Turkey Day in Anchorage

I'm in Bloomington Indiana tonight on business, but jet lag has me up way late. So, I thought I'd catch you up on our recent Thanksgiving adventures, and hope to fall asleep afterwards with a sense of accomplishment.

We were sad that we couldn't make it home to be with family for Turkey Day... I think that was a first for all of us. So the Anchorage Pucketts decided to have our own feast with all the fixings. We made mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, green beans and mushrooms with almonds, cranberry sauce, and turkey gravy, all from scratch. We also made Monken's pumpkin pie (both with and without the Bisquick), and tasty Stovetop Stuffing. And to top it all off, we brined and cooked our own 14-lb turkey!

For the turkey, we followed Alton Brown's recipe. The brine was chicken stock, salt, brown sugar, and spices with a healthy dose of ice water. Mr. Turkey soaked in that for about 8 hours starting Wednesday night, in a cooler in our bathtub. Maia helped ferry the ice water to the bathroom:


Mr. Turkey came out of the oven with a viking breastplate, to protect the breast from drying out:


Mr. Turkey and friends:



Carving at the table:


Oh right, I forgot to mention the Macy's parade at 9am (tape-delayed) and some football (which we should've TiVo-delayed for prime post-feast viewing). So we had a pretty nice day!