All Hail Turkey Day!!

So a bunch of missionary ladies that I chat with on line have started talking about celebrating Thanksgiving Day in their “host” country.  This reminded me of our time in Latvia, so I thought I’d share the Turkey story I shared with them, just to get me started into the spirit of Thanksgiving!  As I type this, I have a BEAUTIFUL big bird in my freezer!! We will make this for my brother in law Matthew’s birthday the week after Thanksgiving when we return from Ohio and our visit with Sam’s parents, Grandparent’s and Bill & Sara (Sam’s sister).   Matt can’t go because he’s just a poor college student who has to stay home and work… I feel bad about abandoning him, but I’m very excited to see the rest of the family too! Anyway… here’s my story:

Ok, so I have to tell my sad sad turkey story from Latvia.  So, Thanksgiving is a very important holiday
to me… it has always been bigger to me in many ways than Christmas (probably
because it focuses on food ha ha ha) turkey is also my absolute favorite diner
(but only homemade!!) anyway… My first Turkey
day in Latvia
we celebrated curried turkey.. hum… yeah, not quite right! (though that was the
first night that Sam and I started flirting with each other, and I realized he
might be interested…so, wasn’t a total lost!!) 
I had searched the central market looking for some turkeys, and I found
two…previously frozen turkeys, in a glass case, just sitting there, waiting for
me to purchases them!! I was soooo excited… then I touched the glass on the
front of the case… warm as a summer afternoon!!!!  I asked to touch the birds… humm… yeah… room
temp, and how long have they been that way?!?!?!  I was thinking, not so sure how safe that is
(looking back, I’d have bought one now, after eating with
the “grannie” at our country churches… but… I digress) anyway…

 So, the next year Bruce
& Kim knew of this farmer who could use a little money and who agreed to
grow us some turkeys!! I was sooo very excited because not only was I going to
get a turkey, I was going to get the freshest one possible!!  Well, he didn’t really know how to “prepare”
a turkey… trying to figure out how to write all of this without being too
graphic… anyway… so, instead of butchering it the traditional way, he cut it
right down the breast bone!  Ok, ok, I can
figure something out. 
So, I finish plucking the bird and start to wash it, since it’s split
right open I can get a really good shot at cleaning out what should be the ‘cavity’
well… there were a few “gifts” left behind that should have been taken out, so I
took them out.  After all, I’m used to
them leaving the “innards” inside the bird when you purchase them (In Russia, you didn’t
really buy a bird without them… they leave them in so you could tell how “fresh”
they were, because those parts go off rather quickly)… anyway… so I finish
preparing the bird… It came out looking a bit like Turk-in-stein. 

I used kabob skewers to hold the bird together so that I could cook the stuffing in the bird! :)  It actually didn’t look too bad after it was cooked, though a little scary

I could have lived with that.. but… when we
at it, it was quite gamy so, I don’t think it was fed like a turkey we are
used to eating… anyway.. hey, I got my turkey   it was
better than nothing, lesson learned

We had Pork Loin for Christmas on a brighter note….

Someone sent or brought us canned pumpkin!!!!!   So my pie turned out fabulous!!!

So, happy turkey day to all of you, where ever in the world you are!!!!

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1. Esther 10.29.07 / 1am

   Funny, thought I had stepped back in time temporarily. Love that behind that turkey you are wearing a Pampered Chef apron! lol How unfitting.
   And you have a turkey in your freezer for next month already! :O