Everyone survived my christmas turkey

No one took the turkey out to thaw until thursday evening shortly before I got home. Mom had it in a couple of paper bags to quick thaw outside the fridge but it was still solid after I hayed the horses Christmas morning. So I decided if we were going to have to soak the bird to thaw it anyway it was a good day to try brining. OK, find a recipe that looks passable, calls for a gallon of vegetable broth, 1 cup sea salt, and tablespoons of rosemary, thyme, sage and savory. We had a qt of chicken broth and a packet of dried vegetabe soup, so I used that and water to make 1 gal, couldn't find the sage in front of my nose on the ledge above our stove and no savory. So I threw in some allspice. Barely found a cup of salt (1/4 cup was actually sea salt) Got that all in a pot and simmering and climbed into the attic on the rickety ladder to get my 5 gal. igloo water cooler down to soak the bird in. The good ladder is so heavy and needs a car moved to set up nicely so I took my chances with rickety.

Verified turkey would fit in my cooler and rinsed out; unwrapped the turkey and no way were giblets or neck budging yet, well they usually use plastic to wrap the giblets these days so I figured its fine to just soak the whole works. Put in a gal. of cold water, the turkey and dumped the hot brine on top. --recipe calls for ice water and cooled brine --assumes a thawed turkey too.

Let that sit while I grained the horses, then I checked the brine. What was in the bird was cold but otherwise it was warmish so I threw some ice cubes in there. Didn't want the outside of the bird too warm. I kept checking and adding ice cubes until the brine was nice and cold. I kept hoping mom would snap out of her facial pain and take over the meal preparation but no such luck. She did clean up after supper though. So about 2:00 I brought the turkey in and added the seasoning and water to the bread mom had shredded the night before for stuffing. Had to rinse just a bit of ice out of the turkey to remove the neck, dad brought in the roaster --mom was instructing from the couch where stuff was and how she seasons the stuffing etc. Got the bird in the oven about 2:30. Its supposed to take 3 to 3.5 hours for a stuffed bird but brined birds cook faster, so we'll have an early supper for the big meal. I made pumpkin custard --didn't put frog eye pasta in this time but I was only going to make a small batch with 1/2 of the pumpkin mom had out to thaw but I misread the recipe as I was mixing things and put in white sugar where it called for milk (recipe called for brown sugar and just a bit of white sugar) Well I caught this before baking but I had to double everything to balance out the extra sugar, and it barely fit in the bowl, and I was slopping over stirring things in since I had grabbed the mid-size bowl which was plenty big for a small batch........ But it turned out fine.

I also got to make the mashed potatoes, gravy and a vegetable and thanks to microwaves and some gravy mix everything turned out pretty good. Gravy was plenty salty but balanced ok with the mashed taters and stuffing.

So WHY did I go through all that instead of just cooking something else? Dad had invited a truck driving friend to come over and with mom being sick and me not liking to cook, we hardly have anything but tv dinners to cook. Only some hamburger, fish sticks, etc type stuff -- no roasts, steaks, chops etc. Dad's friend didn't expect dinner, he knows mom's been sick but he's on the road all the time and while some truck stops have a buffet where drivers can get close to home-style meals they really appreciate a cooked meal once in a while. And while I wont give up my free time to cook often *I* like a good meal once in a while too.

Then we opened what few presents we had. Dad got me rims for my car --didn't put those under the tree. I requested them so I wouldn't have to pay $16/tire to switch out from snow tires to all-seasons 2x/year. I got dad (and mom) some cowboy humor books. Brother and wife sent us a Figi's gift box with sausage, cheese and chocolates. Mom's brother and his wife sent us some cute cowboy tree ornaments, a puzzle, Hickory farms gift box, and a horse hair pottery thing that would hold a thick candle I think, or can be a pen holder etc. I guess H knows the artist/crafter that makes them. Sis hasn't got presents ordered yet (no big deal we are not tied to exact dates) I sent brother and family a check, and sister a foldable camping kitchen counter thing she had requested. She hasn't opened it and I didn't quiz her if it was the right model from the box. Cabelas had 3-4 different models. Who would guess there is enough demand for a portable kitchen counter that they need multiple models? LOL