Road Trip Day 33 – Flippin, Arkansas day 5: Thanksgiving!

Toni was up early, and had made both a pumpkin and a pecan pie before I had finished my second espresso. It was time for me to start the stuffing prep.
Luckily, Courtney was there to help, since Toni and I weren’t entirely sure how to handle the bird. Courtney helped finish the stuffing and helped to stuff it into the bird. I had no idea that you literally shoved the stuffing into the birds’ cavities with such force. I guess I now know why it’s called stuffing. We were really pressing as much stuffing as we could into that 14-pound organic turkey. The rest of it went into a casserole dish. You really can’t have too much stuffing. Even though there were only 6 of us, I thought it best to double the stuffing recipe.

Once stuffed, Gary came to sew up the bird. We weren’t able to find anything but string at the supermarket, so it’s lucky that Gary is trained in surgery. He gamely put on some scrubs (for the photo op) and used his special veterinary tools to tie up our bird.

He told us that his tool was clean and that we did not want to know what it was normally used for; we were thankful that he knew how to close up the bird and thought no more about it.

 

Once all tied up, Courtney and I wrapped the bird with butter-soaked cheesecloth and popped it into the oven. We finally had time for a champagne break!

Except that I couldn't open the champagne...

Clint would have to step in

Something must have been wrong with the cork, I mean, I'm from Sonoma

Finally! Cheers!

We spent the next 5 hours basting the turkey, and it felt like we had been cooking all day before it was ready. I have newfound respect for anyone who has cooked a Thanksgiving meal, especially if they did it on their own. We were unsure what temperature the bird needed to be cooked to, and probably would have overdone it had Toni not been there to look it up online. We pulled it out when the thick part behind the thigh reached 183, just 3 degrees past perfect.

Our turkey was perfectly golden, just as my mom promised it would be beneath the charred cheesecloth.


We were starving by now, so Gary quickly carved the turkey while Toni and Courtney made the mashed potatoes and I did the gravy. It was almost 8 by the time we sat down to dinner, and I was a bit tipsy from the champagne. I think it’s impossible to get Thanksgiving mealtime right; I either eat too much all day and can’t fit in enough turkey, or I’m starving by dinner and my stomach’s too shrunken to eat enough turkey.

Thank goodness Toni is from California so we can enjoy good wine with every meal. Tonight, we had both white and red wine (and the aforementioned champagne) and were almost too satiated to eat dessert. Almost, but not quite. I had the pecan pie, and it was perfect! We all went to bed not too long after dinner, all full and in our respective turkey tryptophan comas.