Turkey talk

Have you ever noticed that when you are roasting a turkey, the bird never quite cooperates with you? The rule of thumb is that it should cook 20 minutes per pound; however, the turkey seems to either be done way ahead of schedule or way behind. Today my 12 lb. turkey was done way ahead of time, like in 90 minutes, cooked at 350 degrees. Luckily, two things worked for me:

1. I had prepped several side dishes yesterday. They were in the fridge, ready to be popped into the oven. The other stuff were simple and I could throw them together on the stove.
2. I had my digital thermometer plugged into the bird. Not only did this save me from over-cooking the bird, it also allowed me to pace when I put those said side dishes into the oven so that they would be ready when the bird was.

Overall, it was a pretty stress-free day in the kitchen. Doug's parents arrived yesterday from Chillicothe. There was enough food to feed 10 people, unfortunately it was only the four of us. Damn, Tyler Florence for making everything look so yummy on TV and being so good looking I want to watch you cook. I made his turkey, his sweet potato casserole (Cindy, we forgot your suggestion to add the rum, darn it!), his cranberry orange sauce, his pumpkin cranberry pie (Cindy, your suggestion for the cranberries worked great), and a variation on his gravy. Pretty much the only thing on the table not from Tyler Florence was the stuffing, the spinach artichoke souffle from my friend Claudia, and the mashed potatoes.

Did I mention we have a TON of leftovers?!?

Other than that, the day was fairly quiet. Doug is watching his third football game for the day, the Chiefs vs. Broncos. I'm uncertain whether he wishes he was in Kansas City or not. While he and his parents watched tv, I was working on Christmas gifts.

Tomorrow we plan on bumming around a bit, hitting a few speciality stores but nothing major. Doug's dad wants to watch a few of the college games tomorrow. There really isn't a lot going on tomorrow. I think between Black Friday and the Texas/Texas A&M game here in town, no one is putting on special events. Saturday, however, we plan to go to a few different street fairs/art festivals in town.