Roasted Turkey

OK, the truth is out. All those wonderful easy meals don't just pop out of the freezer by themselves. I actually have to cook.

Before Thanksgiving I put two turkeys that I bought on sale into Anna's freezer. Anna and Ed are in Florida for the winter and I'm watering their plants so. We went to Atlanta for Thanksgiving so had one of the turkeys at Christmas. On Monday I moved the remaining turkey from their freezer to their refrigerator and brought it home on Saturday. We're also going to Florida and when we get back they'll be back too so couldn't leave it their forever. Also, we're going to Greta's to do some babysitting this week so we can bring some meals with us.

Today we went to grandson Connors final hockey game. Both teams played very well but unfortunately McQuaid lost to Fairport 2-1. There was such a chill in the air today that I was happy to stay in the kitchen. I put the turkey in the oven and then Linda came over so I could help her upload her friend's pictures to match.com. We were done by the time I had to baste after the first 1/2 hour.

I made the turkey using a modified version of Emeril's turkey recipe that we saw on Good Morning America a few years ago. I also made two side dishes using cranberries I had in "my" freezer. Last year we had a cranberry recipe that we really liked and at one point we couldn't find cranberries in the store anymore. So this year I was going to be sure I stocked up but then couldn't remember which was the recipe that we really liked. I think it was Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish recipe. I got this recipe from my sister Nadine a long time ago when she made it for Thanksgiving. Since then it became part of the family Thanksgiving menu. She got it from listening to Susan Stamberg on NPR but it turns out it's really a Craig Claiborne recipe that Susan's mother got from the New York Times in 1959. See the story and recipe at Susan Stamberg Cranberry Relish.
Link to this page for the full recipe that I originally got from the GMA website for the turkey. I couldn't find it today to directly link to it. I didn't have apple cider for the basting liquid so I used orange juice. My turkey weighted 19 lbs and it cooked in the same amount of time.

This is the link to the Cranberry-Orange Relish I made today and here is the Cranberry-Orange Sauce I made at Christmas. They're both really good.