Turkey, Wine, and the Original Social Networking Tool!

For New Years Day I decided we should roast a turkey.  The supermarket had a huge sale on utility turkeys -- only 79 cents per pound.   We brined that sucker (recipe to follow at the end) and noticed, when we were about to throw it on the barbecue rotisserie, that there were no wings.  We got a flightless bird.  Our neighbours, Rob and Cindy, hit the same sale. Their utility turkey had no legs! A lame bird! Still. For 79 cents per pound? No complaints.





So, we spent all day cleaning the house and preparing food.  I made dough in my breadmaker and baked some fabulous dinner rolls (which were still warm for the meal)

Then, some standard stuffing that I make on Thanksgiving normally (no pic), mashed potatoes (boring, no pic), green beans and organic baby carrots (pan fried in garlic and onion, again not pictured), and a beautiful huge spinach salad like the one I made on Christmas (see previous post for a pic of said salad).

The rotisserie burner for our turkey died when the bird was almost done.  It threw the entire meal off; all the other food was finished right on time and the bird needed more time.  I was not impressed. Still, it was eventually finished, and it looked great.

We all sat at the table, which I had set a couple hours beforehand, and enjoyed a great dinner with some amazing wine. Here are some pictures of the set table.

Oh, also, on the table before the meal for snackings and pickings were a small pickle plate:

And a small cheese tray:

Here is a picture of my plate of food. I was stuck at the kids table. BOOOO!

And so, we ate and were mostly full, but my insistence that people did not fill up on turkey left time for dessert. So, while the husband fed the baby his rice cereal, I went back into the kitchen to make caramel fondue.

Oh, yes. It was glorious.

The fondue was a tiny bit thin but it was still awesome.  The original plan for fondue included fruits such as pears, granny smith apples, bananas, and nectarines.  I'm a dufus and forgot the strawberries.  To go along with the fondue I picked a sweet dessert wine. (More on that at the end of the post)

And as if fruit wasn't enough to go with fondue, we even used the hot air blower to make some popcorn to dip in to the caramel.

Best idea, ever.  Rob was right when he said that fondue is the original social network.

We were left with very little fondue and nothing to dip in it.  My father in law is dumb and dipped a pickled onion in the fondue. Crazy. Yuck.

So, anyway, here is a list of the wine we had with dinner.

Rob brought over a beautiful cabernet-merlot called Angel's Gate. I didn't have it with the turkey but I had a bit at dessert.

Also with dinner I bought some Eco Trail. It was a lovely fruity chardonnay. Really good with bird.

Finally, with dessert, I cracked open a bottle of this really interesting dessert wine made out of prickle pear cactus (which oddly bears the flavour of mango and pear). I have no idea how to pronounce it:  Gewurztraminer.

I drank most of the wine after baby went to bed so I had plenty of time to metabolise.

The evening was finished with cups of steaming hot Coco-Chai Rooibos tea for all, except gNat, who had a cappuccino.


And as promised, here is the recipe for the brine for the turkey.

2 L apple juice
3 L water
1 sliced naval orange
5 cloves garlic, crushed
20 whole cloves
1 cup coarse salt

Add several trays of ice cubes to the bag. We used 3 trays. Add ice packs around it. Store in a cooler overnight.

The next morning, remove your turkey and wash it thoroughly before cooking. We do ours on the barbecue.

Finally, last but not least, HAPPY 2012! Here's to another year of amazing food porn!