Christmas Day Dinner. The Pièce de résistance! But this year I had an idea for making it better. Two years ago we had both sides of our families out for Christmas. The kitchen was a bit of a minefield. I wanted to somehow ease the burden in the kitchen. Considering the previous night's culinary whirlwind, I was hoping to cut down on the amount of cooking/food logistics that day. My idea - bring in a roaster oven.
So you say, roaster oven? No big deal. If you know me, I have no qualms about kitchen appliances. In fact, I am the most happy oogling and obsessing over all of the cool gadgets, appliances, spices, cookware, and recipes in the William and Sonoma catalogs that I get in the mail. I love cooking appliances. Even though I am thinking how great of an idea it is, I still having trouble wrapping my brain around putting my cute little 14, well almost 15, pound bird in a roaster oven. I have never seen anyone actually use a roaster oven. Am I really going to trust the big important meal to cook in a contraption that I have never used before?
Answer: Yes. And from here on out - until I get to build the kitchen of my dreams (not sure if that will ever happen) - I think I will be using the roaster oven. The bird came out so juicy. My guide said a total of 4 hours cook time in the roaster and when that timer went off - near perfection. Only little glitch was the very top of the bird was not a nice golden brown. I can live with that if it leaves my regular oven open to create other yummy masterpieces, like:
Green Bean Casserole
Baked Sweet/Potatoes
Cornbread Dressing
The Cornbread Dressing is a new addition and I am very thankful a close friend gave me her family recipe. It was absolutely delicious!!!
I was also very happy to get my father to write down his sausage stuffing recipe. I have watched him year in and year out make this yummy stuffing. He has done it sans recipe every time. You would assume that I would get smart and watch him one year and write it down. But when my dad is in the kitchen, you just sort of forget about that sort of thing and just enjoy being together. But now I have it and I am not sure I am quite ready to let that cat out of the bag just yet.
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