Christmas Turkey

Growing up in Canada we always had turkey for Christmas, regardless whether Christmas was at our house or at my aunts. To me turkey is synonymous with Christmas and to not eat turkey during this time, well it's just not Christmas to me. Now some families eat roast duck or goose and some eat roast beef but my family has always eaten turkey and of course ham. Ham I can do without but not turkey.



For the first seventeen years in Malaysia I have celebrated Christmas without turkey. When my husband died and the kids and I were unceremoniously kicked out of the company house we were staying in, I started to cook turkey at Christmas time in our new house. In the beginning the cost of a turkey weighing in at almost five kilos was affordable but as the years went by the cost of turkey kept going up until I was paying between $160.00 to $180.00 for a lousy turkey. The last year that I had invited around seventy people over for Christmas, I had had to buy two turkeys as one wasn't enough.That year I had forked out almost RM400.00 just for turkey. There was also the year a shortage of turkeys was being forecast and the price escalated, so this year I was beginning to think that we would not be enjoying turkey for Christmas, after all its not steak we are eating its just turkey.



The reason why I say just turkey is because in Canada turkey is cheap. This August when I was home in Canada my brother in law deep fried a whole turkey for us when we went to his place. My sister informed me that she had bought the turkey on offer for less then a dollar a pound which would make the cost of the turkey less then $10.00 Canadian or around RM30.00.
Turkey in Canada is the center of a meal for Easter and Thanksgiving as well. Everyone enjoys their roast turkey with a good home made stuffing and I have to admit that I make a good kick ass stuffing. Well at least my kids like it. Unfortunately paying almost RM200.00 for a turkey just did not sit well with me.



At first I couldn't find a turkey but this past Sunday I spotted in the newspaper that turkey was on offer in Giant for only RM18.99 per kilo for that day only. Of course I quickly got my hiney over to Giant to buy my turkey. By time I got there there weren't many left and I managed to get a bird weighing in at 4.7 kilos for only RM89.15. I grabbed one. This year for Christmas we will be having our turkey and stuffing and I can't wait. I can see myself now preparing Christmas dinner with a glass of whiskey at my side or a Bailey's Irish Creme, two excellent choices and once again Christmas will be saved.