Tuesday's Terrific Food

I've recovered from the wallet-losing fiasco, so now I'm continuing with life as normal. I have to pat myself on the back this morning. I managed to do a load of laundry a load of dishes, ran on the treadmill for 20 minutes, did push-ups and 8 minute abs. Now for my blogging. Here is a recipe I made year before last. Great turkey recipe if you're looking to spruce up that old bird. It takes some extra time for the brining, but you can easily do that the night before. It's from Alton Brown, who hosts "Good Eats" on Food Network. Here's the link and I'll copy it here too: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_8389,00.html

Good Eats Roast Turkey

1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey
For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
1/2 tablespoon candied ginger
1 gallon iced water
For the aromatics(this is the stuff you put inside the turkey):
1 red apple,
sliced 1/2 onion,
sliced 1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.

A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.
Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.
Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil. (A probe thermometer is very useful here--one that has a metal probe attached to a wire that you can leave sticking out of the oven door. The actual thermometer sits on the counter top and you can get ones that have alarms that tell you when the turkey has reached the right temp. Insert the probe into the thigh, not touching bone.)

Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.