First time doing a turkey? Concern about how to know when it is done? Try this:

Easy Turkey Recipe......

Here is a turkey recipe that also includes the use
of popcorn as a stuffing - imagine that. When I found this recipe, I thought it was perfect for people like me, who just are not sure how to tell when poultry is thoroughly cooked, but not dried out. Give this a try.

BAKED STUFFED TURKEY
10-15 lb. Turkey 1 cup melted butter
1 cup stuffing (Pepperidge Farm is good.)
1 cup uncooked popcorn (ORVILLE REDENBACHER'S)
Salt/pepper to taste
_____________________________

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush turkey well with
melted butter, salt,
and pepper. Fill cavity with stuffing and popcorn.
Place in baking pan with the neck end toward the back of the oven.
Listen for the popping sounds. When the turkey's a$$ blows the oven door open and the turkey flies across the room, it's done.

Sorry I could not resist - someone just emailed me this I thought I should share

Have a great day with family & friends, and don't forget the wine!

Hi all! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!! Sorry I am just now responding but I have been in my cooking mode for the past week, with a Thanksgiving dinner at work and then at my sister's house! I told my family I do not want to look at my stove for a month! My daughter and I got up at 4:30AM this morning and went shopping for Black Friday. I have never experienced this so I was expecting the worse! It wasn't bad at all! Today was a great day to go shopping, as it warmed up to 77 degrees here in North Texas with beautiful skies. Tonight, we built a bon-fire and just sat outside and relaxed, listening to the barred owls and coyotes hoot and holler. My son brought up his trip to Jamaica and of course we had to talk about our experiences once again in STJ. He couldn't top our shark story or the story about seeing the turtle, eagle-ray, and barracuda. Made me wish we had brought our grown kids.
Hmmm, there is always next year! By the way, how was your fantastic dinner, Blu? Bet it was awesome!

Sharon

Who else thinks that Blu will be asleep until Sunday night?

Hello All...I hope your Thanksgivings were Great!! Ours was fantastic, and everything turned out perfectly . We are getting ready to Haul it out for the last time in about 30 mins. My husbands family come back over for Fri & Sat lunch and help eat up the leftovers. There is no way we could do it ourselves.

TomB - I hope the khalua pie turned out for you. We ate our last slice last night...no more until next year!! Oh, my aunt has that same popcorn turkey recipe. Ha-ha!!!

Now we are in the countdown mode for our long awaited Christmas trip to STJ. I have two suitcases out on the couch in the front living room. One is packed with 4 sets of snorkel gear and the other is being filled with a few food items that we can't live without, toiletries, sunscreen, bug spray, etc.

Toodles and Happy Holidays!!!

Hope you all had a happy and loving Thanksgiving and hope you and all of your loved ones were safe in travels!!!

Just coming out of the haze! Thanksgiving was, indeed, a TRIP! Here's the trip report!

Phew - here are the highlights (some kind of funny)......

-the table was BEAUTIFUL. I have a pic of the table before dinner that I will soon upload - round table seating 12 - white linens with sage green, gold and brown silk runners criss-crossing so that each place setting alternated between being on a runner or on the white linen - crystal candlesticks and crystal votives and a tall crystal centerpiece topped with white roses. The room was lit with candles - both at the table and around the room.

My family all showed up on time - 4:30 - they're good about that.

My children are my heroes - they were both in rare form in terms of helping and being proactive about things.

Guests started with simple crudités in the living room and some wines - I had the Lillet that was suggested here, but everyone just wanted wine - there was no chard or cab, as suggested. I found it extremely difficult to get drinks for everyone and oversee the kitchen at the same time. I should have done a better job of setting up a drink station instead of running back and forth as people wanted various things to drink. Note to self for next year.

Just when I thought all of the guests had arrived, the doorbell rang. Who could this be? I have one of those etched glass front doors that you can see through...and the face I saw shocked me. It was my cousin, Ben, who is bipolar, manic depressive, or whatever...and his case is very serious....so much so that he and his mother were not supposed to come because he had just been placed into a mental institution for going off on his mom. My aunt is such a lovely person and I was really glad to see her and Ben and my other cousin, Ben's brother. I've spoken about them previously since Ben had sued his brother, Joe, and there was a feud going on with them. But, they seemed to be getting along today and sat next to each other at dinner 🙂

My cousins (Ben and Joe) and I are the same age and we've been having Thanksgiving together since we were babies. But, my Aunt Lorraine had said she wasn't coming since she was going to spend the holiday with Ben in the hospital - but, here they were at the door (smile)! Hmmmm....seating arrangements were being reorganized in my head as I was giving hugs and kisses. We're at 15 and I have formal seating for 12. Oh well, I won't be eating anyway and the kids can move to the breakfast bar. I was just glad to have them there.

At about 5 I invited the guests to sit at the table. There were no place cards this year.

We started with a stuffed mushroom - lobster and crab stuffing. This is where I got a clue about the problem with serving courses - some guests eat much faster than others...so some were sitting and waiting while others were leisurely nibbling and talking. My mom, who seemed to have a hard time not being in charge, announced that these were the oysters (which they were not), so everyone used their oyster forks to eat the mushroom. (mom was also rolling her eyes because I didn't have ham, mashed potatoes or mac-n-cheese...but I'll just skip by mom's antics since we all know that moms will be moms - especially where grown daughters are concerned).

After the mushrooms, they were served the poached artichokes with oysters, spinach and champagne crème. I HATED this dish. It was a total nightmare to prepare, which took too much of my time. They artichokes never did get soft and those that did, fell apart and couldn't be used. The best part of the dish was the spinach that goes in the bottom and the presentation did look very impressive and pretty. But, I won't make this again. I should have done a trial run.

Next, guests were served their soup course - this was YUMMMMMMY and turned out perfect! I made a butternut squash soup the day before and reheated it in a large crock pot. This is when Carlotta, one of my aunts (by marriage) whispered to me that she was tipsy (she's a Cherokee Indian from New Mexico) and then she decided to "help" in the kitchen - snapping her fingers for me to hurry with more bowls of soup. (this is her thing that she always does at everyone's dinner parties - goes into the kitchen and rushes you around - I was warned about her).

Again, some guests were done way before others and when I tried to take the bowls from those who were not yet done after a reasonable time, they asked me to let them finish.....so were just worked around them.

Here is one of my big disappointments of the evening - my mom asked my cousin Berkley, who is in chef school, to go into the kitchen and carve the turkey and put the pieces on a tray. I didn't want that. I had wanted to carry the turkey out Norman Rockwell style and had shopped for wonderful garnishes to surround the bird on my grandmother's platter. But, when I looked, my turkey was in the process of being hacked. Nothing to do but move on and shut up. Next year, I am going to order that EVERYONE stay out of my kitchen! Why didn't they just SIT at the table and enjoy the food and each other? Why were people popping up? Certain relatives seemed to enjoy the leisurely meal (i.e. people who are older and appreciate such things)...but others just didn't seem to be able to handle it well - my mom being one of the main ones - she kept saying (out loud to everyone) how a buffet is easier and that is why she has always done buffets - trying to get everyone to agree with her that buffets are better. Whatever.

Ok, so then we moved to the Thanksgiving feast portion of the meal: Carved turkey:( (which, by the way was DELICIOUS and JUICY - I had brined it in apple cider brine and juniper berries for 12 hours and I could really tell the difference , plus it was cooked with butter and herbs under the skin- people were going crazy for the turkey). Also, two kinds of stuffing: Italian sausage, mushroom sage and oyster cornbread. Veggies included: chiffonade of Brussels sprouts with bacon and hazelnuts and also roasted aubergine, zucchini and squash with leeks and garlic. I had also done a nice cranberry chutney that went over well. I had meant to put this in front of everyone in individual berry bowls, but my kitchen got disorganized and I was starting to lose track of my bowls, etc. Note to self again: better kitchen organization next year.

Then, we had one lap-child at the table (a 2 yr old) who started to kick the table. My mom was next to him and she (being my mom and knowing the value of the china and crystal since she's a connoisseur of such things) put her hand out to block his feet. So, the baby's mom (a new relative by marriage) got up and took her food and the baby to the living room - and her hubby followed). So, my table was down 2......and Carlotta was still popping up here and there - and.....well.....starting to stagger a little.

Then it got a little ugly. Carlotta decided to clear the dishes from the table - clang, bang, clang!!!! Hello!!! THIS is my Limoges china edged in 14k gold!! My mom had warned me about this. Carlotta is also suspected of going so fast that he tosses some of your silver into the trash. Ugh. I also have a cast-iron sink that will break anything in a heartbeat. She was tossing my china into the sink. I asked her to sit down and enjoy. She didn't. More clanging. I told her that I didn't want her working in the kitchen (smiling). She insisted. I told her that I spent a fortune on that china and though I could afford to buy it once, I could not afford to replace it. She waved her had at me. The she got nasty with me and asked me what sign I was. Aries. "oh, that explains why YOU have to be in control of everything!", she snarled. Then she asked me if my dishwasher worked. I told her that these don't go into the dishwasher, they need to be hand washed, which I will do tomorrow when I can take my time. Then she said she would hand wash them, but she asked me if I would want to stand over her and watch her do that too! Ok, so now I am about to go get my mom (who is able to give someone the look of death and sit them down pretty quickly) because if I don't, I might just conk Carlotta in the head with a turkey leg. Carlotta sat down and I heard my mom giving her a speech about knowing me and knowing how I like to do things - and these dishes would be polished in the morning - and then my mom said that is also how SHE would do it. Mom is ok with me again 🙂

This is when my 19 yr old son walked into the kitchen and said he had heard everything. He said "mom, I see this in college all the time with the frat boys - she's just fighting the "pass out". LOL. He said "just before they pass out from drinking, they start to wrestle. That is what Carlotta is doing - fighting the pass-out".

Ok, so she finally sat down and just made snide remarks for the rest of the night. Every time she would hand me a plate, she would say loudly "here's another one of those expensive plates". So, some bad words went through my head each time she did that, but I just smiled and said "glad you understand".

Finally, the last food course- cheese. It was a half of a pear topped with three cheeses - saga blue, Camembert and mascarpone - then topped with dried fruit and walnuts and drizzled with butterscotch sauce. They really loved this and everyone applauded. I knew everyone was stuffed, so this acted as a nice combo cheese and dessert course.

Then tea and coffee were served and we lit candles on a cake for dad's birthday and sang for him.

In retrospect, I think people are so used to a buffet that *some* had a hard time sitting and enjoying each other. In time, they will learn and get used to this. My son said that there was so much more conversation with this meal. I also think that I will, in the future, place menu cards at each place so that guests know what is coming. I will also organize the kitchen better and clear more work surfaces. I will also start the meal one hour earlier. I will also pack "doggie-bags" in advance of guests arrival. Trying to pack them as people prepare to leave is too hectic.

Also, I skipped the salad course because I didn't have time or room to pull it off. Better planning would have made that possible.

The best compliment came after dinner - when I asked if everyone will come back next year. Someone said "yeah - absolutely (and everyone agreed) - but how about TOMORROW?"

My aunt/godmother who has passed away was our Thanksgiving hostess for more than 30 years. I felt like she was there with me in that hectic kitchen. She was always good for laughing at her own mistakes - and I'm sure she sent some of that humor my way. I served tea and coffee in the beautiful cups and saucers of hers that her husband gave me after she died. After everyone left for the night, I spent some quiet time in the kitchen thinking of her and all of those Thanksgivings we spent at her home. Now I know how HARD she worked to make it all so special for us all. Good grief!!

I spent 8 hours cleaning up yesterday - washing, polishing and putting everything away in it's place.

It was hectic - but I am so glad to have family members to whom I can send invitations and who accepted and showed up! I am grateful to have had a crowded table. I am grateful to have had a mom there to critique and do her "mother" thing. I am grateful to have been able to sing happy 70th birthday to my dad. I am so thankful for my children who kept me sane - my son for his college drinking analogies and for my daughter who didn't flinch when I asked her to clean toilets - even when I explained "yes, you DO have to put your hand inside". And for everyone who came and for those who had other plans, but who called on the phone during the meal and asked to speak to each and every person at the table - and promised to be here next year.

what could be better on a long weekend. Left overs on Chibatta rolls with cranberry sauce.

Also, chopped fine turkey, mayo, sweet relish and mustard powder. Yummy samiches.

FIGHT ON

Bluwater, you did wonderful. Really enjoyed your report. Next time will be so much easier. You have started a NEW Family tradition, a sit down meal. You are to be congratulated for putting on such a lavish meal on your first try. Thanks for sharing with us.
Carole

Bluwater - from one Aires to another....Job Well Done!!!! 🙂 and (((HUGS))) for all of your hard work. I know your family left and said to one another that that was one of their favorite Thanksgivings yet!!

Your table sounds lovely and your menu sounds wonderful, especially the pears and cheeses, Yum, I would like to have some now!!!

Promoguy, my brother went to USC, can't get Conquest out of my mind!

Love the score right now! (14-3 end of 1st)

Blu, your dinner sounds wonderful! Next year, you should only invite people like me, who will only enjoy, complement, and leave your dishes alone!!!

Bless you on your handling of your cousin. I have an aunt who is schizophrenic. She caused a "scene" not long before my wedding, and we were genuinely afraid she would do it again in the middle of the ceremony. Long story short, to this day, she thinks the big wedding was cancelled and we eloped to Vegas. Haven't bothered telling her we are now divorced!!!

Our dinner out with friends was truly wonderful. Yesterday, I made a Just-for-Leftovers meal. Turkey breast, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn pudding, and rolls. It was so good, we went out for Mexican tonight!!!

But now, the countdown begins! We leave for STT on Christmas Eve. Yippee!!!!

Promoguy, you have just given me an idea for tomorrow's finale' on the leftovers. Mmmmmm.

Carole, thank you! I am so glad that my company honors the day after Thanksgiving as a holiday. My bones still ache!

Coden, another Aries! Funny - when Carlotta was leaving she turned to me and said (in a very serious tone) "now that I know you are an Aries, I can completely respect the way you are". And I wanted to say "yes, and now that you know I am an Aries, you KNOW I will totally flip out on you if you ever touch my dishes again!!" - but I just said "glad you understand" (again). 🙂 I hope you are correct about this being one of their favorites yet.

Richmond, whew, sounds like you may have narrowly escaped a potential wedding catastrophe! Ben's biggest downside is that he idolizes Woody Allen (to the point that he wears Woody Allen glasses and grew his hair just like Woody) and arrives with prescript-ed jokes to entertain everyone - problem is, he is so entertained by his own jokes that he is laughing too hard to get t he jokes out. Luckily, he approached me in the kitchen with his looooong list of jokes (actually written on paper) and sheepishly asked me if he could tell them at the table. I told him that he could tell a few. Ben's dad (my Uncle Ben) was a psychiatrist who died suddenly a couple of years ago. He had been able to take care of Ben. Now that he is gone, Ben isn't taking his meds and is acting out against his mom. It is a very sad situation, especially for my aunt.

You sound like a going-out kind of couple! How was the French place in Great Falls? What did you have there?

Glad you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! There is someone on here who has Thanksgiving for 40 people. Who was that? I am wondering how that went!

Blu, I really enjoyed your report! When you had said earlier that it was an adult-only dinner, I thought "how does she get away with that?" meaning - how did you ask without including the kids? But, it seems someone didn't "get it" that it was adults only?? or did she have a baby-sitter cancel at the last minute? Were you upset that she showed up with the todder? I wouldn've been ticked.

Next year - why not hire someone to do the serving, and you sit and enjoy the meal also!!!

Once part of the Trojan family always a member. And to your credit Conquest is stuffed in the cells of your brain. Welcome to the family.

It's been an unbelieveable season this year considering what was lost last year. It just doesn't get any better.

MG, It was never supposed to be adults only - I would NEVER do that on Thanksgiving and would think horribly of anyone who did.

I think you must have misread something - maybe when I said there wasn't going to be a kids table when someone asked about that. We seat kids with adults so that they can share in everything. We had 2 8 yr olds at the table, which was part of the plan.....but we had to move them to the breakfast bar once the additional 3 guests showed up. We don't have many young children in our family - sorry if that wasn't clear.

I can only imagine what kind of person would exclude children on Thanksgiving and ask parents to hire a sitter - gag!

Kudos Bluwater 🙂
I know what my RSVP would be to an invitation which requested that I leave my children home on Thanksgiving!
Your Thanksgiving dinner sounds perfect...I'm sure all who attended felt very special...mia

Sorry to chime in so late.

Blu it sounds like you survivied your first T-day as Matriach of the Family. Always tough shoes to fit into.

With your family's characters I may recommend skipping the Lillet and go straight for shots of Patron. Highly recommend you install a rubber floor in case Carlotta comes to dishes or you decide to body slam her.

Family - You got to love them - Because Grand Daddy said so! It is the only reason I have come up with.

We did do the sweet potato and pecan recipe that were posted - Both excellent with great reviews.

Thanks to everybody - I think I had dinner with all of you

God Bless

Christmas is coming! Oh No! Not another big meal!

Blu - I guess I misunderstood you. I think you said something like "x" number of adults accepting your invitation and I thought that meant only adults were coming. sorry about that. That's why I wondered how you managed having an adult only dinner. I can't imagine Thanksgiving without kids either, but when we do it here, the kids are at a separate table with the fine Longaberger dishes!ha! no crystal and china for them, but 10-20 yr old boys are not good for crystal and china. and there's something about them coming in kicking off their muddy hunting boots and eating in their camaflouge(sp) clothing that sort of takes away from the formality here!
again, sorry about the misunderstanding!