New Year’s Turkey Dinner

Hi everyone. I’m a little late this week, but I think you will like what I am about to do. The blog for at least the next 2-3 weeks will be about what we had for New Year’s Dinner. It does feature some local ingredients, and a recipe from the net, so I hope you will enjoy it.

TURKEY

On New Year’s Day, I cooked a 5k Turkey with roasted carrots and potatoes stuffing, and turnip. It was an adventure, and a feast! We have cooked a turkey or turkey product on New Years Eve for three years now, but my first turkey was on Christmas eve 2005. But that’s now what were here to discuss. We are discussing the turkey here and now..2011!

It started out with getting a deal for a turkey and the roster. I took out the giblets and the neck and put them beside the bird.

Here’s the roaster I used

The roaster I used for the turkey.

You don’t have to use a disposable one like I did; if you have your own, then by all means. I didn’t have one big enough, and besides, since I was roasting most of my meal, then I didn’t have enough to do both. So, thus buying another one. Here is a picture of the turkey in it.

Turkey not ready for the party. 🙂

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, well, and a few others herbs. lol, well, I didn’t use rosemary. I used parsley, sage, thyme, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and coriander. Oh, and I also put in some oregano and Russian Tarragon that I picked and dried from my garden. I mixed that with about a half pound of butter (I know it’s a lot, but trust me, it’ll be worth it if you do, especially if you have a lean bird. So, make sure your hands are clean, and give your butter the old massage. That’s the best way to get the herbs and spices into the butter.

Then peel back as much of the skin as you can. Take some of the butter and go under the the skin, especially at the breast. How many times have you thought you were going to have flavorful breast meat and carved your turkey only to find that you didn’t get the flavor through? Well, putting your butter and herbs UNDER the skin will do it.

Here’s the turkey dressed up.

My own butterball turkey with butter and herbs.

Then cover it up and put it in the oven for four to four and a half hours or until your thermometer says it’s one hundred and eighty degrees in the thigh.

Tented with foil and ready to go into the oven

Then, when it’s ready, bring it out and let it rest for about a half an hour and this is what you have! TURKEY!

Just that...TURKEY! Nice and golden brown

I’ll show you the full dinner at the end of the series, but I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.