Thanksgiving redux

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving, that it was what you wanted it to be, whether with family or friends, a huge meal or a snack, football games or a movie.

Thanksgiving is my favorite of the holidays. It's secular, so everyone can enjoy it, it's not a necessary night function (we have trouble staying up to welcome in the new year and lest you think that a condition of ageing, we had trouble in our twenties also), and it draws, like a magnet, good feelings with family and friends. It's a carefree holiday.

Unless you're the cook.

We had 9 at table yesterday at lunch, related by blood or marriage to them all. In the past, when it might have been just the four of us, we'd cast our net around for families too far from theirs to go home and invite them to our table. We had some lovely celebrations that way.

My mother-in-law brought the cornbread dressing and gravy per her son's request. He knows that dressing is not my strong suit at the Thanksgiving table. I know it's not at any table. He figures he saved the day. I'm thinking it was one less thing for me to grapple with, to grapple with unsuccessfully even, and we all won. We even got to keep the leftovers. Double win.

That left me with the salads, fruit and veggie, one of the desserts, sauteed spinach (we voted online), and, of course, the guest of honor, the turkey.

Ever since I saw Emeril brine a turkey on Good Morning America in 2002 (I think), I have stuck to this old but wonderful method of turkey prep. Only problem is, it's dicey. Just where in the refrigerator does one put a 14-pound bird covered in juices, salt, and water and stuffed into a garbage bag which will have to be turned at least once? The easy answer is 'anywhere the turkey fits.' The hard answer is: very carefully on the bottom shelf trying not to spill the bag over the edges of the roasting pan. At this point in the prep, I always wish I'd just got a turkey breast.

Then I saw Sandra Lee on The Food Network roast a bird on a bed of carrot and celery sticks. Ooh--no sticking! She made a great butter mix to go under the skin and filled the cavity with fresh herbs. It just got better and better.

Somehow though there's always last minute prep and I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off (okay, turkey) and my husband asks: Is there anything else in the refrigerator? As if. It's all out! How could there be anything left in the fridge when we're eating it all? Then halfway through dessert I remember the homemade cranberry sauce. Like we needed that.

But it was very good on the leftover rolls at supper.