I'm posting this a little late to help out those of you in the market for a lazy Thanksgiving, but then, I wouldn't have had pictures to include earlier. And you can always try this for other holidays.
Lazy Roast Turkey Feast
Take 1 turkey,
about 12 pounds, thawed and rinsed, and rub Poultry
Pizzazz in the cavity, on the breast meat
under the skin, over the skin on wings and legs. Put one whole,
peeled onion in the cavity, optionally with fresh herbs, rosemary and
sage. Put on a roasting rack. Cut up one pound of carrots. Put
carrots, and two cups of water in the pan, 1/4 cup soy sauce, under
the roasting rack. Bake in oven for 3 hours at 375 degrees, breast up
for the first 2 hours, turn breast down for last hour. Add more water
if needed to cover the carrots. Also for the last hour, put baking
potatoes in the oven.
When done, remove carrots
to serving dish, use
broth as is or use a fat separator, to make gravy and stuffing.
Even lazier: use one turkey breast, treated with Poultry Pizzazz, put in carrots and enough water to cover, bake about an hour.
Gravy: For each cup of broth, mix 2 Tablespoons of corn starch with lukewarm water, then stir into the broth. To thicken, heat on stove or in microwave.
Lisa's Stuffing
1/2 cup broth
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/2 small onion, diced (use the one cooked in the turkey)
2 cup bread cubes (toast 2-3 slices of Basic Bread and cut into cubes)
Combine first three ingredients, heat in microwave if needed, then add bread cubes and serve.
I never used to like stuffing but discovered somewhere along the line,that it wasn't the taste, but the slimy texture. Also, poultry cooks so much faster and with a better texture without stuffing. I found I love this fast stuffing, with toasted bread cubes.
Cat Food
I wasn't kidding when I said I was cooking the turkey for the cats. Well, not completely, anyway. We have a deal, the cats and I: I get the white meat, they get the rest.
After the turkey has
cooked, remove the white
meat. Dismember the rest of the turkey and, with the neck and
innards, simmer in a stew pot with lots of water for 2 hours. Remove
turkey and add to broth:
1 pound of chicken liver
4 cloves garlic
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 potato, diced
Actually, I slice the vegetables in the food processor. The main purpose of the garlic and onions has nothing to do with the cats, but is to mask the smell of liver, which I hate, but it's good for them. Cook one hour. While it's cooking, debone the turkey and return about 2 pounds of meat (and skin) to the pot. (If there's more than that, freeze it for the next batch of cat food.) Then add 2 cups of rice, cook another 20 minutes, adding water first if needed. After cooling, mash in a food processor and freeze. (My cats don't seem to like this until after it's been frozen and then thawed, giving it a crumbly, rather than a starchy texture.) Add some powdered bone meal and kitty vitamins before serving, just to be on the safe side.
Yes, I cook for my cats. I never thought I would, but I had a cat with some kind of food allergy and even the super expensive, hypo-allergenic cat food did not agree with her. Then another cat developed kidney disease and the super expensive kidney prescription cat food didn't agree with him. I did a lot of research on cat nutrition, and came to the conclusion that the store-bought foods, are unlikely to provide ideal nutrition, using much "low quality" protein which is hard on a cat's kidneys. I mean, have you read the ingredients in cat food? Do you know what "meat by-products" are or, like me, would you rather not know? So, even though both the cats I had to cook for have died, I'm still cooking for the others. Not that they appreciate it. I also give them dry food, and they like that better.
When I haven't cooked a whole turkey, I use pretty much the same recipe, but use ground turkey. I may also add in other leftovers.
As you can see, this recipe is human-edible. Except, of course, for the liver.
Make a broth from a vegetarian bullion and/or Poultry Pizzazz plus a little soy sauce, cook carrots in this (in microwave on low for about 15 minutes) and use for gravy, stuffing, and marinate for tofu, which you can microwave (as in Tofu Jerky), bake (shown here) or fry. This gravy is lovely over baked fish, too.
