Turkey cookin

So... Julie asked me why I hadn't told this story and really she is right, it is pretty funny in hindsight.

The day before Christmas Joshs mom got really, really sick.  She always cooks the turkey and ham so we have never had to do it before.  Well Friday morning I got a call from Julie saying mom is really sick, we need to spend the day cooking for her so she doesn't have to do it.  OK.... how hard can cooking a turkey be?!

We brought it to my house and stared at it for awhile trying to figure out where to begin.  We started by pulling out the neck and ripping the heart off the hind end.  But there was this huge piece of plastic stuck in its butt that would not budge, it was still a bit to icy inside.  We searched around for the giblets package but realized they didn't put one in this bird.  We waited ever so patiently for the dang bird to thaw but it was taking forever so I got this great idea to go and get my blow dryer and stick it in the birds rear end,  Julie held the birds legs apart and  it was working wonderfully until we started smelling hair product, so we ended that idea.  It had gone on just long enough to thaw it enough to get out the plastic piece.

We put the bird in and 6 hours later it was done.  In the meantime Joshs mom called and asked if we had pulled the giblet and heart package out and cooked it for Josh, I explained that there was no package and the heart was attached to the bird above the rear end.  She sounded very suspicious of the whole thing but said... "well ok."  I decided to be nice and cook the neck and heart for Josh since he loves them.  After they were done I proudly told him to eat up.  He refused saying that is was obviously not the heart since it had bones in it and skin on it and wanted to know what the heck it was.  Julie and I fought for awhile with him until Julie was cutting up the bird and found the giblet and heart package cooked inside the bird.  We then had to figure out what the heck that heart was, we came to the conclusion it was the tail.  I guess we should have figured it out when we had to rip it from the hind end of the bird.

I also should say... have you ever seen a turkey neck??  A few years ago Julie saw the neck and asked if it was the turkeys "dinger"... we explained if it was it would drag on the ground when the turkey ran.  So everytime I looked at the neck while cooking I imagined this turkey having this "dinger".

We took the cooked bird out to Joshs mom and dads and told them the story of the bird cooking and after laughing so hard I thought they might pee themselves, they told us we should show Martha Stewart how to cook a bird!

It ended up being pretty tasty, but it was quite the experience.  Now we know and will be great turkey cookers!