Gobble

I believe the 'Mericuns out there are celebrating Thanksgiving in a little over a week. Since it should be -350 degrees Kelvin (physical impossibilities be damned!) up here by then, we have ours in October. But hey, any excuse to talk about food, right?

Go take a look over here. For some Thanksgiving ideas and tips. I was reading through it earlier, and can't argue.

Brine is sooo key. Until last year I'd never had a brined turkey, and I had no idea what I was missing. I don't use the brine in this article, but a variation of another Alton Brown recipe. Brine is salt, water, and whatever flavours you want to infuse, be it allspice and ginger or parsely, sage, rosemary and thyme.

I use Alton's roasting method, which makes a perfect bird (after 2 years of under-cooking, I couldn't have been happier to find this one).

That stuffing is fantastic. Meat and meat, so gooooood. Just be sure to get a good sausage, although mediocre sausage is still tasty in that one.

I haven't done a rub, but that will change. Next turkey? Butter rub!

I've also never made my own cranberry sauce, but that recipe sounds gooooood, although I'd be tempted to add some orange to it.

But most importantly - there's STUFFING IN THE BIRD. Everyone cautions against this these days, yet come up with other methods of stuffing it anyway (stuffing bags? please). I've always stuffed, and never had a problem. It's not STUFFING if you don't STUFF it. Just stuff lightly, don't cram it in. You can put the rest in a pan, just make sure there's enough liquid with the stuff not in the bird.

Oh, and I did a variation of those potatoes this past weekend, and they were pretty damned tasty.

One thing I don't get is why people see Thanksgiving as such a huge chore. Actual time spent DOING anything isn't much more than an average dinner, and the bulk of the time is waiting for the bird. I've found that, more than most meals, having everything prepped before hand, and knowing what ingredients you need and where they are really eases the whole process.

But then, cleanup is a bitch.

Anyway, if you're making a dinner for Thanksgiving, that seemed a pretty good compendium of the necessities.

Oh, and I already had this written up days ago, funny that Alan would request such a post. :)