liz stevens
Lovin' The Homestead
Personally for Thanksgiving I have to admit we are rather lazy, but our favorite way to cook the big bird is in the bag. Meaning we prepare it by washing it good, add seasoning an onion and celery inside, spray on butter on the outside and dust with flour, place it in a roasting bag, poke a few vent holes in the top, and then place it breast up in the roaster, set the time based on weight and forget about it.
We have tried frying it and cooking it without the bag, but for the past 34 years its been in the bag for us on Thanksgiving. We can always count on it browning perfectly and being moist inside without any fuss or extra work. The bag also helps with draining off the broth for dressing making the roaster easier to clean after the the meal is over. We find the cooking bags in the grocery store along side the food storage bags.
We also always take advantage of the turkey sales before Thanksgiving and purchase two turkeys. It doesn't take much to have someone stand in line with $20 of items to get the second one for the advertised low seasonal price. The extra turkey goes in the freezer for the outdoor smoker, which is our favorite for a summer Holiday meal.
Just in the past few years we have also discovered that we had been missing out on the wonderful turkey noodle soup, in fact talk about making things easy, we now just break up the carcass remove the most fatty skin and put everything it in a zip lock bag and then place in the freezer. When things get cold outside we pull it out add vegetables and cook up a big pot of soup adding our Amish homemade noodles towards the end. Doing it later in the season doesn't turkey us out after going through left over's.
On the dressing, we really love dressing; so much we pull out the large broiler pan that comes with ovens, and even cook a little extra. Bread dressing is our favorite. Now that we really have to have a low salt diet we use additional low salt broth to make it moist, and now add fresh sliced mushrooms to take the place of oysters.
What is your favorite way to prepare the traditional Thanksgiving meal?
We have tried frying it and cooking it without the bag, but for the past 34 years its been in the bag for us on Thanksgiving. We can always count on it browning perfectly and being moist inside without any fuss or extra work. The bag also helps with draining off the broth for dressing making the roaster easier to clean after the the meal is over. We find the cooking bags in the grocery store along side the food storage bags.
We also always take advantage of the turkey sales before Thanksgiving and purchase two turkeys. It doesn't take much to have someone stand in line with $20 of items to get the second one for the advertised low seasonal price. The extra turkey goes in the freezer for the outdoor smoker, which is our favorite for a summer Holiday meal.
Just in the past few years we have also discovered that we had been missing out on the wonderful turkey noodle soup, in fact talk about making things easy, we now just break up the carcass remove the most fatty skin and put everything it in a zip lock bag and then place in the freezer. When things get cold outside we pull it out add vegetables and cook up a big pot of soup adding our Amish homemade noodles towards the end. Doing it later in the season doesn't turkey us out after going through left over's.
On the dressing, we really love dressing; so much we pull out the large broiler pan that comes with ovens, and even cook a little extra. Bread dressing is our favorite. Now that we really have to have a low salt diet we use additional low salt broth to make it moist, and now add fresh sliced mushrooms to take the place of oysters.
What is your favorite way to prepare the traditional Thanksgiving meal?
Pour the onion and celery over the bread, add a few eggs, maybe a little milk...and smoosh the heck out of it. LOL Stuff it into a big turkey, give the turkey a butter rub, and in the roaster it goes. This all happens about 6 am...so we can eat by noon. Mashed taters,yams, gravy, corn, home made clover leaf rolls, cranberry sauce, ( TONS of that!) and a cheese and veggie tray. After dinner is inhaled...and cleaned up, we all go outside ( weather permitting) and walk it off in the woods. Then come inside and put up the family Christmas tree with pie and coffee for everyone. ( hot chocolate for the kids, LOL) By then, most everyone is ready to leave, so once they are all gone, hubby and I settle in by the tree, cuddle, and talk about " the good old days" When the kids were all young. ..and life was harder, but we were all happy and content.
You got that right. 
