Yup. Cooking a turkey in June. The turkey was in the freezer ever since the big pre-Thanksgiving sale last year. I don't like these 'basted' ones where they inject stuff into the meat, but for that 99 cents a pound price I wasn't going to snub it.

Ready to cook:


He's a sad-looking little turkey, not plump and well-muscled like they usually are. Maybe the injected moisture didn't do its usual inflationary job, but I think it's because the frame was meant to have more meat on it, so the legs are long and lean. I don't care because I'm pretending he's a special gourmet organic bird and they are supposed to look like this. I will do a lot of basting.

Julia Child has a recipe for a gravy base: chop the neck into 2 inch pieces and brown it with the giblets (without the liver). Remove and cook chopped up carrots and onions in the same fat. Add white wine and chicken broth, and herbs and simmer a couple of hours. Strain, de-fat, and refrigerate until the turkey has cooked. Add the cooking juices (without fat) and thicken.

This morning I made a pan of cornbread for the stuffing (and some for the fox), to augment some stuffing bread I bought. I will have to decide whether to saute some diced apple to put in it. It will also have sauteed onions and celery and seasonings and some of that home-made breakfast sausage from the other night.



Mashed Yukon Gold potatoes. No special plans here, but there IS some heavy cream in the refrigerator.

We need a green vegetable. I will have to decide between canned green beans warmed up in olive oil with sauteed onions and tomatoes or lovely broccoli cooked pretty plain.

Usually I would make my own cranberry sauce, but Mr. Kitchentales likes that jelly type right out of the can with the marks from the can showing. So that's what we're going to do. Easy for me.

Dessert after a meal like that doesn't get the appreciation it deserves, but there's always room for Jello. This is a fancy layered thing with crushed pineapple, apricots, and mini marshmallows in red Jello with a topping of the juice cooked thick with egg, flour and sugar, and then stirred into whipped cream. Grated cheddar cheese is strewn over the top. Chopped walnuts is/are optional, and I'll ask my guests if they like nuts.



Oh! Almost forgot the rolls! They are a special recipe that starts with cornmeal (I use coarse-ground) cooked to a mush with butter and milk. The final roll is soft with a little texture from the cornmeal.



Well, I'm going to make my list of what needs to be done.