Quote Originally Posted by Storm Crow
Happy Thanxgivin?? kids. I imagine a lot of you are still learning how to put together a fantastic Turkey Day feast. Even if you are alone, or just the two of you, cook up a feast! Freeze it for later in managable chunk and eat ??easy? for a week or two. I??m going to give you some ??how to? advice today. Hopefully your turkey is thawed and in the fridge by now. Tonight, put a couple of onions in the fridge (fewer tears tomorrow). First things first, you chop up the onions and fry them ??golden? in a sauce pan. Pour them into a bowl and set aside. Leave some in the pan. Now get the turkey out. Remove the giblets (liver and such) from the skin under the neck. The neck will be inside the body cavity. I feed the sissored up liver to the cats- it gets them out from under my feet. The stomach (butterfly shaped thingie), the heart and the neck all go into the onion pan to fry a little. When the meat is browning, add water, bring it to a boil, then set on low and forget it. If you happen to have one of those hypodermic type basters, make a cup of tea from a tsp each of onion powder (not onion salt!), thyme and sage. (Italian seasoning will work too) Strain the tea and inject. OR if you don??t have an injecter, mix the same herbs into about a quarter cup of softened butter, chill until it firms up. Slip your hand under the skin of the turkey and slip in the herb butter. Doesn??t look great, but it sure tastes good! There is a little fat around the body cavity. Cut it off and place it on top the the breast, drumsticks and wings to keep foil from sticking to your bird. Take the foil off for the last hour or so to brown. Potatoes- are cheap and easy. Get one of those curly metal scrubbers (I prefer the stainless steel ones) and lightly scrub the potatoes. They clean up easily! If there are shallow bad spots, or you want peeled potatoes, just scrub with a bit more vigor! Now here??s what to do with them. 1/3 are peeled and stuck into the lovely turkey broth about 30 to 45 minutes before the turkey is done At this time add some fat carrots and celery chunks into the broth. 1/3 should be just cleaned and popped into to the oven naked. The last 1/3 should be oiled or buttered, sprinkled with herbs and wrapped in foil to bake about 1 hour before the turkey is done. Sweet potatoes can be baked naked and help prevent zits, prevent illness and helps your night vision (vitamin A). It also tastses great and nuked with cinnamon and then adding milk, it??s a quick hot breakfast. They??re cheap now. Stuffing ??Remember those onions you fried, here??s where they get used. Take some of the packaged stuffing and find the little flavor packet if it has one. Mix part of it (you likely aren??t going to make a whole package- cooked stuffing does NOT keep well so more is not better!) into the onions, add a raw egg and chopped celery and mix. Now add a couple of tablespoons of the neck broth to the egg and mix . Now add the stuffing bread to the egg and mix well. Put you egg coated stuffing into a baking pan or ovenproof bowl. Now get that broth and pour some into the stuffing. Mix. Is it soft and squooshy? OK, cover with foil and bake for an hour. During the last hour of baking, make a salad, get some canned biscuits baking, open the cranberry sauce and then grab some big apples (Granny Smiths are good). Cut them in half, remove the core, fill the hollow with some chopped walnuts and brown sugar, sprinkle with pie spice or cinnamon. Oil a baking pan, place the apples in it, as the turkey and all comes out. Pop them in the oven and bake until soft. Serve with slightly sweetened ½ and ½ . Or buy a pie and put it in. Now comes the eating! Try to keep all your predation to the turkey on one side. After everyone has filled up, remove the untouched breast. Put it in a gallon baggie with some broth. The hindquarter becomes a second frozen dinner. Any remaining broth is boiled down and frozen to be mixed with leftovers to make a quick hearty soup for a winter??s day (you'll never want Campbells again!). Sandwiches, tacos and chili can finish the bird. The bones (that look bare) are boiled again for soup and a surprising amount of meat can be picked off them. If you have a pressure cooker, use it to make the bones so soft that they crumble and feed them to your pups! They LOVE it. You have just created a feast! Have a good one! :thumbsup: Granny Storm Crow :stoned:
You know, if you didn't bunch that up into one whole paragraph, and split it up a bit, i'd have been able to read it...