12.24.2005

Bonsai Bird

J requested turkey for dinner on Christmas Eve. Fortunately, a few turkeys are available at the local supermarkets for about 3 days a year, just before Christmas. I found a 4 pound bird, the largest that will fit in our oven, and thawed it out on our balcony overnight. Last week we steamed our Halloween pumpkin (we'd drawn faces on the pumpkin instead of carving, so the pumpkin was still in good shape) and pressed the pulp through our strainer to freeze until we were ready to make a pumpkin pie. Today J helped me make pie dough and filling, reading to me from my 22 year old copy of "The Joy of Cooking" and measuring with my precious U.S. measuring cups. While the pie was baking, we steamed the extra filling (I think my pie pan is slightly smaller than 9 inches) and peeled potatoes. She and I enjoyed our pumpkin pudding before chopping and sauteeing some onions and 3 types of Japanese mushrooms to toss with a 16 small chunks of French bread and whatever seasonings I could find (black pepper, parsely, rosemary, garlic) to make just enough stuffing for our bonsai bird. After the pie came out of the oven, we brought the turkey back inside from the balcony, discarded the plastic wrapping, rinsed, blotted, stuffed, basted and covered with a small piece of aluminum foil (the heating element is about an inch away from the top of the bird) and placed in our oven for the required 80 or so minutes (20 mins. per pound?). Cleaning up, I noticed the package had lots of Arabic on it, although the frozen turkey was imported from Brazil. The Christmas turkey we bought on the Shinto Emperor's birthday was, according to English translation on the package, slaughtered per Muslim custom, by hand with a sharp knife. With the turkey cooking, it smells like a holiday, to me anyway.

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