A bit of baking help for the bakingly challenged please

Well we had our Thanksgiving dinner tonight. I had to get drunk just to keep my composure!    The turkey was so overdone it crumbled to dry bits when we sliced it, the lovely looking apple pie was so sweet it burned the back of our throats, the pumkin pie did indeed stick to the bottom of the pan and the choc cake wasn't done in the middle!! Yep, this is me! I've always been a horrible cook. Just some people can't do it. Anyway it was a lot of fun but I'll be buying Sara Lee from now on! 

Q-G, I think the choice of spray oils has greatly increased in the last year or so. When I first moved here 7 years ago I missed my Pam but made the switch to butter or parchment or whatever worked best. But I just happened to notice the other day that there was a lot more of those sprays when I was shopping a couple weeks ago. I'd stopped looking years ago so it was a bit of a surprise.

Every day's a school day!   

Well we had our Thanksgiving dinner tonight. I had to get drunk just to keep my composure!    The turkey was so overdone it crumbled to dry bits when we sliced it, the lovely looking apple pie was so sweet it burned the back of our throats, the pumkin pie did indeed stick to the bottom of the pan and the choc cake wasn't done in the middle!! Yep, this is me! I've always been a horrible cook. Just some people can't do it. Anyway it was a lot of fun but I'll be buying Sara Lee from now on! 

It's the thought that counts!! And that was a mamouth meal for someone who doesn't do a lot of cooking.

Well we had our Thanksgiving dinner tonight. I had to get drunk just to keep my composure!    The turkey was so overdone it crumbled to dry bits when we sliced it, the lovely looking apple pie was so sweet it burned the back of our throats, the pumkin pie did indeed stick to the bottom of the pan and the choc cake wasn't done in the middle!! Yep, this is me! I've always been a horrible cook. Just some people can't do it. Anyway it was a lot of fun but I'll be buying Sara Lee from now on! 

nevermind pet... you're going to learn to cook in the new year, and we're going to help you!

Well we had our Thanksgiving dinner tonight. I had to get drunk just to keep my composure!    The turkey was so overdone it crumbled to dry bits when we sliced it, the lovely looking apple pie was so sweet it burned the back of our throats, the pumkin pie did indeed stick to the bottom of the pan and the choc cake wasn't done in the middle!! Yep, this is me! I've always been a horrible cook. Just some people can't do it. Anyway it was a lot of fun but I'll be buying Sara Lee from now on! 

Aww, Pebs! Good for you for trying. Cooking a turkey is a definite learning experience! The best Thanksgivings are the ones you can look back on and smile. 

Aww, Pebs! Good for you for trying. Cooking a turkey is a definite learning experience!

True!  You're ahead of me... i've never cooked a turkey or a Thanksgiving dinner in my life!

True!  You're ahead of me... i've never cooked a turkey or a Thanksgiving dinner in my life!

Same here - I keep trying to dodge doing it.   

Pebbles - have you seen the Guardian's giving away a free baking guide with tomorrow's paper?   

I don't bother with turkey, either, and I consider myself a reasonably accomplished cook. I much prefer chicken!

I love cooking a turkey, but it has taken me about 5 years to get it right. The first year, I used one of those roasting bags and I left the oven on 'preheat.' The bag melted onto the turkey... oops.

tryin to thaw mine at the moment i think the old gobbler is still partly an icicle.......

I am a big fan of the digital meat thermometer for getting meat cooked right.

Also, an old Jewish secret to cooking a bird of any type is to cook it breast side down for a good portion of the cooking time and to turn it over about 3/4 of the way though. It ensures a really juicy breast and lovely flavourful dark meat.

I am a big fan of the digital meat thermometer for getting meat cooked right.

Also, an old Jewish secret to cooking a bird of any type is to cook it breast side down for a good portion of the cooking time and to turn it over about 3/4 of the way though. It ensures a really juicy breast and lovely flavourful dark meat.

I'm not Jewish, but I do the upside down thing too. I just learned that this year. It really does help so much!

I used to cut into the meat all the time to figure out if the meat is done, I love my new digital meat thermometer because it sometimes messed up the cooking to have a halfway cut piece of meat. I want to upgrade to the kind where you can just leave it in and the temperature thingy is outside the oven and it beeps when it's done. I just bought a cheap one for now.

Thanks everyone. I had a lot of wine and basically giggle my way to passing out about 9pm. I got up at 330am to the sounds of my lovely husband cleaning up the Thanksgiving mess. He actually liked the dried up turkey and was hacking it off the bones to put in the fridge. He threw the pies and cake away. 

It was so funny at the dinner table last night. It was a total Griswold scene. The kids crunching away at their dried up turkey trying not to complain, my 78 year old disabled father in law trying to gag down the WAY over sweetened apple pie saying "Oh it's fine!" Frank trying to mix everything together in his lumpy mashed potatoes and gravy just to get it down. In the meantime I just picked at my food giggling and drinking more and more wine!    The one thing I'm learning about cooking is you have to have an understanding family as well as a good sense of humour!

We'll see what happens at Christmas. Thing about the turkey. I've been making turkeys for about 20 years. But yesterday I knew that one was in too long. I met Pkessler in Leamington for a few minutes and instead of getting straight back to turn the turkey off I went straight to the school to pick up the kids. It ended up being in the oven just over an hour too long. So this years Thanksgiving disaster is partly Pamela's fault!   

Also, an old Jewish secret to cooking a bird of any type is to cook it breast side down for a good portion of the cooking time and to turn it over about 3/4 of the way though. It ensures a really juicy breast and lovely flavourful dark meat.

that's a pretty well-kent secret... i do that with chicken.