More About Turkey

So this is a continuation of said previous post about turkey...

I made my furry turkey. I said I hoped this thing better taste good to be worth it.

It cooked for 4 hours or so. I then started to make the mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, etc.

I wanted to make giblet gravy. For giblet gravy, you need giblets. Correct?

I couldn't find the giblets and then it hit me- I LEFT THE GIBLETS IN THEIR BAG INSIDE THE TURKEY!!!!!!

Thankfully the bags didn't disintegrate nor did the plastic one melt. And a plus to this story is that I didn't have to cook the giblets separately. Yay! (See I can be super efficient and not even know it!) 

The turkey did taste very good. Was it worth it? I don't think any turkey is worth it...

I Hate Turkeys

I have a long history with turkeys. I hate them. I love eating them. I despise/loathe/would-rather-eat-dirt hate preparing them. And it really doesn't have much to do with the fact that they take a gazillion years to cook, and are messy to clean up, and give you leftovers for a decade.

Shortly after we were married Nick made me make a turkey, not once but twice. I think I had a heart attack the first time, and the second wasn't much better.

The first time went something like this:

Nick: "Okay so you need to reach down and grab the giblets out..."

Me: "I need to do what?! I have to stick my hand INSIDE this thing?! And grab onto some slimy neck or liver or something equally grody?!"

I was squealing like a little girl the whole time and I think the only thing that came out of my mouth was "EWWWWW!!!!!" (Yes my husband was rolling on the floor laughing the whole time...)

It kind of reminded me of in middle and high school when we had to dissect the frogs and pigs. GAH! At least the formaldehyde smell was wonderfully absent with the turkey...

The second time we had a turkey that was all fancy and came with it's own thermometer that apparently pops out when the turkey's done. You need to tell me (who only recently learned to cook due to being married to my chef husband) when a turkey comes with something like that. I am not Martha Stewart, nor did I grow up with a great cook for a mother (my mother cooks out of necessity to live and that is all).

I took a knife to that sucker and dug out the thermometer. (Do you know how hard it is to dig a hole in an uncooked turkey?!) My husband was out talking to someone and it looked all out of place in the turkey- this big old red dot that I was convinced was part of the packaging that I didn't take off before hand. No one told me 2 things about this: 1, what a thermometer was and 2, that you're supposed to leave it in the stupid bird! So that turkey had a big old hole cut out in it's side... And we had to stab it again to get another thermometer back in it. That was a very holey turkey...

Today, I made a turkey. Why? I don't know... My husband was working, why I didn't wait til the weekend so he could do it is beyond me. All these prior horrible experiences came rushing back once I started rinsing the turkey and panic slowly crept up. I woman-ed up and dug out those nasty things they shove inside the turkey (why can't they just sell those separately or put them on the outside or something?!?!) and got it all nice and clean.

And then....

I go to wash the wings. The wings... had... FEATHERS! UGH!!! I think my heart leapt and the squealing commenced again. I do NOT pluck birds. That is SO not in my job description as housewife and mom. And these things were like 3 inches long, not just like stubble (you know, like when you don't shave your legs for a week or so... TMI sorry...).

I remember once in a Beth Moore study she said that we were all born into specific times for specific reasons. Yeah, God in His infinite wisdom saw that putting me as a pioneer woman in 1825 would NOT go well. At all...

Thankfully it was just the one wing that was furry, so again I woman-ed up and plucked that sucker clean. Then I immediately finished the prep as fast as possible and scrubbed myself down with scalding hot water and soap.

Now that stupid bird is marinating in my fridge with syrup and brown sugar. It better taste amazing after all this.

And I told Nick he owes me some amazing dessert as payment for dealing with a turkey. His response was, "Well I'm going to be getting a ton of free ham now at my new job, so we'll have ham from now on instead of turkey!"

Praise the LORD!

A Bit of Life in Pictures

Talia's 2nd Birthday!

Explaining "how it is" to her sheep.

The girl loves books.

Helping Mommy wash her toys. The water was brown when we were finished. EW!

Naptime on the stairs.

Papa and Nana's kitties. Rosie (top), Baxter (bottom), and Bax (in Talia's hand).

Family with the real Baxter.

Anniversary weekend. So pretty!

Getting stuck in massive snow drifts on top of a mountain in a blizzard is EXACTLY how I wanted to spend our anniversary. :)

That's how deep the snow was- all the way up to the middle of my thighs. And yes, I sure did fall in!

Only my husband would be outside in a blizzard at the top of a mountain in a short sleeved shirt.

Husband getting sticks and stones to get us unstuck. (This ended up being my job after I stopped playing photographer.)

Apparently it's necessary to have handicapped parking at 12000 feet.

Here's the handicapped parking "lot." It was the road. Literally. There wasn't even a pull off area. Is it just me, or does that not seem so ADA compliant?

You can't read the sign, but it says "Don't block the driveway." The sign was sticking out of a 4 foot high snow drift that was indeed blocking the driveway.

Ahhh Mt. Princeton. So stinking pretty!!

A couple things, no I don't let my daughter take naps on the stairs... :) And yes we did get unstuck after hauling a bazillion rocks from up the hill and putting them under the tires. My husband had to push the truck while I drove and I felt pretty dang accomplished after that! Little old me, driving a 4Runner in reverse for 1/3 of a mile in huge snow drifts- I felt the girl-power! Not to self- next time we go 4-wheeling in February, make sure we have a shovel or two in the truck. Even though getting stuck up in the mountains where there's no one around for help was slightly unnerving, it ended up being a really funny experience, especially when I fell in the snow and couldn't get out... At least we had cell service had things gotten worse! :)