My First Bird

I hosted Thanksgiving dinner this year...first time ever. Justin's parents came from Texas, and his two younger brothers and their families were all here for the feast. I roasted my first turkey, and was very pleased with the result. So pleased, in fact, that I wanted to document how it was made so I can do it again next Thanksgiving!!! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
* 1 stick of butter
* 2-3 stalks of celery
* 2-3 carrots
* 1 onion
* fresh thyme
* fresh sage
* fresh parsley
* chicken stock
* kosher salt
* fresh ground pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Wash sink and pull out bag of organs (tradition demands that you season and boil the contents of the organ bag and feed them to Grandma and Grandpa. They love it!)

3. Rinse the turkey, rub with kosher salt, and re-rinse

4. Cut the carrots, onions and celery into large chunks. Chop 1/2 of the sage, 1/2 of the parsley and 1/2 of the thyme, leaving the rest of the bunches intact.

5. Take one quarter of an onion, a piece of celery and a chunk of carrot and stuff them inside the turkey. Continue stuffing some of each items inside the turkey until the turkey is full.

6. Tie the remaining bunches of parsley, sage and thyme together using a piece of butchers string and place them inside the turkey with the rest of the stuffing.

7. Take the stick of butter and melt it in a small pot over low heat. Thin butter with 1/4 cup of olive oil.

8. Once the butter has melted, turn off the heat and add in in the chopped thyme, parsley and sage. Then add a generous amount of salt and pepper, and mix well.

9. Pour the butter mixture over the entire turkey, rubbing it all over the turkey's skin and body cavity.

10. Pour 1 or 2 cups chicken stock into the roasting pan. (I used an electric turkey roaster this year, so I didn't need a turkey bag or foil, but if I were to do it in the oven, I'd definitely use a turkey bag or wrap the roasting pan in aluminum foil.) Make note of the time, and put your turkey in to roast.

11. After 2 hours, take a peek and make sure that everything is going to plan. Peek inside, do some initial basting, if any juices have collected, re-wrap the aluminum foil and put the turkey back in the oven to continue roasting.

12. After 3 hours, check and baste.

13. Cook until meat is 165 degrees. Check the temperature of the turkey every 15 minutes during the final phase of cooking. Plunge the meat thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh and take a temperature reading. Try not to have the tip of the thermometer touching the turkey bone, but just nestled deep inside the meet. If the skin is browning too quickly, but the meat is still less than 165 degrees, cover the turkey in foil to slow the crisping process. If the meat reaches 165 degrees before the skin crisps to your liking, remove the foil, crank the oven up to 400 degrees, and take the turkey out as soon as the skin crisps up, so as not to overcook the turkey.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!!!