Happy Thanksgiving Day

This is my favorite of all the national and local holidays that we celebrate in this country. It is still a pure holiday devoted to thanking God for the wonderful benefits we enjoy in our lives. It is all about being grateful for our bounty and circumstance.

I enjoy the fact that we can get together with all of our family and friends and just enjoy their company. This is, of course, if we all take turns and do our separate parts in cooking the Thanksgiving dinner. I took over the turkey carving duties about 5 years ago. My dad, 79, was getting too old to stand there in the kitchen and do the carving. Not to mention getting the bird from the oven to the counter. There are just too many of us to carve at the table. We always do the buffet style thing. It works well for our family and extended family, sometimes up to 20 people.

The last few years we have been trying to get my mom, 75 to stay out of the kitchen. She has spent her life serving her family and now she just needs to relax and enjoy the grandchildren. Easier said than done.

My mom's kitchen is a big room, large enough for my sisters, my wife and I (and anyone else who wants to help) to move around and get things set up for the buffet. I like for the turkey to hit the buffet hot. We make the stuffing, the gravy and all the side dishes while I carved the turkey and transfer it to platters on the counter. It works out fine. Almost.

My mom likes her house comfortable. But she would always come into the kitchen and complain that it was too hot in her kitchen. She would turn on the air conditioner or open the window. So it works well with me that I am carving the turkey under an open window. I would feel rushed to get the turkey onto the platters while it is hot. Well, it added to my stress. So this year I came up with another option.

When I was working as a cook at a world class resort and casino in Lake Tahoe I remembered one night we deboned a duck for one of our dinner specials. So this year I was looking for a way to quickly carve the turkey. I remembered the deboning of the duck. I practiced two weeks ago with a small chicken. Boy that was easy. I thought, no problem, this will work out well.

So, last night we went over to my parents house and I deboned a 20 pound turkey. My wife brought dinner and we made an evening of it. After dinner I set about to debone the turkey. I laid out a towel, the cutting board, sharpened my knives, and readied my pans. I deboned the bird at the edge of the table as I had an audience sitting around the table. It proved to be more difficult than the little chicken.

I won't go into details about how to debone a turkey (I did a google search for it). But I was glad I had a sharp knife and the patience. It took me about 45 minutes to complete the job. But I think it went very well. I shall have to update this post later to let you all know how the meal turned out.

UPDATE, Friday, November 27:
The meal turned out ok. I had my dad stuff the bird and put it in the oven sometime in mid morning. We like to eat about 2PM so I figured about 3 hours for cooking.

I probably should have tied the bird together because as it cooked the juices mingled with the stuffing, the stuffing turned to mush and fell out of through the turkey holder rack in the bottom of the pan. I bought the rack last year because it was extremely difficult to lift the bird from the pan and this one had good handles. So the turkey was sitting in about an inch or two of soggy dressing. And since it drained from the cavity the breast collapsed and it didn't look pretty. Oh well, live and learn. The next time will be different. We will try it again in a few years.

D.