Cooking a Turkey at 10:00PM...

What kind of crazy am I to be cooking a turkey at 10:00 at night? Yes, that sounds pretty nutso but I have a good reason (that’s what they always say lol). Danny had to go to the ER for his headache again tonight so while I put my turkey in the oven at 5:00pm I had to turn it off at 6:00pm so we just got back home and I had to finish cooking it. I didn’t take an hour and two minutes of my life to thaw a turkey in the microwave to turn around and let it ruin! So I think it will take at least another hour and a half to get it completely done so now I have that much time to kill…what am I going to do? Taking a nap sounds really good, but it’s almost bedtime (well actually it IS bedtime but…) and I don’t want to have to wake up after I fall asleep because I’m too tired to mess with all that. But now I’m wondering how long to you let a turkey cool before you can put it in the refrigerator? I’d really like to be in bed and sleeping before midnight, I just don’t know if it’s going to happen for me. I think cooking a turkey this late makes you a dedicated person, if not totally crazy, because you promised your family a cooked turkey (even if they can’t eat it fresh out of the oven because they are all sleeping!). I also think it makes you economical, because I didn’t waste the $10.00 it cost me, plus the gas to get there and back, plus the time in my life I used to go and get it. Thus, the $10.00 will fill my stomach several times over, the gas was a necessity to see that happen, and my time, well I think I’ve said enough. (LOL) I wonder if I’m delirious at this point in time from lack of sleep that’s keeping me going to make this turkey. Well that and I wanted to try Emril’s recipe from the Food Network. I am just determined to see this done tonight. What’s funny is it’s going to be a lightly smoked turkey because something spilled in the bottom of the oven so smoke is coming up and it’s also making the house a little smokey too. Either this turkey is going to be the best we’ve ever had, or it will be the worse because I left it sitting in an off oven for three plus hours while we were away. It will either be juicy and wonderful, or dry like a mouth full of sand. I think I will be a good wife and let Danny try the turkey out first. Yes I will give of myself in more than just cooking for him; I’ll let him be the first to try it too. God loves a giving heart, right? I’ll even let him have the turkey skin (oh come on you know it’s the best part of the turkey!) too! Well maybe not all the skin, but a good portion of it. Well it does look as though the couch is temporarily calling my name. We’ll just think of it as a short snooze before bedtime, a pre-nap to the long nap. Yes I think I’ll nap before my turkey and after it too, because I can have the best of both worlds! Now as long as I hear that timer go off, everything will be fine otherwise, Mr. Tom may be helpless this year. No I’ll get up and take care of Mr. Tom, I didn’t go to all this trouble just to see him go to waste. Now for that short nap…

Melissa Fitzwilliam