down to about 325. Just cook it as long as you would cook an unstuffed bird in the oven. If it starts to brown too much, tent with foil. Check with a meat thermometer, I like 150/160 for the breast. Of course there is always the "wiggle the leg" test, too, then let rest for at least thirty minutes. It give you time to have one more Mimosa.