Aluminum Roasting Pans are For the Birds!

     Last week I roasted a turkey and made all the fixin's for stepson Tyler's birthday.  We actually bought the turkey at Christmas and froze it...which is a great way to take advantage of those Thanksgiving/Christmas supermarket specials for turkeys. I think we paid about 69 cents a pound for this bird. 

     I was dressing the bird when it donned on me I'd tossed out my old roasting pan. I'd had it for about 25 years and it finally bit the dust. So I ran down to the market and purchased a disposable aluminum roasting pan for $5.00. Yikes! I stood in line at the checkout thinking, "Why do we run all over town looking for the best buys on turkeys if I'm gonna pay $5.00 to roast it?" I said as much to the clerk, who made some offhanded remark about it being worth 5 bucks not to have to scrub the pan. I heartily disagreed, but kept my thoughts to myself. But really friends, has it come to that...are we now so lazy that we'll fork over 5 dollars to keep from scrubbing one pan? What's the world coming to???

     Back home I washed the roasting pan that, according to the clerk, I wouldn't have to wash. Hmmm. But the real insult came when it was time to remove the turkey from the oven. I donned my oven mitts, grabbed the pan firmly at each end and slowly lifted the 20 lb bird out of the oven. About halfway out of the oven the center of the flimsy pan buckled and about 6 cups of grease cascaded out the sides...1/2 of it went all over my legs and feet, the rest spilled back into the oven...causing flames to shoot out at me!
I quick set the turkey on the counter, turned off the oven and shut the door to smother the fire, then dashed the bathroom to douse my burned legs and feet with cold water. That was it! As I Koda and I wiped turkey grease off the floor-she with her tongue and me with a towel-I vowed never again to cook a turkey in a disposable pan. It's not good for the environment, it's not good for the pocket book, and it's just not safe!

     Since then I've been pricing big roasting pans on line. They're not cheap. I figured I would have to spend around 40 to 70 dollars for one. So I was pretty tickled today when I spotted this enamelware beauty in Goodwill for $3.99!

It's a beauty, and I paid less for this than for the throw-away pan!

Roses and rudbeckia, a beautiful contrast.