<p>Onward, yes, that sounds delish. I didn’t have sweet potatoes on my menu, but a sweet potato salad with cranberries and apples works for me as I’ve never been fond of the hyper sweetened brown sugar type recipes. Would work for the anti-salad mother of mine, too.</p>
<p>what Kajon said…</p>
<p>“If anyone is looking for a great gravy recipe, I have a great tip. Buy a jar of Williams Sonoma turkey gravy base.” - Or… do what I do. Use corn starch/water mixture (set a few minutes) to thicken the turkey juices. Then stretch it with a jar of Heinz gravy. To me that’s a better way than using jar gravy for the leftovers.</p>
<p>PS - We have plenty of juices cooking with a Reynolds turkey bag. It’s been our method for years - would not cook a turkey any other way.</p>
<p>Martha Stewart’s Turkey 101 works everytime. Heck, with a bottle of wine and a few sticks of butter as a warm basting liquid, what can go wrong? Seriously…the best. The only part that still gets me nervous is the first hour of cooking…at 500 degrees. The bird is draped in a butter-wine drenched cheesecloth, and it is meant to get BLACK! After the first hour, the temp is turned wayyyy down and the bird is basted every 15 min or so (I cheat…sometimes it’s 30) with the butter-wine broth. So. So. Amazing. The oohs and ahhhs as the picture perfect bird lands on the table are worth it. BTW we call it drunken turkey. Kinda festive, right? ;-)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.marthastewart.com/268764/roast-turkey-and-gravy-101[/url]”>http://www.marthastewart.com/268764/roast-turkey-and-gravy-101</a></p>
<p>Wait…the turkey or the cheesecloth go black?</p>
<p>…And then the turkey turns golden brown? </p>
<p>I just sumbled upon this recipe that I am totally going to try this year with my turkey breasts: [2D</a> turkey - braised turkey with veggies](<a href=“The 2-D Thanksgiving - The New York Times”>The 2-D Thanksgiving - The New York Times)</p>
<p>Tomato ice cream with basil, mozzarella crisps on the side-- that’s the appetizer. Like a caprese. Got the recipe from a food blogger. (Why not have fun? Now all I need is an appetizer that can be converted to a dessert.) One year, I made Tofurkey- trust me, a big mistake, but, in terms of family memories to laugh over, priceless. </p>
<p>Bethie, love nearly every recipe from Cooking Light.<br>
All I do for B Sprouts is fry in the teeniest amount of oil, with S&P or lemon pepper; when caramelized, douse with a bit of balsamic (lately, chocolate balsamic.) </p>
<p>We’e also doing spaghetti squash, with fennel and maybe some butternut- tryng to recreate something from a dinner out.</p>
<p>Definitely salad, lots of it.</p>
<p>Frozen deep-fried last-of-the-Hostess-Twinkies with brandied cranberry glaze flamb</p>
<p>Now I’ll go look for Twinkies- a flambe! And symbolic. Yeah.</p>
<p>WARNING: as with deep-frying a turkey, there is a risk of explosion from a rapidly thawing Twinkie flamb</p>
<p>It was a chef on NPR who said no to salad and yes to pies. It was an opinion!</p>
<p>One Thanksgiving or Christmas, when I’ve got a little extra time…and a sharper knife, I’m going to do a Turducken–a roasted boneless chicken, inside a duck, inside a turkey. I’d just like to prove that I can do it!</p>
<p>I saw a dessert version ‘turducken’ recipe online yesterday…it’s a little over the top. Three pies stuffed inside a cake is a little much for my plate.
[Thanksgiving</a> Cherpumple: 11 Outrageous Photos | Photo Gallery - Yahoo!](<a href=“http://gma.yahoo.com/photos/thanksgiving-cherpumple-11-outrageous-photos-1353085535-slideshow/cherpumple-photo-170779084.html]Thanksgiving”>http://gma.yahoo.com/photos/thanksgiving-cherpumple-11-outrageous-photos-1353085535-slideshow/cherpumple-photo-170779084.html)</p>
<p>Since it’ll only be the 4 of us, I need to make sides my 20-something sons will eat. I’ll make salad because I’ll eat it, but nobody else will. Most of us will eat mashed potatoes. Variations on green beans have never gone over well with my kids. This year I’m trying roasted butternut squash…with my kids the simpler the dish the more likely they are to eat it.</p>
<p>As long as there’s turkey, biscuits, and pumpkin pie, the kids will be happy.</p>
<p>For those that put butter under the skin–how do you do that? Melt it and inject it, put pats of butter under there???</p>
<p>I’ve done the cheesecloth in the past. I’ve done it with just the cheesecloth soaked in butter. It REALLY helps the turkey brown evenly. I wasn’t going to do that this year because I don’t like how the gravy tastes with so much butter in there but if I do the make ahead gravy I can still do the cheesecloth!! I’ll have to try the wine/butter combo. What kind of wine do you use?</p>
<p>Oh, yuck, you stick your hand under the skin to loosen it, then grease under there with softened butter. Worth it. You can put thin slices of lemon in there, too.<br>
We made Barefoot Contessa’s turkey roulade one year and it is divine. Lots of work, but super.</p>
<p>Ah Bethie…NPR makes sense as I was having a difficult time even imaging my mother watching TV cooking shows (she doesn’t cook or bake unless forced).</p>
<p>Will actually be cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the three of us, my son, husband and myself. Was working down in the bayou and picked up some mirlitons. I have no idea what I’m going to do with them, but I am excited to finally, at 51, be able to start my own family tradition.</p>
<p>For BunsenBurner and others…yes, the cheesecloth turns black. You leave it on (weird, right?) and baste right over it. Then, at the end, it is removed and the turkey is a beautiful shade of brownish-reddish-deliciousness. Martha’s never failed me yet. Yummmmmm.</p>
<p>SteveMA…a dry white works best. Because as you said, it does flavor the gravy. Generally whatever is on sale is a boon too, because spending all that money on the stuff you are really going to drink takes priority! ;-)</p>
<p>The past couple years I have used my large Necco Roaster for my turkey and I’ve noticed that the turkey is MUCH more moist using that. It browns the turkey really well too, and as an added bonus, frees up the oven for everything else.</p>