Turkey Lurkey Time

You can't bollix up Thanksgiving dinner. The stakes are too high. Potential pitfalls include undercooked poultry, dried-out breast meat, the destruction of a sacred(ish) family holiday at which the sharing of food is more-than-usually a metaphor for harmony and understanding. So the fact that it's the only day of the year that turkey is roasted has always perplexed me, and my lack of experience at making a full-on turkey dinner has been a barrier to my throwing my hat in the ring for hostessing rights. I saw a cooking video produced by America's Test Kitchen recently that featured a roast-turkey, stuffing and gravy technique that seemed both ingenious and easy, and had the added benefit of front-loading almost all of the work into the previous day. I picked up a frozen turkey on the cheap last month and have been scheming a plan to host an ersatz-Thanksgiving at my place ever since. Tonight's the night. This post will be a multi-parter on the subject of the turkey, the early stages of which were not photographed for reasons too idiotic to explain. But in the meantime, enjoy the above demented video and stay tuned for more exciting Februarysgiving photos and news. I am SO rocking this turkey.