(Dave had to come in to help me take the turkey out of the oven to check the temperature.
Every time he would say, "I cannot believe how big this thing is!"
That is the biggest pan I have and the bird was touching the ends of the pan and literally hanging out off the pan!)
I was VERY nervous about making a nice dinner for all of us. We all have things that we love to eat for thanksgiving and I did not want to disappoint. I made a menu plan and went with it. It included turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, sweet potatoes, corn bread stuffing, Karen's raspberry jello, cranberries and rolls. I did most of the cooking the day before.
Karalee's friend, Spencer Stokes, brought us a turkey that was SO big. This turkey was bigger than Milli! It was THIRTY-TWO POUNDS. I could not believe its size when I saw it. My fear of making a lovely thanksgiving feast became worse than before. I researched and researched how to cook such a giant bird and NOWHERE did I find cooking times for a 32lb turkey. However, I knew it was going to have to cook for a long time. I woke up at 3am and put the turkey on a low 275 and cooked it like that for TEN HOURS, yes TEN HOURS! Then I uncovered it and cooked it for an additional 2.5hours on 375. It was juicy and SO pretty. I gave it lots of TLC. I massaged it with 4 cubes of butter, thyme, rosemary, basil and parsley. I also spread the butter under the birds skin. It was so fragrant....mmmmm!
(You MUST try the Corn Bread Stuffing by THE Pioneer Woman, its delicious!)
When our guests arrived we finished the last few things and got to eating. We only ate 1/4 of ONE breast! Needless to say we will be eating turkey for a very long time.
(The adult table. Leah was invited to be part of it since the kid table only seats four :))
(The kid table)
T-Day 2010 was a wonderful success... a little stressful, but successful!
13 comments:
That bird looks awesome.
What a great idea.
Sorry it was a little stressful but you should be so proud of yourself!!!
The turkey looks wonderful! Sounds like you had nothing to worry about.
Glad it was all successful! Looks wonderful.
I am glad that you had a great and succesful Thankgivings Day. What a huge turkey that was, I don't know that I have ever come across one that big when shopping for our turkey. Love you!
I am so happy the turkey came out great! I was worried! My aunt always makes one that is 40+ lbs. Everything looks so yummy!
I told our friends at the Thanksgiving dinner we went to last night about your 32lb. bird, they almost fainted. You can't get anything bigger than 20lbs. in the UK and apparently have to special request them. You can also only buy canned pumpkin once a year when they put it on the shelves for 2 weeks and pay £2.00 for a small can. crazy. Lau, it all looks so beautiful and I am sure it was amazing. Mmmm.
Very impressive. All I had to make was the mashed potatoes. I hope my mom never dies...
Looks wonderful. You won't be so nervous next time. We had cornbread stuffing this year--sorry, I like traditional much better.
That turkey looks AH-MAZING!!!! It sounds like you are an expert chef! That dinner looked so delicious! Mmmnnnnnn........... I'm so glad it was a completely wonderful success. BUT, with you doing all the hard work, how could it NOT be successful! Congrats!
Way to go!
Everything looks so good and I'm glad that you were able to prepare a lot of it the day before. That makes such a huge difference. I should have invited myself to your house instead - you had plenty of turkey! :)
WOW. i am so impressed! way to go! it all looks amazing. and booooo for dave not winning. we voted for him a lot and so did tandy and aaron.
Your turkey looks amazing. I still need some info on where exactly this giant bird came from and why you got it for free. Did you win a giant turkey contest or something? ;)
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