Alternatives to a Typical Turkey Dinner

There is nothing better than Thanksgiving dinner, and all the leftovers that come with it. Here are a few alternatives to the traditional turkey I discovered the last few years that will help, a lot!

Try and deep fry a turkey, which is becoming more and more popular every year. This method requires a deep fryer big enough for your turkey, but most likely a friend or neighbor will have one you can borrow. It also requires a large amount of peanut oil. Peanut oil is the best taste compliment to turkey. Most deep fryers for turkeys also come with injectors. About ½ way through the frying process you can inject flavors of barbeque, mesquite, or any flavor you can come up with, into the meat. This helps enhance the turkey flavor as well. Deep fried turkeys come out moist and delicious, and the cooking time is about 1.5 minutes per pound of turkey. Imagine, instead of 6 hours for a 12 pound turkey, you only have to cook for 18 minutes. But you may want to cook them outside because they are very messy.

I discovered the roasting bags and I haven't looked back. These bags fit around the turkey, with a few choice seasonings, and roast right in the oven. You need to still use a roasting pan, but the juices stay around the turkey and moisture is trapped in the bag keeping the turkey nice and basted. In this way you don't have to baste the turkey every hour interrupting sleep and getting burns when trying to get the juices into a spoon to pour back over the turkey. The best part is the clean up, just wrap the turkey bones and gristle in the bag and throw in to the trash. If you grease the bottom of the pan the bag doesn't stick so there is almost NO cleanup!

Got a vegetarian on your guest list? Ever since 2001 my best friend is a vegetarian. Her family is on the east coast so she usually spends her holidays (except Christmas) with my family. An increasingly popular alternative to the Thanksgiving turkey is to skip the turkey altogether. Combine nuts, breadcrumbs, some fall vegetables like corn, squash, peas, and beans, and grains you can make a delicious vegan Thanksgiving turkey that is sure to please even the most finicky eaters. Just chop, mix and bake just like a meatloaf. Enjoy!