Oh yeah...I grow my own rosemary and shove a couple of sprigs between the breasts and skin along with some garlic butter...and I've been using one of these for years...Creole Garlic and/or Creole Butter; (sometimes I make my own marinade)
Sounds like you've been listening to Alton Brown. However, there is nothing worse than overcooked carrots. My dressing is nothing more than bread cubes, a little turkey giblet juice and some sage and sometimes some celery. I usually settle for whole cranberries out of a can. When I was younger, my aunt and her daughter, my cousin, used to make the most delicious cranberry sauce with whole cranberries and some sort of orange. Wow.
Can't stand rosemary. It's the only seasoning I can't take under any circumstances. I had an overdose in some Shepard pie served at the Sandtrap restaurant at the golf course in Gearhart. Made me sick at the stomach.
I'm going to give both of these a shot this Thanksgiving. I'll be cooking 2 birds.....brining them both. Trying Gordon Ramsey's recipe for the baked bird (and gravy!) and smoking the other. https://www.allrecipes.com/video/1353/out-of-this-world-turkey-brine/
Has anyone ever done a cooler turkey? It is seriously the best. Feel free to tell me that you'll get salmonella, but my family has been doing it for two decades and never any sickness. The meat just totally falls apart once you unwrap it. We usually do a small bird on the side too so we can get some of that chicken skin that Lanny always talks about.
75% of my family is Vegan or vegetarian. I'm making a butternut squash coconut curry soup. I've make it the last two Thanksgivings and it's a big hit, while being pretty simple. 2 tbsp coconut oil 3 shallots diced 1 tbsp garlic minced 1 tbsp ginger 12 cups (2 small) butternut squash chopped Salt and pepper 3 tbsp curry powder 1 tsp garam masala 2 cans coconut milk (28 ounces) extra for top 4 cups vegetable broth 3 tbsp maple syrup 2 tsp Sriracha (optional, to wanted spice level)
Recipe looks good. I have a vegetarian brother and a niece allergic to dairy, eggs, and gluten so I have to do double cooking.
Dang, so if we wanted to serve this at, say, 1 PM on Thanksgiving afternoon, I'd have to start baking the turkey at around 9 PM on Wednesday evening, then drop it in the cooler around 1 AM?
We do turkey at Thanksgiving and prime rib at New Years. Nothing better than crispy turkey skin and medium rare prime rib with a nice crust on the outside resulting from both proper broiling and salt applied to the outside half an hour before cooking. The bones of a properly cooked prime rib and the mashed potatoes and prime rib gravy are to die for. For our turkey dressing we will add giblets, bread cubes, sage and water chestnuts. Cranberry sauce will be whole berry and if we were ambitious we would make an orange flavored cranberry sauce. Gravy will also have giblets but no water chestnuts. Side dish should be candied sweet potatoes or yams. Pie should include pumpkin with proper homemade whipped cream with sugar and plenty of real vanilla extract. However, no one in our family is that crazy about pumpkin pie so we'll just have mince meat with Haagen Daaz vanilla. Probably some chilled white wine to go with the turkey. Prime rib with the mashed potatoes and gravy will have string beans on the side. Don't know what else, maybe homemade eggnog with brandy. In either case there will be copious college football. Probably both meals will have some snacks of raw veggies and chips and dips. And there will be coffee for all who want.
Oh, so now you're making fun of the way I walk with my arms outstretched straight out in front of me.