That's me cooking cabbage and having coffee Thanksgiving morning!

Hello everyone! I am keeping my word to share with you the story of the Thanksgiving turkey and the Cajun Microwave.  First let me say, my family and I had wonderful Thanksgiving out at the camp in Butte LaRose.  The weather was cool, but absolutely picture perfect.  I sure hope where ever you were for Thanksgiving you shared it with the people you love. Now, on with the food, that is why you came to my blog, right?

I must tell you, this is the second time my husband and I cook in the Cajun microwave.  Our first experience was cooking a suckling 40 lb. pig.  The pig took 4 hours to cook.  Thus, I estimated the 12 lb. turkey would take no longer than 2 hours.  I was so excited because I scored a fresh, never frozen turkey from a local meat market.  My mom and I brined the bird in sugar and water for 24 hours.

Thanksgiving morning, mom rinsed, patted dry, and cut the turkey open along the backside (to lay flat).  My husband and stepdaughter injected it with Tony Chachere’s Butter Jalapeno Injectable Marinade and sprinkled with Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning.  In the pan, I layered orange and lemon slices and added a cup of white wine.  She was a beautiful bird!

Turkey injected and ready to go into the Cajun Microwave

The turkey went into the cajun microwave at 10:30 am.  We figured we would be eating around 12:30 pm…and we were WRONG!  To make a long story short, we had issues regulating the temperature and were very careful not to spike the temperature too high.  At noon, I told everyone to have a bowl of gumbo, it would be a while until eating time!

Bottom line, it took 4 hours to cook our friend.  Was I upset about this….NO, IT WAS THE BEST THING TO EVER HAPPEN!  Want to know why?  Because my friends, everyone spent the day hanging around the campfire, watching football, visiting, boat riding, having wine and relaxing.  Because the turkey took a little longer than expected, everyone stayed and enjoyed the beautiful scenery the Atchafalaya Basin has to offer.  I think it was my favorite Thanksgiving ever!

Todd putting the bird in the microwave, check out my view of the Basin!

So, bottom line of this blog is not so much to offer up a recipe, but to share with you a cliche, “Stop and smell the roses.”  Enjoy the scenery and the people around you. If you failed to do so for Thanksgiving, guess what, Christmas is just around the corner, you get another shot!

It was truly worth the wait!

I will be heading out for a much needed “magical” vacation, but don’t fret! I have already scheduled a blog to come out next week for you hunters with deer sausage!  So, if I don’t answer your comments, I’m not ignoring you, just playing around with a mouse and duck!

Cindy Adams-Ardoin

Food Scientist

Tony Chachere’s