It’s not hard, but it is time consuming. Don’t do what a friend of mine did…she bought a frozen turkey on Wednesday and expected to thaw it completely overnight in the fridge.
I’m planning to pull mine out of the freezer Sunday night. It should be mostly thawed by Wednesday night, when I give it a nice cold bath in Alton’s brine.
swampbear, basically, you’re making a roux, right, for the gravy?
I don’t get just Thanksgiving - I get a fifth wedding anniversary on top of it!! 
And I don’t have to cook - except for my green bean recipe (blanch beans - cook bacon in a skillet, saute some onion in the bacon fat, add the beans to the bacon pan when it’s all done, serve hot, eat) which for some reason my SIL is craving (she’s kinda odd, but what the hell - she’s family) but she’s doing the rest of dinner so who cares if I have to drive to Harvard with green beans.
Now someone please start hinting to my husband that he has to get me a present for this anniversary. Or at least a card. Or even a cup of coffee in bed that morning.
Well, since it’s your fifth anniversary he should give you some wood… What? It’s only filthy if you have a filthy mind!
ivylass yep, a rioux. IMHO, yes I have 'em even in MPSIMS, any decent gravy must start with a rioux. That’s what makes a gravy nice and thick. Some people are wine snobs, I’m a gravy snob.
I like me a nice thick gravy that clings lovingly to the meat or mashed potatoes or whathaveyou. My mother (English) used to make this au jus thing and call it gravy.
Gravy does not drip. It oooooozes.
You know where my house is. Do you want to come down? Only The Day Of The Turkey will be Friday the 23rd and not Thursday.
Only nine days now. Single digits!
I’m cooking a brisket for thanksgiving, just ain’t all that turkey lovin’.
And here’s a tip for cranberry sauce that I stumbled upon while trying to throw together something to put on ice cream.
Take a bag of Craisins, they are Ocean Spray dried and sweetened cranberries, like a raisin from a cranberry. Put about equal parts Craisins and CranStrawberry (or Cran-anything, -Strawberry was what I had) in a sauce pan and start simmering. Add a little extra sugar and I put a dash of lemon extract in there as well. Cook until reduced way down, remember I was looking for ice cream topping.
It was pretty good on ice cream, but it struck me later that it was the best damn cranberry sauce I’d ever had. So much better than canned, and easy to make.
Mmmmmmm… turkey.
I’m ready in the sense that we have a guest list, and a new roasting pan (the old enameled one is getting chipped), a zip-loc of pie filling in the freezer (Grape pie), and the turkey has been ordered from Whole Foods (organic free range. No other tastes as lovely even when brined in the exact same manner).
Beyond that… well, we’ll be doing some fierce cleaning and cooking between now and then.
Oh - and for those of you who brine, I’ve found a way to brine w/o resorting to a large bucket etc. From the recipe I use to brine:
This works well with a 14-16 pound turkey, perhaps larger. The brine recipe makes just under a gallon of brine, to give you a feel for how much fits nicely into the bag. The roasting pan catches any miscellaneous drips, and fits well into the fridge.
Ivylad has found his recipe for country ham, and none too soon…you’re supposed to soak the ham for 16 hours before you start baking.
I also have my five-gallon bucket now. Ivylad had to go to his toy store…er, Home Depot and I picked one up there.
Green beans, egg nog and possibly eggs are all the remain…
I believe it was Ferret Herder that talked me into brining last year, per AB. 'Twas fantastic! So of course I will be doing it again this year. We’re having dinner for 8. I bought a smallish turkey (actually it was a freebie from the grocery store,) only 13-1/2 lb. But 4 of those people barely eat anything!
We shall, of course, have giblet gravy, with chopped boiled aigs!
And:
Cornbread dressing
Broccoli/wild rice casserole
Green bean casserole
Mashed potatoes
Canned corn
Ambrosia (even though only my son eats it!)
Hawaian rolls
Apple pie
Brownies
And the pre-dinner munchies:
Pigs in a blanket
Crudite and cheese board
BBQ smokies
Peanuts
A veritable cornucopia of starch! I love Thanksgiving. 
We will be spending our Thanksgiving camping in the desert, as we have for the last 24 years. The group is up to 6 people this year, so we have to re-think the table set-up. I don’t think we’ll all fit into the tent, what with chairs and all. I have no idea what Paul has planned for the turkey, but he has been eyeing my new BBQ with interest. The menu will include turkey, dressing, gravy, sweet potatoes, pea salad, rolls, crudites, cranberry sauce (still shaped like the can), 2 wines, cognac for afters, and at least 2 pies. All of this done over camp stoves 90 miles from nowhere. My favorite holiday by far.
I’m going to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving. It will be four of us. My sister and her husband will be out of town.
We’re having the usual Thanksgiving Dinner In a Box from the local grocery store. My mom hates to cook and she can’t anyhow so we’re getting off easy.
The dinner is actually really good. It includes:
12 pound turkey
gravy
creamed corn
dressing
cranberry relish
big pumpkin pie
mashed potatoes
green bean casserole
The local volunteer fire company is also selling pies. From them, Dad is buying a mincemeat pie (my fave), an apple pie and a cherry pie.
That should be enough for four people with lots of leftovers for later on in the evening.
Eight days!
That’s cause yore momma raised you right.
Siam Sam thanks for being our official countdown person. I’m picturing you sitting at your dining room table, napkin tucked in your shirt, knife and fork in hand chanting “Eight More Days! Eight More Days!”
I’m in Toronto until Dec 14. 
Thanks for the offer.
As my dad used to say, ‘That’s the breaks of Naval warfare.’ We’ll be thinking of you.
Only a week away! ;D
I am not kidding when I say this is hands down my favorite holiday.
I went to Target tonight and picked up 12 porcelain plates for $12 - woot! My china set doesn’t have 14 place settings, so I had to fill out the extra place settings somehow, and that was a steal. I figure I’ll just use the dinner plates (china and new porcelain) for the meal, and I can split up my bread/salad/dessert china plates for the desserts.
I also grabbed a bottle of grappa for the cranberry-grappa molded sauce, but forgot to get some white wine for cooking with.
Mom is 81 now and doesn’t want to do all that cooking. I am not much of a cook. Brother and fam can cook, but the drive up to their high desert home is hell. My cousin’s house is a total pigsty and there is nowhere to sit. So…
This year bro and fam are coming to mom’s house. I will pick up pre-ordered chow from Marie Callender’s that we can heat up. Bro and fam will eat lunch with us, then head to SIL’s sisters’ homes.
Cuz is on her own with her snobby in-laws at the country club.
Six days away now. I hope Doug, the owner of Bourbon Street, understands how much money he’s about to lose on me.