by Heidi Peaster

Created on: May 31, 2010

There are a lot of people who have never, even as adults with a family, cooked a Thanksgiving turkey. The reason for this most of the time is because they have always gone to Grandma's house for the holidays and their contribution has always been a side dish. It is not hard; here is the recipe that my Mama passed down:

For a family of six to eight: Ingredients:

12 to 14 lb. turkey

Celery, onion, bread crumbs

* Heat oven to 325 degrees

* Remove bag of giblets

* Rub inside of turkey with salt. Don't forget the cavity where the neck was.

* Chop equal amounts of onion and celery (usually about 3-4 stalks and about 2-3 onions)

* Mix with about twice as much bread crumbs (not too finely crumbled. About the size you would make to put out for the birds) Adjust amount of stuffing for bigger turkeys, of course.

* Melt about 1 sticks of butter

* Pour about c. melted butter into main turkey cavity

* Stuff handfuls of mixed stuffing, packed firmly into turkey

* Halfway through, pour another c. melted butter into cavity over stuffing

* Complete stuffing

* Pour c. butter over stuffing

* Repeat stuffing procedure in neck cavity; secure skin flaps with skewers

* Rub remainder of melted butter over outside of turkey, melt more if needed. Be sure to turn turkey over to get the underside.

* Place in deep roasting pan. Cover with aluminum foil.

* Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes per pound.

* Baste every hour or so if you want to, but it really isn't necessary.

* At the last half hour, remove foil and bake at 350 degrees to brown off.

If you have a big slow roaster (Electric; about $30 at WalMart) these are really the greatest for roasting turkey. No foil necessary and the bird comes out just right! Put a little water in the bottom of the roaster and follow directions for time, etc. that come with your particular roaster.

At our house, stuffing the turkey was always a great family-get-together time. As our three daughters were growing up, they would each invite a friend over to help. When they got to their teenage years, a good initiation for the current boy-friend was to help stuff the turkey. By that time, they knew as much about it as I did, and it was great to just be in a supervisory role.

If you play your cards right, you may never have to stuff a turkey again!

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