The Thanksgiving Turkey

              Have you noticed that any reference to Thanksgiving brings up the topic of Turkey? Right after Halloween and up until Thanksgiving, turkey is a much talked about item. Turkeys for the turkey drive!  Which kind to buy? generic or butterball? how to cook it? Roast it or fry it? Where is the turkey platter?......But Thanksgiving afternoon, it is all about tryptophan and leftover recipes.  Suddenly, the much treasured bird has had its sauna treatment in our ovens.....and poof! All gone....or almost.

              The idea of cooking Turkey the American way was so intimidating the first year we were here, I bought a rotisserie chicken and stuck it in the middle of the table and called it a Turkey. My kindergartener son, insisted that the Turkey was way too small and kept asking me if I picked the right bird.  SILENCE.

                The next year I manned up and decided to buy myself a Turkey, a day before Thanksgiving.  There was no currying this baby up. None of my Indian cooking  savvy was going to come handy here.  So I relented and gave in....to the American way. Now, no one told me you have to thaw the Turkey for days before you cook it. So the thawing in my house happened in the locked bathroom, in the tub. Not cool because it took several months for my husband and I to erase the image of the huge 20 pound turkey bobbing in the water. Why 20 pounds you ask? I don't know. I saw one and picked it up.

                 To top it off, my husband ate the mashed potatoes, the gravy, the corn, the cranberry sauce and the green bean casserole. Not a bite of the tub thawed, well browned  and a bit burnt turkey. The kids did better. The following years, he has graduated to eating 2 bites of the bird bringing me to the realization of maybe this whole thing was more fun only until the bird actually made it into the oven. Not as much fun when it comes out. No fun when I had to struggle with stuffing the stuffing. No fun at all while it sits there all ready to eat and the family avoids it like a plague, year after year. Sometimes, you just have to stop fighting it. Then one year, my parents suggested we cook Turkey biriyani.

                   I have a feeling that this year, the turkey is going to be a no-show at my house. So as Facebook explodes with pictures of Turkey on Thanksgiving that everyone so happily posts, my family will possibly have a Turkey biriyani, made the Indian way! Who knows there might be a picture of it on fb later.