This year, thanks to disability retirement, I qualify to be on the recieving end of the town food drive. I've always tried to donate to food drives in the past, content with nothing in return but a good feeling, and it's paid off. I got a 12 pound turkey, which I cooked the a couple of days after I got home from my trip down south. It was the first time I'd ever cooked a turkey, and all modesty aside, it was perfect. The left overs are in the freezer, for future turkey based dinners. Lot's of other goodies were delivered, along with a few duds - canned peas, canned stringbeans, canned carrots. I'll donate them to another food drive for Christmas.

On TV cooking shows, making a perfect turkey is akin to brain surgery.
I rubbed it with salt and pepper, stuck it in the oven and basted it twice. No stuffing. No exotic spices. I don't know why people on TV insist on complicating things.