Thanksgiving bird

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving. My dad and I had to duke it out for which one of us was making the bird. He went to the store with my mom in the morning. Meanwhile, back at the condo I looked at the clock and realized that we had to start getting the bird ready for the oven... so I guess that meant my dad didn't want to make the bird this year.

We started with a fresh young, 15 pound turkey from Wegman's. Not the "Holiday" Turkey which is especially bred to have more white meat. That didn't seem right to me. I am weird and like the dark meat anyway. The night before we took out the bird. We put the neck in a pot of water with peppercorns, cloves, onions, celery, garlic slices (dried), bay leaf and salt. That boiled for 2-3 hours and then I don't know what happened because I went to sleep and my dad finished it off. I think he just put it in a bowl and then the fridge.

The goal was to put the bird in the oven in time for dinner at 2pm. We took it out of the fridge at 10:15. We removed the plastic piece keeping the legs together. We dried it off. We put butter all over the skin and under the skin. We put salt and pepper on the skin and in the cavity. We put rosemary under the skin and in the cavity. We put a sliced orange and onion in the cavity. Under the bird was celery and onion in the roasting bag with some flour. The bird went in the oven at 11:10am at 350 degrees.And there it sat for 1 hour, 2hour, 3 and one half to reach 160. OMG that took forever. The roasting bag said 2 to 2 and 3/4 hours for a stuffed bird. Maybe the bird was too cold to start? Or the bag instructions were misleading? We finally took it out to rest.

Then we put the squash, rolls, and the vegetables that Eileen and Chris had already roasted in the oven. After about 15minutes I bolused my insulin... which proceeded to leak so I needed a new cannula and I bolused myself again knowing that I was going to eat Thanksgiving anyway and would probably need the extra insulin.  Well about 45minutes later we ate and by then my sugar was in the pits, so I wolfed down my meal and didn't really get to enjoy any of it. And then my low sugar caused me to sweat like a marathoner running in 90 degree weather, which was unpleasant. All of the effort put into cooking and entertaining made me tired, so once the guests left I put my head down for a nap.  I woke up 3hours later with my sugar in the 300s. Oops and yuck. Hmmph. Not an easy day.

I also want to add here the cranberry recipe that I used. I boiled 1cup orange juice with orange zest (half a large orange) and pumpkin pie spice (about 1 tsp). I added fresh cranberries once boiling and cooked uncovered for another 10minutes until the cranberries were burst. I took it off the heat and stirred in 1/4 cup honey and 1/4 cup agave nectar. Then I cooled it and put it in the fridge. It tasted so good!