Turkey Gravy

Happy New Year, everyone!! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! I had a gathering at my house on the Monday before Christmas, and my husband came home from Texas that evening. Late that night, I was flat on my back on the sofa sick as could be for two solid days, but Christmas wouldn't wait. I pushed through and refused to let it steal my or my family's Christmas joy. It was a wonderful time with all of us together. We even managed to have a wonderful family meal on Christmas Day despite me trying to cook without being able to taste or smell until the very minute I sat down to eat. I was so glad I had tested my recipes at Thanksgiving! Craziest thing! Good news is that I'm pretty much back to normal! Bad news is that I didn't get to finish my holiday meal series before the Christmas holidays! lol! Oh, well. I suppose I will complete it now so that when Thanksgiving and Christmas roll around next year, we will all be set and ready to go! :)

In my last post, I gave you directions for the brine, herb butter, and turkey. Today, I will cover the gravy. For so many years, I have been so intimidated by gravy. I have no idea why! It is so incredibly easy! Let me tell you all about it! :)

I am terribly sorry! I know this is not the most attractive picture. Things get
to moving at such a quick pace at meal time, I forget my nice pictures
sometimes. Hunger will do that to a girl!

There is no recipe, only a method. This is what I did.

When I put the turkey in the roaster to cook, I placed the neck with a little leftover herb butter, salt and pepper in a saucepan. I covered it with plenty of water and let it simmer on the stove until the turkey was done and I was ready to make the gravy. When doing this, keep an eye on the pan periodically to make sure you don't boil it dry. When the turkey was done and removed from the roaster, I placed two heaping tablespoons of flour in my one cup glass measuring cup. I slowly added small amounts of pan drippings to form a thick paste. I gradually added a little more drippings until I was left with a smooth, thick mixture. The key here is to add very small amounts of liquid and stir very well after each small addition until you are left with the thick mixture. To that thick mixture, I added liquid from my cooking turkey neck until my mixture was a loose liquid. I removed the neck from the pan and slowly added my flour mixture into the liquid from my turkey neck while stirring continuously. Continue stirring while heating the gravy on a medium low heat. Eventually, the liquid will thicken, and viola! You have gravy! You can even remove meat from the turkey neck to add to the gravy if you wish. I added some. It sounds way more complicated than it actually is. Try it! You may surprise yourself and your family!

Until we meet again, may you be blessed!