I found the giblets in a bag stuffed in the neck cavity. In the body cavity, the neck was in the back, and in the front was a plastic bag of turkey gravy. When did they start doing that? I took off the plastic leg gripper. Was I supposed to leave that in? Left the pop-out button in, and when I basted after three hours, I filled the body cavity with the juice instead of just running it over the breast. I figure it will steam up into the breast from there. Bought a 21 pound bird 7 days ago, been defrosting in fridge since then, 7.5 days and still frozen inside. So adding another hour at least, from 400-350-350-400 original 4-hour plan to 400-350-350-365-400 5-hour plan, maybe longer.

I really sense a couple of different questions. First, if the question is whether it's "tacky" or something to return bad produce, I say return it and don't feel bad about it. Most stores have a legitimate policy of customer satisfaction (within reason) and if you're unhappy with it, sure, return it. There's nothing wrong with doing a return. Especially at $2/#. Same for deli items or other items. I have a limit of $1.29/# for grapes. Just one of those things with me! :) They'd have to be exceptional to go above that. It's just one of those quirks. But now comes the flip side of the coin, being the point of practicality. I've bought grapes without trying them and same thing, got a bad batch a couple of times. First, it was seeded instead of seedless. I didn't pay attention so I didn't think about returning them. Second time they were just plain awful. Now the catch. It's not convenient to run back to the store to return a couple dollars worth of items and the principle just wasn't that big a deal with me. For me to return to a store would cost just in gas nearly the amount paid. So in my case the birds benefited (who were very happy) and I learned to test them before buying them. I am running about 50/50 on whether I'll buy them or not after a sample. If it were convenient and close and I had the time and received bad product, I'd return it. FWIW, my cousin brought up an issue. He bought some generic French Fried Onions and they were rancid. Obviously they were old. Since his hobby is grocery shopping I said I'd take it back if I were him. He did, and they had no problem with it. Most stores will bend over backward (again, within reason) to satisfy a customer, especially when it's a bad product issue. Now comes another issue: I do not approve of grazing but I feel justified in testing them. Course, they're not washed so I take a certain chance with that and even with other items you don't really know whether it's good or not, for instance, melon, radishes, onions and the like. I would have a problem seeing someone cut open a melon to test or grazing away at the other produce! For me, it's come down to the store itself. If they generally have good stuff, occasionally they can get a bad one or batch. And I avoid buying at places with consistently substandard product.

Once either soil or air temperatures, or both, are around 75 degrees, cilantro starts getting ready to bolt. I used to work really hard to keep it going longer, but got tired of trying to fool Mother Nature (by mulching heavily, growing it in fairly heavy shade, keeping it very well watered, even using shade cloth to keep the ground around it cool). Nowadays I just grow cilantro during the cool season, and grow either Culantro or Papalo (similar flavor to cilantro but they thrive in the heat) in the warm season. It is relatively easy to grow indoors under lights, but I'd just as soon have Culantro or Papalo in the ground outdoors instead of growing it indoors. Rick, Other than the fact that it is a cool-season plant, the only other reason I can think of that might explain why growing it can be challenging for you is that maybe your soil is too acidic, or much too alkaline. Cilantro is happiest in soil with a pH of 6.2 to 6.8 so in soil that is strongly acidic or strongly alkaline, it might not do well. Cilantro reseeds in my compost pile, and none of the wildlife eat it, so I rarely have it in the garden proper any more---I just wait for it to pop up around the compost pile. I do think that dehydrating brings out a bitter quality in it. Sometimes I leave it out of the salsa when I make it and can it, and then I just chop up fresh cilantro and add it to a jar after we open that jar. I think it tastes better than way, so probably the heat of the canning process also impacts the flavor.

AAh....Chopped liver...I get it!! I have sure seen birds with "assorted" stuff in the giblet bag, 3 livers and 2 hearts no gizzard, 2 gizzards and 3 hearts, no liver....etc. But I have never ever seen the kidneys packed in with the giblets. I had a chicken, bought still warm, butchered an hour before and still soaking in ice water....that had the heart still tucked up in the breast...but the lungs were gone! Have you ever cleaned a chicken? Just as a learning experience? If you had you would know that the liver and the gizzard are part of the digestive system and come out fairly easily. The kidneys are sort of tucked away and easy to mill or just scrape out with the digestive and reproductive stuff. I remember when a roasting hen would have the partially formed eggs in the oviduct. And my grandmother would roast them with the chicken.....and they were like little roasted eggs.