Thanksgiving Dinner
 

We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant with my wife's sister and brother w/his wife. The rest of the family is in Tampa working (nurses in various hospitals and Dialysis Centers). They ordered a Whole Fish, Tofu/Broccoli, Fried Seafood Pan Noodles, Sauteed Mustard Greens w/Garlic, and White Rice. I added an order of Fried Salt & Pepper Pork Chop with toasted Garlic.

It was just my wife and I for dinner tonight, small turkey breast with a side of corn and mashed potatoes:

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I didn’t snap any photos today either. However I was generally pleased with the execution of the meal by my son and wife. The turkey was a little dry…but I can’t blame them. It’s always hit and miss with them. Price doesn’t matter in this equation. I’ve had very expensive turkeys turn out dry…and store brand birds that are juicy.
The rest of the meal was really delicious. Sweet potato casserole, stuffing, creamed pearl onions, green beans, cranberry sauce, rolls.
I’m stuffed with no room for sweet potato pie. There’s always tomorrow.

Stuffing
sweet potato casserole with broiled vegan marshmallows
Brussels sprouts
spicy rice
white rice
Matbucha (mizrahi grill)
eggplant salad (mizrahi grill)
cranberry
turkey

I had zero bread products - sad!

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I agree. But they tasted better than they looked. I ran out of room on the stovetop and steamed them in the microwave with (I guess) insufficient water. Here’s how they looked before I cooked them.


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I can understand why you had no bread. Much of it looked pretty burned. Sad Thanksgiving!

People cook turkey to an internal temperature of 165 degrees. When you do that, it will turn out dry as it is still cooking after you pull it out of the oven. There were many "experts" presenting cooking ideas that said cook to 155 -160 degrees if you like moist white meat as it will continue cooking after you remove it from the heat. I have cooked it that way many times in the past, and the family that loved the white meat was surprised they didn't need gravy.

How do they cook the turkey?
I'm stuck on the vegan marshmallows.
I cook mine to an internal temperature of 165 degrees but the white meat is still moist. I have to cook it to that because of my mother's immunocompromised condition. She also gets separate, outside of the bird stuffing.

Mine was 162 when I removed it from the oven. I injected an entire jar of Cajun garlic butter marinade. No part of it was dry when served.

While I suspect we all try to eat healthy most days, there are special occasions when, in my view, we should just eat whatever we like the most, and invariably that means feasting on foods that are rich in both fat & carbs--just seems like those foods rich in both tend to taste the best. Lettuce...LOL

165 should be fine, but you have to make sure the insides have sufficient liquid. I rarely cook turkey (not enough people to consume it in enough time before it goes bad), but with a chicken, I usually stab it a number of times and then use a syringe to inject some "liquid" (in my case butter as well but any marinade will do). If you're using an oven, one trick a lot of people use is to raise the turkey using vegetables (it roasts them at the same time) and pour some liquid into the roasting pan. There are a lot of other tips/tricks you can use to keep the meat moist.

Gravy should never be used to add moisture back into the food. It should be used to layer or enhance flavour.

Brined the night before. Butter between the skin and meat. A butter bath before going into the oven.Cooked to 165 degrees.
A good friend suggested bacon strips on top. I’ve tried that as well.

Simple dinner
Chicken ( Ayam goreng berempah ) in lieu of turkey & nasi kuning ( yellow rice ) from Dancing Fish and kai lan from 190 , Four Seasons .
Ayam ( chicken ) brand sardines ;)



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From Dancing Fish & Four Seasons
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Added canned sardines

I only took two photos yesterday: Turkey and a guest plate.


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It was the best Mac and Cheese I have made and the major factor was using a corkscrew pasta then I used Velveeta cheese sauce added to the evaporated milk and eggs for the custard.

Could have used a little more sunscreen. What did you use?

Very nice overall crispy skin. Looks delicious.

I bought a Pit Barrel Cooker in early October and the 14# bird was my second cook.
The temp was in the range and I took it off to after three hours. The coal cage had an adult male fist sized hickory block in it, thus the very dark color. That hickory block was the smallest I had and didn't want to use a bag of chips or a bag of pellets of another wood type