This year I had to approach things a little differently with the Thanksgiving turkey, due to new living arrangements and the state of the turkey when it arrived.

Normally I would brine the whole turkey in a large bucket and store it away in the second fridge that we had.

However, moving and living in a rental home means things are much different.  There’s no second fridge anymore leaving me with no room to brine a whole bird. So I had to plan a different approach.

I decided to break down the bird and only roast half, saving the other half for another time.  However the bird came to me already frozen which meant once thawed, all of it had to be cooked.

Ok, no big deal.  Go with the flow and all that.

I still broke down the bird into quarters and used the back to make stock (which turned out lovely!).

I brined one breast and wing, and one leg quarter.  The other breast-wing and leg quarter got a dry rub slapped on. I did not have room in the fridge for four large brining bowls or else the entire turkey would have been brined.

I was actually excited to do this little experiment! We have been eating brined turkey for years so I was curious to be able to do a side-by-side comparison of brined verses not brined.

Maybe they would taste the same? Maybe not? We would soon find out!

Instead of using butter to rub on the skin and underneath, I used lard that I recently made. It went on a lot smoother than the butter!  I then sprinkled the turkey with:

• Garlic Powder
• Smoked Paprika
• Chili Powder

In the roasting pan was:

• Stock
• Bourbon
• Onion
• Carrot
• Celery
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Lemons

I also decided to go with the cheesecloth method while the turkey roasted.  This was something that another food blogger suggested during a weekly food blog Tweetchat, Foodies Nite In. (PS: This food chat happens on Twitter each Monday from 4-6pm EST)

The idea is that you soak a cheese cloth in melted butter and white wine, drap that over the turkey as it roasts.  This is supposed to help keep the turkey moist while it roasts.

If you’re curious about where you can buy cheesecloth, Target carries some for a really inexpensive price.

For my turkey I went with:

• Melted Butter
• Bourbon
• Stock

I used bourbon since the turkey was brined in bourbon.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that you won’t have to bast the turkey as often since it is covered in cloth.  If anything, you have to bast it even more.

The cheesecloth will dry out and dry out quickly. I found myself having to bast probably every 15-20 minutes.  If I waited any longer, the cheesecloth would start to burn.

The oven was 375 degrees, so not a high temp at all.

I was roasting parts from a 13 lb bird and it took about 2.5 hours for it to roast.  20 minutes before it was done, I removed the cheese cloth and cranked the oven temp up to 425.

I let the turkey finish roasting while the skin browned and crisped up.

The results I found with this Thanksgiving Experiment:

• Brined turkey was way more tastier than the non-brined. It was also juicier.
• Cheesecloth method was nice but the increased basting was kind of a pain.
• No need to use alcohol or butter to soak the cloth in. Regular stock or even water would be fine. Save the alcohol for sipping (or gulping, whatever).
• Roasting in quarters is easier and the back makes for great stock.
• Lard seems to make the skin a lot crisper and more golden in color than butter.

That was how our Thanksgiving bird turned out!  Not sure if I’ll do any of this again next year.  I’m not making plans just yet and will see what next year brings.

Did you have turkey for Thanksgiving?  How did you prep yours?

We’re back after a few days off for the holiday!  As you can see, our Thanksgiving tends to be pretty laid back.

Sweats or jammies are the dress-code and a MUST.  If you show up in anything other than elastic waist pants, you’ll be turned away at the door until you are properly outfitted.

We did some new things this year for Thanksgiving as we adjusted to our new space.  My overall approach, simple and stress-free, stayed the same though.

Normally I run on Thanksgiving morning but this year I decided not to.  I did get up early and start things moving along.

I did not go all out with decorations because the thought of unpacking another box was very unappealing.  I managed to pull out a few things to make the table a little festive though.

I also bought some super cute owl clips from World Market (not an affiliate link) and clipped those to the garland on the table.

The turkey turned out beautifully! And no, your eyes are not playing tricks on you.  I broke the turkey into quarters and roasted it that way this year.  I did things a little differently with the turkey, which I’ll talk about in another post.

We always have wine with Thanksgiving dinner and keep things simple with a nice Pinot Grigio.

For dinner, we had stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey (clearly), and collard greens.  Along with some amazing gravy to go with everything!

We hung out, ate some great food, and gamed our little hearts out.  Perfect holiday!

Our Thanksgiving definitely had a theme to it this year which can be summed up in one word: Lard.

Oh yes.  But we’ll chat about that later.

How was your Thanksgiving this year?

We’ve made it! It’s the week of Thanksgiving when all of the prep and planning starts to take place!

This is my favorite week and I look forward to it all year long!  I love spending time in the kitchen and I get to be in the kitchen each day this week.

Thanksgiving will be just a touch different around here this year because we’re still getting adjusted to a new space (both house and location) but we’ll talk all about that next week.

Now it’s time to focus on food prep!  I picked up my turkey over the weekend from Jodar Farms and will be sticking that in the fridge today to thaw out.

The rest of the week will be spent prepping and baking.  You can get an idea of how my week will look from this post. I’m also trying out some new things this year so fingers crossed it all works out!

Here at the HQ we’re on holiday until next week and then I’ll be back with a recap of our first Thanksgiving in Colorado!

Are you already prepping and planning for the big day?

Have A Very Happy Thanksgiving!

Scott and I have been having Thanksgiving dinner together for over a decade by this point.

2012 marks, what I believe, is our 13th (I think, I’m bad at keeping track) year of dining together on the big day.

I’ve been making Thanksgiving dinner for us this entire time and over the years I’ve learned a lot.

Not only about cooking for the big day but also what we like and prefer.

One big thing I learned is to keep things simple.  While Thanksgiving is a big day full of eats, there doesn’t need to be 16 courses for the meal.  I find that can get over whelming, not just for the cook, but also for those eating.  I fully want to get my grub on but not quite that much.

We have a turkey, and a few staple side dishes.  Plenty of food to keep us satisfied and the fridge stocked with leftovers for the next few days.

Comprise is also a large part of Thanksgiving.  Everyone has different traditions and different things they are used to eating on the big day.  Scott was used to having sweet potatoes with his dinner.  I didn’t care for sweet potatoes (that has changed and now I love them).  So instead of tossing another side dish on the table, I make sweet potato pie for dessert instead of pumpkin.  Homemade crust and homemade whipped cream to go with it!   He’s happy and I’m happy.  Comprise, it helps keep things simple.

Over the years we’ve realized that we prefer to eat the big dinner as a late lunch, around 1 or 2pm.  This means that the kitchen is cleaned up shortly after and the rest of the day can be spent doing whatever we feel like.  Having an evening meal meant that we were doing dishes at 8 o’clock in the evening.  Yuck.

I was worn out by then and grumpy at having to still be doing more work.  An afternoon meal gets rid of all of that!  And if we get hungry again, then it’s easy to pull out some leftovers and heat.  Simple!

We like having a nice crisp pinot grigio with dinner.  It makes the dinner feel more fancy and goes perfectly with the turkey and sides.  No fussing with special cocktails and making sure things are mixed properly.  A simple wine, easy to take care of and no stress.

While making dinner is a lot of work and I’m prepping for days before hand, it’s low stress.  Now we’re in a groove and every year Thanksgiving turns out awesome.

What is your approach to Thanksgiving?  Is it a high maintenence affair or simple and casual?

Are you going to be brining your turkey this year for Thanksgiving?

Is this your first time brining a turkey?  If you know anything at all about this blog then you know that we are all about the brine here!

If you’re brining a turkey for the first time then this post on Brining A Whole Turkey is for you!

Here are two additional articles that provide tips for brining:

• Brining Tips Part 1
• Brining Tips Part 2

Last year for Thanksgiving we had a Bourbon Brined Turkey and this year we’re having that again!  I’m going to up the bourbon to 1C and add a little more jalapeno peppers in for some kick.