Thanksgiving Turkey

First of all, I have to say I couldn't have made the turkey without my SIL, Jess. She was a rock star and handled the turkey like a pro while I took the role of photographer and tried not to gag as she handled the raw bird.

She cut the wrapping off and got to work sticking her hand in their to discard the neck, gizzards, heart and liver.

I was so thankful she was there! I just could not stick my hand in there. I could stomach rubbing butter on the bird so that was my job.

Jess and I massaged butter on the turkey while Garth took pictures and my brother, Eric, chopped the onions, carrots and garlic.

After adding the butter, we stuffed the turkey with onions, garlic and carrots and seasoned the bird with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Now she was stuffed, seasoned and ready to cook!

This was a 22 pounder so she had to cook for 5.5 hours tented in foil (15 min per pound) at 325 degrees. We upped the oven temperature to 375 degrees, but she still took her sweet time to cook. After 5.5 hours Jess basted her in turkey juices but the popper hadn't popped so we continued to let her cook.

Finally after another hour with no popping we took it out. The thermometer read 167 degrees so we knew it had to be ready and after much googling and hearing other people dry out their turkey waiting for the popper we realized it just was not going to pop.

The result? A beautiful bird! She was moist, flavorful, seasoned perfectly and delicious!

Not gonna lie, my mom was awesome pulling that huge bird in and out of the oven and she did most of the carving. But I did take a turn and slice a bit.

Success! We ate dinner at 6:00 which was right on schedule. There was no fires, no back up plan needed. It all went along flawlessly. Perfect turkey. Perfect day.