It’s time to talk turkey

NORMAN — Turkey talk has begun. Anyone tuning into the Food Network or reading the food section of any newspaper, including ours, cannot complain they haven’t been warned. Thanksgiving is coming and it’s time to worry about how to cook a turkey.

Why turkey arouses this kind of attention is hard to fathom. A turkey isn’t that hard to cook. You brine it, oil it or don’t, stuff it or not, and pop it in the oven and let it cook. OK, there’s more to it than that, but does it really require a month’s worth of instruction to get the job done?

I suspect it’s because we all love Thanksgiving — and eating — so much that as soon as the calendar turns to November we start salivating and simply can’t get our mind off the turkey to come.

I can honestly say I never had a problem roasting a turkey, except the year I forgot to take it out of the freezer to defrost until the night before. The next morning that turkey was still so rock-solid frozen you could have hit it with a sledge hammer without putting a dent in it.

My best turkey advice is this: Start defrosting by Tuesday at the latest.

Don’t forget to remove those paper-wrapped innards, and get someone else to make the gravy for you.

If you still have doubts about cooking a turkey, eat out. Or, order in.

Several Norman restaurants and grocery stores will do the cooking for you, right down to providing the pie.

Or, do like my friend Frank Heaston does. He makes chili on Thanksgiving Day, enough to feed an Army, then freezes most of it so he can have chili anytime he wants all winter long.