O-M-G I made a turkey!!

We paid our guard 40k in shillings and he came home with this turkey. Turkeys make a sound that is less annoying than a rooster's cocka-doodle-doo, but still really annoying at 6am. Here she is chillin' with our chickens.

 I thought making a turkey (well, making a tasty good one) would be super difficult. It just seemed like an overwhelming task at first. But when I saw our turkey (plucked and cleaned) I realized it was just a big chicken. And I make chicken all the time! Although I've never made roast chicken, but now I feel like maybe I should give that a try too.

All I did was saute some onions and garlic in butter until soft, and then added salt, pepper, and olive oil just so I had more liquid. I rubbed lemon halves all over the inside of the turkey and stuffed it with chopped carrots, quartered onions, garlic, and apples. I capped the open cavity with aluminum foil so the stuffing wouldn't fall out, and tied the legs together. Then I rubbed the whole turkey down with the butter mixture. I also cut underneath the skin near the breasts and poured some of the butter under the skin. Then I rubbed the entire bird with salt (as advised by the interwebs if you don't brine beforehand). After that, I just tied the wings to the sides, then put the bird breast-down in a huge pot and covered with foil. After an hour and a half, I took the bird out of that pot and flipped it right-side up on a deep cookie sheet, poured the drippings/butter sauce back over the bird, and put it back in without aluminum foil so the skin would get delicious and crispy. Then...I went back to work (haha) and Frederica flipped the bird once so both sides would brown. It turned out amazingly well!!


Evidence:

NOM

 I also made real stuffing on the side, and it was delish. While I was at work finishing some things, Frederica and Jessica mashed some potatoes, and when the turkey came out put in Jess' apple pie. It was such a delicious meal after having no variety for so long!

Frederica is focused on the food. No time for cameras!

Also, the power went off last night, so we had our feast in the dark. I'm glad we did the majority of the baking on Saturday, when we had power, so we could use Beth's electric mixer. None of this would have been possible without Beth - our oven doesn't work, and she graciously offered to let us use hers while she's back in the States. We probably owe her some gas money!

The only thing about the feast that didn't feel like Thanksgiving was that there were only 3 of us. Katie's in London, Beth's in the States, and though there are a lot of people from work that I would love to invite, I really didn't know how it was going to turn out and I didn't want to invite people over and then have bad food. Plus, the bird was actually pretty small - it fed about 4 people. And, of course, we were at Beth's, and I can't invite people over to a house that isn't mine! But as sooooon as we get our oven fixed, there will be a turkeyfest part 2, believe you me.

Agnes and the kids enjoyed the leftovers so much this morning (they had turkey for breakfast...haha) that I know I have to do this again, if only to see Feena and Hope so happy with grease all over their faces. Ellie was pretty happy too - we saved the thigh bones for her, and instead of biting us all morning she nommed on her bone for hours.

Yay! Now I feel like I celebrated Thanksgiving, even if it was tiny and dark. =D