TURKEY-HELP QUICK!!

my turkey was rockin, i have to say, everyone enjoyed it. i basted it, religiously every 20 mins. i've conqured the turkey. yay.

The way I always do it is long and slow. 350 for about 10-15 min / pound. Clean the turkey inside and out, keeping the skin intact. Reserve the innards. Halve a lemon and a head of garlic and put them into the cavity.

Make a compound butter with about 2 sticks of room temperature, unsalted butter and whatever fresh hearbs you may have. Sage, oregano, parsley, thyme, anything you like. If you're using dried herbs, crush them in the palm of your hand a little to remove any "sharp" feel they might have. Combine the herbs and the butter in a large bowl.

Rub the butter underneath the skin of the turkey, massaging it into the skin. Also rub some outside the skin to make a crispy crust.

Place it breast up in a roasting pan, preferably with a rack. In the pan, put 1 onion, 3 carrots and 3 celery stalks, all chopped and about 2 cups of white wine. If the bird starts to get too brown in your oven, just cover it with a little foil.

Baste about every 30 minutes.

When the turkey comes to temperature, let it rest on a cutting board covered in foil and start to make the gravy.

Strain all the solids from your roasting pan, removing the carrots, celery and onion. Skim off as much fat from the top as possible. If your roasting pan is metal and can be put back onto a burner: put a little of the turkey liquid back into the pan with about 2 tablespoons of flour, creating a paste (or roux). Use the paste to scrape up all the bits from the bottom of the pan, slowly adding more turkey juice. When you've added all the juice, you should have a slightly thickened gravy. I like to add white wine and lemon at this point and let it simmer until it's reduced the alcohol down a little and it's as thick as I want it, but you don't have to add those if you don't want to. If your roasing pan can't be put on the stove, put a little of the juice into a small pot with flour as above, again, slowly adding more juice. When the gravy is finished, add a good amount of the compound butter from earlier. This will make it shimmery and very tasty.