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Here's something I'd never seen before: my friend flipped the turkey every 30 minutes, top, bottom and both sides. He said this way the breast meat would stay moist. He was right - the white meat was very moist and juicy, although I found the darker cuts to be a bit drier than usual. It was a first for me to see a bird prepared in the oven that way.
It was a terrific day all around. When I woke up at about 2 a.m. it was snowing. It's officially the holidays in West Michigan.
ABTA.

I didn't brine the turkey (prebasted 37 cents a pound at my local supermarket) nor did I roast it breast side down. I put the stuffing inside the bird (no ill-effects at this time). The turkey turned out as well as the $25 bird I bought for a previous Thanksgiving. I didn't buy brussel sprouts at $3.99 a pound but did buy frozen brussel sprouts at 77 cents a bag and steamed them (surprisingly good). I made a cheesecake a few days earlier and had palpitations when I re-read the recipe and saw it called for a quarter cup of flour and not the whole cup I used. The cheesecake was wonderful. All in all a very successfull and inexpensive meal. The savings are going towards a donation to our local community food bank

@cyberroo
"We lingered over cocktails and cheese instead of rushing to finish the prep, so the turkey was a bit overdone, the mashed potatoes were a bit cold, and everything in the oven was a bit dry.

But it's Thanksgiving, so while the food is the centerpiece, it isn't really the point, and I was happy that our last-minute & late guests were able to join us."

Very well said!!

Such occurrences is what I love those hot/frozen thermal bags many stores sell for transporting foods home when you go a long distance. I've found they'll hold things pretty close to piping hot for nearly two hours. My turkey surprised me by being ready a good hour before I expected it to be, so I popped it into one of those bags while I finished off everything else.

The skin lost some of its crispiness, but the bird was still moist and not dried out from being held. Those bags really do work well! I highly recommend them. 8)

Potatoes are fine, turn it back down to low =)

Next time put the potatoes in first on the bottom, add beef broth instead of water, and put the roast on top.

Also incase you didn't it's nice to sear the meat in a pan for a little while before roasting, just to brown the edges.

@CatBoy, I heard that cranberry relish recipe over the headphone system of a transcontinental flight I was on nearly three decades ago. I wrote it down on an airline napkin and made it successfully for my family up until about 12 years ago when the recipe disappeared during a move. I thought it was lost forever but now I have hope that I can pick up the tradition again this Christmas.
Won't my family be surprised..?

From the picture these look like English peas. And fresh, they will overcook after 3 minutes as stated above by tapioca.
If they get too large and old however, then they become starchy and refuse to cook up. I'm thinking despite the bright green fresh pods these peas just sat too long on the vine.

http://www.harvestwizard.com/peas_English_shelled.jpg
They look exactly like this, and the sign says 'english peas' at the asian market. Things are not always what they say at the asian market, though.
The thing is, in Texas, people grow just about whatever in greenhouses all year round, so I don't doubt someone's growing peas.

Pretty good! But WAY too much food leftover.

I cooked my 14 lb. turducken in an oven bag, which worked great, except this inadvertently reduced the roasting time from 5 hours to 3-1/2 hours, so I had to hold it at 200°F for almost two hours until all my guets arrived. It was still juicy and flavorful, a sucess.

All my sides came out well, especially the potato leek soup w/pancetta, the maple & bacon braised collard greens, the cane syrup & pecan roasted sweet potatoes, the Cointreau infused citrus cranberry sauce, and the trational sage and bread stuffing.

Ihad a serious mishap with the mac & cheese. I had made this recipe before, but this time my roux did not set up, so the milk did not thicken up. I didn't have enough milk left to start the bechemel over from scratch, so I added some arrowroot slurry, which thickened it, but it ended up burning on the bottom of the pot, and the whole dish smelled like campfire ashes. My family ate it and no one complained. but I felt stupid. I made nine good dishes and screwed the pootch on the tenth.

Oh well, we strive for perfection but rarely achieve it.However, it is only food, and we can and will make it better next time. Everyone still had a good meal and a good time, and it is fun to spend the holdiday with the family, even with all the effort and the aggrevation. Can't wait until next year!

All my desserts were experiments and I had mixed results. My bread pudding baked in a sugar pumpkin worked out great and was quite tasty with a ginger creme anglaise.

The mincemeat I made using coconut oil rather than suet tasted great but the fat does not cook the same as animal fat so the pie was slightly loose rather than holding its shape. Having said that, if any vegetarians miss (of all things) mince pie, it is a fair compromise.

And finally, my pecan pie using my genius idea--treacle, instead of corn syrup, simply did not work. It may be an invert sugar but it does not behave like corn syrup does and the crust absorbed most of the treacle making for a wet crust and a somewhat dry filling. This one was not even worth a second try.

One more thing, if anyone has not tried the recipe that is read on-air annually on NPR for cranberry relish, you ought to. It makes no sense at all, combining cranberries with sour cream and horseradish (and it looks like Maraschino cherries in Cool Whip), but I loved it. If you're interested, do a Google search on Mama Stamberg's cranberry relish and I'm sure you'll find it.

Ours was great!! Last minute additions to the dinner (brussels sprouts and homemade rolls) were a huge hit. And our turkey looked fabulous (even though my aunt cooked it upside down) :-)

Pics and recipes:

http://kitchendreamer.blogspot.com/2009/11/thanksgiving-with-fam.html

can you take a picture of what's left in the bag and show us?