My own turkey tale: misadventures in roasting

I know it's not even Halloween yet, but with the kids' school "fall" parties (they don't call it "Halloween" anymore, apparently) finished up and Christmas merchandise already showing up at Target, I can't help but think ahead a bit.

I've been putting together a page on Thanksgiving recipes over at Squidoo. It's been a lot of fun researching the various ways of preparing turkey, carving turkey, mashing potatoes, etc. It has me reminiscing about my first Thanksgiving with my husband, and that always makes me laugh. So in the interest of sharing a smile today, here is my personal, embarrassing turkey misadventure story. Enjoy!

We'd been married about six months by our first Thanksgiving together as a married couple. We lived in an apartment with a small electric oven. I was so excited! You know... "Look at me! I'm such the little wife cooking for my new hubby..."

I roasted a turkey, fixed up the trimmings, complete with cranberries from a can and Stove Top stuffing. When it was finished, he carved up the bird, my manly husband, and discovered something strange inside the breast. What the heck?! Did we get a defective turkey?!

We examined the pale, wrinkled, alien membrane, and figured out that I had forgotten to remove the bag of neck and giblets before I cooked the turkey. Yes, the bag of turkey guts was still inside, like an unexpected prize inside a cereal box. But instead of a super secret spy decoder ring, it was a baked bag of neck, gizzard, liver, and heart. Now, I'm sure that lots of people love to eat those parts, but we are not those people. I was quite embarrassed, especially when he told his mother about it. Fortunately, I have an excellent sense of humor. ;-) We still laugh about it!

And in case you're wondering, the rest of the turkey was fine. We still ate it, we're still married, and we're still laughing about it, twelve years later!