Holy crap, I'm full!

I didn't even try to slow myself down today. After spending nearly 6 hours prepping and cooking dinner (not all working, just a lot of waiting), and having heat-blasted the turkey early on and then smelling it all day, all inclinations of moderation went right out the window when we finally sat down to eat. So now I'm friggin stuffed. Oh, in the interest of getting over being self-conscious, I posted the one picture we took of ourselves today cooking (that's me), even though I have wicked bedhead. I'm seasoning the turkey there.

I'll share my turkey secret, since it would be a crime for me to keep this awesome knowledge to myself. I make a great turkey. First time was November 1992, junior year at Stanford. Mario and I were too poor to fly home that year and we had access to the eating club kitchen and cooked for all the "orphans" left on campus, and he taught me his mom's secret for perfect turkey. At least, that's what I remember now. I seriously doubt I would have come up with this on my own. Since then, I've probably done it about a half-dozen times, just enough to stay in practice and keep the buzz alive, but not so much that people got tired of it.

So here's the deal. First of all, get a good bird--I usually do Butterball, but this year Jennie-O was the only fresh ones at the market. You can do frozen too, but allow plenty of time for thawing. Anyway, follow the rules about keeping it in the fridge till you're ready to roll. Remove the neck and the gibs, and wash it out good. Run some hot water over the whole thing and inside the cavity. Dry it off and plop it in your roasting pan. Now the fun part. Mix up a little bowl with equal parts salt and pepper, and sprinkle in some oregano. Now slice a fresh lemon in half (after rolling it to get the juice flowing), and squeeze the juice all over the skin areas. Rub it in real good, cover all the areas you want to be crispy. Squeeze a bit inside the back cavity. Now sprinkle the seasoning all over the breast and drumsticks and massage it gently, BUT be sure you don't rip the skin. Sprinkle some inside the cavity and also add 3 or 4 bay leaves in there. If you feel daring, try some Montreal seasoning on a section--we gave it a shot today, and boy was that some good skin. And that's it for prep. Don't stuff it. And we tried something new today--high heat, worked great. Crank that oven up to 400 (450 if you feel really daring) and blast it for about 10 minutes per pound (took us 2 hours for a 12-pounder). It'll smoke a bit, and the skin will brown quickly, but tough it out, no foil or nothing, and it comes out awesome. My turkey is always really moist and juicy, and here's why--I don't break the damn skin! I read about people putting butter under the skin and poking holes and stuff, but that's what's keeping the juices in. And the lemon juice tightens the skin up so it's crispy AND holds the juices in. So that's the secret.

Anyway, it was a really nice holiday, in the truest sense. I slept in, the wife woke up earlyish and couldn't go back to sleep, but it was generally a nice mellow morning with no pressure to get up and do anything.

Here's Lucy and Lady waking up leisurely as dogs should. So we didn't get up and start cooking till like noon, and the knowledge that we could finish whenever the hell we felt like it was extremely comforting. Everything came together perfect, and the food was all really good. The dogs all got to have some turkey, and quickly proceeded to pass out in front of the fire.

The wife made a wonderful pumpkin pie (first pie she's baked from scratch) which we just polished off half of, and the dogs are slumbering away, happy and full of turkey.