Holiday turkey ideas from local cooks

  • By Judyrae Kruse Herald Columnist
  • Tuesday, December 11, 2012 9:18am
  • Life

If you chose baked ham or prime rib for Thanksgiving dinner, you might be planning to roast a turkey for Christmas.

What luck, then, because Arlington cook Jo Green offers us a chance to try her favorite turkey technique and says, “I thought you might enjoy this recipe. I love to cook and trying new recipes makes my day.”

Next, the credit for the stuffing recipe goes to longtime Forum helper, Marysville cook and cookbook author Dianne Berst. Taken from her cookbook, “Sharing Our Best,” she originally shared her popular recipe with us in a Nov. 24, 2002, Forum column.

Holiday turkey

Stuffing (homemade, packaged mix or the following recipe)

112-15 pound turkey, ready to stuff

1teaspoon salt

1/2teaspoon pepper

1/2teaspoon garlic powder

1/4teaspoon allspice

1/2cup water

1cup port wine

3slices bacon

1/2cup margarine or butter, melted

Stuff turkey. Rub bird with salt, pepper, garlic powder and allspice. Place turkey in a roasting pan and roast in a very hot (450 degrees) oven for 15 minutes. Pour water into roasting pan, then pour port over turkey. Place bacon on turkey breast. Cover turkey and roasting pan with foil. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake, allowing 20 minutes per pound of turkey for total roasting time.

One hour before it’s done, discard foil and bacon. Brush turkey with melted margarine or butter. Baste every 15 minutes with drippings until done.

Sausage and apple stuffing for turkey

1pound pork sausage

2(8 ounce) packages seasoned stuffing bread cubes

1/4cup butter or margarine

1medium onion, diced

2cups chopped celery

4cooking apples, peeled, cored and diced

Brown sausage until thoroughly cooked and crumbled. Remove from frying pan and drain off grease. Melt butter or margarine in pan, add onions and celery and saute until onions are transparent, then add the diced apples and cook until slightly soft. Add sausage to mixture. Stuff the turkey, then bake any stuffing that does not fit into the cavities of the turkey in a casserole dish. A 2-quart casserole dish of stuffing will take approximately 1 hour at 350 degrees.

The next Forum will appear in Friday’s comics pages.

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