The Perfect Turkey and Stuffing

Our "perfect" turkey was a 17 pounder that we prepared for Tom's parents Thanksgiving, three years ago, along with rice stuffing. We recreated our recipe last week and it turned out just as delicious. The stuffing is especially nice for anyone with food issues. It's free of wheat, gluten, dairy, soy, nuts and eggs.

This is a recipe that leaves lots of room for your own taste and creativity. Simply add or subtract ingredients (and use amounts of seasoning) to suit your own taste.

Stuffing

Make 3 cups of brown rice in 4 cups of water. To the cooked rice, add 1 large apple, 3-4 stocks of celery with leaves, a big handful of raisins, and a small chopped onion. Season with salt, pepper, garlic, sage, cinnamon and allspice. Stuff the cavity of the turkey and put the rest of the stuffing in a baking dish with the turkey neck on top of it. Cover.

Turkey

To prepare the turkey, sprinkle with sage and salt, put it in a covered roasting pan with a turkey rack. We roasted it at 325 degrees for 6 3/4 hours* and let it sit, covered, outside the oven for about 45 minutes before carving. We baked the casserole dish of stuffing for about an hour, turned off the oven, and left the stuffing in for another 30 minutes.

*(Cooking times may vary.)