How to Thaw a Turkey

Evidently, you don't leave it out for 24 hours in the garage.  And, evidently, this is something I should know at my age. 

In my own defense I have never had to thaw out a turkey.  We always spend Thanksgiving at my parents and somehow a turkey always appears.  It's like magic. I have never questioned where the turkey came from or how it was prepared. 

This year, mom and dad are in the Ivory Coast working with some missionaries.  Yay mom and dad!  Traveling across the world at your age!  You guys rock!  I'm pretty sure they didn't think through the whole Thanksgiving turkey scenario or they would have left some instructions.

Since mom and dad are gone, all of us kids, and by kids I mean the adult children, were questioning the tradition of the turkey.  I suggested we eat out, my sister suggested pizza, my brother is going to see his girlfriend.

Here's the clincher: I have this free turkey.  It wasn't completely free, I had to spend a lot of money at the grocery store to actually make it free, but we have it.  And it didn't fit in the freezer, mostly because of all the food I had to buy to get the free turkey.  So, hubby decided he was going to cook it for Thanksgiving. Dinner problem solved.

So, we left it in a pan in the garage, on top of the freezer, for over 24 hours.  YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO DO THIS!  I guess you are suppose to put it in the refrigerator and let it thaw out, or  put it in cold water but you have to change the water every 30 minutes (who is around for hours to change out the turkey water?). 

Anyways, guess what, the fridge is full too, because of all the food I had to buy to get the second free frozen turkey.  Yes, I got two free turkeys.  I really like getting things for free. And it's a good thing, because evidently we can't eat the turkey that is almost completely thawed.  I have over 60 comments on facebook telling me not to, so I'm going to trust public opinion here.

But, I'm thinking that the still frozen turkey won't be thawed out in time, so I'm leaning toward pizza.  That and I really don't like turkey meat anyway.

Happy Thanksgiving!