I am secretly an old lady (Thanksgiving 2007)

For a 20-year-old, I have some pretty old-lady tics; although I put the crochet hook down a couple years ago after making matching toques for my brother, sister and I for Christmas (I still wear my oversized one, but my sister's grown out of hers and my brother apparently doesn't wear hats), I have a subscription for Canadian Living that I'm about to renew, and this Thanksgiving, I made my 4th turkey ever! (I made one each for Canadian and American Thanksgiving 2005, one for Canadian Thanksgiving last year, and then this one)

So I decided to up the old lady ante this year and make the turkey and stuffing recipe from the October 2007 issue of Canadian Living.

I chose the recipe because the spread was on a Celtic thanksgiving. My friend Jess' mom is Acadian, and she was saying how her mom was the only person she knew who used summer savory in her turkey/stuffing. Coincidentally, summer savory is in this recipe in Canadian Living. So she got pretty excited, and I got pretty excited too.

I was worried that the herb would be hard to find, but I actually managed to find it fresh at my local Provigo. At first when I smelled it it reminded me a bit of thyme, but it actually has its own distinct sweet, almost minty flavour. I was excited.

So the stuffing recipe called for some turkey stock so I just threw together a recipe using the neck and giblets (rinsed, of course) and some vegetables.

Turkey Neck and Giblet Stock

• 15 mL (1 tbsp) vegetable oil
• Turkey neck and giblets
• 2 onions, peeled
• 2 carrots, peeled
• 2 celery stalks
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• Sprig of summer savory
• 2 L (8 cups) water
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. Cook turkey neck and giblets until browned.
2. Add vegetables and summer savory into pot, cover with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer the hell out of it (minimum 45 minutes)
3. Add salt and pepper to taste; you might have to add a surprisingly large amount of salt, especially if you're used to that canned broth stuff.

So onto the stuffing! My first encounter with stuffing was back in junior high school when it was offered as part of the "Thanksgiving lunches" they had at the cafeteria. It was always this weird brownish-grey sludge, and so I never thought stuffing would be any good. Last year, however, was the first time I made stuffing myself; it was this sausage stuffing on Epicurious (My former roommate Jane's idea), and it turned out really well so I wasn't as intimidated to make stuffing again. This particular recipe in the magazine called for 10 cups of focaccia bread. I couldn't find any, let alone 10 cups, so I bought some panini bread instead.

Q: How many panini buns does it take to make 10 cups?

A: 8.5 At about this point my roommate Cindy came home and we finished making the stuffing without taking any more photos. All I have is a photo of some leftovers that I salvaged from the carcass before making stock. The stuffing was really good, the dried cranberries were a beautiful, sweet touch, and after roasting it in the turkey the bread took on a bit of a crispiness.

Cranberry Savory Stuffing From Canadian Living, October 2007 Makes 2 L (8 cups)

• 125 mL (½ cup) butter
• 1 onion, diced
• 250 mL (1 cup) diced celery
• 25 mL (2 tbsp) chopped fresh summer savory (or 10 mL/2 tsp dried)
• 1 mL (¼ tsp) each salt and pepper
• 2.5 L (10 cups) cubed focaccia bread
• 250 mL (1 cup) dried cranberries
• approx. 250 mL (1 cup) turkey stock

1. In large saucepan or Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat; fry onion, celery, savory, salt and pepper until softened, about 7 minutes.
2. Add bread and cranberries; stir to combine. Add stock, 125 mL (½ cup) at a time, until absorbed. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook, stirring occasionally and adding up to 50 mL (¼ cup) more stock if bread becomes dry, until flavours are blended, about 15 minutes.

So now we're ready to put the turkey together!

Keltic Lodge Roast Turkey with Cranberry Savory Stuffing From Canadian Living, October 2007 Makes 10 - 14 servings

• 1 turkey (about 6.3kg/14lb)*
• Cranberry Savory Stuffing (recipe above)
• 25 mL (2 tbsp) butter, melted
• 15 mL (1 tbsp) chopped fresh summer savory (or 5 mL/1 tsp dried)
• 2 mL (½ tsp) salt
• 1 mL (¼ tsp) pepper

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F). Remove giblets and neck from turkey (which you should have done already to make stock). Rinse turkey and pat dry inside and out. Loosely stuff neck and body cavities with stuffing. Skewer cavities shut. Tie legs together; tuck wings under back.
2. Place on rack breast side up in roasting pan. Brush with butter; sprinkle with savory, salt and pepper. Tent with foil, tucking in sides but leaving ends open. Roast in oven for 2 hours. Remove foil; roast, basting** every 30 minutes, until meat thermometer inserted in thickest part of thigh registers 85°C (185°F), about 1½ to 2 hours.
3. Transfer to carving board and tent with foil; let stand for 20 to 30 minutes before carving.

*My turkey was 6.1 kg, and everything was fine. **I don't have a turkey baster, so I just brushed it as best I could with the juices in the pan, and everything was fine.

Here is Cindy, getting a little too impatient with our pale, pale turkey, smothered with butter and sprinkled with savory.

Here it is after its 4-hour cook/tan!

Once the turkey was out of the oven, it was time to make the gravy. I have never had successful gravy before, but by now my guests had arrived so I had more hands in the kitchen, and Canadian Living as backup. After some initial panic, it was a success! Here's how it went down:

Vincci's First Successful Gravy

• Pan juices from roasted turkey
• 75 mL (⅓ cup) all-purpose flour
• Turkey stock
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Pour all juices into a saucepan. Whisk in flour; cook, stirring, over medium heat for 1 minute.
2. Get excited as your gravy starts looking like gravy for once. Panic as everything begins to separate as things begin to boil. Contemplate breaking out that St-Hubert turkey gravy mix you always have as backup.
3. Pour off some of the liquid that's separated out, leaving mostly fatty sludge. Reduce heat to medium-low. Have encouraging friends/roommates tell you that you should whisk in some stock to "properly dissolve flour".
4. Whisk in stock, stirring until it is a desired consistency. Add salt and pepper, arguing over whether or not the gravy's salty enough.

I was too busy playing hostess to take nice pictures of the whole spread, but it was fun times had by all. I'm slowly enjoying the leftovers, but with an amateur carver, 14 people eating the turkey, and 4 roommates picking at the leftovers, I managed to make two turkey sandwiches with sizable slices, and now what's left has mainly been pieces of skin/fat or pieces littered with little bones. Ahh well, there's always American Thanksgiving...

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Canadian Living: Make it Tonight

One of the wonderful things about having a boyfriend who is the a&e editor of one of the university's papers is that publishers/promoters send him cookbooks and he picks YOU (that means me) to interview the author, write the review, and then keep the book for free.

The first book that I got to do was Canadian Living: Make it Tonight, which was kind of fitting, as I already have a subscription to the magazine. I got to meet Elizabeth Baird, who gave me a cute little box of Layered Apple Cake from the book, so that if my review wasn't going to be biased already, it was certainly going to be biased now!

Hehe, just kidding. Like I say in my review (the link is at the end, be patient), it's definitely geared toward the busy home cook, the first-time mom. The recipes are easy, but interesting, and there are some recipes that are a bit more challenging in there (I made the Slow Cooker Greek Lamb Stew and Artichokes and spent the entire morning figuring out how to debone a lamb shoulder... just buy the boneless one like it says in the recipe!)

Although many of the tips are aimed at the beginner cook, there are also some tips that "foodies" could use, like how to season a wok, or storage tips. I also learned that eggs in recipes are supposed to be medium-sized, unless otherwise stated. Who knew?

Anyway, here is the review - I always cringe a little when I read my articles in a&e (I usually write news) so let me know what you think.

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Thanksgiving!

I have definitely been silent for a while, with Real Life getting in the way of creating wonderful meals or documenting meals that were created/eaten. Thanksgiving and the current (October 2007) issue of Canadian Living gave me an excuse to play housewife on Saturday, hosting about 13 friends and acquaintances for a Thanksgiving potluck. I must say it was one of the few parties that I've hosted in my 3+ years in Montreal that have actually been a success. I was in charge of making turkey, gravy, and stuffing, and my guests were left to the rest. We ended up with veggies and dip appetizer, then the turkey was accompanied with baguette slices, a broccoli-and-cauliflower casserole, a wonderfully deep taco dip, sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce (from a can, of course!) We had apple tarts, chocolate cookies and an apricot-apple-raisin pie from Premiere Moisson for dessert (No pumpkin pie, unfortunately, but then my wonderful roomie made some the next day!) and since we're university students, the wine was flowing, flowing, flowing.

I've set some time aside this week to let you know how I went about making turkey, gravy, stuffing, and stock, but for now, some teasers:

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