I used to hate Turkey, but I have the best Turkey recipe now.

I have so many things to be grateful for this year.  I know that there is much that is troubled and harsh going on in the world, but I also know that even in the harshest, most troubled times there is also much that is filled with love and beauty.  Thanksgiving and Harvest time is a good time to gather the ones you love close to you and celebrate the gifts of another year.

When I was growing up, we celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with Ham or Beef because my Dad swore that Turkey was dry and tasteless. If we went to celebrate with cousins who cooked a turkey they would always deny the dryness and talk him into trying it, but he would enjoy the stuffing and mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes and later say that that turkey was just like all the others.

 

 You can't make a moist turkey.  Dad told me, and I believed him.  Then I married a man who loved turkey, so we made them, in a baking bag like his Mom and his sisters, but I still agreed with Dad. Without Gravy, Turkey was too dry to choke down.

 So It was more than a surprise, It felt like a miracle, when we joined my brother-in-law one year and decided to try a new recipe together.  Like always, we cooked the neck and giblets in a pan on the stove to get the broth for gravy, because the turkey in a bag method gives you very little broth.  But when we pulled out this turkey, it sat in at least a gallon of broth and the meat was so tender it melted on your tongue and no we have used the same recipe 6 times, and friends have used it.  It is not only perfect, It is easy.

 I can put the turkey in the oven and ignore it for 3 hours and play board games or work on writing my November NaNWriMo novel.

 I can celebrate the kids coming home from college and the sea and forget that I am cooking the dreaded turkey.

 So what do you do?

Grab yourself a unfrozen turkey and remember to take out the giblet bag from the neck cavity.  I usually cook about a 16 pound turkey but vary that based on the crowd you are serving of course.

Take a large washed, pear and place it into the turkey, yes, you'll have to cook dressing in a separate pan.  Then take a turkey cooking bag and shake the flour inside it like the instructions with the bag tell you to do.  Put the bag an its side in a roasting pan and put in six stalks of celery trimmed to about 6 to 9 inches, lay them parallel and just use them to rest the turkey on.  Have someone help you put the turkey in the bag.  Then take another large pear and cut it in half and place each half on the turkey, cut side down, just above each drumstick.

Use the zip tie to seal the bag and make a few 1/2 inch cuts in the bag to vent steam.  If your turkey has a pop up timer make sure the bag is loose above it or it will be held from popping up.

Stick it in the oven and cook according to the bag directions for that size, and aim for 1/2 way between the time for stuffed and unstuffed given in the directions.  Forget about it during that time and it will be great.  Of course you will think you need to be making pies and mashed potatoes and sweet yams and all that stuff, and you do, but it doesn't take the whole time, so also ENJOY YOUR FAMILY!

When you pull it out, there will be a lot of hot broth, so be careful.  Enjoy

I still use the neck to boil up a pan of broth for gravy, and that way I can add in poultry seasoning, soy sauce, garlic and pepper while it simmers.  Then I just whisk a third of a cup of corn starch into a cup of cold water, add it to the broth and stir while it comes to a boil and I get a nice, clear, lumpless gravy everyone likes.

Our must have side dish is a sweet potato casserole with a brown sugar and pecan streusel topping.  But the only real must have is the simple ability to look at the mess and the dirty dishes and the smiling faces and remember, if you're eating and you have dirty dishes and one person you love.  Life is good.