punting the turkey for TG Day

I've threatened this for years.
I know this is heresy for some, but the entire turkey dinner just doesn't do it for me. First, I'm not that fond of turkey, even when it has been properly brined and has butter stuffed in every cavity. I mean, it's good, and I'll eat it, but....

Each year, I say the same thing. "It's too much trouble to go to for just the two of us. And we don't even really like it. Why bother?" And then, the traditionalist in me says, "no, we have to do it. Besides, I like the turkey sandwiches the next day."
What I don't like is picking the greasy carcass clean, when what I really want to be doing is reclining in my easy chair.

One year, I grilled a duck on the Weber, and changed all the sides so that they had an Italian theme. That was a fun Thanksgiving, but it was still fowl. Other years, I've just gotten a small breast, and a leg and thigh, and cooked that off, rather than the whole bird. But that always makes me feel like I am 80 years old and living alone.

Well, this year, I've done it. In the fridge, as I type, is a beautiful, three bone section of dead cow. No turkey for me.
We're going to do a standing rib roast dinner, with all the trimmings. Cindy did make a pumpkin pie, in a nod to tradition.

We'll see if I have turkey remorse Friday morning.
Right now, I have to figure out what Bordeaux to open with dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Sounds delicious John! I am sure you won't regret it. Let us know how it turns out. Happy Thanksgiving!

See! And I could eat turkey once a week and still want more. I am your quintessential fowl individual.

Your T-Day duck recalls one Thanksgiving I spent in the dorm in Germany. For whatever reason, the Germans had fled the little university town where I was studying. Left behind were Dan, a Vietnam vet studying life sciences, and me. We couldn't find a turkey, so we got a duck. This duck we tried to roast in a toaster oven. Can you say rubber duckie?

My husband could eat Turkey every other day and never get sick of it. In fact, an often repeated inside joke is me asking him (at around 5:30 pm) what he'd like for dinner, and him replying "Turkey dinner."

So we actually have three turkeys right now. Our grocery stores all practically give them away with a $25 minimum purchase. I had to visit three different stores anyway so I got three. (We actually did NEED two. We're having nine friends over and one of our friends suffers from celiac disease (no wheat gluten) so he can't have stuffing, or even part of a bird that has been stuffed, so he gets his own little turkey.) The third little turkey is waiting in the freezer until winter sometime.

John,

Good for you!

The past two years I've had Thanksgiving dinner with my brother and his girlfriend. Two years ago I cooked the cochinita pibil recipe that was posted to this group. It was fantastic. Last year we had Chef Charles's puff pastry-wrapped whole lamb loin with mushroom pate (a sort of Lamb Wellington), a recipe also posted here. Along with baked butternut squash and lots of butter.

Both meals were fantastic.

This year I'm by myself. I made Ning Mon Gai (Chinese lemon chicken)--which is what the much-maligned sweet-and-sour chicken can be when done right. It's a dish I adore, but which I don't make all that often, since it involves deep-frying, which I don't usually indulge in.

It was glorious.

I accompanied the meal with a 1993 Montrachet from Le Gouzotte d'Or.

The wine was equally glorious. Great white Burgundy CAN age.

Turkey?? Bah!

-Paul W.