In Blanding, though, if you want anything – to know who cuts hair, an available rental house, where the Indian ruins are – you ask someone (and they may tell you someone else to ask and so on). What is the point of advertising or publishing maps or putting things on shelves? I guess every already knows and if not they’ll just ask. The only well advertised thing I have encountered in Blanding is the Scentsy lady. I don’t think I will ever buy Scentsy, but I appreciate that I know where I could and when all the sales are. I didn’t even have to ask.
Back to the turkey… Marty and I asked the store manager if there was any chance that they would be getting more whole chickens in the next week or if they had any turkeys in the back of the store. No new frozen birds coming in, but he took us to the back freezer and dug through boxes until he found a non-expired turkey with intact packaging. This grocery store is not posh or gourmet (they don’t even sale almond paste or calrose rice) but you get better service when people know your name.
I made my own seasoning mix of kosher salt, fresh rosemary, fresh thyme, bay leaves, cracked pepper and a pinch of paprika. After letting it sit overnight to absorb flavors I added lemon zest and rubbed down the turkey to dry brine (salt and put in a bag for several days). Luckily Kari, a near-by friend, had freezer space and then fridge space for this bird. I let that sit in her fridge for three days.
In the mean time I made poppy seed cake, lemon curd filling for the cake, sugar cookies to decorate with the kids, frosting (one type for cookies, one for cake) and assembled the cake. I’ll post about the cake later because it worth a picture!
Sometime between making frosting and assembling the cake on Saturday I got a call from my sister-in-law telling me that she and my dad-in-law would be able to visit this weekend after all! They would be getting here about 11pm. Now, I really wanted them to come, but I had given up because Liz was anxious to get home after finishing her BYU semester and needed to jump right into summer work. Since it didn’t sound like it was going to work out I forgot about cleaning for house guests and threw myself in to Easter dinner preparations leaving mountains of dishes and smears of frosting in my wake.
Marty’s family is quite polite, so they did call twice on Friday to let us know their plans in advance. But they called Marty’s phone. If you don’t already know how effective that is not (most of the time), ask me about his cell phone history next time you see me.
We really loved having family visit and the house was even clean and beautiful by the time Liz and dad Pulido got here, complete with beds made for them (thanks, Kari for the air mattress). On Sunday, after lunch Marty took Liz and dad for a ride to see some scenery and I got back to turkey prep.
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| This is me prepping the turkey with onion goggles. |
Turkey prep was pretty simple. The hardest parts were planning ahead and maneuvering a 20 pound bird around. I stuffed a few veggies in (watch out for those onions!), jump started roasting in a hot oven and reduced temp. Then let it cook… for a very very long time. It had to cook so long in fact, that we had to start our meal a half hour later than planned with a soup and salad course while waiting for the turkey to be done. Oops. It was my first time after all. Next time maybe I'll get the timing right.
Finally, the work and wait were worth it.
The turkey was fantastic. Flavorful and most with many compliments to the chef :-) Marty carved his first turkey with guidance from his dad. Will the men be offended if I say it was cute? The dinner, the friends , and family made for a great Easter.
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