Inside My Mid-life Crisis

 

Grilled Whole Turkey**Modified from a recipe on allreceipes.com                            Jill Brothers

 

I have only done this using a gas grill—if you are VERY” good with maintaining temp with charcoal- go for it. The original also called for the bird to be rolled around on the grill to “sear”. I find this totally unnecessary, but you are welcome to do it if you wish.

 

This method leaves your entire oven available for all the other lovely dishes you are making for your feast.

Ingredients:

Whole Turkey- 12-16 pounds

4 cups chicken stock (I use the stuff in the carton)

2 cloves garlic- crushed

1 onion- chopped coarse

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning**

½ teaspoon chopped parsley

1 teaspoon paprika

**A note on seasoning- use the above or if you have access to fresh herbs coarsely chop rosemary, parsley, sage and thyme 

Start the gas grill and bring it up to 325-350 degrees. You will maintain this temp the entire time.

Prepare a large roasting pan (I use the heavy-duty tin disposable one, Smart & Final has them for .99 cents each) pour in your box of stock and add your garlic, onion, and herbs.

Remove your defrosted turkey from the package. Take out the bag of giblets and the neck- remove from bag and simmer those in 4 cups of water until the meat is coming off the neck- this can be used in your gravy.

If your turkey has a plastic bag with some liquid in it marked “gravy” remove it and throw it in the rubbish. It is nothing but a bag of brown salt water and is disgusting.

I usually rinse my turkey out with water in the sink, pat dry with paper towels and generously salt and pepper the cavity. **if you do this make certain to clean and sanitize the entire sink and counter area so you don’t cross-contaminate everything with raw poultry. **

Place your turkey BREAST SIDE DOWN in the roasting pan with the stock and herbs.

Cover tightly with a couple pieces of foil. Place the pan on the grill and go make the rest of your food. Do not peek under the foil or you are just going to let the heat out of your grill. It’s better to monitor the temperature of your grill rather than the bird. You may peek in at 2 hours just to make sure you have plenty of liquid still in your pan. Add a cup of water if its low.

The bird will cook about 3.5 hours for a 10-12-pound bird and closer to 4.5 for a 12-16 pound bird.

I usually pull the foil off the bird at about 3 hours to allow the exposed skin to brown. You want an internal temp in the thigh of 180 degrees. But here is a for sure to tell if it’s done- the leg or wing pulls right off!

 

Oatmeal banana cookies                                                                                            

Over-ripe bananas. I hate them. In fact, I barley like bananas let alone banana “flavored” things.

That being said, I hate food waste more, so I went in search of a recipe for ripe bananas other then banana bread. Found this cookie and its actually pretty good for a breakfast cookie with your coffee. Or “Kauw-fee” if you are from New Jersey. Heh heh

As usual, I took some liberties with the recipe.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together:

·         3/4c salted butter (or in my case, unsalted and a pinch of kosher salt)

·         1 c brown sugar packed

·         ½ c sugar – I omitted this, the brown sugar was plenty.

·         1 egg

·         1 t vanilla

·         1 c mashed banana – about 2 small over-ripe bananas

 

Assemble Dry ingredients:

·         1 ½ c flour

·         1 ½ t cinnamon

·         ¼ t ground cloves (you can omit if you don’t have)

·         1 t baking soda

·         2 t cornstarch

And finally

·         3 c old fashioned oats or quick oats (just not steel cut)

 

Once the wet ingredients are missed, stir in the dry ingredients. I used my stand mixer but if you are doing by hand, I would hold back the oats and add them in AFTER you incorporate all the flour.

 Drop by tablespoon or doser on parchment lined baking sheet and flatten a little, they will also spread out a bit. Bake 9-12 minutes in 350 oven. Cool on a rack

The first time I make any recipe, I normally stick pretty close to the original. When I make these again, I’m going to cut the brown sugar back to ¾ cup, swap in a quarter cup applesauce for part of the butter and add chopped walnuts or golden raisins. Or both. We’ll see.