Turkey Injection, Sweet Tea Recipe, and Glass Markers

Hey, y'all! I wanted to share our "recipe" for a really moist turkey. I know Thanksgiving is over, but maybe some of you will be cooking a turkey on Christmas. Or maybe you scored a great deal on a turkey after Thanksgiving. This might give you an idea for a really tasty, moist turkey. :)

Here's what we use. It's a turkey injector kit. We bought this at Academy for $3.50. You just sprinkle the seasoning on the inside and outside of the turkey, then inject the creole butter sauce into the turkey's breasts, legs, and thighs. 

It comes with this handy little syringe to inject your turkey with.

After you inject it, just cook it in one of these oven bags. (the instructions are on the box) It took about 4 hours to cook our 21 lb. turkey. I've always used oven bags because you don't have to keep basting it over and over. You basically sprinkle a little flour in the bag and shake it up. Place the bag in a roasting pan, then pop your turkey in there, close the end of the bag with the enclosed ties, and cut a few slits in the top of the bag, and the oven does the rest of the work. 

You can see where I wrote the date I purchased these on the box. :) They come in a two pack and I always forget when I buy them, so I started writing the date right on the box. 

Our turkeys have always turned out perfectly when using this method. Very moist and very delicious! And easy too. :)

Let's talk sweet tea. I say "sweet" tea because in the South, there's no such thing as "unsweetened tea." ;)

I had several people ask me for my sweet tea recipe this summer, so I thought I'd jot it down here. I know it seems weird to have a "recipe" for tea. I mean, it's pretty self explanatory, but I do have a few tips and tricks that I use. This is for a gallon of sweet iced tea.

These are the family size tea bags I use. 

I put 4 family size tea bags in a 3 quart pot.

Then I fill my tea kettle with water and heat the kettle to boiling. Then I pour the boiling water over the tea bags in the pot. It really doesn't matter how much water you boil. I just fill the kettle all the way up.

I let it steep for 4 minutes.

Then I take the tea bags out and add 3/4 cup of sugar and mix well. You want to add the sugar when it's still hot so it'll melt the sugar and you won't have "grainy" tea. 

That's probably my biggest tip...you have to add the sugar when it's hot. If you add it after it's cooled, the sugar will tend to settle at the bottom and never get mixed up. 

I like to call this my "tea concentrate" because it's so strong right now. :)

After adding the sugar and stirring well, let it sit for about 10 minutes to cool a little. 

Meanwhile, fill your gallon pitcher half way up with ice. I just use a plastic pitcher.

After the 10 minutes is up, carefully pour the sweet tea concentrate into the pitcher. I usually do this over the sink just in case. :)

It will fill the pitcher all the way up and you will instantly have ice cold sweet tea! Yum!

Now that you've made all that sweet tea, you'll want a festive way to mark everyone's iced tea glasses. Here's what I do. 

I take an 8 inch piece of ribbon (I used white so the names would show up) and just write everyone's name on the right hand side with a permanent marker.

Then tie them onto the stems of the glasses and there's no mistaking which glass is yours. :)

Here's a closer look. I untie these when we're done and reuse them over and over. I used to use wine glass charms, but we were always forgetting which charm was ours. It's much easier with your actual name on them. ;)

Do y'all have any tips for the perfect glass of sweet tea?

~Lisa