Bacon Wrapped Turkey and How I learned to Cook It

Thanksgiving, 1992, San Francisco, CA, my first away from home as a newly minted full-grown adult. I figured I would make the turkey, since of my 3 roommates, 2 were veggie, and one had no interest in taking on the bird. And so, I got us a huge frozen turkey that sat in our fridge for a few days befoere Thanksgiving.

The big day arrived. I went to the fridge and found that the turkey was nowhere near thawed. It was around 8am PST and our party started at 6pm. The phone (which had a very long cord, we for some reason didn’t have a cordless, and no cell phones yet) was dialed and Gran Fran came on the line (it being 3 hours later in NY, her turkey was well on its way. Must also mention here, that Joe was well out of the house, too, since he cannot be in the house with odor of the roasting bird.)

“Well, you’ll need to run cold water on it to get the ice to thaw. And, to make sure it’s ready to cook, you don’t want to give everyone salmonella.” (note: Gran Fran is very wary of all manner of undercooked food for fear of diseases.)

OK, so the turkey is huge, our sink is not. Into the bathroom I go with the turkey, dragging the phone through the length of our flat. The bird is dumped into the bathtub, cold water is run over it for an hour or so, and it is thawed. (Picture my two veggie roommates coming into the bathroom and seeing me wrestling with a gigantic turkey. Needless to say, as soon as it was thawed, I was back in the bathroom armed with bleach and tub cleanser to get all meaty-juices off the surfaces).

The turkey made it into the oven around 10am, plenty of time for it to cook through. I went about my business to make other dishes, and help get the house ready for our guests. We were dressed up and the house lit with candles just in time.

The turkey had a beautifully browned skin, the meat was moist, the side dishes were delicious.

But, I had forgotten one thing. The paper wrapped innards were still in the turkey cavity. Oy, this was a tough one to explain to the guests. Suffice it to say, the turkey had been cooked for so long that the innards had been cooked, too, no danger of salmonella. But, boy, what a discovery was made when that cooked white sack was found!

Luckily, we were mostly a bunch of out-of-towners on our first solo Thanksgivings, so all was ok, as long a the wine and beer kept flowing and the pies made their way to the table.

Now, 20 years later, I have perfected many a turkey, but my all time favorite is this bacon wrapped version. The skin is rubbed with brown sugar, sage and cayenne pepper. Spicy, sweet and wonderful. I did also use butter, which I don't usually do for poultry, but it really added a great depth of flavor. You can stick with just the bacon to moisten the turkey, but I have to say the butter added amazing flavor.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Bacon Wrapped Turkey

serves 6

Ingredients

• 1 turkey breast
• 2 turkey legs
• 2 turkey thighs
• 1 1/2 pounds bacon
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 6 tablespoons cayenne
• 10 sage leaves
• 6 cloves garlic

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees f
2. Place bacon on a rimmed backing sheet in a single layer.
3. Bake bacon for five minutes, just until the fat starts to liquify in the bottom of the pan.
4. Put the butter, brown sugar, cayenne, sage and garlic in a food processor and pulse until a paste has formed.
5. Place the turkey in a large baking dish.
6. Coat the pieces with the brown sugar mixture. It may not adhere 100%, but you should try and put some under the skin of the turkey where the flavors can really permeate the meat.
7. Remove the bacon from the oven, let it cool a bit and then start wrapping the turkey with the bacon slices. If you have enough bacon, create a lattice by laying one piece of bacon over another to create a shell over the turkey. Don't worry about making it perfect, just try to cover the whole surface of the turkey. This helps keep the meat moist.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for about an hour. Check on the thighs after 45 minutes, they may cook a bit quicker than the breast.
9. Remove from the oven, let rest for ten minutes, tented under aluminum foil, and then serve!

Thanksgiving: We Love Stuffing

Stuffing was never high on my list of Thanksgiving loves. I never loved the flavor, and was put off by the number of ingredients involved.

That all changed about three years ago when I started making my own, with lots of bacon and sausage.

Anything that can act as a vehicle for as much meat and savory goodness as you can stuff into a pan is good by me. Thanksgiving dishes give me an opportunity to go a little bit crazy and not worry so much about the healthier way that I usually eat. Portion control in the stuffing and mash potatoes department are completely gone. I figure once a year, I can really let loose and pack in the good stuff.

If you can line up all your ingredients and cook the elements you need in advance, this stuffing will come together quickly and easily. There will be lots of dicing, browning and dishes, but all for the good cause of making the best stuffing ever.

This year, I used port to rehydrate the dried porcini mushrooms and added dried California figs, instead of dried apricots.

You can amend this recipe however you'd like: use wine instead of port; morels instead of porcini; pecans instead of chestnuts. Whatever you do, keep the earthy flavors balancing out the sweet and nutty flavors and you'll have yourself a wonderful stuffing.

Below is the recipe, but here are links to some of the main ingredients, which I've posted before:

Roast Chestnuts

Corn Muffins

Oven-baked Bacon

Thanksgiving Porcini, Bacon, Sausage, Cornbread and Chestnut Stuffing

serves 6

Ingredients

• 5 corn muffins, crumbled (click here for the recipe)
• 10 to 15 roasted chestnuts, chopped into bits (click here for the recipe)
• 2 to 4 slices oven-baked bacon, chopped into small bits (click here for the recipe)
• 4 dried figs, sliced into small pieces
• 8 ounces dried porcini mushrooms
• 1 cup port (or red wine or brandy)
• 2 hot italian sausages, casing removed
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 sweet onions, diced
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup walnuts, smashed
• 6 sage leaves, minced
• 1 cup chicken stock

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat.
3. Add the sausage, breaking it up into small pieces with a fork.
4. Sauté for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until he meat has browned.
5. Meanwhile, put the porcini mushrooms and port in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.
6. Cook the porcini until they have absorbed 2/3 of the liquid.
7. Once the sausages have browned, add the onions and garlic and cook until they soften, about 10 minutes.
8. Take a rimmed baking dish and place the corn muffins, chestnuts, walnuts, sage and bacon bits into it.
9. Add the porcini and the port to the sausage pan, stirring for about five minutes.
10. While everything cooks, grab a pair of kitchen scissors and cut the porcini into small pieces. You may also need to chop up the sausages a bit, too.
11. Remove the sauté pan from the heat and add the ingredients to the rimmed baking dish, mixing everything up.
12. Pour the chicken stock over the stuffing and mix it in to help the cornbread to absorb it.
13. Place in the oven for 30 minutes, stirring once. It may take a bit longer, it's done when you find the sausage nice a crispy.

Slow Cooker Oatmeal: Plain is Best (or Add some Bacon)

Oatmeal is really the breakfast of champions. I love oatmeal made just with water. No toppings, no butter, no sugar. We used to get those prepackaged cinnamon sugar oatmeals, but I never loved them. Plain oatmeal is my favorite.

There are many health benefits to eating oatmeal: lowers cholesterol, adds a good amount of fiber to your diet and stabilizes blood sugar. An extra benefit that I love most: if I eat oatmeal in the morning, I'm full until well into the afternoon.

I have to admit that I not only eat plain oatmeal, I also top mine off with bacon. It sounds a little crazy, but the salty bacon adds just the right something-something to my morning oatmeal. I do love to have a cup of tea and a hard boiled egg alongside my oatmeal.

Yesterday I experimented by freezing a few portions of my slow cooker oatmeal in small containers. Defrosted in the microwave for just a minute and I had a nice bowl of oatmeal at my desk. It's handy for me to be able to pre-cook a bunch of oatmeal and pack it into single servings to bring to work with me. I suppose you could just use the instant kind of oats and make them in the microwave, but I prefer a slower-cooked oatmeal.

However you eat it, do eat oatmeal. It's just so good for you, it's tasty and satisfying, too.

Oatmeal: Slow Cooker Style

Ingredients:

• 8 cups water
• 2 cups steel-cut oats
• 1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Method:

1. Combine water, oats and salt in a 5- or 6-quart slow cooker. Turn heat to low.
2. Put the lid on and cook until the oats are tender and the porridge is creamy, 7 to 8 hours.
3. Spoon the oatmeal into single serving freezer-proof containers. Freeze until ready to eat.
4. Defrost single serving in the microwave for 1 to 2 minutes.
5. Eat plain, with dried fruit or add some bacon, like I do.

Perfect for Warm Weather: Slow Cooker Coq au Vin

Stews and soups seem odd for spring and summer cooking. If I can throw everything into a slow cooker at the start of a beautiful day, head outside, enjoy the weather and get home and have a meal waiting for me, I say "Huzzah, bring on the slow cooker!"

These nice long days are getting me outdoors more, leaving me a little less time to cook. The slow cooker sitting in my pantry has been calling my name. It's the perfect solution for a beautiful day. Just a half hour of prep, including a little bit of browning, and I was out the door with a promise of a great tasting coq au vin waiting for me at the end of the day.

I'm still figuring out proportions on my slow cooker recipes. Coq au vin is one of my favorite stews, so I thought I'd give it a go in the slow cooker. If you want to add or subtract some of the tomatoes or red wine based on successful slow cooker recipes you've used before, feel free to do so. And, get in touch with any slow cooker tips, especially about adapting standard recipes to slow cooker style recipes.

I have a friend (who blogs at Weekends So Sweet) that does quite a bit more slow cooking than I do. She has experimented with not browning ingredients before slow cooking and has had good results. Just wanted to mention this because a lot of these recipes end up looking like they have a lot of steps, but they can be simplified. I look at slow cooking as a good place to experiment. I've only had one real disaster (involving several acorn squash that just looked and tasted horrible after 8 hours on low in the slow cooker). For once, my attitude of throw it in the pot and see what you get can work here as real advice.

So get outside, enjoy yourselves and come home to a warm nourishing meal!

Slow Cooker Coq au Vin

Ingredients

• 6 chicken thighs
• 1/2 pound cooked bacon, chopped into pieces (cooking method here)
• 2 cups red wine
• 1 onion diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 to 2 cans canned tomatoes
• 2 sprigs fresh oregano (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
• salt and pepper to taste

 Method

1. Heat a large skillet over high heat, adding olive oil (or bacon grease if you have it) just before the pan is smoking hot.
2. Salt and pepper the chicken thighs and place them in the pan, skin side down and cook for 5 minutes on high.
3. Turn over the thighs and cook another 5 minutes.
4. Place the thighs in the slow cooker along with the cooked bacon.
5. Return the pan to high heat and sauté the garlic and onions until softening, and just turning brown.
6. Add the onions, garlic, wine, tomatoes and spices to the slow cooker.
7. Set the slow cooker on low for 8 to 9 hours.
8. Serve with boiled potatoes, salad or over egg noodles.