Happy Thanksgiving

Thanks. Happy thanksgiving everyone.

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Stay safe and enjoy.

 

Happy Thanksgiving Day to our southern friends. http://bestsmileys.com/thanksgiving/2.gif

 

Happy thanksgiving!

 

Drunk posts FTW!

Happy Thanksgiving all, I'll have a beer or many this evening to celebrate for you all

 

I challenge your glass of wine and raise it to a vodka redbull!

 

Happy Thanksgiving. I helped kill the turkey last night. He was a pain in every possible way, so he's going to taste delicious.

 

Happy Thanksgiving to all of the USA. We had ours already in October and I still feel stuffed!! :-D

 

Happy Turkey Day Early!!

Heading out of town first thing tomorrow morning with a car full of stuff, 3kids and a dog. :wave :cry

 

Perhaps an I-Pod and headphones are in order?

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone south o'the border! :wave

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We already had ours two weekends ago, so this weekend is time for my husband and I to do some of the things we love, so we are going grouse and duck hunting tomorrow, and to the coast for the day on Friday. Saturday we head up into the mountains with our daughter, son-in-law and grand-daughter (who has not seen snow yet!) to cut down our Christmas trees

Enjoy, be safe and thankful for all that you have.

 

I give Thanks To Lev for Rubbing It In. :-D Wow Sounds like a Fantastic weekend. Can't do any of that here in the Desert. :cry
Be safe and Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

My contribution to the dinner is to provide the wine. I like to make it easy for myself, and last year's wine was so popular they have actually asked me to do it again this year. If I play this right, I'll never have to actually work to help out with Thanksgiving dinner again! :wine

 

A Thanksgiving Forecast

Turkeys will thaw in the morning, then warm in the oven to an afternoon high near 190 F. The kitchen will turn hot and humid, and if you bother the cook, be ready for a severe squall or cold shoulder.

During the late afternoon and evening, the cold front of a knife will slice through the turkey, causing an accumulation of one to two inches on plates. Mashed potatoes will drift across one side while cranberry sauce creates slippery spots on the other. Please pass the gravy.

A weight watch and indigestion warning have been issued for the entire area, with increased stuffiness around the beltway. During the evening, the turkey will diminish and taper off to leftovers, dropping to a low of 34 F in the refrigerator.

Looking ahead to Friday and Saturday, high pressure to eat sandwiches will be established. Flurries of leftovers can be expected both days with a 50 percent chance of scattered soup late in the day. We expect a warming trend where soup develops. By early next week, eating pressure will be low as the only wish left will be the bone.

 

Happy Thanksgiving all! And why all the drunk post hate. That is when I do my best posting!:-D

I will be attempting to cook my second turkey! Oh dang, guess I should toss on the wine and spices. Cooking my turkey in a Riesling wine this year.

And for you folks that don't celibrate Thanksgiving, Happy Thursday, get to work!

:-D

 

:eek

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone here. I will never forget One year at Thanksgiving, my mom went to my sister's house
for the traditional feast. Knowing how gullible my sister is,
my mom decided to play a trick.

She told my sister that she needed something from the store. When my sister
left, my mom took the turkey out of the oven, removed the stuffing, stuffed
a Cornish hen into the turkey, and then re-stuffed the turkey.
She then placed the bird(s) back in the oven.

When it was time for dinner, my sister pulled the turkey out of the oven and
proceeded to remove the stuffing. When her serving spoon hit
something, she reached in and pulled out the little bird.

With a look of total shock on her face:eek, my mother exclaimed,
'Mary, you've cooked a pregnant bird!' At the reality of this
horrifying news, my sister started to cry.:cry

It took the family two hours to convince her that turkeys lay eggs! roflmao

 

Dang obnoxious, that is freaking funny! Thanks for the laugh! :-D

 

Fred_G, don't use all the wine on the turkey. Have to have something to drink if it doesn't go right. :-D

obnoxious, with family like that, who needs enemies. roflmao

 

I'm still cooking turkey, even though I'm far away these days. Any excuse will do!:yum

'Turkey survival mechanisms'....

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g309/Zobor/2008_New/turkeys.gif

 

Triaxx, that is what the second bottle of wine is for! It takes one bottle to cook, and one to drink while eating. :wine

 

Happy Thanksgiving US members.

@Fred a friend tossed a bottle of cheap white wine on her turkey (didn't know that quantity and quality count when cooking), YUCK but looks on our faces were amusing. I know you know a lot about wine, so the turkey will turn out yummy and you'll have plenty left to drink while making dinner. Really hard to mess up a turkey unless you over/under cook or spice it. If all else fails there is the butterball hotline *grins*

 

Ew.

That's why I volunteered to get wine last year, the wine the year before was bought by someone who selects wine base on whether the label looks "cute" or not, and who refuses to pay more than $10 for a bottle. Now, there are some reds that will go well with a turkey, especially with all the extras that come with the Thanksgiving meal, but a meek and slightly bitter Pinot Noir is not one of them...

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. http://www.parrottimes.com/forums/images/smilies/happ3.gif

Round two coming up! Shhh.. I have my eye on some pie at the moment. Making sure nobody gets the last of it before I do..

 

Actually, there are 2 sides to what kind of wine to cook with. A very good chef I know cooks turkeys with old chardonnay. As in 9 to 10 year old stuff you would NOT want to drink. His turkeys are awesome! :drool

And then some say cook with what you are going to drink during the meal. Which is what I subscribe to, it just makes sense. I am cooking my second ever turkey with a slightly sweet German Piesporter. Will be drinking the same wine and of course the Beaujolais Nouveau http://www.intowine.com/beaujolais2.html One nice thing about the German wines is they only export high quallity wines. Of course the Beaujolais Nouveau is a tradition at my Thanksgiving dinner. The wine varies in quallity from year to year, but I am always up for a glass of wine!

Well, the turkey has been in the oven for an hour, an dang, it is smelling GOOD! :cool

 

I didn't as we had stew :drool

But I have a ton of chantrelle mushrooms we picked up the mountains today :yum

 

My turkey sucked. It was not fully cooked. I followed the instructions, even cooked it longer than I was supposed to. Epic fail on my part.

Oh well, set the bar nice and low for Christmas dinner! :-D

And the Beaujolais Nouveau, save your money. Yuck. Well, not really that bad but not that good either. Just a dissapointing day for me. Hope your day went better!

 

You might have a cool oven, check it out with an oven thermometer. Might have still been some ice crystals left.

 

Fred Best thing is a good meat thermometer, don't use the popper kind - can't trust them. My oven runs hot after awhile...350 = 375-400 actual. So I have a oven thermometer and always use a good digital meat one too to test thigh meat, plus jiggle legs for extra test.

I use both of the below types

http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=601726
http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=728258

Another failsafe, presettable alarm
http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=658737

My sis-in-law has served under cooked turkey twice now. First year I had to tell guests not to eat and take the serving plate back to the kitchen and cook the sliced meat on the stove while guests ate side dishes for dinner and turkey for dessert.

Next year it had a nicely charred top but undercooked bottom, she put the pastry thermometer in it and became huge plastic bubble in the oven! I could not stop laughing. It was soooo funny seeing this blown glass like bubble sticking out of the turkey, went well with the burnt black stuffing.

Well, to get it right this year my brother had it catered... guess what, blood in the juices,thighs were not done (they used the popper temp thing). I tossed it back into the oven, not stuffed so no worry about people getting sick. No charred side dishes though, were either catered or I made them Wed. Very boring, part of my fun is trying to pick out what might possibly pass as edible to serve.

Thanksgiving dinner has been an endless source of amusement for me every yr., the calls from sis like "the wings won't go under" after a half hr of trying to explain, told her to just cut them off, then niece calls "get over here and save the turkey!"

My niece voted that I take over Thanksgiving again but I like not having to get up at 6 and cook/clean all day, so I voted to buy more thermometers next year *grins* the saga will continue... I gave sis two thermometers as a gag gift for X-Mas last year, will have to ask how they met their demise when I need a laugh.

Sis-in-law shakes her head, cuffs me one and tells me I'm bad to find so much amusement in her turkey cooking woes but it's all in good fun and she knows I'm not laughing at her, just her turkey saga. She's sharp, a good cook, runs her own profitable biz, a great mom; cooking a turkey is not high on her priority list and we don't expect it to be. Thanksgiving is about spending time with family and sharing your table with those that don't have family around.

*smiles* A dog I was watching knocked the turkey off the counter and gnawed on the leg before dinner once, a few other mishaps over the years. The trick is to make dinner prior to guest arrival, keep warm, have a glass of wine, guests arrive and none the wiser.

BTW, read an article that the best way to warm up turkey w/o drying it out is in a steamer, makes sense to me, just don't over steam it.

 

Here is a turkey recipe that also includes the use of popcorn as a stuffing -- imagine that. When I found this recipe, I thought it was perfect for people like me, who just are not sure how to tell when poultry is thoroughly cooked, but not dried out. Give this a try.

8 - 15 lb. turkey
1 cup melted butter
1 cup stuffing (Pepperidge Farm is Good.)
1 cup uncooked popcorn (ORVILLE REDENBACHER'S LOW FAT) Salt/pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush turkey well with melted butter salt, and pepper.
Fill cavity with stuffing and popcorn. Place in baking pan with the neck end toward the back of the oven.
Listen for the popping sounds. When the turkey's a** blows the oven door open and the bird flies across the room, it's done. And, you thought I didn't cook...

 

Good point, I forgot about those pop-up things as I never buy these injectedbirds. That Polder is a great buy as you can use that for everything! Some great stories in there Cat!:-D

 

LMAO, will have to send that one to sis, she'll get a good laugh!

 

I thought it was cute. Got it this morning in an email:-D

 

Sorry to hear that Kes. I don't have any turkey on hand, would a leftover duck leg sandwich suffice? Ask Rikky, I polished off the whole breast meat in one sitting yesterday.:yum Then I blinked a couple of times and headed immediately for a nap.:-D

 

I checked my oven with one of them manual temp things. +10 degrees. I am thinking perhaps a mistake was made on the cook time for a 12.68# turkey.

I was told 1.5 hours at 325 degrees covered, then bump it to 350 for one to 1.5 hours basting every 15 mins. I trusted this person, but I think the cook time is too short.

Any ideas? I am going to try another one for Christmas. Would like it to be cooked properly.

 

For a bird that size I would have been cooking it in the oven at 350F minimum for about 3.75 hours in not stuffed, and 4.25 hours if stuffed.

Also if you are lifting it out to baste every 15 minutes you are dropping the oven temperature repeatedly and continuously. Just as it warms back up to the set temperature you are opening the oven door again to baste and letting the oven temperature reduce again, so really your bird wasn't cooking at 325F that you set it to at all. Personally I think basting every 15 minutes is excessive. Better off getting an injector kit and injecting oil between under the skin if you really want it basted that well. However, basting manually every 30 minutes should suffice.

Also, I am assuming you did allow the bird to thoroughly defrost before cooking

 

@ Kes, Aw Kes, I would send you a dozen if I thought they would get there in one piece and edible (not that you'd want if you read my turkey stories) *wonders if we have export laws on turkey sandwiches* Do you think turkey sandwiches would be considered contraband?

Fred yes, too short of time. I just cooked 12.9 lb for lil bro approx. 20min/lb @325+ish, 4 hours (unstuffed). Also I only check/baste about every hr., you had the door open too much and lower cooking temp 325 is better IMO.

Butterball will calculate the time for you. http://www.butterball.com/tips-how-tos/tips/calculators-and-conversions
Charts and general instruction book http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/egg/egg1197/chapter7.html

 

We made a Fresh Sage Butter. Put underneath the skin. Rubbed the rest all over with a little poultry seasoning. A Foil tent over the top. Cooked @ 325 20 minutes per #. Took foil off the last Hour and Presto one Fantastic Bird, juicy and tender.
Now makes me sick to even think about it. :-D

 

Yup Remoc, compound butter under the skin is fantastic! Oh sooo crrriissspy skin!:yum At any rate, I just use timings as a general guide, a meat thermometer is the ultimate judge. I also found using an electric kitchen knife makes for beautiful slices with everyone getting a part of the skin without having to reassemble things.

 

Agreeing with Lev here. Basting every 30 minutes should be enough if you keep the bird covered while cooking it. From personal experience, I have found that yanking the meat out at nearly super-sonic speeds, and then slamming the oven shut as quickly as I can minimizes the temperature drops and overall makes for more even oven temps.

Also siding with Augie that a meat thermometer really is your best friend for something as solid as a turkey. Personally, I think you may have been given poor advice for your turkey, or at least advice that did not take your oven power and thermostat into consideration. Unless your oven is the caliber of a restaurant kitchen, opening the oven door every 15 minutes is not a good idea if you want to keep the temperature even.