Turkey Week

November 26, 2012 by Michael McKenna 2 Comments

The past couple days have been spent hiking, biking, TRXing and any other type of exercise I can muster the energy to perform in order to burn off the immense amount of food I ate Thursday and Friday.  If your TGives was anything like mine, I’m sure you’re feeling the same way.

Oh sorry, is it snowing where you are?

Since Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks (stating the obvious huh?), I would like to take this time to give thanks to something that is very important to me this time of year.

THE DEEP FRYER

It should be mandatory that every turkey ever made be deep fried. Is there some way to make this a law? Maybe we can sneak it into Obamacare somehow.  I am not even a big fan of turkey, but a deep fried turkey is tough to top. The bird comes out moist and delicious in less than half the time it takes to roast. Deep frying is basically a foolproff way to cook the turkey (if you don’t count the extreme dangers that a deep fryer presents). The turkey I prepared Thursday was my fourth deep fried bird in the past year, and I’m only getting better. I did two things differently this time around – 1) Brined the turkey for 14 hours and 2) Let the bird rest before cutting. Wanna do this yourself next Turkey Day? Follow these easy steps:

1. Brine unfrozen turkey with neck and giblets removed for 10-16 hours (1 pound brown sugar, 1 pound salt, a bunch of water in a 5 gallon bucket)
2. Take out of brine, dry off COMPLETELY and let rest at room temp for 30 mins
3. Heat deep fryer full of peanut oil to 375° and drop DRY turkey in SLOWLY
4. Fry turkey till it reaches temp of 155° (approx 3.5 mins per pound) and let rest for 30 mins before cutting. Carry over cooking will allow turkey to reach temp of 161°
5. Slice and enjoy. Don’t forget to eat the skin, it’s the best part
6. To spice it up, try applying a spice rub or injecting a spicy marinade in after brining

Rise and brine

Getting familiar with my food

SLOWLY. Seriously

If yours doesn’t look exactly like this, start over. And call Dominos

To go along with the palatable poultry, Lo and I also made three different types of stuffing from scratch. [I should probably clarify that we were cooking for her whole family, this wasn’t just for Lo and me.] I felt like my Uncle David, spending the whole day in the kitchen, and I loved it. One stuffing was my recipe, the other two were ML’s. All three turned out amazing I’m relieved to say. First we made a cornbread and bacon stuffing. Homemade cornbread (Jiffy of course), hickory smoked bacon, white bread, garlic, celery, onions, and eggs. The other two dishes were ML’s recipe. The first was your basic stuffing, but we used 4 different kinds of bread (white, french, rye and pretzel bread). The second was this same recipe but with sausage in it. One tip for homemade stuffing – bake the bread first. Just enough to get it crispy and dry it out.

Cornbread & bacon. These are a few of my favorite things

The finished product. My stomach hurts looking at this

All this cooking gave me the itch to do some more kitchen work before I head back to Phoenix/Scottsdale so tonight I’m making 3 different types of homemade ravioli and Lo is doing the sauce from scratch. I’ve never tried making pasta before so this should be fun (Dominos will be on speed dial).

I hope each and everyone of you guys had an awesome Thanksgiving and that you spent it with people you love. Thanks to all of my readers!

MOVEMBER UPDATE

Another thing I’m thankful for this time of year are cookie dusters, push brooms, and soup strainers AKA moustaches. With only five days left in Movember my duster has raised $315 for men’s health awareness. Thanks for the support guys! Worldwide donations are over $73 million with $24.6 million coming from Canada (eh they love facial hair up there eh). The USofA is in fourth place with $11.6 million. I’m proud to be part of such a great cause and everyone who donated should be proud too. There is still time left if you haven’t donated. To support my moustache campaign, click here. To read more about why I’m doing this, click here. If I reach $500, I will keep the duster till 2013 (sorry Mom)!

Vote for the best push broom!

Aaron Rodgers

Paddy Harrington

Alexi Lalas

Me and my moustache cookie

I haven’t posted any golf pics in awhile, so I hope you enjoy this one (probably the best non-ocean golf pic I’ve taken)

The 8th at sunset. TPC Scottsdale Champions Course

My thanks to you,

—

MWMcK

SDCA

Song of the Day: “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” by Bob Dylan and The Band