Wednesday, November 22, 2006

my annual pre-Thanksgiving slow day post

I could probably re-post last year's pre-Thanksgiving post without changing any of the details and it would be just as appropriate now as it was then. But there's no "we" anymore, just me, so the plans for tonight, tomorrow, and the rest of the weekend differ greatly from last year. Considering the events of last year's Thanksgiving weekend, which I didn't even allude to in this space, I'm happy for the changes. My God, it really has been a year. Hard to believe.

As in past years, I'm staying in the city for Thanksgiving. I was tempted to visit my family this year, but even if I'm traveling by myself it's still a serious pain in the ass to get out of New York for this weekend. I'm hosting tomorrow night's dinner for some friends at my apartment, and I'm in charge of the turkey, gravy, and cornbread. This evening, I'm brining the 13-lb turkey in a giant bucket of salt water. I've brined chickens before, but never a turkey. Brining the bird is supposed to seal in all the moisture and leave you and your guests with an extra-juicy turkey. It's worked for roast chicken, so it should work just as well on a turkey, just on a larger scale. Tomorrow morning James arrives with the roasting pan and we'll cook that bad boy for about four hours. Hopefully, when the rest of my guests arrive in the afternoon we'll have an actual meal to serve them. No matter what, the best thing about having dinner at my apartment is that when I'm ready to pass out in a food coma, I can do it on my own couch.

I'm not sure how I'm spending the rest of my weekend, but I'll probably see at least one movie and maybe finish up one of the projects I've been working on at home lately. If nothing else, it will be a much less dramatic weekend than last year.

1 comment:

tidesong ♫ said...

How did the brining go? My sister did that with the turkey she made this year, and it worked quite well. I've never actually had white meat from a full turkey be so moist before :P

Hope all is well.