Happy Turkey Day!

We love the Thanksgiving meal. We try to have it at least twice during the Thanskgiving weekend, and a few more times throughout the year. It is an easy meal to prepare, but full of comfort foods and not all that pricey to put on for a crowd--especially if you get a few turkeys at the bargain basement prices that abound this week.
All the Kline boys are home--not all of them are eating turkey these days, but to have everyone around the same table is very nice. My best tip for the day is to brine your turkey. Always. Never fail to do this step--it makes the turkey taste sublime. In the interest of full disclosure, I never make the turkey (in fact, I rarely cook meat--I leave that for my spouse, who does such a reliably excellent job of it that I have never felt the need to learn). But this is the easiest and most practical method, taken from Alton Brown.
He fills a large Igloo Cooler with 6 quarts hot water, 1 pound salt, 1 pound brown sugar, and stirs until well mixed. Let it cool it for 15-30 minutes. Add 5 pounds of ice to the brine mixture, and submerge the turkey. Make sure the turkey is covered with the ice water, and let sit for 8-16 hours. Because of all the ice, it's not necessary to refrigerate as long as the water remains cold and there's still ice in the cooler. If the ice thaws, place the bird in the refrigerator for the remainder of the time. That's it. Now you can smoke it or roast it or deep fry it or grill it--whatever you want, but brining helps make the turkey juicier and more flavorful throughout.