Happy Thanksgiving!

So ... full.

Must ... lie ... down.

It's Thanksgiving and we've just finished gorging ourselves silly on roast turkey and all the fixings.

There were just the four of us, but we probably could have fed 40. There were maple-glazed sweet potatoes, buttercup squash (that came from my parents' garden), mashed potatoes (also grown by my parents), hot buttered beets and sauteed beet greens, brussels sprouts, my mother's homemade cabbage salad and, of course, the turkey and the stuffing.

Oh, and pie. Rich, creamy, dreamy pumpkin pie in buttery, melt-in-your-mouth flaky pastry.

We would have had cranberry sauce, too, but I forgot to buy cranberries.

Why would only four people need so much food? Well, you see, this is what happens when one person doesn't like brussels sprouts and another doesn't like 'orange' vegetables. As for the rest of us? We like just about everything.

Here is my delicious recipe for stuffed turkey. It might be too late for this Thanksgiving, but Christmas is just 72 sleeps away.

Roast Turkey with Classic Mushroom Stuffing

You'll need:

Fresh local turkey

For the stuffing:

75 ml (1/3 cup) butter

1 medium red onion, chopped

500 ml (2 cups) chopped celery

500 ml (2 cups) mushrooms, sliced

1 large apple, cubed (remove the core but do not peel)

20 ml (1 heaping tbsp) crumbled dried sage

5 ml (1 tsp) thyme

5 ml (1 tsp) kosher salt

2 ml (1/2 tsp)freshly ground pepper

2 litres (8 cups) cubed day-old bread, spread out on a cookie sheet and allowed to dry
250 ml (1 cup) toasted pecans
250 ml (1 cup) raisins
125 ml (1/2 cup) dried cranberries

250-500 ml (1-2 cups) chicken stock

For roasting the bird:

50 ml (1/4 cup) butter

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

thyme

What to do:

Rinse turkey in cold water and pat dry inside and out with paper towels. Set aside.

Heat butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onions and celery in butter just until they start to become translucent. Add mushrooms and stir constantly until the mushrooms turn golden and have released most of their moisture. Be sure to keep the pan snapping hot so the mushrooms saute in the butter and turn golden rather than steam and turn grey. Add the cubed apple and fry a minute or so more. Add sage, thyme, salt and pepper and take pan off the heat.

Place cubed bread in a large bowl. Add nuts, raisins, dried cranberries. Pour the sauteed vegetables over the top and toss together gently. Pour in just enough chicken stock to moisten the stuffing but not so much that the mixture becomes mushy.

Preheat the oven to 220 C (425 F).

Position the turkey upright in a large mixing bowl with the cavity toward you. This will help to keep the bird steady while you spoon the stuffing into the cavity. Loosely pack the stuffing into the bird. Truss the cavity closed with trussing needles and string. Turn the bird around fill the neck cavity with stuffing. Truss that end closed as well. Now carefully lift the turkey out of the bowl and place it breast-side up in the roasting pan. Tuck the wings under the body and tie kitchen string around the turkey, making sure the drumsticks are secured as tightly as possible to the body of the bird. This will help keep the bird moist and prevent the drumsticks from drying out.

(If you have any stuffing leftover at this point, pour it into a buttered casserole dish, cover with foil and store in the fridge for now. You can bake it in the oven when the turkey has finished roasting.)

Rub softened butter all over the turkey breast and drumsticks. You could also use olive oil, if you'd prefer. Sprinkle the turkey with kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper and crumbled thyme leaves.

Roast, uncovered, in a 220 C (425 f) oven for 15-20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 160 C (325 F) and continue roasting until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 82 C (180 F). You will need to roast the stuffed turkey for 20 minutes per pound to ensure proper cooking.

When the turkey is done, remove from the oven, place the turkey on a platter and tent with foil. The bird needs to rest for at least 20 minutes before carving to allow the juices to settle back into the meat. While the turkey is resting, prepare the rest of your dinner and make the gravy.