The Best Ever Turkey Recipe

I have had a lot of people ask me for this recipe this year, so I thought I'd just post it and share with everyone. This is, by far, the best turkey recipe I have ever had. Just remember, if it doesn't turn out for you, it's not my fault. Blame the cook. : )

Put your turkey in a 5 gallon bucket, or something about that size, and cover it with water. For every 1 gallon of water, add 1 cup salt and 1/2 c. brown sugar. Let your turkey soak in that overnight.

In the morning, stuff the turkey with a cut up pears, apples, limes, oranges, garlic and onions. i just quarter them and stuff them like that (you won't be eating these, they are just there to give flavor to the bird). Spread butter or oil the skin on top, and make a tin foil hat for the breast of the bird.

Put it in the oven, uncovered, for 30 minutes at the hottest temperature your oven will go, about 550 degrees. After 30 minutes, put the tinfoil hat on and turn the heat down to 350 degrees. **Don't forget to turn the heat down, you don't want a burnt turkey. Cook it for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or longer depending on how big your turkey is, until your meat thermometer reads 180 degrees. (The bones get hotter than the meat, so make sure you have the thermometer deep into just the mea.) Let your turkey rest for about 15-20 minutes before cutting it up and serving for the best flavor.

Gravy:
I just pour the drippings into a pan under high heat and thicken it with a mixture of corn starch and water to the desired consistency.

Happy Thanksgiving! Let me know if you have any questions!

Wait For It...

We spent more hours than I care to say, lots of sweat, and only a few tears to get our piano repainted and now we're done! This was definitely a much bigger project than anticipated, but we're really glad that we did it. It looks so much better than it did before! So here it is in all it's glory (fully-covered this time).

Go ahead, admire.

Halloween Happenings

I realize that I'm a little late on getting this up here, but better late than never, right? We had a really fun Halloween this year! We started the morning off with pumpkin pancakes and a beautiful fall day! Kelsie and Brandon had a lot of fun celebrating at school with parties and their school-wide parade. They both came home pumped full of sugar and ready to head out for more! We had a great time trick-or-treating around our neighborhood and came home with bags full of candy! We let the kids eat as many sweets as they could for dinner while Wally and I ate our traditional chili and watched Halloween movies like It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (the Disney version). Since Halloween was on a Friday this year, we let gave our kids free reign on the candy until Sunday night. We left their bags out all weekend and they just couldn't believe we didn't take them away. They did pretty good eating as much as they could all weekend long, and now we have a nice stash of candy for game nights and movie nights! We had a great time celebrating Halloween and are looking forward for the next holidays!

The Witch

Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi

Ahoy, matey!

A Jedi Knight takes his job very seriously.

I'll put a spell on you!

An Historic Election

Did you?

First Haircuts

I finally gave in and cut Caleb's hair. His hair was getting pretty long--into his eyes and curling in the back. The top is as straight as can be, and I thought he looked so cute with longer hair. I really didn't want to do it, but when he started looking like he was sporting a mullet, it was time to go. I think he turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself!