Our Saturday before Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving

This year our kids are spending Thanksgiving with their other parent.  Therefore, I am making out Thanksgiving dinner next Saturday, the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  It will be the first Thanksgiving meal I have ever prepared.  I am pretty excited.  I was listening to the radio and hear the Dj mentioned a brown paper bag turkey.  I found the recipe below. 

Paper Bag Turkey

1 whole turkey, 23-25 pounds
1 large brown paper bag (grocery bag)
Butter, soft but not melted
Salt or garlic salt and pepper to taste

•Remove neck and giblets from cavities. Rinse the turkey and pat dry with paper towels. Stuff, if desired.
•Thoroughly coat the turkey with butter using your fingers or a paper towel. Season generously.
•Place the turkey in the paper bag. Seal the bag with staples, paper clips or a needle and thread. (Use 2 bags if 1 is too small.)

•Place the turkey on a sturdy shallow baking pan. Bake at 325° for about 5 hours. Reduce the cooking time to 4-4 1/2 hours for an unstuffed or smaller turkey.

And no, the paper will not burn, and the turkey will not taste like paper. But you will enjoy all those little gasps of appreciation when you "unwrap" your perfect paper bag turkey.

Leftover Turkey Tip

Here's a tip that will keep you from ever having to hear, Oh no, not turkey again! ever again. Instead of going the week-long 'leftover turkey dinner to turkey sandwiches to turkey casserole to turkey soup' route, start with the soup. Remove all the meat from the carcass right away, saving the bones for soup broth. Refrigerate any turkey meat you may want for the next day or two and freeze the rest. And voila, turkey only when you want it.

I plan to start next Saturday off with pumpkin pancakes.  My son is so cute and wrote down the instructions (well most of them) while he was on the Internet at school.  I found the below recipe online.

If you like pancakes, you'll love pumpkin pancakes. Throw in some chopped apple, or a handful of raisins or even some chopped cranberries if you like. Enjoy with warm maple syrup.


Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutesIngredients:

•1 cup all-purpose flour
•1/4 cup packed brown sugar
•1 1/2 tsp baking powder
•1/4 tsp salt
•1/2 tsp cinnamon
•1/2 tsp ground ginger
•1/4 tsp nutmeg
•1 large egg, lightly beaten
•1 tbsp canola oil
•1 cup nonfat milk
•1/3 cup pure pumpkin

Preparation:

Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg together in a medium bowl. Combine egg, oil, milk and pumpkin in a small bowl. Stir pumpkin mixture into dry ingredients. Leave to stand for five minutes.

For each pancake, scoop 1/4 cup of batter on to a hot griddle or nonstick skillet sprayed with cooking spray. Turn pancakes when bubbles appear and edges are cooked, after about 2 minutes. Cook for 1 1/2 minutes on second side.

Makes 8-10 pancakes.


Now all I need are sides.  I will also need to make some deserts.  I want to plan for each of us to write something that we can stand up and read that memorizes what we are thankful for.  oooh ooohh I want to start a family scrap book starting with this meal.  I hope I cook some things that are so great that they ask for them every year.  Ok, I have a lot of work to do.  I will keep you updated!