Turkey

I cooked a turkey this week!!! It's probably not that big of a deal but I was  really proud of myself. And, it tasted absolutely delicious! I couldn't stop eating it and I'm not a huge fan of turkey so that's saying something.

I told a friend of mine last Sunday that I was having some people over for dinner and I was cooking a turkey and so she asked me how I was doing it. Well, I had no idea. I had never cooked one before. So, needless to say, she lent me her roasting pan, which was perfect, I don't know what I would have done without it. She also gave me a Reynold's oven bag. This was awesome because it held all of the juices in the bag instead of in the bottom of the  pan, so after the turkey was done cooking we just dumped the juice from the bag into a pan to make the turkey gravy. I am so grateful for my friend's help or it never would have turned out this good.


Here is the turkey defrosted and out of the bag. I took out the neck of the turkey but I couldn't find the innards, you know, the heart, liver, etc. So, I just assumed my turkey didn't come with that. But, after my turkey was fully cooked, I found them, under the neck cavity. So, make sure to check the body AND the neck cavitiy for giblets. In the last picture of the turkey, there is a hole in top, which shouldn't be there, this is why. the giblets were in the neck cavity and as it cooked it ripped open the skin, so that part of the turkey was a little dry, unfortunately.

Ingredients:
1- 10-18lb turkey
1 reynolds oven bag
olive oil
fresh rosemary
fresh tyhme
salt and pepper
lemon, sliced in half

After I got it rinsed and dried, I salt and peppered the inside of the body cavity and placed half of a lemon and some fresh rosemary inside. Then, I lathered up the outside of the turkey in olive oil. I then put salt and pepper and fresh thyme on the outside of the bird and placed it into the oven bag without letting the top of the bird touch the bag. Then I tied the bag closed, put 6 slits with a knife in the top of the bag and put it in the oven which was preheated to 350 degrees. I let it cook for about 3.5 hours and when I took it out of the bag, the turkey was so tender it was falling off the bone. I tried to get a pretty picture of the turkey right out of the bag but it was so tender that it is falling apart. So, its bad for the picture part, but when you are getting ready to cut it up and serve it, you couldn't ask for anything else.