I started making this 7 years ago, back when Martha Stewart was my cooking goddess and I followed all her recipes by heart. Years before that, I always cooked Filipino and Chinese dishes. Alas, I fell in love. My D is not a big fan of pork, salt and fried stuffs. So that rules out more than half of Chinese and Filipino dishes.He’s also not a fan of anything that comes out of a can or box or anything that has no “organic” sticker on it. It was a challenge to cook for Thanksgiving because my repertoire did not include sides and stuffings and what-nots. So I turned to Martha Stewart for guidance….Eventually, I got more confident and adventurous with these stuffings made from scratch and this is the result. Like most of my cooking, this has evolved into  a one pan recipe!

Fry up the chopped sausages in olive oil until brown then remove from pan. Replace with the onions and celery so that it sauté’s with the sausage’s flavors, 6 minutes. Throw in the onions and parsley and cook for 2 minutes more.

This is an old time favorite. This is the most practical recipe I use for holidays because there is just no way for all three of us to finish a 12-pound plus turkey. Besides, D is not a big fan of dark poultry meat, which makes Beans a non-fan as well. Leaving me  to have both turkey legs, so, uh no. I use a 6-7 pound turkey breast. By the way, this only cooks for 1.5 hours too!

A good turkey roast will always have to be brined. Here’s what I use to brine my turkey for at least 16 hours: 250ml apple cider, orange peel of 1 orange, 1 cup of salt , 2 sprigs of rosemary, 1/2 cup brown sugar

Fill with water so that bird is completely submerged.

Regrigerate. This pot takes up a lot of room in a season where real estate space in t he refrigerator is really tight. I buy the biggest ziplocs i can find then double bag. Instant space-saver!

After 16-24 hours of brining, get the bird out and rinse off. Pat dry and allow to rest for at least an hour. This will give you enough time to prepare your herb rub. The cast of characters for this rub is as follows:

Nuke the butter with smashed garlic for about 20 seconds then mix in all the herb. It will look something like this.

Now this is the fun part. You need to get under the skin of the turkey with cutting it, otherwise all the nice goo that you just made will fall off. My trick is to locate the fascia under the skin.\. Now for my classmates and friends in med school, this is a no-brainer. The fascia is much tougher so it wouldn’t tear as easy. Dissect underneath it using your fingers and you can get into all the crevices with the skin still intact.

Before setting it to my roaster, I always put some farm potatoes on the pan. Just get a 2-pound baggie, drizzle with olive oil, add some Italian herb seasoning, salt and pepper. I know some people adding turnips and shallots but none of my peeps eat that so I do away with it.

I take my done-ness really seriously when it comes to poultry so I make sure that it registers at 150 right in the middle of the thickest part of the breast.