A Horrifying 1st-Time-Cooking-A-Turkey Story

Merry Christmas AND Happy New Year!

I took a little vacation in Bahrain for Christmas where internet is limited so I didn’t have much time to write.

Better late than never…

This Christmas I was annoyingly emotional! The whole month I was battling a frustrating case of homesickness. Out of nowhere and for no good reason. The weather in Dubai was fabulous, I had a Christmas tree up with gifts under it, tourists filled the malls, and still, my mind was in America — Extremely annoying.

Having said this, I want to say a major THANK YOU to those of you that sent me a little Merry Christmas note, Happy New Year wishes, or just an email with an update of what’s going on in your life. They came in at all the right times and made me so warm and fuzzy inside, major happiness in my heart. 🙂

Being in the Middle East, where Christmas isn’t a major holiday, was the hard part I think. I watched episode after episode of “Ellen’s 12 days of Christmas” and I think I cried through each one. The holiday spirit was BOOMING in America and I was missing it. Sure, there was a Christmas tree up in some of the malls in Dubai… But not that frantic Christmas shopping, cookie smelling, ice on the streets, Christmas music everywhere festive style I was missing.

We got to Bahrain on Christmas Eve. We went straight to the store to buy groceries for our Christmas Eve dinner and the grocery store was empty…

^^^^ Did you read that right? – On Christmas Eve – The Grocery Store – Was empty – WHAT?

Now, before I go into anything further about how beautiful the meal was and fabulous the decorations were… Let me take a minute to talk about cooking a turkey.

In the beautiful United States of America, you go to the wonderful grocery store and you find yourself a nice, plump turkey ready for the oven. If you’re really not in the cooking mood you can even find a pre-cooked turkey ready to warm up. MMMM.

In Bahrain, you find a turkey.

A turkey with guts and extra skin parts that should have been removed (I’m imagining/hoping) and no thermometer to tell you “I’m ready to eat”. Which, how can you even think “eat” after sawing off the extra skin parts with a butter knife? *gag*

Preparing this turkey was one of the most disgusting processes I’ve participated in thus far in my life. We went in with trash bags on each hand in order to touch the turkey without gagging to the point of vomiting. Then, how do people know what to take out of the inside?! Is this some kind of common knowledge?! My whole life I’ve been eating these tasty turkeys with no idea the raunchiness behind the cooking! My God, this is barbaric.

In the end, I became a vegetarian.

Just kidding. The turkey worked. Smelled flavorful, probably overcooked, and looked hot and roasted. Delicious, along with the rest of the meal accompanied by super loud Christmas music in the background for all of Bahrain to hear!

Christmas was a succes.. But I am very looking forward to celebrating it in America next year. I hope you all had a Christmas filled with extra joy, happiness, cookies and black wrap dresses. Also, I’m hoping you’re not murdering yourself in depression at work this week. Boo.