Thanksgiving Feast

Well I totally changed things up this year for my first major holiday without my hubby.  I hosted Thanksgiving for my family and my hubby's family.  It was just what I needed to get through the day and it was something we always wanted to do.  I made a turkey with all the trimmings for 20 and it was fun.  A lot of work and my sisters really pitched in and helped me.  I learned a lot about cooking for a crowd as well.  You don't need a pound per person in potatoes.  One potato per person is what I should have done.  We had so much left over :)

My brother-in-law deep fat fried 2 small 10 lb turkeys.  What I also learned is you do turkey breasts in the deep fat fryer, not 10 lb turkeys.  Well it was a learning experience. 

I used my mother's (and grandmothers) homemade stuffing recipe to fill my bird.  I will add that recipe soon.

The main course was my beautiful turkey. 

Thanksgiving Turkey
20 lb turkey
Stuffing
1 stick butter

Pull your frozen turkey out of the freezer at least 48 hours before you plan on fixing it. I put the turkey in the fridge in the garage on Monday night before Thursday's festivities. In the colder months, it is harder to defrost a turkey in the fridge in the garage.  I checked in Wednesday afternoon and realized it was still pretty solid.  I brought in into the house for 2 hours in the sink and then back into the fridge.  It was all ready for stuffing on Thursday morning.  Pull turkey out of fridge and place into sink in packaging.  Cut the packaging and pull turkey out and place into backing pan.  I placed mine on the wire rack in the big roasting pan.  Make sure your remove the "bags of goodies" from the head and tail of the turkey.  There will be 2 so make sure you get them both out before you put in the oven.  Mine had a plastic tab that held the legs together.  I removed one side to be able to stuff the bird.  Stuff with your stuffing and put the side back on to hold the legs together.  Melt the butter and baste the turkey with it.  I used a basting brush to brush the melted butter all over the turkey. This gives it the nice brown color you see above.  Bake the turkey according to the package directions.  350 degrees for 15 minutes per pound is what I usually plan for.  Remove from oven.  Remove stuffing and place in the bowl and slice turkey.  I use the dripping to make gravy as well. 

Enjoy!!  It is the easiest thing to cook ever.  It seems very intimidating but it's super easy.