It's Time

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Kind of sorry I started this thread, things got out of whack!
It was meant to help people with any cooking questions pre-Thanksgiving.
Since the busiest day on this site is Thanksgiving or leading up to it.

Sorry S&P...threads that get started before a holiday tend to drift.

I'm up for unusual suggestions for T-Day Dinner. I can change my mind anytime I like about what I am fixing.
 
My most memorable Thanksgiving was when I was around 8 or 9 years old. I had an ear infection. Everyone was sitting around the dining room table eating Thanksgiving dinner and I was laying on the studio couch in the corner with a hot water bottle.

And the second most memorable was a couple years ago when I was hosting and I came down with shingles the day before. I refused to go to the ER so I suffered through dinner with terrible pain and went to the ER the next day.
 
My most memorable was the year Mom woke up sick and couldn't cook our dinner. Mom and Dad had decided to wait until the weekend when Mom felt better, but I piped up that I could do it. I think I was about 9 or 10...I whipped up the meal, with a hundred rounds of the stairs to ask Mom questions. Daddy said I did it just as good as Mom's:) After that I was more than just Mom's sous chef.

Then there was the year I talked them into letting me cook the turkey in the microwave...it was good! I did have to use the oven to crisp it at the end, but it worked!
 
My most memorable Thanksgiving was when I was around 8 or 9 years old. I had an ear infection. Everyone was sitting around the dining room table eating Thanksgiving dinner and I was laying on the studio couch in the corner with a hot water bottle.

And the second most memorable was a couple years ago when I was hosting and I came down with shingles the day before. I refused to go to the ER so I suffered through dinner with terrible pain and went to the ER the next day.

I watched my second husband go through a bout with shingles. I didn't know it was contagious and I was sleeping right next to him. He was in such horrible pain. You have my sympathy. All my kids had chicken pox. And they have all gotten their shots again. I have never had them and mentioned it my doctor. He told me that I could very easily catch them if I came in contract with the shingles. So I got my shot right then and there. At my age, any of the childhood diseases could kill me very easily. :angel:
 
My kids never liked turkey until they became adults. So I always made four roasted stuffed chickens. I told them they were small turkeys. For the next few years until they figured out the truth, they told their friends that we always had four turkeys for the holiday. "My mother wanted every one to have a leg for Thanksgiving". :angel:
 
My most memorable was the year Mom woke up sick and couldn't cook our dinner.... I piped up that I could do it.

I cooked my first bird day dinner when I was 6 or 7. It was memorable because the turkey weighed about as much as I did and I had to get it into the oven by stages - hauled it up out of the sink onto the drain board (this was in ancient times when we thought the safest way to defrost giant birds was in a sink full of cold water), clean, remove giblets, place pan over sink well, shove bird onto rack ... haul pan up onto drainboard, whomp pan onto top of kitchen stool, push stool to open oven with rack pulled all the way out, whomp pan onto rack (they don't build 'em like that anymore) ... push oven closed by wedging kitchen stool against sink (it was one of those 40's all-steel monstrosities, if you remember those)... wedge self onto second step of step stool (seat up) ... push oven closed with feet protected by potholders ... had to repeat this last phase every time I basted the bird, LOL!

It was the more memorable because I managed to burn my toe at one point (the potholder slipped, LOL!)

EDIT: Ooops, left out the stuff-the-bird-step - had I done that in real life, they'd have had me for dinner! Turkey without stuffing would be INCONCEIVABLE!

....
Then there was the year I talked them into letting me cook the turkey in the microwave...it was good! I did have to use the oven to crisp it at the end, but it worked!....

Wow, you must have the most ginormous microwave in the world, LOL!
 
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I cooked my first bird day dinner when I was 6 or 7. It was memorable because the turkey weighed about as much as I did and I had to get it into the oven by stages - hauled it up out of the sink onto the drain board (this was in ancient times when we thought the safest way to defrost giant birds was in a sink full of cold water), clean, remove giblets, place pan over sink well, shove bird onto rack ... haul pan up onto drainboard, whomp pan onto top of kitchen stool, push stool to open oven with rack pulled all the way out, whomp pan onto rack (they don't build 'em like that anymore) ... push oven closed by wedging kitchen stool against sink (it was one of those 40's all-steel monstrosities, if you remember those)... wedge self onto second step of step stool (seat up) ... push oven closed with feet protected by potholders ... had to repeat this last phase every time I basted the bird, LOL!

It was the more memorable because I managed to burn my toe at one point (the potholder slipped, LOL!)



Wow, you must have the most ginormous microwave in the world, LOL!

Big enough for a 10 pound turkey. It only had one power level, all done with adjusting the timing, turning, etc. Very energetic and time consuming for the cook. I never did it again.:LOL: I must have been about 16 at the time...37 years ago.
 
.....Then there was the year I talked them into letting me cook the turkey in the microwave...it was good! I did have to use the oven to crisp it at the end, but it worked!
Mom always did Thanksgiving dinner for us every year. She loved cooking for holidays! Good thing even after we were married because I never wanted to get up early enough to throw that bird into the oven - she liked to be ready by 1:00PM. And no one wanted to eat Thanksgiving day dinner at 9:00 PM. Mom did dinners for a few years, but when she had heart surgery I took over. We had a fairly large microwave with a few whistles and bells, bought around 1983 (never had one until the kids were around 2 or so), and a rather decent cookbook included that told how to cook a bird around 12-14 pounds. I got a small box of those micro cooking bags, used the probe...and we were surprised how good it turned out! Now my SIL likes to make the turkey. One big enough to feed the neighborhood because she loves the leftovers for days. And days, and days...
 
I watched my second husband go through a bout with shingles. I didn't know it was contagious and I was sleeping right next to him. He was in such horrible pain. You have my sympathy. All my kids had chicken pox. And they have all gotten their shots again. I have never had them and mentioned it my doctor. He told me that I could very easily catch them if I came in contract with the shingles. So I got my shot right then and there. At my age, any of the childhood diseases could kill me very easily. :angel:


The doc told me it was contagious, but only if the other person is exposed to the active blisters. My step daughter had it in high school. It was 10 years later when I got it. My husband slept right next to me and never got it. We got concerned when my step son got it because they had a new born at home, but the baby never got it, neither did his wife. So I think you would actually have to rub up against the blisters to get it from someone else. It us usually explained as the worst pain you ever had, but after having peritinitis, I'm not so sure.
 
Mom always did Thanksgiving dinner for us every year. She loved cooking for holidays! Good thing even after we were married because I never wanted to get up early enough to throw that bird into the oven - she liked to be ready by 1:00PM. And no one wanted to eat Thanksgiving day dinner at 9:00 PM. Mom did dinners for a few years, but when she had heart surgery I took over. We had a fairly large microwave with a few whistles and bells, bought around 1983 (never had one until the kids were around 2 or so), and a rather decent cookbook included that told how to cook a bird around 12-14 pounds. I got a small box of those micro cooking bags, used the probe...and we were surprised how good it turned out! Now my SIL likes to make the turkey. One big enough to feed the neighborhood because she loves the leftovers for days. And days, and days...

I am like your SIL. One year I made 2 18lb turkeys for 9 people. There were lots and lots of leftovers, but my family likes to take leftovers home. My MIL never had leftovers. I like to cook 2 turkeys because it gives me more dark meat which my family loves. I often wonder about my step daughter and daughter in law. They are both in their 40's and neither have ever cooked a turkey. Have no clue. One time I asked my step daughter to take the stuffing out of the turkey and she asked "Where is it?" When I am gone, there is no one left to cook Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. There is a nice restaurant in town that serves both Thanksgiving and Christmas. They will be going there.
 
Lately I've been buying two turkeys. One for the main meal and the other for odds and ends. I buy a cheap turkey ($0.59/Lb) and break it down. I freeze two breast halves and all the thigh meat for future meals. I use the carcass, wings and drumsticks to make a killer turkey stock for pilaf, gravy, etc. It's extra work but ends up cheaper than buying turkey parts for stock.
 
I need to stock up parts before Thanksgiving, last year I couldn't find any when I wanted them.
 
What was the commercial "Parts is part, pieces is pieces."

One year I bought extra thighs because my family likes dark meat and they wouldn't eat them. Wanted them attached to the rest of the bird. Thus the cooking of two turkeys.
 
Parts is parts was a Wendy's ad about "processed chicken" used in sandwiches at other stores.

That's too funny, not eating meat because it's "not attached to the bird" - LOL!
 
Parts is parts was a Wendy's ad about "processed chicken" used in sandwiches at other stores.

That's too funny, not eating meat because it's "not attached to the bird" - LOL!


My family is so in the dark, they don't realize that white meat is the breast and dark meat is the thighs and drumsticks. They just know that when they sit down to eat, the white meat is on one plate and the dark meat on the other.
 
Looking through my recipes I found a recipe for Herbed Scalloped Sweet Potatoes. I made it one year for Thanksgiving but my family was not receptive to sweet potatoes that were not covered in brown sugar, cinnamon and marshmallows. I thought someone might want something different this Thanksgiving. I posted in recipes under vegetables. I loved it!
 
Turkey question. I am always loosing my mind over how long it will take to defrost a turkey so this year I purchased a fresh one yesterday. Sell by date is 12/3/13. So now I'm loosing my mind worrying that this fresh turkey sitting in my fridge until Thanksgiving will go bad. I'm relying on the package! Does fresh poultry really last that long in the cold box?
 
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