Thursday 30 December 2010

How to cook your Christmas turkey in the dishwasher and live to tell the tale

So, a week before Xmas my oven decides to stop working. All the local shops can't deliver a new one for 6 weeks, and I have 7 for Christmas dinner... aarrrgghhh!

So what did I do? I turned to trusty Twitter and Facebook for an answer. After posting out my plea, I received back many ideas:

  • microwave it
  • BBQ it
  • deep fry it
  • cook it in the dishwasher
Yep, that's right, cook it in the dishwasher.

Now, I admit that one of the other three options must be easier than the dishwasher suggestion, but come on - when have I backed down in the face of a challenge? The dishwasher it must be!

I told the family and they looked at me aghast. "Cook the turkey... in the dishwasher....?" All except Leigh, who said "What a great idea for a blog post!" (glad to see she inherited my nose for drama ;) )

And so, on Xmas morning we duly got out the turkey:


Well, to be honest it was a Chapon not a turkey as such, but it once had feathers and laid eggs so I'm not quibbling :)

The recipes I found online said to wrap it in stemaing bags - we didn't have any so we extra quadruple wrapped it in thick turkey foil while we were running the dishwasher through on empty to make sure it was clean.



Then into the dishwasher it went:




Here's the turkey in it's home for the next few hours:




It was a 3.5KG bird, so we put it through 4 cycles at the highest temperature (75 deg) - checking it after each cycle to see if it really was cooking. Leigh was on standby with chicken nuggets if it didn't, and Shaun mentioned many times how glad he was having fish that could be cooked in the microwave (wuss!)

After 4 cycles, we unwrapped it and took a look:



It was cooked! OK, it was a bit pale and anaemic looking, but nothing a quick blast in the microwave grill and copious amounts of gravy couldn't sort out.

Most importantly, it tasted yummy - moist, flavourful, and very definitely edible - with not a trace of detergent to be found ;)

The rest of the Christmas dinner was cooked in the halogen oven we borrowed, in pans and in the microwave, so it was a bit of a 'take it as you find it' affair, but all in all it worked well and everyone had a lovely Christmas dinner, as well as having created a bit of a talking point!

 They tell me I'm brave to have tried it on such an important meal; there's a thin line between bravery and stupidity; I'm not sure which side I'm on LOL!

So for those of you who thought it couldn't be done - it can! For those of you who thought I wouldn't do it - I did! And for those of you who want to try it - do it! It really didn't take much longer than cooking the traditional way, and the end result was most pleasant.

What would you have done with your Christmas turkey if your oven broke a few days before Christmas?

















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Tuesday 14 December 2010

A morning in the life of a multi tasking Mummy

Image representing iPhone as depicted in Crunc...Image via CrunchBaseI know us women are supposed to be able to multi task, but what a day so far today!

07.30: Wake up to find that baby O has vomited all over her bed in the night and then slept in it!

07.45: Put Baby O in bath and change bed

08:00: Feed Baby O her breakfast as she is all smiles

08.15: Clean up the sofa, carpet, high chair, floor and ME as Baby O has vomited everywhere again

08:30: Find out that the internet in the house isn't working, and the Doctor's isn't open until 2pm

08:35: Frantically try to rearrange Skype mentoring calls as no Internet or phone lines, while entertaining a miserable 9 month old

09:00: Nanny arrives to look after 9 month old while I go to Macdonald's to get free Wifi

09:30: Arrive at Macdonald's to find I've forgotten my purse and there's no plug to plug my laptop in. Also the 'a,bient' music is so loud I can't make Skype calls...

10:00: Happily have rescheduled all calls, explained situation to clients, and found some money in my pocket for a coffee and a muffin.

10:30: Important emails done, can now go home and continue working on my iPhone

10:45: Go to car to find that battery is flat and car won't start. Go back into Macdonald's to start up laptop to charge phone as battery is dead on that also!

11:00: Telephone friend to get her to come and pick me up

11:15: Think friend is lost - standing in freezing cold outside McD's

11:30: Friend turns up, takes me home. 9 month old still not well, so start other car to go get petrol to be able to get to pharmacy after doc's appointment

11:35: Get to petrol station and realise still don't have purse - drive home again, pick it up and fill up with fuel. Doc's not open until 2pm

11:45 Get internet tehering on iPhone working for internet access, Skype still crap

12:00: Finally get a cup of decent coffee!

Baby O is ok, just has an upset tummy - we'll be off to the doc's at 2pm! One car is still stranded at McD's, but luckily the other one is running (although my penchant for old cars may work against me here!).

I still have a days work to do - and I'm knackered :)























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