If I can cook a turkey...

then anyone can. Really. Anyone. I have been known to forget a thing or two when it comes to baking. When I was in jr. high, I made the family breakfast but for some reason mixed up the sugar and salt and to make matters worse, dyed them blue. Disgusting. I am still living that one down! I have forgotten the sugar all together when I made brownies from scratch when Josh's family was coming over for dinner. And recently, I made Amish Friendship bread and forgot the eggs and realized 10 min. into baking. I had kneaded that blasted bag for 10 days, there was no way I was just going to ruin it! So I pulled the bread dough out and stirred in the eggs, put the batter back in the pan and back in the oven. It worked. So if you forget eggs, 10 min. isn't too late to save your dough! HAHA!

So now you may see why my family may have been the tiniest bit nervous about letting me have the turkey. So to avoid any kind of forgetfulness on my part, I put everything out on the counter and measured it and checked my list...three times. Looking back, it really is one easy recipe. So if you are ever stuck with the bird for Thanksgiving and not sure what recipe to use, give this one a try! (Thanks Ash for the recipe and for making the turkey so darn good the last time that we had Thanksgiving all together, no pressure right?!)

Brine: (in turkey world, this step is pretty important I guess...if you don't want a dry bird!)

1 medium onion chopped, 1 stalk celery chopped, 1 medium carrot sliced, 3 garlic cloves diced

3 bay leaves, 3 sprigs rosemary, 3 sprigs thyme, 3 sprigs sage

6 sprigs Italian parsley

1/2 cup iodized salt

1 TBSP. peppercorns

a 16 lb. turkey (mine was 12...it says it can be bigger too, no sweat)

Nasty part: Must remove all "extra" stuff from bird before brining. This was a YUCKY YUCKY part...hence no pictures of this step. You are welcome!3 gallons cold water

ONE DAY before baking turkey, prepare brine. Combine all ingredients. Place turkey in a bucket or large pot (or triple bagged first like I did...germs! YUCK!!!) Pour brine over turkey and submerge. Refrigerate 12-24 hours.

Remove turkey from brine; dry off with paper towels and discard the brine. Salt and pepper the bird.

In the Bird:

2 carrots, roughly chopped

2 celery stalks, roughly chopped

1 apple, sliced into wedges

1 orange, sliced into wedges (peel on!)

4 garlic cloves, peeled, whole

Under the Bird:

1 medium onion, diced

1 medium carrot, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

3 cloves garlic, whole

3 sprigs each of sage, rosemary, and thyme

6 sprigs Italian Parsley

3 bay leaves

On the Bird:

1 stick butter, sliced into pats

Chicken Broth (3 cans?)

Place the bird in a bag. Place butter on it and pour broth over.

Bake according to pound instructions!

And after all that, I forgot to take a picture of it before we carved it. WHOOPS!