Low Mileage Food

feast!

turkey!

Three years ago, we started a tradition we refer to as Tday 2. We both like Thanksgiving, and having a day to think about the things that we are grateful for in our lives, but I have family obligations that tie us up on Thanksgiving itself every year. While we’re grateful for my family, we wished that we could have Thanksgiving with our friend as wells… and Tday 2, a second Thanksgiving with our friends, was born. Normally, we aim for a week or two after Thanksgiving the first, but this year, I couldn’t (and most of our friends couldn’t) face the idea of trying to shoehorn yet another event into December, so we moved things to January (this past Saturday, to be precise).

The first time we did this, in Novemeber 2004, I cooked all the food, having told my friends that offered to bring things “No, no, that’s fine, don’t worry about it.” I ended up being more rushed than I thought I would be. Doing the entire menu ourselves was a challenge. Many of our friends have several dietary restrictions – personal choice, religious, medical. It worked out well though. The next year, 2005, when people said “Can I bring anything?” I wised up and said “Of course” and things went much better.

This year (moving the event from November to January) we fit 15 people into our little 850 square foot house, and it was a blast. We were responsible for the turkey, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, and no-kneed bread. The turkey was organic and locally purchased, but not local (we could have gotten a locally grown turkey, but by the time we decided to do a whole turkey (something I’d never done before) instead of just a breast, the local turkeys were snatched up. The eggs were local, of course – we simply purchased an extra dozen from the Wards. The potatoes were our normal ones from Faucette Produce, and the milk and butter (butter home made from cream) were both from Homeland Dairy. We finagled one of our friends into making butter since it’s so easy. Making butter was a new experience for him and he said it was pretty cool. The flour for the no-kneed bread was organic.

Making the turkey actually ended up being way easier than I’d thought. The biggest problem was thawing it; I relied on How to Cook Everything, which said that a 13 pound turkey should take 24 to 36 hours to thaw. Almost 48 hours later when we started preparing it, it was still partially frozen. Oops. We stuck it in a cold water bath for an hour, and that did the trick. I borrowed my mom’s turkey roaster for the occasion. We roasted the bird breast side down at 350 degrees for about 4.5 hours. The basting versus non-basting issue is apparently highly controversial in the poultry world, but we went with basting. When the bird intially went into the oven, I basted it in about 2 tablespoons olive oil, rubbing it all over the bird, and sprinkling salt and pepper over; after that, it got basted in olive oil or melted butter about every 45 minutes. We flipped the bird to breast side up with about an hour to go, and when the bird was done (registering 170 on a meat thermometer pushed into the breast), it went under the broiler for about 10 minutes to brown up. It then came out of the oven and rested for about 15 minutes before we started carving it. It came out beautifully – a touch dry for my taste, but only a touch (and I’ll be doing more research before I do another turkey, to see what I can do about that), but everyone liked it and agreed that it was great for a first attempt.

I have turkey leftovers in the fridge that need to get cleaned up and frozen today. There’s a fair bit of meat left, which is getting frozen for future turkey noodle soup (which is what we did for dinner on Sunday. Cut up your precooked turkey meat into bite sized pieces. Bring however many cups of chicken broth – we just used the powder stuff – to a boil, and add in your noodles and turkey until the noodles are done, one to two minutes for fresh, five or so for dried. I was lazy Sunday night and went with the dried ones. Homemade had been the plan, but it just didn’t happen. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and dried dill.) The carcas is going into the freezer for stock. The turkey roaster is being cleaned and returned to my mother.

One of the best parts about Tday 2 this year (other than all the fabulous food and the great company) was being able to tell people “Those potatoes are local” or “those are local free range eggs” and having them rave about how good the food was. We’d gotten an extra gallon of milk from Homeland Creamery for people to drink, and one our friends just couldn’t get over how good it was (there’s a reason I tell people it’s the best milk I’ve ever had). That was very satisfying, and makes me look forward to when we’ve gotten it together enough to garden and can feed people food we’ve grown. That’s going to be great.

As far as the details of doing a meal like this, the best advice I can offer is to relax – it will more than likely come together. I was a little stressed because we had no one scheduled to bring dessert the day before – and we ended up with two amazing chocolate cakes, a sweet potato pie, and an apple crisp. If you’re doing a pot luck with a smallish group like this, you do want to ask people what they’re bringing so that you don’t end up with 8 dozen devilled eggs, and so that when someone asks on Thursday what they can bring, you can say “something green, for the love of Bob.” Otherwise, for the items that you are cooking, make a list, stick to it, and consult it often; dinner was a bit delayed because I’d forgotten to start the potatoes. Remember to relax and have fun – parties are a lot more enjoyable when the hosts and hostesses are in a good mood and having fun as well.