Showtime

What: Michelle Wright, I'm Dreaming Of A Wright Christmas. Dinner show

When: Friday, Dec. 5. Dinner at 7 p.m., show at 9 p.m.

Where: Hamilton Convention Centre

Tickets: $59.50 for dinner and show (reserved seating, tables of 10); $34.50 for show only. Available at Copps Coliseum box office, ticketmaster.ca or 905-527-7666.

Michelle Wright considers herself something of a culinary craftsperson. She loves cooking, even refers to herself as "the Martha Stewart of country music."

So I was a bit surprised when she told me that she deep-fried a turkey a couple of weeks ago when her husband Marco's family dropped by for a visit to their Nashville home.

"It's really good," she says. "It only takes about an hour. It's quite different than oven-roasted and not something we do a lot. For Thanksgiving (last Thursday in the U.S.), we're doing it more traditional."

Now I'm not the kind of guy who sits at home all afternoon watching cooking shows, but I never really saw Martha Stewart as a deep-fried turkey kind of gal (unless, of course, it was something she picked up in jail). So I Googled for a recipe. Sure enough, up came a Martha Stewart recipe for deep-fried turkey. And, yeah, it only takes three minutes per pound.

The recipe also comes with a warning: "This recipe should be made outdoors; making it in the kitchen is too dangerous."

Well, I guess that's one of the benefits of living in Nashville. You can deep-fry outdoors even in November. All you need is a 10-gallon deep-fryer ... and a good cardiologist. But I digress.

Wright and I are talking turkey because she's coming to the Hamilton Convention Centre Friday for her annual Christmas show. She's been doing these seasonal shows since releasing her Wright Christmas CD three years ago. The album has proved to be one of the most successful for Wright since she rode the country charts in the '90s with hits such as Take It Like A Man. It's filled with standards such as Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Silent Night and White Christmas, as well as her own I Know Santa's Been Here.

Christmas is important to Wright, a native of Chatham, Ont.

"We're a faith-based home," she says. "So that's an important ingredient in our celebration of Christmas. I come from a very traditional family and love to decorate and cook delicious food throughout the holidays, and hang out in front of the fireplace, enjoy the family over and friends, good food and a few gifts. We overeat."

She's also big on getting out and seeing the relatives, which is another reason why this particular tour is important. Wright's mother has joined her in Nashville, but most of her family is spread through southern Ontario -- Chatham, Kitchener and Hamilton, where her brother Steve lives.

"The one thing about touring Ontario is that it requires some extra-special care in attending to all the family," she says.

The show at the Hamilton Convention Centre also includes a special festive dinner -- herb-crusted chicken with a Dijon sauce or roasted top-sirloin of beef and oven roasted potatoes.

But no deep-fried turkey.

grockingham@thespec.com

905-526-3331