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Well it's not a very exiting story, but my favorite thanksgiving memory is rolling up those crescent rolls from the tube with my mom back when I was little. Those things are so good!

The first year I knew my husband, he was a dedicated vegetarian. As soon as Thanksgiving came along and the possibility of not being able to have turkey occurred to him, he decided poultry was acceptable food.

In our family, the "cookers" don't have to do the cleaning....so one year my son volunteered to peel the potatoes- and thought that offset the 2 days we spent cooking, thusly no longer having to clean. Ha!

Last year I got to spend thanksgiving with my dad. It was his last. Love you dad.

the year I was in london and ate a turkey sandwich from starbucks for my thanksgiving dinner :(

After a painful Thanksgiving with my inlaws I decided that I would make our own family dinner. It turned out great until it was time for desert. The dog had decided she had enough of us ignoring her and jumped onto the table. Pies and whipped cream went everywhere. It was the first and last time our dog ever got on our table.

One year, my sis and I decided to do a "dishwasher turkey". She had read about it, seen it in one of the numerous food shows she'd watched, etc., and we just "had to do it". So, with two other turkeys and several other types of meats being brought by the 30 some crowd expected at the Orphan's Thanksgiving (at her place that year), we attempted the dishwasher turkey. She had read that the steam from the dishwasher cycle steamed the turkey perfectly, as long as the turkey was wrapped tightly in aluminum foil. Eagerly, her husband gathered around after the cycle ended to tastle this magnificent bird. One problem... it wasn't done. Not even close, actually. So, she put it in for another round. Still not done. Time was starting to run out, so she shoved it in the oven, praying that it finished in time for dinner. It wasn't. Her husband gleefully ate from the plethora of others foods available, including two other turkeys, and was very pleased when he had a whole turkey for "leftovers" the next day. For years after, we asked her if she wanted to wash the food in the dishwasher before she cooked it. After all, one can never be too careful.

Kenji,

The second I saw this I was a man possessed. Just a perfect way to cook turkey, makes so much sense. I ran out, bought a meat grinder and got to work on Sunday. Probably excessive, but I brined the turkey after I broke it down. Used the carcass for a stock for gravy later. Monday, I rinsed off the brine and cubed the dark meat. Tuesday, ground the meat and began my attempts to roll the breast. I had a difficult time with this step for some reason, took me 3 or 4 attempts to get this correct. I suppose if I had a thinner breast this would have been easier. I found using a more traditional tying method worked better for me than using a series of string like you did. After roasting I seared it in some rendered turkey fat. Beautiful looking roast and it tasted as good as it looked.

I only had 5 people over for Thanksgiving Eve and I got away with using one of the roasts. I have a backup for Thursday's impending doom at my friend's house.

I don't think I'll ever cook a turkey another way again. Thank you very much for the inspiration and the foolproof instructions.

We have a big family and cook 3 turkeys to feed the crowd. One of them is cooked outdoors since we run out of oven space. The first time I fried a turkey on my own I couldn't seem to get the oil hot enough. After a while, I finally noticed the probe wasn't far enough in the oil. After a frantic attempt to now cool down the pot (setting it on bricks in the grass and hosing the outside with water - not too smart), it finally cooled down enough and when we finally checked the bird, it was perfect.

These days I now cook the bird on my Weber. It's way more predictable!

My story is; I was born on Thanksgiving. No one had dinner that fateful day!

My mom made really good gravy. I think I was in second grade. I was so excited about it, I got up in front of my class and told them about it. Not much of a story unless you know my mom and her cooking repertoire.

I was transporting a cooked turkey with the fixings to a friend's house. When I got there the gravy had spilled all over the trunk of my car. I had to clean the trunk and run home to see what kind of gravy I had in my freezer, couldn't serve turkey and fixin's without gravy. sharonaquilino(at)hotmail(dot)com

A couple of years ago, we decided to forgo the turkey and have a roast and Yorkshire pudding, with all the trimmings. My mom popped the pud in the oven and unexpectedly had to leave for a few minutes, putting my sister and me in charge of watching said pudding. Well, it was ready and my sister grabbed it out of the oven and the pudding took flight out of the pan and flew across the kitchen, landing broken on a (thankfully) clean floor mat. I just remember that time stopped and the look of utter shock on both of our faces. We pieced the pudding back into the pan before mom got back.....we were going to keep it secret until she finally commented that she didn't do a good job because of all the cracks. We fessed up and had a good laugh