two yolks

Don’t worry, I’m not dead. Family was in town for Thanksgiving and I was on travel for work so I didn’t have time post anything. I do, however, have a story about our Thanksgiving for you.

Imagine, if you will, that you are a recently married and hosting the family Thanksgiving for the very first time. You also tend to take food a little bit too seriously. Now imagine what’s one of the worst things that could happen to you?

If you guessed the oven breaking the day before Thanksgiving, you are correct. I was baking a green tomato mince pie Wednesday afternoon at which point the oven failed. It’s a gas oven with an electric igniter. While the igniter was on, there was no gas coming out (I checked with an electric stick lighter). And, most unfortunately, it failed too late to call our apartment maintenance staff to come and fix it (I tried calling the after-hours number but nothing came of it).

What to do at this point? I tried to come up with a way to cook a turkey on the stove top but I pretty quickly realized my largest pan wouldn’t hold it and my only real option there was to quarter it (and, really, it’s Thanksgiving and roast turkey is traditional). How to make Thanksgiving dinner under such conditions?

We did the only thing we could: we loaded all our supplies into the car and drove to my 8-month pregnant cousin’s house. I took just about everything I could imagine needing as I had no idea what she had. I brought all the food I needed as well as pots, knives, and even a few specialty items like my food mill.

And while I hate to be a braggart, it turned out really well. There was more than enough food (I think we could’ve easily fed at least double the amount of people). And we really did have a good time even if it wasn’t how we expected.

I do need to call special attention to the turkey. Normally, for me, turkey is something you eat on Thanksgiving because it’s what you eat on Thanksgiving. It’s never particularly good but it’s at least edible. Not this year. This was, by far, the best turkey I’ve ever had. I don’t know if it was because we got an all-natural free range turkey I ordered from our local butcher shop (and, yes, I think the name is silly too) or if it was the brine I used (from Charcuterie).  Either way, it was really good.  Eventually I’ll post the recipe.