3 Quarters Today

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thanksgiving

My Favorite Turkey Stuffing Recipe

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Some foods I cook from scratch, other have a little bit of help, and I deviate from the script. My favorite turkey stuffing recipe varies every year, depending on what I have in my refrigerator and cupboards. But regardless, it always comes out delicious and there is never enough for left over “turkey plates.”

How to Dress up your Turkey Stuffing
Start with Stove top Stuffing as a base

Start with Stove Top Turkey Stuffing Mix

Yes, it’s cheating in a way, but I’m brand loyal and Stove Top stuffing has amazing flavor, the seasonings are already mixed in so I don’t have to guess. But I don’t stop there, I chop 3-4 of the following added ingredients and add them to the pot.

Just follow the ingredients on the box.

  1. Add water and butter to a large saucepan, bring to a boil.
  2. Turn off burner
  3. Add breadcrumbs from box
  4. Remove from heat
  5. Add 1-2 cups “EXTRA” ingredients and quickly mix with fork
  6. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes

Stuffing Additives

  • Onions
  • Celery
  • Mushrooms
  • Dried cranberries
  • Apples
  • Dried cherries
  • Walnuts
  • Chestnuts

I normally add about a 1/4 cup of each ingredient to my turkey stuffing, notice I said ABOUT, I don’t measure I just chop until it looks good. If you don’t like apples, leave them out, but it does give a nice sweet flavor to the stuffing. They cook down soft, so most people don’t even notice.

 

Baking Your Turkey

Homemade turkey stuffing recipeYes, there is a debate on whether you should bake your stuffing inside the bird or separately. This is mainly due to “safety” reasons. I bake my turkey with the stuffing inside, the turkey drippings add an amazing flavor which unmatched by just stove top cooking.

What is important to remember is to fully cook your turkey, then when you think he’s done, leave it in for 15 more minutes. Since I only use a giant roasting pan once a year I don’t own a “real” metal roaster. I buy the disposables at the grocery store and reuse them to make Chex Mix for the Christmas season. I do have a “real” metal baster though. Plastic turkey basters have a way of somehow touching a really hot service and getting a hole burned into the syringe. Then they don’t work.


Back to the stuffing. Use a large serving spoon and pack the stuffing inside the main body cavity and under the neck flab, just lift and tuck, lift and tuck. (Sounds like an exercise doesn’t it)

 

Butter Basted turkey
Place frozen pats of butter under the skin

Lift the bird and spoon the stuffing way down inside the body cavity. Pack it full. If the stuffing is sticking out the back end of the turkey, that’s ok. It will get nice and crispy and is perfect for snacking on when you take the turkey out of the oven.

 

After all of your stuffing has disappeared into the turkey, then proceed to season the outside, slip some butter under the skin and cover with bacon. Yup I make a bacon wrapped turkey. If you’re into that type of thing.

Bacon wrapped turkey

I should fix more stuffing throughout the year. Turkey stuffing isn’t just for Thanksgiving and there are a lot of recipes to use with chicken and pork chops. Maybe I’ll venture beyond just stuffing at Thanksgiving.

Kraft Stove Top RecipesThe Ultimate Recipes for Thanksgiving Turkey – A Complete Guide on How to Cook a Moist and Flavorful Thanksgiving Turkey Every Time!

More Ways to Cook a Turkey

Looking for tips on how to bake a turkey for Thanksgiving? Don’t tell anybody …

Despite your unfounded fears to the contrary, baking a turkey for Thanksgiving is actually one of the easier chores you will have that day. Just follow the simple instructions and amaze your friends with your culinary prowess. (File photo). Print Email.

How To Cook A Turkey – How To Roast A Turkey – Best Thanksgiving Roast Turkey …

http://www.easycookvideos.com – How To Cook A Turkey. Discover how to roast a turkey. This is the best Thanksgiving turkey recipe & Christmas turkey recipe. It will show you how long to cook a turkey (Including turkey temperature, turkey cooking times …


Serve a Bacon Basted Turkey for Thanksgiving

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Butter and Bacon Wrapped Turkey Recipe

How to make a bacon basted turkey for thanksgiving

Given the time I love to cook, and Thanksgiving is the perfect time to break out traditional recipes like my Bacon wrapped turkey recipe.

I roasted my turkey with bacon way before bacon was cool. I watched my Dad obsess over his turkey when I was little and this started a family tradition.

You can have your fried turkeys, slow cooker turkeys, and your precooked turkeys. I like my Thanksgiving turkey oven roasted and the whole process becomes an event.

I’ve even baked my Thanksgiving bird in a roasting bag a few times just to try it, but it’s not near as good. Thanksgiving was my Dad’s Favorite Holiday

You have to know that my Dad didn’t really cook much, but Thanksgiving was his holiday and he loved fixing and carving the turkey. I only bought a Butterball pre-basted turkey once, and that was enough, it wasn’t near as moist.

The Best Turkey Baste is a Combination of Butter and Bacon

The secret to a juicy turkey is lots of juice, basting frequently, and not letting the bird sit in the oven and get dried out. Eat it less than an hour after it comes out of the oven.

Butter Basted turkey
Place frozen pats of butter under the skin

So grab your Thanksgiving apron, your turkey, butter and bacon, and let’s get to work.

Best Roast Turkey Recipe Ever

Seriously, even people who don’t like turkey will love this, it is indeed the best roast turkey recipe ever!

  • Large Turkey
  • 1 lb bacon
  • 1 lb frozen butter (1-2 sticks under skin, 1-2 sticks for stuffing)
  • Powdered Sage
  • Poultry Seasoning
  • Seasoning Salt
  • Prepared stuffing (I always stuff my turkey and have the best turkey stuffing ever)
Bacon wrapped turkey
Lay Strips of Bacon on buttered and stuffed turkey

Turkey Roasting Instructions

  1. Preset oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit
  2. Rinse and remove the packaged giblets from inside the bird (neck & leg opening)
  3. Place turkey in large roasting pan
  4. Slide frozen pats of butter under the skin as far as you can reach on both sides (an inch apart)
  5. Spoon stuffing into body cavity and under the neck flap (pack it in)
  6. Season turkey with sage, poultry seasoning, and seasoning salt
  7. Cover turkey with strips of uncooked bacon
  8. Cover roasting pan with lid, or tinfoil
  9. Place in oven and bake for 12 minutes per pound of turkey

How Long to Cook a Turkey

There are a lot of rules of thumb on how long to cook a turkey, but like my Dad taught me, 12 minutes per lb at 350F.

Many cooking experts recommend 10-13 minutes per pound, but remember, I open the oven door a LOT for basting. So my 24 lb turkey will take about five hours.

Basting Instructions

Bacon wrapped turkey
Serve and eat!

Basting is very important to get a juicy and moist turkey.

When the turkey is about halfway done, or as the liquid starts to accumulate at the bottom of the roaster start basting. The bacon fat and butter will melt, soak into the turkey and collect at the bottom of the pan. What a waste.

Pull back the tin foil, and use a large turkey baster to suck up the juice and squirt it on top of the turkey.

Yeah, just suck up all the yummy buttery bacony (is that a word) goodness and pour it over the skin of the turkey, making sure to cover the breast, legs, and even the wings.

BASTE EVERY 30 MINUTES

This is important. Set the timer. You have to babysit the bird. This is when my Mom would start saying “The turkey is never going to cook if you keep opening the oven door!”

Well, the turkey cooks. You might have to add another 20 minutes to the time, but when the turkey is a nice brown, golden color and the bacon crisp and crunchy it’s done.

If you really want to know when your turkey is done you can use a cooking thermometer and when it reaches 160F it’s done.

My Mom’s way of telling is to “shake the leg”, if it shakes back it’s done, or if it falls off, it’s done. When the legs start to sag away from the bird it’s also done.

Homemade turkey stuffing recipe
Homemade stuffing with a twist

Doesn’t it look delicious!!

There is nothing better than a bacon basted turkey at Thanksgiving. Remember the cook gets to pick the bacon and turkey before it’s served.  

Many turkeys have pop-up thermometers and you can use them as a guideline to when your turkey is done, but if it looks like the photo above, it’s done.

Remove it from the oven and let it sit for 15-30 minutes. The meat will continue to cook and you when your biscuits or crescent rolls are done it’s time to eat. At my house we don’t eat at a certain time, we eat “around 1:00 pm” or whenever the bird is done. After opening the door several times for baking the aroma starts to draw people to the kitchen and dining room.

RSVP Endurance Stainless Steel Turkey Lifter, Set of 2Great Gatherings 21 inch X-Large Oval Serving Platter for Turkey, Ham, Prime Rib with Embossed Friut aroung edge

You can then assign volunteers to set the table, place the mashed potatoes in bowls, and pour the drinks. Enjoy your Bacon Basted Turkey and if you have any Thanksgiving traditions I would love to hear them!

Where to Buy Your Turkey

I normally purchase my turkey from the grocery store, I get a plain turkey, not the Butterball variety or their copycats.

Occasionally I have purchased a local farm-raised turkey, but those actually tend to be too big for my oven. One year we had a 28 lb turkey!! Leftovers for months.

Whole Organic Turkey 18-20lbsBranigan’s Woodland California Thanksgiving Free Range Turkey 20 to 22 Pounds with Brining Kit

You can, unbelievably buy an organic farm-raised turkey for Thanksgiving online and have it delivered right to your door.

For those who live in the city and don’t have a car, I think this would be ideal. I can’t imagine my son lugging a 20 lb turkey on the Chicago CTA train.

Thanksgiving Traditions

Each family has its own Thanksgiving traditions, often representative of their cultural and/or ethnic background.

Americans are proud of the fact that we can all celebrate the same holiday, albeit in different ways. What is your Thanksgiving tradition?

 

Thankful November: My 30 Day Photo Challenge

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Thankful November seems to be the trend as I’ve been seeing thankful postings on Facebook and on Twitter the past couple of days. I think we should say thank you everyday, but there is something powerful about saying “thank you” out loud and counting your blessings during the month of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving tends to disappear between Halloween and Christmas, the holiday has all but disappeared in the consumerism and holiday hoopla. So yes, I think I will participate in Thankful November.

When I think of all I have, all God has provided, it’s really amazing. Life could be so much harder, and as I look back on my life there have been some years that pushed me to the limit physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I learned to appreciate the little things in life, see the positive instead of the negative and “Let God.”

So the photographer in me is going to merge two projects, a 30 Day Photo Challenge and 30 Days of Thankfulness.  Those who have followed my blog might remember my 365 project. I’ve come a long ways in my photography since then and I’d like to start sharing again. Photography is my way of documenting and recording what is important to me, so in essence, it’s what I’m thankful for in life.

Harvest in Nebraska, Combines in the fields
Day: 1 Harvest in Nebraska (Commute to work)

Day 1: I am thankful for my commute to work every day. The twenty-eight miles takes me about 35 minutes when I don’t stop to take photographs. During the fall the farmers are in their fields picking corn and combining soybeans. Harvest is a reward for a year’s work.

Fall color, red maple leaves in Nebraska
Day 2: Fall Color (Flowers or Nature)

Day 2: I am thankful for the little things, leaves on the trees, the change of seasons, it makes me happy.

My Boxer Leah
Day 3: My Puppy Dog

Day 3: My dogs make me happy, animals love unconditionally and Leah my Boxer is always happy to see me when I come home, she wiggles her tail so hard her whole body wiggles.

Day 311: Prepping For Thanksgiving

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How to Prepare for Thanksgiving Dinner

How to make a bacon and butter basted turkey for thanksgivingOne of my joys during the year is planning Thanksgiving dinner. My kids love eating my moist delicious turkey wrapped in bacon. You can find the recipe here.

I start shopping for Thanksgiving several weeks before the holiday. Why? Because shopping for Thanksgiving can be expensive. The biggest turkeys are gone first and who wants a 12 lb turkey? My perfect sized turkey is about 18-20 lbs.

What else is on my list as I’m preparing Thanksgiving dinner?

Here is my shopping list for Thanksgiving. This is mainly for my kids who someday will need to fix Thanksgiving for their families.

  • 18-20 lb Fresh Turkey
  • 1 lb of bacon
  • Two pounds of butter (need one lb just for the turkey)
  • Vanilla
  • 18 eggs
  • 2 prepared pie crusts
  • 2 tubes crescent rolls
  • 5 lbs of potatoes
  • 1 can of cranberry jelly
  • 3 boxes StoveTop Stuffing
  • 3 lbs apples
  • 3 lbs onions
  • 1 package of dried cranberries
  • Mushrooms
  • 3 cans of green beans
  • Cream of Mushroom soup
  • FRENCH’S Crispy Fried Onions.
  • Spices
    • Sage
    • Thyme
    • Lawrys Seasoning Salt
    • Grinder Pepper

When Is Thanksgiving?

It never fails. Every year I still get the question Mom? When is Thanksgiving?” Thanksgiving is ALWAYS the third Thursday of November kids. Look at your calendar. Now let me get back to planning thanksgiving dinner so you can feed your belly.

preparing thanksgiving dinner

Thanksgiving Holiday Decorations

As I’m planning Thanksgiving I set the table the day before. It saves time and stress on Thanksgiving Day to relax and visit with family. I break out my China and good silverware.

 

Yes, I set a traditional Thanksgiving table. I put in all the leaves and gather chairs from all over the house. My family is small compared to friends with extended families.  Since our nuclear family is small, usually 6-8 people, we can all gather in the dinning room.

All the food goes on the table, the Turkey taking center stage and dishes getting passed. We don’t eat buffet style on Thanksgiving. I get a new tablecloth and napkins every Thanksgiving and it’s not easy to find a 72″ table cloth.

I’ve learned a few secrets to setting a large dining table. Use TWO Table cloths overlapping each other.

Use two ta