Nov-Dec-2015_Pg 11_no bleed

the Holiday Entertaining issue

The Bird’s The Word by Suzette Norris

I t was a holiday panic attack unlike any other. The kind that can bring even the most seasoned cook to the kitchen floor. Just before Thanksgiving last year my mother Sylvia was adjusting to a new neighborhood, new house in Metairie and a new kitchen after nine years of post-Katrina exile in Baton Rouge.My sister Amy agreed to hostThanksgiving dinner, but my mother always cooks the turkey — no matter where we eat. Sylvia has 40+ years of cooking big birds, and every year you can count on her getting even the white meat just right. That morning she got up at 5:30 and made her way to the kitchen. She didn’t have

her glasses on but didn’t really need them. Everything was prepped and ready. She popped the turkey in the oven, set the timer and headed back to bed. She turned around to check and make sure she had covered the whole breast with the butter-soaked cheesecloth (her technique for keeping the meat moist). When she tugged on the oven door it wouldn’t open.That’s when the panic appeared. Instead of “bake,” Sylvia had mistakenly pushed the self-clean button. I can imagine her squinting through the door window at the 30-pound bird trapped inside an oven set to reach 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Sylvia had no clue what do. If you think about it, a piece of glass starts to

get soft and liquefy at about 900 degrees. What was going to happen to her bird? The classic golden glaze turned crusty charcoal — or worse? Luckily, Sylvia did not have to find out. She got hold of herself and realized she could change the self-clean timer from six hours to one minute. The door opened after 60 seconds, and the bird was saved.“Oh, nobody ever knew the difference,” she said later as if the whole thing was just a nuisance. You know, the typical holiday setback. And nobody did. The bird was roasted to a perfect golden brown, carved and eaten … one more reason to be thankful that night.

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MY ROUSES EVERYDAY NOVEMBER | DECEMBER 2015