Let's Talk Turkey

Don't you love Thanksgiving! Okay, so that's more of a statement, than a question. But I seriously love the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Family, friends, football, food... turkey! Yummmm!

I've cooked a lot of turkey over the years, but it seems like nearly every time I get ready to cook a turkey, I end up searching online for a great new recipe. Here is a list of some of my favorite turkey websites.

Nesco - my favorite! The turkeys I have roasted in my nesco are always moist! Not always perfectly brown... but oh so yummy! Nesco Recipes - do a search for turkey in the nesco roaster and you'll find the instructions for roasting a turkey in your nesco. You can roast up to a 20 lb bird in the 18 quart nesco roaster.

Rotisserie Turkey - I LOVE turkey roasted on my George Foreman rotisserie. I simply use the instruction manual recipe that came with my George Foreman. The George Foreman rotisserie isn't for a large turkey, so don't plan on it for a big family gathering.

Martha Stewart has several really good basic recipes. The classic stuffing is one of my favorite recipes. I've cooked her 'perfect turkey' and it turned out wonderful. During the holidays, she has the link to her turkey recipes right on the front page, but during the off months, you'll need to go to Martha's website and do a search for turkey recipes.

Butterball - the butterball turkey website can be impossible to get into on Thanksgiving morning. Don't wait till the last day to figure out how to bake your turkey. You can call them Call 1-800-Butterball or you can go to the website to look up tips, recipes, and if you can't find what you are looking for, you can even email them.

Norbest is a wonderful website with information about picking out a turkey, thawing your bird, cooking the perfect holiday bird, whole birds, boneless turkey, and bone in turkey breast. Not only will you find recipes and cooking tips, you'll find a whole section of the website with facts - history of agriculture, trivia, US turkey production, etc...

Jenie-O has information on buying, cooking, stuffing, marinating, rubbing, how-to carve, safely handle, and store left over turkey.


This year seems to be the year for brined turkey. I haven't given that method a try as of yet, but I'm going to look at the recipes on the food network and try out one or two of the recipes early this next year. Until then, I'm not giving any links, since I don't know anything about it first hand.

Berry Red Cranberry Sauce

Berry Red Cranberry Sauce:

• 1 bag of cranberries.
• 1 cup of cran-raspberry juice
• 1 cup of sugar

Directions:

Stir the sugar into the juice in a heavy sauce pan. Heat and stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring it up to a boil. Stir in the cranberries. Simmer for 10 minutes. Stir often. You'll hear the cranberries popping. It's sort of cool to see them pop like that. After you simmer it for 10 minutes cool in the refrigerator before serving.

***personal note*** I sometimes serve it warm and it is wonderful! Using the red juice makes this really red cranberry sauce. It's beautiful!