Thanksgiving, Christmas, cooler weather! Turkey, and more turkey!
They come every time this year, but it still surprises me. I live in Florida, so I’m a shorts/flip-flop girl year round. I hung clothes out in the sunshine just yesterday. And scarfed down two fat, juicy navel oranges. Snow shovels and mittens just aren’t on my radar.
We have to manufacture Christmas down here. A couple of things that help Floridans get in the mood are blinking house lights and blow-up yard displays. One neighbor has a blow-up Santa holding a shot gun peering from a look-out tower. A reindeer is cowering behind a bush. That’s how we do it in the South.
I learned a couple of tricks last Thanksgiving. The first one, thanks to Trisha Yearwood, is how to roast a perfect bird (her method was in the Sunday paper.) It’s so easy – and nontraditional – you won’t believe it. I tweaked a few things, and, I’m telling ya’, we are never having dry turkey again. Here’s the recipe; it’s very short:
UPSIDE DOWN TURKEY
The night before, between 11-midnight, preheat your oven to 500 degrees. For a 12-pound turkey, stuff the cleaned bird with an apple, an onion, a stalk of celery, and an orange, all cut in chunks. Place the bird breast side down in a roasting pan with a lid. It will lean to one side – that’s OK.
Add 2 cups of boiling water to the pan, and put the lid on. Place the pan in the oven for one hour. After the hour, turn the oven off and go to bed.
Really.
That’s it. In the morning, the turkey is done, still warm, and delicious. No watching, or basting. No turkey hogging the oven when you later need it for the sweet potatoes, stuffing, and whatever else you’re baking.
Variation for a smaller bird: I cooked a 7-pound turkey breast last year. I put the bird at 6:30 a.m. Thanksgiving morn. Cooked it for the hour, turned the oven off. Did not check it until about 10 a.m. The meat slipped off the bone. It was fork tender. No knives needed. Once deboned, I slipped the meat back into the pan and let it rest in the juices. We served ourselves straight from the pan.
Placing the bird breast side down enables all the juices to drain into the bulk of the meat. Covering the bird and adding water allows the meat to steam. If you want the golden-skinned Norman Rockwell bird to present at your holiday table, you might not care for this method, as the turkey skin stays soft and unbrowned.
We didn’t care. The moist meat was worth it. (I always slice the meat off the carcass for the table anyway. If that’s the method you use, you will love this.) The flavorful water/juice remaining in the pan is the base for your gravy.
This method makes such good sense to me, I don’t know why, for generations, we have been roasting turkeys breast side up with no fluid and no cover. That’s a recipe for dry meat. I enjoy this method so well, I cook turkey breasts like this throughout the year – not just at the holidays. I then save the bones to make bone broth (another simple, overnight recipe.)
Here’s another trick I came up with while wondering how to use up leftover mashed potatoes and stuffing.
I stirred the potatoes and stuffing together, added some Parmesan cheese, and rolled the mixture into balls that fit nicely into a muffin tin. I baked them for ten minutes until warmed though, then added a slice of cheese and some leftover spinach dip (Ranch dressing would be great too.)
.jpg?resize=396%2C363 "cheese potato muffin")
Viola! A fancy, tasty new twist on “stuffed potatoes.” I guess you could throw the green bean casserole in there too..jpg?resize=493%2C335 "pilgrim hat cookies")
Keebler’s Fudge Stripe cookies, mini peanut-butter cups, and frosting (canned or homemade.) You just assemble them. The cups are stuck to the cookies with a glob of frosting. Tint the last of the frosting yellow, and pipe a “buckle” onto the front with a fine tip. Miles Standish would be proud.
I wanted to share a few holiday cooking discoveries, because in four weeks, we get to do it all again. You might want an ugly, but succulent turkey, a stuffed potato muffin, or chocolate pilgrim hats. The Ballpark aims to please.
Next….
Christmas!!!!
I am celebrating Christmas every day from here on out – and I loved what you did. Love Pinterest too. sandie
Yum! You have all sorts of great ideas!
You really are the cook and baker!! Everything looks scrumptious! That is a method I have never heard of for cooking a turkey. Love the hats!! 🙂
Those potatoes look delicious! I need to try that.
Mare! hi! hello! i have missed you! but looks like you have been a busy cook and baker and creator. oh my goodness.
Did you fix your email spam mess? just wondering.
#1 pilgrim hats = darling.
#2 my turkey was divine this year. deep fried with a cajun spice injection! Oh i didn't do it, but my chef son-in-law did. It was YUMMMMMMMMMMM.
#3 GREAT IDEA FOR LEFT OVER MASHEDS!!!
Yum! The turkey method you used makes total sense. My only question. If the turkey is done in the morning, what time did you eat dinner and how did you keep the turkey warm and not getting dry until then?
I learned about putting the bird in breast side down many years ago. We use the Reynold's roasting bag. We always have moist meat. Like you say, it isn't the golden bird you see in pictures, but it tastes way better and is much easier. Thanks for all the ideas.
Mare, thank you for sharing your creative genius with us. I'm going to try some of your ideas for Christmas. Hope I remember the pilgrim hat idea next Thanksgiving.
Glad you enjoyed your meal. Hat's off to your delicious creations. 🙂
Although the Northeast gets a little cold sometimes, I don't know how I'd feel about Christmas in flip-flops!
Suddenly I am hungry…:) Thanks for sharing all these tips and goodies! I will have to try that turkey method sometime. I saw a program years ago where Emeril said to slice a few apples and place them in the turkey for moist and tender results. I've done this every year since and the turkey always turns out great. I also need to try the stuffing/mashed potato recipe. It looks delicious!
Have a great weekend,
Karen
Mare I have NEVER prepared or handled a Turkey in my life. Now I am totally intimated by one. You make yours sound easy peesy! Maybe I'll take on the challenge of a 7lber. That looks delish. If you want to know WHY I haven't ever made a Turkey, I grew up a vegetarian. I did start with poultry and seafood later. When I met my husband I didn't really know how to cook meat and my first meal for him was a disaster. So even though I do better now, I don't get handle anything important as a Thanksgiving turkey 😉
We did a similar thing with the stuffing/potato idea only made patties and cooked them in a lightly coated skillet. I like your idea better!
I love this time of year!
I love the stuffing potato muffin idea! I'm ready to make stuffing and mashed potatoes just so I can try that. I've never understood why people make dry turkeys either. My family has always insisted on stuffing them with some sort of vegetables and/or fruits and involving some kind of liquid.
I'm very envious of your weather. I don't think I'll get to hang clothes out again until the spring.
My grandmother always topped her stuffing with olives too. Everything looks great!
Mmm… I'm hungry all over again!
We didn't have enough turkey leftover (we hosted, but someone else cooked the turkey), so I wanted to get a small bird just for our family. I think I'll try this method and see what happens! By the way, that's exactly how my husband stuffs the bird. So yummy!
~Lynn
thank you for these ideas! I am getting smarter and smarter just by reading blogs.