The turkey is my job in our house. Traditional, no deep-frying for our Thanksgiving. No fancy fruity stuff, no trying to re-invent the wheel. Just a 20+# bird (frozen Save-Mart - if you do it right, they ALL taste good), five bags of Toscana stuffing mix w/seasoning packets, and three cans of whole pitted olives with juice. Take a couple onions, some celery stalks and stuff them in a blender with some olive juice, a melted cube of butter, and puree. Mix that in the stuffing mix and packets of seasoning, adding milk if necessary to get it "moist" (not too moist). Mix the three cans of drained olives in there, too. Salt the inside of the bird, and stuff. (put the rest of the stuffing in a pan to bake later) Melt a 1/2 cube of butter and rub the outside of the bird, then pop it in a 500 degree oven uncovered to brown , apprx. 20 min. Then, put a tin foil tent over the top and reduce the temp and cook according to normal instructions (about 6 hours for this bird). Boil the giblets for a few hours and use the water for gravy later. When the bird is done, remove it from the pan and pour the giblet water in the bottom of the roasting pan to loosen all the brown crunchy stuff. Yeah, leave the grease in there, unless there's too much. Pour into a pot. If you need more liquid, use the water from boiling the potatoes (we always have REAL mashed potatoes). Mix up some flour and milk in a blender, and use it to thicken the gravy (no cornstarch for us). You MUST let it boil, stirring constantly to prevent lumps. Boiling cook the flour. Season to taste with a little salt, pepper, and "Kitchen Bouquet" (don't forget this) for flavor and color. DO NOT forget the Kitchen Bouquet. It comes in a small bottle and only takes a couple tablespoons to season a pretty good pot.

Simple, easy, and no weird flavors that some people don't like. I don't like nuts or fruit in my stuffing, nor do I like chunks of onion or celery. The blender takes care of that. Cornbread is too sweet for me, so the Toscana (or Rainbow) works great. Just like the old days!!

Perhaps a nice warm pie for dessert..................

sounds like a perfect Thanksgiving feast. You've done this a time or two I betcha

enjoy it with good friends and family.

Quite a few. Been married 26 years. Not all Thanksgivings were here, but when they were, I did it.