Personally we use the garden hose hooked up to the high pressure washer. Cleans all those left-over pin feathers right off. Reminds me I have to disconnect that garden hose since it's supposed to freeze tonight.

And put a little Dawn dish soap in the soap cup on the washer - helps cut the grease. ;)

Dave

PS: wife says to remind you to pull those packets of giblets out of BOTH ends before running it through the dishwasher - makes a mess in the DW otherwise.

I don't wash mine...A little grime, blood and guts never hurt anyone.

Glad you got a sense of humor. Seriously, though, I have gotten questions like these !! People really do those crazy things ! So many leave the bags of giblets in when they cook the turkey.
They try to blanch the corn in the dishwasher, cook their fish in there in foil, stuff like that.
Ruthie, the new guidelines say to not wash the chicken or turkey ! You are right up there on your turkey safety.
I still wash mine. It is supposed to be more sanitary not to since it comes in contact with the sink, etc. Then you have to bleach the sink and counters, etc.
I don't even know what we are eating tomorrow. Well, we are having 10 people on Sat. for a late Thanksgiving dinner. Some long time friends have moved back to our state. They are driving down on Sat. for a big dinner I am fixing. My daughter has not seen the mother in over 23 years. Not since my daughter was 11 years old. Now she is a wife and mother herself. Should be a wonderful day. They are bringing their 2 boys and our grandson will be here, too. Lots of activity.
So, tomorrow it is just my dh and I for the day.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone !!!! Eat lots of those homecanned goodies.
And....give that turkey a good bubble bath. Maybe even give it a massage.

Linda_Lou

You just reminded me.....Remember a book that came out years ago called "Roughing It Easy" (I think)???

It had all kinds of strange cooking methods in it. Like wrapping food in tin foil and cooking it under the hood of your car as you drive down the road!!

Seems to me the "FoxFire" books might have had some things like that in them also.

Happy Thanksgiving all.....

pollock (A.K.A. patrick)
:)

Hay, I can remember a road trip when we wrapped up our pot roast and veggies in foil, DH used some wire to attache it to the exhaust manifold and away we went. We turned it over every time we stopped for gas or at a rest stop. That was years ago when we were driving from Ca. to Wichita to see the in-laws. It really worked. We were driving in our RV and could have cooked it in the oven, but this way we saved a lot of propane.
Donna

LOL, Donna, my brother used to heat cans of Beef A Roni on the exhaust manifold of his truck but I sure don't remember how. Or how well it worked!

I agree, no soap on that turkey. And use the delicate cycle, please. Just because it's dead doesn't mean you should abuse it. (grin)

Oh, and don't stuff it until after the "heated dry" cycle, OK?

Annie

I worked at an art pottery for awhile, and the kiln crew used to put their foil wrapped lunches next to the kilns to heat them up. The guys in the kiln room were working without shirts and we were right outside on the finish line freezing to death with our coats on.

Personally I prefer to have my turkeys dry cleaned.

Our family only likes turkey for soup. So, we're plugging the drain of our dishwasher, using Lipton Onion Soup Dry Mix in the soap dispensers, throwing in some carrots, celery and onions along with the turkey, and turning on the long Pots 'n Pans cycle and Sanitizing cycle. Since we are not certain when some of the family are arriving, we're keeping the dishwasher on the Heated Drying Cycle until they're all here.

Washing up should be relatively simple. Unfortunately, though, I like to set a nice table, as well as cook up a nice meal, so we will be using my great-grandmother's beautiful Wedgewood soup tureen at the dining table. Fortunately, though, the tablecloth is plenty big so I don't have to provide individual linen napkins ... there's lots of tablecloth to wipe our hands and mouths.

Kathy

ROTFL - Kathy wins so far IMO!!! Cracked up!!

Dave

Oh Dave, I feel like Sally Field when she won the Oscar in 1985 for "Places in the Heart". And to receive this honor from Dave, I now know that "You like me, you really, really like me!"

I feel like I have truly won the Thanksgiving 2009 Harvest Forum Award! I am so honored and humbled.

Tomorrow will be a day of true Thanksgiving for me -- and my family -- thanks to you, Dave!

Kathy
(who doesn't care that this Harvest Forum goes Off Topic occasionally -- since we've all worked so hard this Spring, Summer, and early Fall "bringing in the sheaves.")

Kathy,
You are so frugal ! Love your ideas. Will have to share them with friends. That is just so awesome to be able to keep the soup hot, too. You really thought of everything. Even the napkins for the table. Such a wonderful hostess, you are !

Yup, we all had fun thinking of ways to cook the turkey, didn't we?

Ken and I actually had roast leg of lamb -- a favorite of ours. Only 4 of us here, and didn't want to bother with a turkey for several days. I did something very funny, though: When I took the pumpkin pie out of the oven I inadvertantly turned off the oven. Ten minutes later I put in the lamb, all prepped and studded with cloves of garlic. Family arrived and we visited and at the appropriate time I asked our granddaughter to run into the kitchen and turn off the oven ... well, you guessed it: it was never on!

Dinner was two hours late, but the roast lamb was worth it.

Kathy (who is thankful that she can still laugh at her mistakes, but is fearful because they are happening more and more often)

Hey,
This thread is way funny. You guys are good!

Can someone tell me how to e-mail this whole thread to a friend. It's way too good to leave any of it out. You'd think I'd know how to do that but unfortunately I don't. One post I can do but not the entire thing.

Thanks,

jude

I'm shocked. We never but never put our turkey in the dishwasher. We pressure wash ours. The turkey is hung on the clothes line and than we wash inside and out. That baby is than browned with a welding torch and finished up in the hot tar machine.

jude, I just copy and paste into a document and send the document. You could also copy the address on the top address bar and put it into your email so your recipient can just click on it and get the entire thread.

Kathy, that's a good idea about the tablecloth, I never thought of that. I have a feeling the grandkids already know about it though....

And just think of all the energy we're saving with these double duty cooking methods. Mother Earth will be happy with us and give us a great harvest next year in return, I'll bet.

Annie

I cleaned mine in the washing machine. I have one of those big front loaders. I added some fabric softener to the rinse so the bird was nice and tender, too. I have the saniwash cycle, so I am sure it was good and clean. Got extra hot and started cooking nicely. Finished in the hot dryer, then did a touch up with the clothes iron to get the skin crispy. Next time I will not use the spray starch, but will rub some oil on instead to get a good brown color.

Thanks, I did manage to send it to my friend and he thought it hilarious, as did I .

jude

Now all I have to do is figure out how to smoke the ham for Christmas.....

I was just thinking.....I know a guy that has a diesel truck that runs on bio-diesel fuel made from the used oil from restaurant deep fryers.....

I wonder, if I were to put it in a burlap sack and attach it to the exhaust pipe, would it come out tasting like french fries and fried chicken.?.?.?.?.?

pollock (A.K.A. patrick)

Naw Patrick - who wants their ham to taste like french fries!!! ;)

Got a compost pile? Just hose it down well so it burns slowly and hang the ham on a tall tripod over the pile. Make sure the tripod is tall enough so the deer and bears can't get it.

Toss on an old tire each day for flavor additives.

Dave

Hey Kathy in Washington-
I know that my dishwasher regurgitates the liquid from the dishwasher into the kitchen sink. Maybe you could have your dw do the same thing to make putting the soup into your great-grandmother's beautiful Wedgewood soup tureen easier. That way if a few drops of soup fall, they fall into the sink. Keeping the clean up simple.

Hey.....Kathy just gave me a great idea.....

I just saw a segment on "Ask This Old House" about making "Compost Tea".....

I wonder if I could do that in the dishwasher now.....

pollock
:)