You can thaw it out by putting it in water. It thaws faster. You could also use a flame-thrower, but I don't recommend it because it leaves a napalm taste. As for cooking, watch the Food Network. Alton Brown has good ways of cooking turkey. Also, if you don't like how long it takes, consider cutting the bird up first (legs, thighs, breasts, wings, etc.) and cooking them separately. It's easier to control that way. (Dark meat has fat and can take longer without going dry, whereas breasts can dry out quickly. It's actually a good idea to cut them apart and cook them separately.) Also, if you're really nervous about this, pay attention to the gravy. Make good gravy and it can cover for your sins. Try some gravy recipes before Thanksgiving, so when the day comes, you know what you're doing. When in doubt, add bacon.
I'll just wrap the whole thing in bacon and bake it. That should do the trick! My arteries will hate me for it.
Invest in a food thermometer. I got mine from ebay. Make sure you cover the bird for the first couple of hours to stop it burning on the top. Yes, you can defrost in water but make sure it's cold water. Using hot water to defrost will cause bacteria to form that will give you food poisoning. If you get a food thermometer, once the meat reaches 75 degrees c or above, it's cooked, just make sure you take the temp from the thickes part of the meat.
Tonight for supper I'll be having Salisbury Steak Pizza. I've never had this type of pizza before up until six months ago or so.
My daughter requested I make me Aztec Soup for tomorrow. She loved it growing up. I use a variety of spices, butternut squash, quinoa (yeah, yeah, not Aztec, I know), corn, serrano chiles, tomatoes, vegetable stock, etc. Garnish with avocado,Crema Mexicana, and corn tortillas.
I'm on Thanksgiving duty tomorrow. Usually it's just me and my roomie, but tomorrow we're having a guest. Roomie's guest. And roomie surprised me yesterday by saying that my turkey usually turns out dry, and he didn't mind if it was only him, but seein' as how we have a guest tomorrow, maybe I should up my game or get a ham instead of turkey. I broke out the flamethrower and toasted him. No, not really. Singed him a bit. We're going for ham AND turkey. And mashed potatoes and asparagus (I think) and pumpkin pie. Not much else. No stuffing, because neither of us like stuffing. Stuffing is dumb.
[/QUOTE] Toasted, not roasted! And I didn't taste it. I just kinda tossed it out. (And then let it back in, because it's the legal owner of the house, etc.)
I'm Canadian so we kinda get two thanksgivings. One in October which is our thanksgiving. But with the sales on for the Americans we usually grab a turkey and have another thanksgiving meal- Any opportunity to eat turkey and pumpkin pie. Plus I love making turkey soup with the left overs.
YES! I love turkey soup! I used to love Mom's turkey soup almost more than Thanksgiving dinner itself. To me, the best thing about Thanksgiving was the leftovers - soup being the best! I now make a killer turkey soup myself. Took Mom's recipe and jazzed it up a bit. It's great!
My Sunday Thanksgiving is always better than my Thursday one, IMO. That side of the family makes incredible ham, turkey and berry pie.
That sounds like a very interesting pie! Any pie with ham, turkey, and berries in it will get my attention.
Oh yes. I've lived here nearly 29 years, and I still can't get my head around that one. I mean, it's not awful or anything, but ...why? Once a Yank, always a Yank, I guess! All this talk of Thanksgiving meals is making me hungry. And I've just been to the dentist, so all I'm getting is pureed soup. Blah.
Wow!, Best T-Day dinner in ages. My son's girlfriend's mother worked all day in the kitchen while we took the ferry over here to the peninsula they live on. Everything was fantastic!. The two weird looking salads, the kind you might be afraid to eat at a potluck, were wonderful. One was kale and all sorts of nice added things. The other was pineapple and some bok choy looking things I didn't recognize, but it was excellent. The dressing was superb, the turkey cooked to juicy perfection, the gravy excellent, the mashed potatoes heaven. And homemade biscuits, I can't leave out the homemade biscuits with butter. Yum. I was worried when I saw the spread of unfamiliar foods, you never know. But what a perfect dinner it turned out to be, topped off with delicious chocolate pecan pie and lots of fun conversation. There were five of us from the 60s-70s generation who had histories in common though I'd only met the parents once. There was an uncle (Dad's brother) and his wife in from Montana whom I'd never met. It was like visiting with old friends.
Our Thanksgiving turkey turned out really well! Tasty and juicy, and the gravy was amazing! (This was all my doing, so it's a big pat on my own back!) Our guest made an amazingly great salsa and we all spent the afternoon munching on that, along with crackers with smoked oysters (there are very few things I like more than smoked oysters). I feel extremely fat right now.
feel quite sad that we don't have any kind of thanksgiving-type-thing over here in the UK :-( Will just have to hang on until Christmas!
You never know, strange things happen. I can't recall Sweden ever having a Black Friday before, yet it's been everywhere this year. Who knows, maybe we'll get Thanksgiving by next year (and turkeys, Sweden really needs a holiday where we can eat turkeys).