Spatchcocked!

Spatchcocked, originally uploaded by Shadrach Meshach & Abednego.

In Canada, there's a great deal of flexibility about when you serve your Thanksgiving dinner. Monday is the statutory holiday, but among my friends, the big dinner is pretty evenly split over Sunday and Monday. We don't have a hard and fast tradition over which day is Turkey Day. This year, it was today.
Did you know that you can speed up the cooking time for a turkey by spatchcocking it? I read about this in The Globe and Mail last week. In spatchcocking (aka butterflying), the backbone is removed** and the breastbone is flattened, and the turkey lies relatively flat. It is most effective for turkeys up to about 14 lbs, and it allows for a faster roasting time. I roasted this 10 lb. turkey in about 1 and a half hours. It just hit the 180 degree mark when I took it out. I think I would have left it in a little while longer, if I weren't getting time-squeezed on the other end by the looming Montreal-Calgary CFL game. I thought I would show a photo of this cutie, who looks like she's just about to do the can-can. Pros of spatchcocking: you can use the top rack of your oven at the same time the turkey is roasting, and it is faster than traditional roasting. Cons: because it is unfamiliar, I found it surprisingly hard to carve - nothing seemed to be in the right place. And if you are a stuffer, I don't know how you would manage. I cook my dressing on the side, so it was no downside for me.
I hope all my Canadian readers had a great Thanksgiving weekend. I am thankful for my family's continued good health, that I have a job to go to tomorrow, and that I am able to indulge myself in quilting and blogging!

**This passive sentence construction allows you to think that I removed the backbone, but honesty requires me to credit my awesome local butcher.