Cranberry Sauce Recipe

1.5 cups water
1.5 cups sugar
1 bag cranberries (12 oz.), washed, all soft ones discarded
grated rind of 1 orange (optional)

Mix water and sugar together in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, making sure the sugar is dissolved. Add the cranberries, bring to a boil again, and continue boiling till all the berries have popped, about 5 minutes. (The recipe says you should skim any foam, but I find this hard to do, and it doesn't taste any different with the foam, so forget it.)

Add the orange rind, if desired.

Cool.

Turkey Brine recipe

1 cup salt
1 cup brown sugar
2 gallons water
6 bay leaves
fresh thyme
3 T black peppercorns
4 large garlic cloves, peeled
4 sprigs rosemary

Mix Salt and sugar in enough warm water to dissolve them. Add water to come to 2 gallons. Add the rest of the ingredients. (This is enough for a 12 - 14 pound turkey. Adjust as necessary.)

Submerge turkey in them. The easiest way to do this is to use a cooler. Fill the cooler at least half way with ice. Put the washed, cleaned turkey in a garbage bag (or perhaps double the bag). Put that in the cooler, nestling it down into the ice, and fill the bag with the brine. Let marinate 24 hours.