Turkey Talk

Our cover story this month is on the Big Feast, and since it’s been years since I got to host a Thanksgiving (not that I’m really complaining – it’s pretty nice to just go to my brother’s and lazily ride herd on the kids from the couch), I decided to cook a turkey last week.
If I were a more serious person, or perhaps just a person with more time, I would have followed Karen’s recipe for brining the bird and putting stuff under the skin, etc. Instead, I hit Trader Joe’s in Warwick and bought one of their natural, pre-brined bird. And I am here to tell you that that was one good turkey. I bought the smallest one I could find, at about 12 pounds. I got it home, gave it a perfunctory stuffing with half an onion, a stick of celery and couple of carrots, and stuck it straight in the oven (no delay because it was fresh, not frozen). I cooked it upside down, and I don’t know if that’s part of why it was so good, but it was easily the best turkey I’ve ever cooked. The skin was crisp, the dark meat tender, and the breast still juicy. Oh, man, and the gravy… didn’t need anything but a little flour and white wine. Yum.
So if you want to look good this Thursday without going through hours of defrosting, brining and other prep, there it is – the lazy foodie’s antidote to Turkey Day madness.