Has the thought of cooking your first turkey got you gobbling with anxiety? Don't give it another thought. There's nothing to it.
Turkeys may be big, but they're not difficult to fix. And no matter the size, the method is exactly the same. With just a little planning, you can prepare a bountiful feast and still have energy and time to enjoy it yourself.
You might think about parceling out some of the meal duty to relatives or friends; ask them to bring a dish, or entertainment, or, at the least, a bottle of wine or a special blend of coffee.
The most difficult part of preparing such a large meal as Thanksgiving dinner is following a schedule of tasks. There is no help for people who don't remember until a couple of hours before the meal that the turkey has to be thawed, or who discover on Thanksgiving morning that the oven doesn't work.
But if you roughly follow from task to task, you will find there is a fair amount of leeway; and there is plenty of help as you go along, from cookbooks, friends, and a number of holiday hot lines set up to answer exactly the kind of questions you might have. (Be warned, however, that the closer it gets to the meal, the harder it may be to get through to the national help-line counselors.)
The main thing is to enjoy the process of preparing the meal. It's an adventure, it's a learning experience, and it's amazingly rewarding to be able to sit down to a table and nourish those close to you with a fabulous feast you -- and they -- have prepared.
If you just can't imagine having fun at this, there is a secret solution, known largely to the crafty and the desperate. You can buy turkeys roasted to perfection. This is obviously not the cheap route -- a prepared roast turkey with stuffing and gravy might cost upward of $3-$4 a pound. And you may have to do some fancy footwork to get it on the table at the proper time. But if youwould rather fuss with desserts or mash potatoes and leave the big bird to someone else, try supermarkets, gourmet shops and even caterers to find one to prepare the turkey.
But really, roasting a turkey is not hard; and once you know how, it tends to stick with you. So it gets easier and easier over time. All the more reason to start now.
Here's a guide to tackling Thanksgiving, prepared with assistance from Dorothy Jones, a home economist who supervises the 48 specially trained turkey experts at the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line.
Buying the bird
