Brined

Let me start by saying, it was a strange Thanksgiving. Last weekend we were all set - we planned to be off to Maria's for a (as always) wonderful Puerto Rican/Traditional Thanksgiving meal - and as is the usual state of affairs around here, everyone got sick. At the last minute, all plans were scrapped, and we were on our own. No biggie, we've done harder things than this, so we bolt out on Wednesday and get a turkey, a ham, the fixins for a lasagna, some yams, rolls, etc... Grocery receipt still warm from the register, Sara is passed out on the couch in a flu induced coma, and I'm left to ponder the meal. For some reason I think to myself, lets make this turkey as if I was a grandmother.
So I brine it. Pot of water, some salt, some brown sugar, some bay, a few other things within reach - and I slowly submerge the bird... down she goes into the brine, down she goes into the basement refrigerator, down my throat goes some cough medicine, a few motrin, an actifed, and down I go onto the floor.
Flash forward twenty four hours, and the bird makes a quick appearance upstairs again before she is dusted with a little adobo and tossed into the oven. As far as the bird goes, thats it. Really. Didn't do a spot of work... and let me tell you, I don't care if you deep fried your turkey this year... smoked it, cooked it in wine, marinated it for three weeks or cooked it in an antique clay pot underground - my turkey was better. I don't know why, but the brine worked some sort of magic. It came out to the table looking pretty ordinary, and looked a little better than average when I sliced into it... then I took a bite... suddenly I could focus only on the turkey, and everything else around it seemed to blur and shudder as if I was looking through a fisheye lens, or I was Frodo and I had for the first time slipped onto my finger the one true turkey. One turkey to rule them all, one turkey to find them, and one turkey to bring them all and in the darkness bind them, in the land of Mordor where the shadows lie.
Sorry about that. Really though, it was pretty damn good. Juicy... So for the first Thanksgiving in my life, I was thankful for the turkey.