Winner Winner Turkey Dinner!

I cooked my first turkey!!! It was relatively painless, minus the mid-dinner bloody nose/busted lip (which had nothing to do with cooking, I'll explain later). Since it was just 3 of us (plus the dog) for dinner my mother bought a little guy (11.5 lbs). I wanted to try a turkey injection. My mom had never done an injection before so we experimented. I selected an uber-low-calorie Goya Mojo Criolle marinade. I love love love Goya products. It was not coarse so I figured it wouldn't get stuck in the injector. The injector was conveniently on clearance at Target for $.98. Bonus! I used one side of the kitchen sink as a turkey wash. Got a little grossed out with all the raw mess. I was pleased though that the gizzards were all wrapped up (I assumed they were just loose in there) though I definitely gagged when I pulled out the turkey neck. The worst part was cleaning out of the inside. My mom suggested I run my fingers through the ribs to get out all the gunk. I tried to get moms to do this, but she gave me the "no way" look and I just went for it. For the injection, I used about 1/2 cup of the Goya marinade. I made 2 injections in each breast and 1 in each thigh. Also poured some extra inside and on top. I think ideally you'd let the marinade sit, but not this time around. Used a little butter and lots of Goya Adobo seasoning (my idea) and paprika (mom's usual) on top. Even though my health-nutty family usually doesn't do stuffing, I really wanted to stuff the turkey so I did that (just easy Stovetop). 
I put the turkey in an oven bag in a pan (my mom makes it in the oven bag because it's "less messy"). Stuck it in the 350 degrees oven. According to Reynolds the turkey is supposed to reach 180 degrees which should take about 2 1/2-3 hrs for 12-16 lb. I figured 2 1/2 hours for this one. The turkey didn't have one of those pop out things on it so I used a temperature fork that I bought my dad for father's day circa 1995. Apparently it hasn't been used since 1995 because the batteries were totally corroded. Fresh batteries solved that problem. I basted the turkey twice during cooking. At 2 1/2 hrs I put in the temp gauge and it said 160 so I let it go longer. Well, after 20 more minutes it was 189. Not sure if I read the thermometer wrong the first time or if it just got really hot really quick but I def dried it out a little.

My First Turkey

It was still tasty. I could definitely taste the injection. Stuffing was good too. Add in some sauteed spinach, mushrooms and garlic and it's a complete meal. Another '30' checked off! And now I won't be so scared when it's my turn to host Thanksgiving dinner. 

So where does the bloody nose come in? Between my parents' patio (where we were eating) and the house there is a wall of huge sliding glass doors that slide to open the whole wall. The sliders are usually open when we're home. I went to walk inside to get ketchup and I think I was distracted by the Caps-Lightning game on the TV because next thing you know BOOM. Glass is vibrating in my face and there's blood gushing out of my nose. I was in a total daze for a couple minutes with blood dripping down by face and hands. My mom said she initially thought I fell into the glass and hit my head. The first thing I asked in my daze was whether I had broken my nose. I poked around the outside of my nose and there was no pain, just soreness, thankfully. An hour of ice and my nose doesn't look nearly as bad as it initially sounded. My dad said the blood down the glass looked like a crime scene. Awesome. It's been over 48 hours since the "incident" and aside from a little sensitivity on my nose there's no obvious signs of having walked smack into glass. And I didn't break the glass. So there you go. Turkey dinner = pass. My attempt to be less of a klutz = fail. Thankfully the latter is not one of my '30'.