Yes, This is the BEST TURKEY EVER

I said it in ALL CAPS so it must be true - right?

Anyway - based on Alton Browns, with edits, has the best turkey ever - no, not the deep fried one, although that is very fine too.

My only addition - get about six dry ancho chilis - cut them up and put them in the brine. I started brining turkey with them years ago when I read about it in a Whole Foods thing - great addition - they do not add any heat to the turkey, but it is a great enhancer to the flavor

So....

Brine - 1 cup salt (I use sea salt), 1 cup brown sugar, 6 dried ancho chilis, cut up, 1/2 gallon of water
Bring all up to heat, stirring to disolve. When the salt/sugar is disolved, take off of heat, and add ice cubes till the ice does not melt (about 5 lbs).

Why is it always cold when I deep fry?

Place cleaned turkey in turkey brine holder (I use a big stock pot), pour brine over, and top off with water till bird is almost covered. Put breast portion down, so if some of the turkey is not covered, it doesnt matter as much. Place stock pot in fridge, or if you are like me and have no room, in a ice chest, surrounded by more ice. If you are in Wisconsin, and it's about 30 degrees outside, put it in your garage, covered (keep out the raccoons dontchaknow.

I like to brine for about 6 hours, so I usually do it the morning of, as we start cooking the turkey 2ish, eating 5 to 6 ish)

Cook following Alton's instructions (dont forget to rinse off before cooking).

Feel free to smoke the bird after this brine, or deepfry, or just roast.

Sweet Potato and Apple Casserole

Sweet Potatoes are one of our favorite things.  Great baked, they are equally fine in stews, breads, chili, pie or just about anything else.  They are also one of the mandatory items for Thanksgiving, at least in my book.

This recipe is effort number one in creating a low calorie, low fat version for this years Thanksgiving.  It tastes great - almost pie like.  I will be trying others, but this could be the winner.

I made this recipe scaleable - basically the ingredient list below is for 1-2 people - so just scale it up depending on how many you have.

Ingredients
1 Sweet Potato, baked
1 Medium apple, peeled and cored
1/4 teaspoon Apple Pie Seasoning (Penzey's)
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1 tbs (or none) brown sugar
Pecan pieces

Recipe
You can peal, dice and steam or boil the sweet potato   However I feel that leeches out some of the flavor, so I recommend baking them until soft.  In either case, you want them well cooked.
Heat evaporated milk, brown sugar and apple pie seasoning, whisking as you go - you just need it warm enough to incorporate the seasoning/sugar.
Mix sweet potato, apple and milk mixture in a bowl.
Pour/scrape into baking dish sized appropriately for the amount you are cooking.  It should be like thick applesauce when you put it into the baking dish, not watery and not to dry.  Just right.
Sprinkle as much pecan pieces over the top as you like
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  If you made this the day ahead and it is cold, probably go 45 minutes

Do not over season with apple pie seasoning - more is not better.  Cinnamon can be bitter if there is to much - if you over add you will have to add more sugar

Serve