Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving.  I had such an awesome day with my family.  I am so thankful for the many blessings in my life.  I have a wonderful husband who I truly believe would do anything for his family.  His strength, warmth and unwavering devotion to his family is one of a kind and I am thankful everyday that I have him in my life he is my rock and has always been there for me.  My 3 children trying at times are simply amazing.  Each child is unique in their own way.  My boys are thoughtful, loving, sensitive and have the best intentions at heart.  My daughter is truly the sweetest little girl I have ever met.  The bond that her and I have is indescribable and I am thankful everyday for her. 

Thanksgiving was a busy day for us.  I was only cooking for the 5 of us but wow, when you are preparing a feast there seems to be a ton of work to do.  I had great anxiety about cooking the turkey.  In past years, I have always made a huge Mexican feast and boycotted the traditional spread, the thought of dry turkey did not appeal to me.  My husband suggested that this year we do a traditional Thanksgiving since both the older kids were learning about that in school.  I agreed so long as I could find an organic free range turkey to buy. 

Sure enough, I was able to find one.  Branigan Farms in Woodland, CA www.braniganturkey.com offered fresh free range turkeys and I was able to order them from my local butcher shop.  I ordered the smallest they offered which is a 14 lb; more than enough to feed a family of 5 with ample left overs. 

So this was the meal plan:

Turkey
Stuffing*
Veggies*
Cranberry Sauce*
Pumpkin Pie*

I am happy to say that I managed to pull this off 100% paleo.  With the help of www.everydaypaleo.com I made a pretty fabulous dinner if I do say so myself.  Please check out this website, this is a go to for me quite often for at the very least a little paleo inspiration.

For the turkey, I decided to create this recipe myself. 

1 cup organic butter, unsalted room temperature
Fresh thyme, oregano, rosemary
Rubbed Sage (fresh was  my first choice but when I shopped the day before turkey day they were all out)
Sea Salt & Pepper
Carrots
Onions
Celery

Mince all the fresh herbs and add to butter with the sage.  Sorry I don't have any exact measurements, I eyeballed it and used my nose to determine when I had enough herbs to the mix.  Maybe around 1-2 tbsp of each.

I rinsed and dried the bird this is very important so the butter will stick to the skin.  Roughly chop the veggies and add to the bottom of a large roasting pan.  Place bird directly on top of the veggies breast side down, rub the skin with the butter mixture, make sure you get in the nook and crannies of the leg and wing area, flip bird over with breast side up.  Gently separate the breast skin and rub a generous amount of butter underneath.  Apply remaining butter to the rest of the bird.  I used the entire amount, I went with the philosophy if a little is good a lot will be better.  Place turkey in oven uncovered overnight.  I had read somewhere that this was a good way of drying out the skin so when is roasts you achieve that golden crispy skin.

I figured 15 min/lb some websites say 20 min/lb others say 12 min/lb.  Cook covered at 400° for 20 min than reduce the temp to 325°for the remaining time or until 175°.  Place a thermometer in the thickest portion of the thigh being careful not tough a bone.  Most recipes will say to cook until 180° but I was counting on the remaining 5° to happen while the bird rested before carving.  ***During the last 1/2 hr of cooking remove the foil so the skin can brown and get crispy. 

I used the pan dripping for a "gravy" which wasn't all that necessary there was plenty of flavor in the turkey meat itself.

Stock:

I had planned all along that I was going to try and make homemade stock out of the carcass.

Carrots, Onions, Celery, remaining fresh herbs, around 12-16 cups of water.  I placed this all in a large pot and simmered for 2 hours.  Strain and place in freezer safe containers.  I as able to get about 10 cups of stock.