Cooking Evening

In honor of the three dinners and ten lunches I prepared this evening, and the two apple pies I still haven't baked because I'm all cooked out, the prompt from the internet tonight is

How does your family prepare a turkey?*

First we order one from the local butcher so that we get a free-range, organic turkey that costs more than we should spend but makes us feel awesome and superior to people who don't care about their turkey's background. Our turkey last year was Mennonite, but this year we didn't specify that we wanted a religious bird so we got one without beliefs. It honestly didn't taste as delicious.

Once the turkey is home, Elva comes over and rubs secret spices all over it and sometimes stuffs it with things like apples and cinnamon sticks. We boil up a saline solution with chicken broth and bathe the turkey in it overnight.

On Canadian Thanksgiving we put the turkey in the pan, surround it with vegetables or apples or other things Elva knows will be yummy, and bake it.

Lastly, we carve it up and serve it to our friends who come to celebrate with us.


*Apparently, "Some people grill the turkey outside." Who? I'm from Southern California and, although we can comfortably eat the turkey outside on Thanksgiving without jackets, I don't know anyone who's ever grilled it.