Goal #70 Cook the perfect turkey for Thanksgiving dinner

I stitched together several recipes for this turkey recipe:

We started with the stuffing: Mrs Cubbison's traditional stuffing. We added diced apples and raisins to the recipe on the box.

Then we started following this recipe from one of my old student's moms. She made a Thanksgiving dinner for all of us elementary school teachers a few years ago that I've never forgotten. Absolutely the best. Unfortunately I didn't find her recipe until Thanksgiving morning, so I couldn't do the whole process (brining for 12 hours then slow roasting for 12 hours).

We made a few changes. We cooked the turkey breast side down, as per someone on the internet's recommendation. She said it makes all the flavor go into the breasts, which sounded good to me. Then since we didn't have enough time to do the slow roasting for 12 hours, we roasted it at 325 for 4 hours.

Stuffed, skin cooked in the oven, seasoned, now ready to roast!

I made TuRkEY!

And the Grinch, he himself, carved the roast beast

...and killed it!

So glad I was able to complete this goal on my last Thanksgiving of this 999 day journey! Thanks Mom of being supportive of me trying a new turkey recipe. My dollar for completing this goal goes to funding young innovators in Sierra Leone, Kenya, and South Africa.