Tips I Learned About Baking Our Thanksgiving Turkey

We made 2 platters of turkey:  one for white meat, the other for the dark meat.  Chris
(Photo courtesy of Will Evans)

     My turkey's have always been, at best, tasty but dry.  I tried something different this year and it turned out to be great -- in fact, my husband said repeatedly that it was the best I've ever fixed!  So, to share (and to put this somewhere that I can refer back to it myself!), I'm posting here what I did to this turkey. 

     Hope your's turns out as good as ours did this year!  

                                               Chris

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18 - 20 pound turkey (mine was still frozen solid)

Spices:  
     Course ground black pepper
     Salt
     Sweet Basil, about 1 teaspoon
     Garlic, about 1 teaspoon
     Rosemary, about 1/2 teaspoon
     Marjoram, about 1/4 teaspoon
     Sage, about 1 teaspoon


Line a large roasting pan with heavy duty aluminum foil, leaving enough on all 4 sides to secure the top piece of foil to it. 

Place the turkey in the foil-lined pan BREAST DOWN.  

Mix together all the spices EXCEPT the salt and pepper. Sprinkle about 1/4 of the mix over the turkey and put the rest in the pan around the turkey.

Generously salt (about 1 tablespoon) the turkey.

And more generously coat the back of the turkey with the black pepper, also sprinkling some into the pan around the turkey.

Put 1 cup of water in the pan around the turkey.

Now you need to make a foil enclosure for the turkey, a LOOSE foil enclosure; don't press the foil down onto the turkey.  Using a large enough piece of foil to cover the turkey, folding the edges of the top piece onto the side pieces all the way around.  Again, do not press the foil down onto the turkey - make it more of a tent around the turkey so that as it cooks, the moisture is maintained within the enclosure.  

NOTE:  cooking the turkey this way will NOT make the skin crispy.  It does cook the meat thoroughly with moist heat and all of the flavor and moisture is maintained within the enclosure.

Cook the turkey at 250 degrees for about 6 hours (if your turkey is smaller, reduce the cooking time, not the heat).  

Remove from the oven and sit the pan aside.  Allow it to cool slowly, about 1/2 hour, and DO NOT OPEN the foil. 

There will be a good quantity of broth in the pan.  Before you start cutting the meat, spoon some of the broth over the turkey.  You can also spoon some of the broth over the meat in the platters, cover the platters with foil, and put in a warm oven to hold until ready to serve.

We strained our broth and used it for the liquid in our dressing.   

Our turkey was so moist and tender, that it literally pulled apart.  You won't get firm, clean slicing, but the meat is flavorful and fork tender.

  

Mandarin Orange Dessert Salad

Photo courtesy of Chris Watson 

Makes 6 servings of approximately 1/2 cup each

Ingredients:

1/2 package orange Jello (dry - do NOT dissolve in water)
2 cups Cool Whip
1 cup Mandarin Oranges, drained and chopped
1 cup mini marshmallows
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/2 cup toasted, shredded coconut for topping
More Cool Whip for topping

Directions:

1.  With a wire wisk, gently blend the dry Jello and Cool Whip together.

2.  Fold in oranges, marshmallows, and nuts.

3.  Spoon into serving dishes (small juice glass are the perfect size for 1 serving).

4.  Top with a spoonful of Cool Whip and sprinkle on the  toasted coconut.

5.  Keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve.


Variations:  
     Use Lemon or Lime Jello and omit the oranges.  
     Use Raspberry Jello and fresh raspberries; omit 
                      the toasted coconut.
     Use Strawberry Jello and chopped fresh or frozen 
                       strawberries; omit the toasted coconut.

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Shared by Chris Watson

Mom's Baked Lasagna

Photo courtesy of Chris Watson

Recipe shared by Audella Evans - Modified by Wayne and Chris

NOTE: This recipe is for 4 layers of noodles and makes enough for TWO 11 x 13 inch pans or ONE 12 x 17 pan.

Whatever pan you use, be sure the sides are high enough to contain the layers without it over-flowing  the pan when it starts to bubble.

Also, if using the 12x17 lasagna pan with 3 inch sides, it works best to make a divider of folded layers of aluminum foil to go across the middle to conduct the heat gets into the middle and help it cook.  This will help the middle get done without drying out the sides.


INGREDIENTS:

1 package (16 oz) Italian style lasagna noodles, cooked

Sauce: 3 quarts spaghetti sauce or your favorite recipe

Filling: 2 lbs mild Italian sausage
2 lbs hot Italian sausage
1 lb lean hamburger
3 lbs ricotta (Italian cottage cheese)
2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
2 cups shredded Parmesan cheese
2 cups 3 cheese Italian blend cheese
2 egg, beaten
1 small onion, finely grated (tip: grate over a bowl to catch the juice as you grate it and add it to the mix also)
6 oz. cooked, finely chopped spinach
1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp pepper
If desired, add ½ tsp McCormicks Montreal Steak Spice blend to hamburger when cooking


DIRECTIONS

1. Remove casings from sausages and cook until done.  Use a wooden spoon or hand-held potato masher to help break up the sausage as it cooks.

2. Cook hamburger, sprinkled  with the McCormick spice and a little salt, also breaking hamburger up into small pieces.

3. Mix together all of the shredded cheeses.  Reserve 1½ cups to cover the top before baking.

4. Mix ricotta cheese, spinach, eggs, grated onion, and spices until smooth.

5. Pour ½ cup sauce in bottom of baking pan and cover with noodles, spoon a layer of the ricotta mix over the noodles, add a layer of the grated cheese mix, and pieces of sausage.

6. Repeat this process in layers until all ingredients are used.

7. Top layer should be noodles.

8. Cover noodles with a thin layer of sauce.

9. Sprinkle the reserved 1½ cups of shredded cheeses all over the top.

10. Bake in 350 degree oven 55-60 minutes until hot and bubbly.  Remove from oven and cool slightly.  Cut in serving portions.  Place on individual dishes to serve, topped with more sauce and grated Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Hot Dog Chili Sauce

Photos courtesy of Doc Watson

Recipe shared by Chris Watson



This is an easy and very tasty sauce - and it's spicy!  




NOTE:  This is a very easy recipe but it isn't fast.  It takes almost 2 hours of slow simmering to reduce the liquid and make the sauce thick enough for the hot dog.


Ingredients:

1 lb. very lean ground beef or ground turkey
1 15.5 ounce can of beef broth
1 18 ounce can of tomato sauce
1 tablespoon chili powder
½ tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon grated raw onion OR ½ teaspoon onion power
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon ground red peppers (or omit if you don't want it spicy)
½ teaspoon sugar

Directions:

1.  In a large skillet over medium heat, cook ground beef until brown and very crumbly.  To get a finer crumbling, use a hand-held potato masher or wooden spoon and work the cooking ground beef to break it up.  

     When the ground beef is brown, most of the liquid should be cooked away.  If there is any grease in the pan, you can drain it.  If there is only a little bit of grease, you can leave it in for the flavor.

2.  Add beef broth and bring to a boil.  Then reduce heat to medium and simmer until the liquid is almost gone (about 30 minutes).

3.  To the ground beef mixture, add tomato sauce and all of the seasonings.  Simmer, stirring frequently, for about 1 ½ hours until the mixture is very thick.

Graphic courtesy of all-free-download.com/

Campfire Cobbler

Photo shared by Stephanie Hanks.

Shared by our niece, Stephanie Hanks.

Notes from Stephanie:
"We tried this at our Cub Scout Weekend camping retreat.  The boys almost licked the pan!  So good!  Want to try it next time with Apple Pie filling or maybe peaches."

Camp Fire Cobbler

Here's what we did: Line a dutch oven with Reynolds wrap or a dutch oven liner. First, pour 2 cans of cherry (or your favorite flavor) pie filling into the dutch oven. Then mix in slowly about 1/3 can of sprite (you can use 7-up too, or probably most other sodas) Sprinkle that mix with cinnamon and brown sugar. Then gently pour a bag of white cake mix on top. Optional: sprinkle about a half of a bag of Heath Toffee cooking bits into the cake mix. You can sprinkle again with cinnamon and brown sugar, but that's optional. On top of the cake mix and toffee bits, lay pats of butter (use one stick of butter) Cover the dutch oven and put on coals, after about 15-20 mins turn the dutch over half way around and continue cooking about 15-20 more minutes.  You will be able to see that the top crust is done around this time, if not, leave a few minutes longer. Image courtesyof PublicDomainclipart

CHICKEN CHEESE BALL

Photo courtesy of Chris Watson.

The original recipe was shared with us by our friend, Janna Hayes.  We personalized it to our family's taste!  Chris Watson

Ingredients:
8 oz. cream cheese (1 block), 
     allowed to soften at room temperature 
3 tbsp Duke's mayonnaise
3 tbsp finely chopped spring onions or scallions 
3 - 4 tbsp Texas Pete (more or less as desired)
1/2 tesp dried basil 
2 large,whole chicken breasts, cooked and de-boned, 
    and broken into small, almost crumbly pieces

Dried parsley flakes, or corsely ground black pepper, or finely chopped pecans for coating the cheese balls.

(NOTE:  We usually make 3 logs seasoned mild, medium, and hot.  The mild we roll in dried parsley flakes; the medium, we roll in the corsely ground black pepper; and the hot we roll in either red chili power or paprika. 


Directions:

1. Thoroughly mix together the softened cream cheese and the mayonnaise.

2. Add in the chicken, onions, basil, and Texas Pete, and mix with your hands until well blended.

3. Shape into one or two balls or logs, depending on the size and shape you prefer.

4. Roll the ball in the parsley flakes, black pepper, or chopped pecans until well coated.

5. Put ball in a covered bowl and place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

6. When ready to serve, place the chilled ball on a serving plate.

7. Serve with crackers.

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shared by Cris Watson