November 14, 2009
Recreating Blog Entries…Continued
My previous entries have been lost somewhere in Cyberworld…so I am trying to retrace my steps to document what I have done for Thanksgiving preparations and when…too bad I didn’t think to back up my previous entries.
On Friday, November 6th I ordered my turkey. This year I am trying an organic turkey from Whole Foods. I ordered a 14-16 pound hen and will most likely also buy a turkey breast to smoke. Last year I served three types of turkey: the traditional roasted turkey, a smoked turkey and a fried turkey (provided by a good friend). The fried turkey was tasty, but the smoked turkey was phenomenal! I did a southwestern rub on it and used mesquite and apple woods in my smoker. This year I am considering using Indian spices for my rub…I think the fusion with the apple wood smoke will pair nicely. However, I am still researching this and have not yet made up my mind. Knowing me I will wait until the day before and still modify at the last minute.
On Thursday November 12th I did some prep work for my pies – I mixed up my pastry flour and cubed butter for the freezer. On Friday I made 4 of the 10 pie crusts that I will need for Thanksgiving. I made 2 crusts for my apple pies and 2 crusts for my pumpkin pies. I had planned to have them made by the beginning of last week, but got side-tracked with my Christmas shopping. I used my new Cuisinart food processor…Wow! I bought the new 16 cup processor from Williams-Sonoma (yes, 16 cup…it is exclusive to W-S) and really wasn’t sure it would be that big of a difference. But it was. My flour didn’t ‘poof’ out of the top due to the new seal-tight system, and the locking blade made turning out the dough much easier when I didn’t have to worry about the blade falling out. I also made use of the extra bowls. It comes with the 16, 12 and 4 ½ cup bowls. I was able to use the small bowl to grind my gingersnaps and pecans for my pumpkin pie…every step I can get thru now will be that much less I have to do later!
The organic turkey from Whole Foods (a Heidi's Hen) was phenomenal! I did not brine it, but it was the juiciest turkey. I will do this again next year. I paid $2.99/lb, which is cheaper than the $3.99/lb I would have paid at the meat market for a non-organic turkey!!!