Recipe(tried): Turkey Day Cooking Order -This Is What I do Marinda...

Dear Marinda,

I know, it can seem rather daunting to have to cook all those things and be sure to have them nice and hot for the table. It is an Olympic feat, to say the least!

This is what I do:

The turkey cooks first. Meanwhile all the casseroles can be prepared and stored in the fridge.

When the turkey is done, it needs to come out and rest so that it gets juice. I get all the delicious pan juices out for gravy making. Then I cover the turkey with heavy-duty aluminum paper. This keeps it nice and hot while you prepare and the casseroles are cooking.

I get all the casseroles in using top and bottom racks. Most casseroles are for either 30 or 45 minutes. When they come out, I stick the turkey back in for about 20 minutes while I prepare everything, i.e., water glasses, casseroles to table, cranberry sauce in bowl...you get the picture.

It is a frenzied day but well worth the preparation.

At our home, I prepare the turkey the way my Mom has done for the past 50 years. I have done it like this for the past 24 years...the night before! I know it sounds crazy and experts recommend against it, but we have never gotten sick or God forbid, the turkey turn out bad!!

The day before Thanksgiving, we cook and prepare all the casseroles and refrigerate.

At precisely 11:00 p.m. my Mom and I begin preparing our delicious stuffing by taking the bag contained inside the turkey and putting the contents in a pressure cooker, cover with water, add a 1/2 onion studded with cloves, a bay leaf, salt and pepper, 3 garlic cloves, 1 celery rib cut in half and 2 little envelopes of Washington's Seasonings. That is pressure cooked til tender. The broth is then strained.

We pick the meat of the neck bone and put it in the stuffing bowl along with 1 large bag and a small bag of Pepperidge Farm's herb crumb stuffing. We use the broth to flavor the stuffing. We saute 2 onions, 5 celery ribs diced, & 3 garlic cloves minced in a stick of butter and when that is nice and golden we throw that in the bowl.

We then add diced 2 McIntosh apples, 1 cup dried cranberries, & 1 cup pecans and get it to the consistency we like. This is our stuffing and it is to die for!

We take our turkey out of the fridge. We always name him Tommy every year and thank him for coming to our meal as we laugh!!! We give him a good rinse and then finish him off with a lemon rinse inside and out.

Then we stuff him full, truss him up and we cut up some carrots and celery to resemble sticks for a bed for him to lay in. We butter him up real good and salt and pepper him also. We foil each of his wings, pour 1 can of chicken broth all around. Now, a trick my Mom uses for real juicy turkey is to cover the entire pan, enclosing the turkey , in heavy-duty foil. We put him in the oven at 275 degrees all night long.

The delicious turkey aroma will wake you up...now is the time to take the foil off and begin basting for that golden caramel color! Sometimes I will use 1/4 c. cider to baste. We also get our first spoonful of that incredible stuffing and we swoon every year proclaiming it was better than the last!!!

By 1PM, that turkey is begging to be cut up and plattered, the wings are falling off and oh my gosh, the meat is tender and juicy!! And, the drippings begging to be made into golden gravy are yummy!!! I love making the gravy....

Our favorite holiday, by far, is Thanksgiving Day and the meal is sumptious, to say the least!! The best are the leftovers for the next couple of days too!

Ooooh, I just can't wait....

Hope your Thanksgiving Day is as delectable as ours!

Sincerely, Gina

We eat our meal at 2PM...