Thanksgiving

I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner this year.  It was also my first turkey.  I didn't know what I was doing, but I did my research online, and the results of the dinner were a big hit.

For the turkey, I had always heard that brining it with spices was the way to go.  So I started with Martha Stewart's brining recipe because I figured I could trust her.  I studied other brining recipes and discovered that many of them used juices to replace some of the water, so I did that as well.  I substituted orange and cranberry juices for some of the water along with some apple cider.  Since the recipe called for juniper berries, I added some Tasmanian pepper berries because they have a smell that is reminiscent of juniper.  I added some voatsiperifery, Ashanti pepper and cubeb to the black pepper.  Voatsipifery goes well with white meats, so it seemed a safe bet.  Since I was adding fruit juices, I added some of my dried Indian fruits: aamla, kokum, amchur and anardana.  Along with the bay leaves, I added some boldo leaves, because they can be used in a similar fashion.  Since fennel was on the list, I added radhuni, ajwain, and black cumin just because I had them.  And then I added some grains of paradise because I like them. 

The result was the most flavorful turkey I had ever had.  It was a big hit with everyone.

For the mashed potatoes, I added garlic and parsley.  For the pepper, I used black pepper as well as both kinds of long pepper which I crushed in a mortar and pestle.  I also added some alligator pepper and korarima as well.  I liked the potatoes very much, but they were not as popular.  Some thought them to have too much of a burn, but that is what I liked about them.