Thanksgiving Prep - Wednesday Night

The family is running a 5k "turkey trot" Thursday morning and and the big meal is scheduled for 2:00 o'clock so I need to start my prep work tonight, if I'm going to have my act together for T-time.

I'm baking pies, prepping the turkey, making stock, and setting the table Wednesday night.

The turkey recipe is from Simple Bites here http://www.simplebites.net/how-to-roast-a-turkey/ .  I have a local Michigan-raised turkey that was butchered yesterday.

The turkey was rinsed, dried and salted.  After removing the wing tips at the first joint, Little Bird was tucked away in our spare refrigerator to "cure" overnight.  This is a 20-pounder. I'm making stock now with the removed wing tips, using my trusty pressure cooker

These are standard pumpkin pies using a recipe from a vintage Betty Crocker recipe book that my mother-in-law gave me before our wedding.  I couldn't find a copyright date but it had to be the late 70's - it's the red binder hard cover version, labelled "new and revised edition" with a smirking Betty on the back cover.  There are some recipes that shouldn't be fooled with and pie crust and pumpkin is one of those for me.

Off to set the table and finish the stock.  Till tomorrow!

Have a good night.

Astrid