Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

To all my Canadian Friends and Family, wherever you've been transferred to or from during your life, Happy Thanksgiving!

I love Canadian Thanksgiving, It's at a much more logical time of the year, not crammed in so close to Christmas. We started celebrating it a few years back, Inviting Mum, James and Brandon, and then added friends with no family in the area. Mum still has her Canadian citizenship so it really is a legitimate holiday for us to celebrate.

We got up early and started on laundry and sorting stuff around the house. Acer went down for his nap and I went into turkey prep mode. I cooked my first Thanksgiving Dinner when I was 10 and at Mum's we used to cook turkey frequently for meals because it was cheap. Back in '85 my cousin Jean taught me a three hour turkey cooking method (listed below) that I have used ever since. This year, I couldn't use it because I would have had to turn the oven down while I was in class with Acer, which obviously wouldn't work from 8 miles away.

Mum met us at the house early and helped with prepping the table and other tasks which left me free to cook. Thanks Mum! James watched Acer so he didn't become a danger in the kitchen during the busiest period of cooking.

We had Mum, James, Bill's Uncle Gordon, our friend Carl, our friends Betty & Becky Fonfara all sitting aroung around the table at the same time with the three of us. It was nice. Conversation flowed freely and the variety of topics covered was as broad ranging as appendix operations and income tax improvement ideas. Bill had picked up a dutch apple pie for dessert and it was lovely.

Thanks to Uncle Gordon for bringing the befores of cheese & crackers and to Betty for bringing her "crabtoes" and lovely baked squash casserole.

Also Acer behaved himself really, really well during the meal. He ate and leaned on my arm and drank milk for a great deal of the time. Bill put him to bed before we ate dessert and he was quiet very soon afterwards. Acer goes from full tilt talking & kicking in the bed to dead quiet and asleep in a matter of seconds, but the kicking and talking can go on for an hour and a half sometimes. Then the magic sleep button is pushed and poof! he's asleep. Thankfully That night was a short time until sleep

Jean's turkey cooking method - gets raves. No basting needed.
you'll need a brown grocery bag, clean. (you can use a cooking bag too if desperate)
Clean out turkey, don't stuff. (I don't believe in stuffed turkeys because of all the possible issues)
Season as normal
Pre heat oven to 500 degrees
cook at 500 for one hour (yes, and the bag does not catch on fire, this seals in the juices)
cook at 400 for an hour
cook at 300 for an hour
Turkey is done.

Heather's turkey recipe - also gets raves even if Jean's method is not used. no basting needed either
Start this about an hour before you're supposed to put it in the oven, to give it time to get the best flavor
you'll need three oranges and a pound of bacon, plus toothpicks
Peel and slice oranges about 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick
Use toothpicks affix the oranges over the turkey breast and drumsticks. I usually go thru the center white core and they stay.
I then let it sit until it's almost time to go in the oven.
Then, use the tooth pick to hold the bacon in place and drape the turkey in bacon. Place in pre-heated over and cook following Jean's method or normal 325 degrees for x amount of time.