Thanksgiving Meal

This is what I hope my first Thanksgiving turkey will come out like.  I give it an 8.5% chance!

So since we are going to Minnesota for Thanksgiving day this year, I decided to make a mini-Thanksgiving meal with my 85 year old child, (Papa), before we leave.

I decided this the other day, but today is Tuesday and I'm making the meal tonight - but I just bought the Turkey yesterday.  It's an 8.84 lb frozen one.  I'm defrosting it in cold water (as opposed to in the fridge) - and the guy at the grocery store said that it should be defrosted in time to cook it tomorrow.

I have never done this before, and I'm kinda nervous.  It's Thanksgiving, you don't want to have a gross turkey!  I have a bad feeling that parts of it will come out raw even after having been in the oven for several hours.

Part of the reason I offered to Papa to have a mini-Thanksgiving meal before we left was to learn how to do it.  I figure the best way to learn to do this is do only have one guest to "impress", right?

I'm not doing anything fancy - just the very basics:

Turkey stuffed with stuffing - the dried bread crumb in a bag one.
Mashed Potatoes
Corn
Green Bean Casserole
Cranberry Sauce
Crescent rolls
Pumpkin pie

Pretty much everything is a piece of cake except the turkey.  I like that.  All the other things are no sweat so I can really focus all my energies on worrying about that turkey.

Will it thaw in time?

Will I successfully remove the neck, gizzards, liver, heart, brain or whatever else is in there before serving?

Will the stuffing fit into the cavity of an 8 pounder?

Will it taste like turkey is supposed to?


It will be fun to try this!  I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!

Wish me luck . . .

Amy