practicing my french*

yesterday we had a big turkey dinner. very appropriate as the weather turned bitterly cold again and we awoke to snow beginning to fall. it didn't end up sticking, but the sentiment was there. mother nature knows i wore my spring coat last friday. and she is not amused. the day went something like this:

vernon and i lazily prep veggies and make salads.

here is vernon prepping avacodos for guac. doesn't he look relaxed?

the turkey was in the oven by 11:45. plenty of time for mr ding-dong* to cook and be out of the oven by 5:30. (guests are due to arrive shortly after and dinner is at 6:30). but then....

it's 4 o'clock and what's this?


holy crap the turkey was done! what-to-do-what-to-do?? i called mom. she wasn't home so vernon and i gave each other a hard shake and pulled it together. i put the joy of cooking away - realising that it would be of no use in an emergency of this magnitude. we didn't panic. or rather vernon didn't panic. and i didn't either. much. i convinced myself that having the turkey ready 2 hours before the guests were scheduled to arrive was much better than having to compose the obligatory "sorry i gave your children salmonella" emails if i fed it to them undercooked. look - here i am being very happy i'm not going to kill my guests with undercooked poultry.

am i disappointed about the turkey or the fact that vernon has decided to
document what could be a complete disaster in my culinary life to date?

needless to say, somehow it all came together. the turkey was so huge it kept warm for another hour while veggies roasted in the oven, i basted it to within an inch of it's life to keep it moist (i'd also cooked it upside down in an effort to keep those 18 pound turkey boobs from drying out - if i hadn't it probably would have been a bigger disaster). and it ended up being fall off the bone fantastic. the only thing that was missing was cranberries which i had completely forgotten about until the next morning when i woke up and thought "cranberries. dang."

and so today was full of turkey leftovers (as will be tomorrow.... and the next day....).

but now, it's off to curl up with this quartet of reading material....

michelle's "let's go paris" plus 3 other travel guides loaned to me by ron...

ps... by practicing my french i mean continuing the family tradition of referring to the turkey as mr ding-dong. aka. monsieur dinde. yes, i know it isn't pronounced ding-dong. work with me here.