I hope you remove the laces before eating.... they're full of germs.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Try not to eat yourself into a food coma.

Too late but thanks, Lou! Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

I have been deep frying turkeys for about 6 years now and have never had a problem. Common sense goes along way to preparing it properly and safely

I would recommend a fryer that has a pot to place in the fryer (not the kind that has a hanger for the bird)

It takes about 60 minutes for the oil to heat up and about 3-4 minutes per pound to cook. Use a smaller bird (no more than 12 pounds). There are lots of good sauces to inject the bird on the market or you can create your own. I cook 3 turkeys in less than three hours. They are so moist it almost falls off the bone. Make sure when injecting to use as few holes as possible and moved the (needle) up and down to get an even injection. It is pretty cool to watch the bird plop up when injecting
I saw someone ask about the wings - I have never had a problem with the wings burning. I also make sure to inject them as well

Getting hungry as I peck away on the iPhone - me thinks I need a turkey sandwich. Of course my sandwich looks like Dagwwood's as I put turkey mashed potatos stuffing cranberry sauce and drizzle it with gravy

Hope everyones Thanksgiving was special. Mine certainly was more so this year as I had a scare last week with a few days in the hospital

Thanks for the tips, Part! I wanna try it, perhaps in the Spring, to see. I have plenty of safe space outdoors. Hope your "scare" wasn't too serious, and that you had a great family Thanksgiving!

I'm enjoying all my kids being home at least for another day.

Guarantee that It will be the best turkey you have had - it's orgasmically delicious! just get a god fryer, prepare bird correctly and follow instructions. I know we men like to just take it out of the box and get going without looking at the manuals. You know there is a reason they put a warning label on the top ring of a ladder lol. Men are just wired that way

I am feeling better and had a wonderful Tgiving with family
I collapsed last week thought heart attack or stroke. Bottom line - no damage to the heart and thankfully no stroke (those that know where I am employed wil see the NOW funny irony if I did have a stroke)
Actually had heart failure - not in the fact that it stopped but insufficient to pump enough blood to brain my blood pressure was as low as 60/40 in the ambulance before they were able to stabilize and bring up in hospital
So after a battery of tests I was released after a few days and now have lots of follow ups etc

I will ask my priest for recommendations.


Wow, I really hope they find the cause (and I hope it's not the deep frying ) and it's not too serious! I'm surprised I haven't had any major issues with how bad I take care of myself {knock on wood} but I wish you the best! A friend of mine had bypass surgery in his 30's, and another had a stroke I think in his 20's or 30's -- both have fully recovered, but it's still scary as all hell. And why I keep pressing my luck is beyond me...

i have no idea

Thought I would resurrect this and see what the cooking plans are. JG, are you actually going for the fryer this year?? I'm hosting again this year, but more and more is being delegated out. My mom is doing all the green vegetables and my MIL is bringing pies and salad. My brother and SIL are doing the sweet potatoe pie with marshmallows and my other SIL is bringing cookies (it's really all we trust her with).

I'll be baking a cake for my MIL's birthday, and taking care of the turkey and all the goodies that go with it, as well as the mashed potatoes. For pre-dinner, Mr. Babe will make his delicious turkey pate`, and I picked up some nice frozen appetizers at Trader Joe's yesterday. In lieu of pumpkin pie, I also decided to try Trader Joe's pumpkin souffle.

Not this year, Babe... I never did do the trial run. My folks are hosting, and it's actually being catered as it's just too much work for my mom any more (tho I'm sure she'll make a side or two, and doctor-up whatever they get). My kitchen just isn't big enough to prepare such a feast.

$19.95/pp (6 of us) for a 16-lb bird, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potato pie, mashed potatoes, green beans w/ almonds, rolls, apple pie... not too bad, and the place is pretty good.

While the food is important, it's more important to have the time spent with family....

Happy Thanksgving to all. I bought the Safeway Dinner, 1 Turkey,Dressing , Gravy , Spuds, Rolls, Green Bean Salad, Pumpkin Pie, $39.99 plus tax.

My SIL did that a few years ago when she was having a smaller-than-expected crowd. She ordered it from her local Shop Rite and said it was great.

Jeez... for what my dad's paying for 6... wow!

As for ShopRite, they just had a grand opening for a Super-Duper-OMG-WOW! ShopRite here a week ago, and I haven't been able to get thru the door yet! It's supposed to be AMAZING! and surely Foodtwown has been suffering (there was hardly anyone there the other day), and the local Pathmark was even non-chaotic the day before Thanksgiving. But the new ShopRite had cops directing traffic!! Can't wait to check it out...!

Got to say , It was good no muss no fuss. Have plenty of left overs to make soup out of , sandwich's , but for the bucks good. The pie was a might small only 8 1n. LOL. Heard about those ShopRite stores and been in some good deal.

Spent about 4-5 hrs making the turkey stock today, and tomorrow will make the actual turkey/rice soup. Will post the full recipe when it's complete. It's gonna be goooooood!

Left over update... Everything gone as of lunch time today!

All this turkey talk is getting my juices flowing for Christmas. 4 weeks today till i can fill my boots as they say!!

I am also making Turkey soup but putting Grandma's homemade noodles, with carrots and celery. But that rice sounds mighty good.

Spent another 2 hrs making the actual soup today, after the 4+ hours yesterday. Sheesh! Here we go....

This is based on "Mom's Turkey Soup" but it was very vague (no quantities of anything mentioned), so I took a stab at it after looking at a bunch of different recipes and came up with my own, flying by the seat of my pants:

Day 1: Turkey Stock

• Remove all good turkey meat from the carcass
• Break up bones a bit and place in a roasting pan, with the skin and giblets (except liver) and roast in 350°F oven for 1 hour. [Optional]
• Meanwhile, go through the turkey meat and remove any fat, skin, cartilage and bones. The white meat came out a bit tough for the soup, so use sparingly or use for sandwiches. Place meat in a bowl and cover with chicken stock to keep moist. Cover and refrigerate.
• After bones have roasted, place into large stock pot or dutch oven. Cover with cold water by an inch. I used 64 oz cold spring water + 64 oz Swanson Organic Vegetable Broth (as it would expire in a few weeks). Add about 2 tbsp Cider Vinegar, and any drippings (about a 1/4 cup in my case) not already used for gravy.
• Turn heat to medium and add half a large yellow onion (quartered then separated), coarse chopped carrots (I used 2, could've used 3 or 4), 3/4 bunch of parsley (as is), 5-6 branches of thyme, bay leaf, 8-10 halved celery tops (or a couple celery stalks, cut in large pieces), about a dozen whole peppercorns, pinch dried tarragon, a sprig of fresh sage, sprig of fresh dill, 1-2 smashed cloves of garlic, and a few sprinkles of celery seed, and some Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper (you can always add more later, so don't over do it).
• Heat until it's at a bare simmer (don't boil), skimming off any foamy crud that may float to the top. Check it every 30 minutes for the next 3 hours or so, when the meat falls off the bones.
• Let cool a bit, then remove bones and veggies and strain the stock through a colander (lined with cheese cloth, or use a mesh sieve) over a large bowl or pot. Pick through for good pieces of meat and add to reserved meat in fridge.
• Let stock cool for a while and skim off any crud on top. Pour into quart soup containers (I yielded 3 quarts of stock) and refrigerate.

Day 2: Turkey Soup

• Remove stock from fridge and remove solidified fat from the stock and KEEP. You'll use some in the next step.
• Put some turkey fat in the pot, and heat on medium. Add 2-3 cloves minced garlic, the other half of the onion (finely chopped), and 4-5 chopped carrots. Saute to let sweat until onions are softened and carrots are al dente. [Or you can skip this step and just cook the veggies in the soup itself -- it didn't seem to save any time]
• Add the stock one quart at a time (it will be congealed) and stir until loose. Add 1+ tbsp finely chopped celery leaves (or 1-2 chopped celery stalks), 2+ tsp chopped fresh dill, a sprig each of thyme and sage, 1/4+ cup chopped parsley, pinch or two of dried tarragon, a few grinds of poultry seasoning or a tsp or two of Bell's, and a pinch or two of Kosher salt and ground pepper.
• Cook with a bare simmer, do not boil.
• Meanwhile, prepare 1.5-2 cups of rice. I used Success rice, boiled in the bag for 8 minutes. [Or you can use noodles or Pastina, etc]
• Meanwhile, go through the turkey meat again (don't discard the chicken broth it's been soaking in). Feel and taste as you pull apart bite-sized pieces and place in a separate bowl. As I said, some white pieces may have become tough already, so just eat them now. When finished, strain the broth to be sure no small pieces of bone remain. Put turkey pieces back in broth.
• When the carrots and onions are cooked through (but not mushy), add the rice and stir.
• Turn off burner, and add turkey meat and its soaking liquid into soup.
• Adjust seasoning to taste -- mine was a bit bland, so I adjusted. It should be even better the next day, though.
• If not using immediately, pour into quart soup containers (I yielded 4 quarts of soup) and refrigerate.

I'll know better tomorrow if it's worth it all -- but I'm sure some improvements can be made. For instance, more onion (only had 1 large) and more carrots (only had 5 medium-sized carrots on hand), and possibly more herbs, etc.

It's a work-in-progress, but good, though!

Looks darn good hope the seat of your pants weren't in it . Thanks for sharing.

I like to have plenty of gravy on Thanksgiving, so I make stock with the neck. I just put the neck, some onion, celery, salt and pepper in a pot of water and let it simmer for at least an hour or so. Makes a nice amount of stock and then I can add that to the drippings when I make the gravy.

Pretty late to the party, but this is what I did on Turkey Day.

Happy Halloween .

And it wasn't raw? More golden next time

I thought it looked "raw", too.

Is that the neck in the roasting pan? (Just curious - I usually use it for soup.)

Signor V.

Or is he happy to see you?

Well, I admit that was my first impression...

Proving, once again, that SC rushes in where Vitelli fears to tread!

Signor V.

Temperature dictates, not how golden it is. I've messed around with using things that accelerate browning but I can taste them and I really like poultry skin. I manipulate the bird some while it's roasting, but I've really just gotten too lazy to keep flipping the bird at different angles to get it browned all over.


Sure is. I use it to add to the pan for gravy time and I like to pick the meat off and eat it anyway.