This years meal was a great success! We had a ton of food, and we are still eating leftovers! I made a 25 pound turkey this year, and it was incredible! I seasoned it with rosemary, sage, olive oil, salt and pepper, and cooked it in a Reynolds bag. I always allow too much time for the Turkey to cook, and this year was no exception. All of the websites I looked at said it would take 5 hours at 350 degrees. It took about 3.5 at 325, which I kept lowering a d finally had at 275. I used a digital meat thermometer to watch the internal temperature of the turkey. When I see that it is cooking too fast, I drop it by 25 degrees. The result is an amazing bird. After making dressing and gravy, I had 2 freezer bags full of dripping left. Those Reynolds bags really do the trick!
After thanksgiving I decided to boil down the remaining bird to make stock. I ended up with turkey and rice soup, pulled turkey BBQ and 2 more freezer bags of broth.
We just ate the last of the ham today, so the bone and remaining bits and pieces are headed to the freezer for new years day collard greens:) mmm!
All in all, it was a great event. The food was fantastic, the weather was perfect, and I won't have to balance homework and projects with cooking next year! Yay!
