Thanksgiving

So Thanksgiving was supposed to be super chill this year.

We were going to go to our fave Chinese place with Corey the day before and feast on the leftovers and turkey sandwiches the next day.

Clearly, that didn't happen.

Wednesday morning, I was informed that a wonderful benefactor had left me a frozen turkey. Awesome!!! But WTF do I do. I'd never cooked a turkey before. Thank God for the internet.

I immediately started looking for the easiest and fastest ways to cook a 14lb turkey. 

I decided to go with spatchcocking. 

After deciding on sides, I settled with glazed carrots (Alton Brown recipe, yum), a standard green bean casserole, ready made mashed potatoes, canned cranberry sauce (Corey has a thing for the ribbed jelly kind), and some mashed candied sweet potatoes (I totally winged it and they were yummy; cannot go wrong with brown sugar, eggnog, Fireball, and marshmallows). 

I named him Tarquin.

The spatchcocking was harder than we expected. We thankfully had coated the counter with plastic wrap because there was turkey blood everywhere. Corey and I semi successfully ripped out most of the spine, I pulled out the innards and a pink block of blood ice (ewwwww). 

The sides went off without a hitch. 

As did the pumpkin pie.

A final look at Tarquin all covered in bacon. Before and after. 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!