Happy Thanksgiving!

November 23, 2006 First, we'd like to wish all of our friends and family a wonderful Thanksgiving! Please know that we are thankful for each and every one of you. Now, on to the tale of Twas The Day Before Thanksgiving!


Last week I went into our local "macelleria" (butcher shop) to order a "tacchinello" (little turkey) for Thanksgiving. The woman told me that she could order a thigh (with part of a back), but to get a whole turkey I would need to go to the "campagna" (country) to find one! I assumed she meant I would need to go to a turkey farm or something so I just ordered the thigh. On Saturday we went to visit a friend in a town about 18 miles from Belforte (Macerata Feltria) and when I mentioned to her my wanting a turkey she told me to ask at the macelleria in her town. Sure enough, the man told me he could have a turkey on Wednesday. Now, I need to mention that on the Expats in Italy website there has been a lot of discussion about turkeys. The general theme has been that the turkeys here are huge and you usually get one twice as big as you wanted. I asked him how big it would be and he said about 2 1/2 kilos! That is only about 5 lbs so I was sure that it would be a lot bigger than that.


Yesterday, Paola took me to Macerata Feltria to pick up my turkey. My first impulse when I saw the turkey was to laugh! I am telling you that this was the smallest turkey I had ever seen! My next impulse was to shudder when I saw that it still had its head and feet attached! I could not even look at it again until the butcher cut those off. Then he holds it up for me to look at and I noticed that the neck is still attached--so I had him chop that off too, but to wrap it up with the turkey. I could not see how this turkey could possibly have enough meat on it for even one meal. When the butcher rang it up the receipt showed that it weighed 2.5 kilos--about 5 1/2 lbs! The cost for this beauty? 30.00 euro!! That is just under $39.00!!


As we were driving off I was thinking how lucky we were that there was a turkey thigh waiting at the butcher shop in Belforte to go with this "turkey!" Larry went to get it while I was out with Paola and when I picked up the bag it was in I noticed that it was quite heavy. It turned out to be a thigh and a leg and it had to be the biggest thigh/leg I have ever seen! To be honest, I was a little worried that it would be tough since it was so big even though the butcher had assured us it would be tender. I don't know the exact weight, but I can tell you that it was at least 2 kilos! I checked the internet for how long to cook turkey legs and found a recipe that called for 2 turkey legs & thighs with an approx weight of 4 lbs! We had that easily with just one! The total cost for both turkey and thigh/leg? $51.00!!



I ran down to the store to get some last minute items and I told the woman there about my turkey and how it had come with the head and feet. She told me that they leave them on so people can make soup out of them!!! I don't believe I will eat turkey or chicken soup here, ever! Although, Larry did say if anyone wanted any he would make it and bring some back to the states for Christmas!




Just to give you an idea of how these two turkeys compared--check this out. You may notice all the feathers? I had to practically tear the skin apart to get them off! This is the first turkey I have ever cooked that I didn't take even one bite of the skin! I told Larry that neither Tracie nor Danielle would have touched the turkey much less cooked and eaten it! (Note the feathers around the end of the leg!)



My next plan for dinner was to make an apple pie. They have great apples here and I bought enough to make a pie. There was one problem--no pie pans here (or at least in Belforte). So I bought an aluminum pizza pan and folded up the sides to make my own pie pan! It doesn't look very attractive, but hopefully will still taste good! I had plenty of dough left to make my mom's famous crust with cinnimon and sugar on it. We finished that off before we even had the turkey in the oven!




I decided to cook the turkey and the thigh and put the leg in the freezer and use it to make soup next week. I made Larry cut the end off the leg to get rid of the feathers! He did not like that chore at all.


Here's a look at how our turkeys turned out and the apple pie too! The turkey tasted great, the gravy was okay but not scrumptious, and the pie was delicious!

Bummer man, just when I went to add the picture of me holding the turkey and thigh I realized I had accidently erased it! So, I guess you will just have to see me eating the pie!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!































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