Brown Bag Turkey + Friendsgiving
Last weekend, Ken and I hosted our friends at our apartment and had our last Thanksgiving as an unmarried couple. We sent out invitations using Paperless Post, moved all of our furniture into our bedroom so we could make room for a nice table and chairs, and cleaned the apartment from top to bottom. Also, we tried making the turkey using a brown bag method that I learned last year during a Thanksgiving luncheon with Laura’s friend. The turkey was the moistest turkey I’ve ever tasted and I wanted to recreate it for our friends this year. Our friends all brought food, too, and we had a really fun night eating and playing lots of competitive bananagrams. If you’re still looking for a way to make your turkey this year, I recommend checking out the spatchcock method or the brown bag method below.
I purchased a turkey at Whole Foods, brined it using an old recipe, and roughly cut some veggies to stuff into the cavity of the turkey:
I used celery, carrots, onions and garlic and whatever didn’t fit into the inside of the turkey, I just put it around the turkey. Before I put it into the oven, I made my herb butter mixture and placed it between the skin and the meat. I also rubbed the entire turkey in olive oil (it prevents the skin from sticking to the bag:
Then, Ken and I opened up two paper bags from Trader Joe’s, stapled them together, and then placed them around the turkey and the aluminum container:
I also sprayed a little water on the paper bag:
I placed it into a pre-heated oven (375 degrees) and let it bake for about two and a half hours. The paper doesn’t burn because it’s only 375 degrees and paper burns at 451 and the turkey browns REALLY well:
It’s beautiful!
We had guests over around 7:30 for dinner and everyone brought great dishes – here are some of them:
More good food:
My first plate of food:
Wai-Sing and Mike getting their first plate of food:
And Stephane and David getting food on the assembly line:
We drank a ton of wine, ate some great apple pie that Kristen made, and played bananagrams until very late into the night. It was my fourth Friendsgiving dinner and I hope we continue the tradition even after we’re married! How are you celebrating Friendsgiving or Thanksgiving? Wishing you and your family lots of love.
