Roast Turkey

One turkey

Some butter, poultry seasoning, ingredients for stuffing

Prepare the stuffing: Stuffing recipe

After thawing turkey, open it in the sink (to avoid getting raw juice all over your kitchen) and remove the giblets/neck/etc. from inside (I reserve these for turkey soup, some people use them for gravy, or you can throw them away). Place turkey in your roasting pan, and stuff loosely with the prepared stuffing, in both the neck and body cavities. Secure the legs (some turkeys come with plastic things, or you can use string or whatever).

First for cooking time on the Turkey follow the instructions that come with the turkey. i always like stuffing made with real bread instead of the packages, but if you do not want to rip up old bread you can buy them. Or rip up a loaf of bread ( i would do whole wheat now because it is healthier, but I did not always). A day ahead is good, because then it is a little stale. The day you are stuffing it. Saute celery and onions (one average size onion and 3 or 4 stalks of celery-both chopped). Mushrooms are a nice addition also, so if you are using them saute then. Mix this with your torn up bread. Add salt, pepper and poultry seasoning(you can buy this in the spice section). Loosely fill the Turkey cavity and neck area. Then you need to secure the cavity by buying special skewers or sew it up like I always do. Tie the legs together. Then into the oven per package instructions. You need to baste the Turkey periodically while it roasts. i often cover the Turkey with foil for the first half of cooking time so it does not dry out to much and then I uncover it for the second half, but some cooks disagree with this, but that is how my Mom did it. Check with an online source to see what they tell you to do.

Gravy- After the Turkey is finished cooking, remove it from the roasting pan. Skim off all the fat. Add three cups of water to the dripping, scrape up all the bits and simmer.

Mix 2 to 3 table spoons with about a cup of water in a jar. Shake and stir until there are no lumps. Add this to your simmering drippings. Add salt to taste. If the gravy does not have a strong enough turkey taste add some chicken bullion. If it does not seem thick enough add more flour water mixture. Again I do measure any of this I just go by how everything is looking.

Call me as lot of this is just by feel and taste.