It's not thanksgiving, it's March madness!

Sometimes I really do question my sanity. My friend Delilah gave me a 14 lb. turkey a while back, which she wasn't going to use. I've never made a turkey before, so when John and I had a few days off to watch the first round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, I thought, what the heck, let's make turkey. But of course, I had to turn it into a whole production.

So, once again, I turn to Martha Stewart. Since I've never roasted a turkey before, it seemed like a good time to do a trial run. This past thanksgiving, all I heard about was brining, brining, brining, so I decided to brine the turkey. I used a recipe from her website that seemed simpler than the one that she was talking of this past thanksgiving holiday. The biggest challenge was to find a container big enough to fit the brine and turkey. And since it had to sit overnight, a lid was preferable as well. This is really gross, but I used a bucket that originally contained kitty litter, which was completely washed out, and then lined with a garbage bag. Worked like a charm.

Once the turkey was brined (and all the extras were removed, like the neck, heart, liver etc, it was on to making homemade stuffing. Again, a new experience for me, but I thought, what the heck. The recipe was actually quite simple. (And it's called 'simple stuffing', so that's the one I went for!) I used about 1/2 of the stuffing inside of the turkey, and put the other half in a pan to bake in the oven, once the turkey was almost done roasting.

Then it was on to actually roasting the turkey. John had a disposable roasting pan floating around since I moved in, so I decided to use it, since I don't have a roasting pan myself. The turkey barely fit! Since the recipe recommended to have the turkey itself suspended in the pan, I used some ingenuity. Here's the recipe for the roast turkey. The recipe calls for a layer of fresh cut vegetables on the bottom, of which I only used celery, onions and carrots (the only ones I had), which filled the pan. I then took a small cookie rack, that John also had, and turned it upside-down, over the vegetables.

It worked like a charm! The vegetables helped to hold the rack above the pan, and the legs of the baking rack acted like handles, which I could use to lift the turkey up. I found the process of soaking the cheesecloth with the wine and butter mixture pretty easy and interesting as well, and I basted the turkey with a brush every thirty minutes that it was in the oven, which was pretty intensive.

Then it was onto the homemade gravy. I used Martha's Riesling gravy recipe, which turned out really well, but once again, a labor-intensive process. Instead of spending money on Reisling, I just bought a large, inexpensive bottle of pinot grigio, which worked just fine, for both the marinade and the gravy. Then it was onto the giblet stock, which in all honesty, was pretty gross to prepare. But I'm a purist, so on I went! I had to saute the neck, heart and gizzard with other vegetables, and also saute the liver, cut up in small pieces, in another pan. The first saute had to reduce for 45 minutes, then the other parts had to be cut up and the whole thing strained - what a process. But I have to admit, the gravy came out great.

I then made some swiss chard, in a saute as well, and that was it! A wonderful meal that took me well over 24 hours to prepare in all. But it turned out great, especially the turkey, which was tender as hell. And turkey leftovers into eternity! The topper was that John was the winner of the basketball pool that we both enter, of over 35 people.

Happy March madness!