This turkey ain’t a turkey

I’m having two Thanksgivings this year.

Since my moms-in-law are visiting us this week, we had turkey with all the fixings yesterday. We’ll do it again on Thanksgiving with friends. What I forget every year, until I do it again, is how much I like cooking a turkey.

It’s simple, hands-off, and the results are always great. Why can’t all food be this easy to fix? The smell makes everyone happy, and there are leftovers. It’s a perfect food.

I think the turkey industry is missing a bet. Except for an occasional Easter turkey, we only cook a turkey in November and December. Why doesn’t the turkey lobby convince us all to have turkey once a month? We don’t do it now because it’s almost impossible to find a turkey and if you do, it’s really expensive. But that could change.

Maybe the turkey growers don’t want us eating whole turkey year-round. Perhaps the industry’s doing fine with the Thanksgiving turkey formula. I once saw a Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe where he went to a turkey farm. It seemed like a lot of work and a very dirty (and noisy) job.

I don’t think the amount of turkey I eat in a year is going to increase, so I’m going to enjoy the couple I get to make. I’m just glad it’s so easy to get tasty results. All I need to be happy at Thanksgiving dinner is turkey and cranberry sauce. What do you like best?