I love to cook and THE BIG THANKSGIVING DINNER is my favorite meal! Roasting a turkey is not hard. In fact, that's probably the easiest part of the whole meal and there are some great turkeys out there now that are self-basting and have pop-out timers... really no-fail products. You can't screw it up, unless you forget to turn on the oven!

You've got to first select your turkey. The guideline is to get two pounds for each person you are serving. So if you are serving eight people, then you would need a 16 lb. turkey. I always get mine larger than that, because we love leftovers. I would get one that says self-basting on the wrapper and/or one that has a pop-out timer on it. With these, you really just stick them in the oven for the appropriate amount of time and the oven does all the work.

If you buy it ahead of time, you'll need to freeze it. Check the wrapping for thawing instructions. Larger turkeys may take three or four days to thaw in the fridge, if they are frozen first. You do NOT want to wake up Thanksgiving morning and deal with thawing a frozen turkey, so it is easier to thaw it in the fridge. Check the wrapping for thaw times and also for cook times, so you will know when to put it in the oven. A good-sized turkey can take four hours to cook.

When you are ready to cook the turkey, preheat your oven to whatever temp is listed on the wrapping. Remove all wrappings, including taking the nasty little packet out of the inner cavity of the turkey. This contains the neck, heart, giblets, etc. (You can boil these later to make a base for gravy, if you want. If you aren't making gravy, then just throw it out.) Wash the turkey with cool water inside and out, pat dry with a paper towel, then set it on a wire rack in a pan breast-side up. (You can get disposable ones that work fine, if you don't have a roasting pan.) Salt the inside cavity of the turkey. I also sprinkle a little poultry seasoning in there, too. Rub margarine on the outside of the bird and sprinkle with salt and poultry seasoning. If you are using stuffing, stuff the bird. Most wrappings will advise you to cover lightly with foil for the first few hours of cooking and remove towards the end of the cooking time to lightly brown the skin. This keeps the skin moist and from getting burned.

Cook for whatever cook time is listed on the wrapper, or until the pop-out timer pops out. If you don't get a self-basting turkey, then get some liquid chicken broth, warm it in a pan on the stove with a half stick of butter. Once the butter is melted and the broth and butter mixed to a liquid, you can baste the turkey with that, if desired. It's important to not poke holes in the bird while cooking, because all the juices will run out. You do not need to check it to see if it is "done" this way. Just let the timer do the work.

In my opinion, what makes the turkey is the stuffing. Store-bought is okay, but it's really easy to make great homemade stuffing. Just tear up two loaves of bread. (Hamburger buns, hot dog buns, whatever you have on hand.) It might take three loaves, if you want some more leftover to cook in the oven outside the turkey. Dice up some onion and celery, lets say a cup or two each, depending on how much bread you use. Sautee those in one stick of butter, sprinkle a little salt, pepper and poultry seasoning on top. When those are cooked, pour in about a cup of chicken broth and heat. Then you just pour the onion, celery, broth mixture over the bread and mix it all together. You want the bread to soak up the liquid, but it shouldn't be soggy and it shouldn't be too dry, either. If it seems too dry, you can always sprinkle more broth on it until it is evenly damp. Use this to stuff the turkey and heat any leftover that wouldn't fit into the turkey in a glass casserole dish in your oven for about thirty minutes at 350°F. It's yummy stuffing and very easy!

If you want to do a trial run, go out and buy a Purdue Ovenstuffer chicken at your grocery store. It is basically the same thing, but on a smaller scale and using a chicken instead of a turkey. I have a fabulous recipe for Pumpkin Cheesecake if anyone is interested... it has totally replaced the traditional pumpkin pie at my Thanksgiving meal. It's to die for! I posted it in the recipe section.

~ Anne ~