Thanksgiving

If you asked me about Turkey Day about a month ago, I would have told you that Diana and I were planning on getting sushi and/or Indian food and watching stupid movies on the couch. That all changed a couple of weeks ago, when we decided to cook for a few friends. That group grew and grew, and we ended up having a (quite large) group of 7 people for Turkey Day.

This was my first attempt at actually cooking a bird, and a whole meal of this magnitude for that matter. I'd always casually helped make the stuffing, etc. at home, but never actually stuck my hand in the cavity and pulled. It was a little gross, but I found that if you just suck it up and don't think about what you are actually doing, it goes just fine.

I did the turkey in one of those Oven Bags... and I think it definitely stopped the meat from drying out! It was literally falling off of the bone! Other than the sage & onion stuffing I stuffed into poor Tommy's cavity, I also rubbed the outside with olive oil, season salt, sage, thyme and rosemary before laying him in the bag on a bed of onion and celery. It also made for some pretty tasty gravy (which, in the absence of Bisto, actually turned out pretty good).

By far the best part of the evening was having four men do all the dishes. ALL the dishes. Diana and I got to relax and drink wine while they finished things up.

We were then joined by some more friends for dessert, drinks, Apples to Apples, and Wii. Things didn't wrap up until about 2 a.m... in all a successful Thanksgiving, I'd say!